The Necromancers

in here, sir," said the footman at

slipped off his coat, and

ed. He went round to the fire, wondering vaguely as to why he had not been shown upstairs, and sto

l at a prospect of three days' distance; and another when the gates of death actually rise in sight. He wondered in wh

ide; the door opened, a

"I wanted to have just a word with y

ening dress with the emblematic chain more apparent than ever. Her frizzed hair sat as usual on t

ure whether you quite realized the ... the dangers of all this. I didn't want

ghed ne

u mind explainin

e are always ri

t so

on. I ... I have seen people very mu

ie s

's awfully kind of you; but, do you know, I'm ash

ce-nez

believe it? I thoug

me so natural now. Even if nothing happens tonig

silent a

re other risks,"

things th

at it, Mr. Baxter.

t kind do

she

nerves do break down entirely sometimes, even though

stop

es

-a sensitive-broke down altogether u

with a touch of humor in his voice. "And, after all

we're not sensit

es

er overcome.... Mr. Baxter, do yo

o. To tell

sto

There's-there's an extraordinary power sometimes. You

opped

es

as no possibility of fraud. It was with

es

ike you to know that. And then other things happen sometimes which aren't nice

see that she

ble to tell me all this. But indeed I was quite ready

y here you knew nothing at all: you were not conscious. Now tonight you're to keep awake; M

can happen?" asked

terested in? There's no kind of doubt that you'll be the center tonight. And I did

e sto

always knew there were risks. I hold myself res

suddenly twitched in the hall,

e upstairs, Mr. Baxter. Please do

er her, as the footman came

lid small round table with four chairs set round it as if for Bridge. There was on the side further from the street a kind of ante-room communicating with the main room by a high, wide archway nearly as large as the room to which it gave access; and within this, full in sight, stood a curious erection,

and the clergyman whom Laurie had met on his last visit here. Mr. Jamieson wore an expression

me you've been! Was

o," said L

another, and an instant

conventional he looked. His manner was not in the least pontifical, and he shoo

. "I see you have an excellent fire." And he st

en that prese

stood

ing time. May I say a w

ing at him almos

e your word that you will attempt no violence. Anything in the nature of seizing the figure may have very disastrous results indeed to myself. You understand that what you will see, if you see anything, will not be actual flesh or blood; it will be formed of a certain matter of which we understand very little at present, but which is at any rate intimately

t way, and looked keenly from face

my word,"

so," said M

ain presently. Mrs. Stapleton will sit with her back to the fire. Lady Laura opposite, Mr. Jamieson with his back to the cabinet, and you, Mr. Baxter, facing it. (Yes, Mr. Jamieson, you may turn round freely, so long as you keep your hands upon the table.) Now, if you feel anything resembling sleep or unco

o it," sa

at is re

way from the fire

ly even my face as well. You four will please to sit at the table in the order I have indicated, with your hands resting upon it. You will not speak unless you are spoken to, or until Mrs. Stapleton gives the signal. That is a

roke

d the whole room first, gentlemen.

ially and nod

single board that formed the seat. As he came out he encountered the awestruck face of the clergyman who had followed him in dead silence, and now went into the cabinet after him. Laurie passed round behind: the little room was empty except for the piano at the back, and two low

hers were standing silent, a

gentlemen?" said t

d Laurie, and th

the other, "it is

is heavy step making the room vibrate as he went. As he came near the

urtains this way and that, and at last sit easily back, in such a way that his fac

came down u

e the pantry, evaded a couple of caresses from the young footman lately come from the country, and finally leapt on the window-sill, and sat there regarding the back garden, the smoky

d himself for a spring, and the next instant was seated on th

ight was yet young, and that his friend would not yet be arrived. He sat there so still and so long, that if it had not been for his resolute head and the blunt spires of his ears, he would have appeared to

s. He, a town-bred cat, descended from generations of town-bred cats, listened passively to the gentle roar of traffic that stood, to hi

sped his strong claws into the crumbling mortar, shooting them, by an unconscious muscular action, from the padded sheaths in which they lay. Once a furious

ell-being of those tightly-strung muscles rippling beneath his loose striped skin. They would be in action presently. And, as he did so, there looked over the parapet six feet above him, at the top of the trellis up which presently he would ascend, another resolute little

stretching. Then he sat back, arranged his tail, and lifted his head to answer. The cry that came from him, not yet fortissimo, sounded in human ea

sage along the nerves of his back that prickled his own skin and passed out along the

at eyes and ears. In another instant the watcher above would recoil for a moment as the swift rush was made up the trellis, and then the battle would be joined: but that instant never came. There fell a sudden silence; and he, peering down into the grey gloom, chin on paws, and t

us minatory face-these things were not present to account for the breach of etiquette. Vaguely he perc

ared, he felt himself some communication of the horror so apparent in the other's attitude. Along his own spine, from neck to flank, ran the paralyzing nervous movement; his own tail ceased to move; his own ears drew back instinctively, flatte

which the other had stared just now: no oblong of light shone out

e of those pits beneath, and the steady rumble of traffic went on far away across the roofs; but here, in the immediate neighborhood, all was at peace. He kn

well enough that something was abroad, raying out from that silent curtained unseen window-something of an utterly different order from that of dog or flung shoe and furious vituperation-something that affected certain

mply behind the stucco parapet, and he made no answering mov

the horr

or an instant longer he waited, feeling his back heave uncontrollably. Then, dropping noiselessly on to th