Again the mouth opened and the awesome voice issued forth. “Thoth,” it boomed, “has loosened the bandages of Set which fettered my
mouth. I have taken my place in the great winds of heaven.”

I heard the little wind of night, with its mournful voice of ages,
sighing round the walls and over the roof. “Listen!” came from the doctor at my side, and the thunder of the voice
continued—

“I have hidden myself with you, O ye stars that never diminish. I
remember my name—in—the—House—of—Fire!”

The voice ceased and the sound died away. Something about the face and
figure of Colonel Wragge relaxed, I thought. The terrible look passed
from his face. The Being that obsessed him was gone. “The great Ritual,” said Dr. Silence aside to me, very low, “the Book
of the Dead. Now it’s leaving him. Soon the blood will fashion it a
body.”

Colonel Wragge, who had stood absolutely motionless all this time,
suddenly swayed, so that I thought he was going to fall,—and, but for
the quick support of the doctor’s arm, he probably would have fallen,
for he staggered as in the beginning of collapse. “I am drunk with the wine of Osiris,” he cried,—and it was half with
his own voice this time—“but Horus, the Eternal Watcher, is about my
path—for—safety.” The voice dwindled and failed, dying away into
something almost like a cry of distress. “Now, watch closely,” said Dr. Silence, speaking loud, “for after the
cry will come the Fire!”

I began to tremble involuntarily; an awful change had come without
warning into the air; my legs grew weak as paper beneath my weight and
I had to support myself by leaning on the table. Colonel Wragge, I saw,
was also leaning forward with a kind of droop. The shapes of fire had
vanished all, but his face was lit by the red lamps and the pale,
shifting moonlight rose behind him like mist. We were both gazing at the bowl, now almost empty; the Colonel stooped
so low I feared every minute he would lose his balance and drop into
it; and the shadow, that had so long been in process of forming, now at
length began to assume material outline in the air before us. Then John Silence moved forward quickly. He took his place between us
and the shadow. Erect, formidable, absolute master of the situation, I
saw him stand there, his face calm and almost smiling, and fire in his
eyes. His protective influence was astounding and incalculable. Even
the abhorrent dread I felt at the sight of the creature growing into
life and substance before us, lessened in some way so that I was able
to keep my eyes fixed on the air above the bowl without too vivid a
terror. But as it took shape, rising out of nothing as it were, and growing
momentarily more defined in outline, a period of utter and wonderful
silence settled down upon the building and all it contained. A hush of
ages, like the sudden centre of peace at the heart of the travelling
cyclone, descended through the night, and out of this hush, as out of
the emanations of the steaming blood, issued the form of the ancient
being who had first sent the elemental of fire upon its mission. It
grew and darkened and solidified before our eyes. It rose from just
beyond the table so that the lower portions remained invisible, but I
saw the outline limn itself upon the air, as though slowly revealed by
the rising of a curtain. It apparently had not then quite concentrated
to the normal proportions, but was spread out on all sides into space,
huge, though rapidly condensing, for I saw the colossal shoulders, the
neck, the lower portion of the dark jaws, the terrible mouth, and then
the teeth and lips—and, as the veil seemed to lift further upon the
tremendous face—I saw the nose and cheek bones. In another moment I
should have looked straight into the eyes—

But what Dr. Silence did at that moment was so unexpected, and took me
so by surprise, that I have never yet properly understood its nature,
and he has never yet seen fit to explain in detail to me. He uttered
some sound that had a note of command in it—and, in so doing, stepped
forward and intervened between me and the face. The figure, just
nearing completeness, he therefore hid from my sight—and I have always
thought purposely hid from my sight. “The fire!” he cried out. “The fire! Beware!”

There was a sudden roar as of flame from the very mouth of the pit, and
for the space of a single second all grew light as day. A blinding
flash passed across my face, and there was heat for an instant that
seemed to shrivel skin, and flesh, and bone. Then came steps, and I
heard Colonel Wragge utter a great cry, wilder than any human cry I
have ever known. The heat sucked all the breath out of my lungs with a
rush, and the blaze of light, as it vanished, swept my vision with it
into enveloping darkness. When I recovered the use of my senses a few moments later I saw that
Colonel Wragge with a face of death, its whiteness strangely stained,
had moved closer to me. Dr. Silence stood beside him, an expression of
triumph and success in his eyes. The next minute the soldier tried to
clutch me with his hand. Then he reeled, staggered, and, unable to save
himself, fell with a great crash upon the brick floor. After the sheet of flame, a wind raged round the building as though it
would lift the roof off, but then passed as suddenly as it came. And in
the intense calm that followed I saw that the form had vanished, and
the doctor was stooping over Colonel Wragge upon the floor, trying to
lift him to a sitting position. “Light,” he said quietly, “more light. Take the shades off.”

Colonel Wragge sat up and the glare of the unshaded lamps fell upon his
face. It was grey and drawn, still running heat, and there was a look
in the eyes and about the corners of the mouth that seemed in this
short space of time to have added years to its age. At the same time,
the expression of effort and anxiety had left it. It showed relief. “Gone!” he said, looking up at the doctor in a dazed fashion, and
struggling to his feet. “Thank God! it’s gone at last.” He stared round
the laundry as though to find out where he was. “Did it control me—take
possession of me? Did I talk nonsense?” he asked bluntly. “After the
heat came, I remember nothing—”

“You’ll feel yourself again in a few minutes,” the doctor said. To my
infinite horror I saw that he was surreptitiously wiping sundry dark
stains from the face. “Our experiment has been a success and—”

He gave me a swift glance to hide the bowl, standing between me and our
host while I hurriedly stuffed it down under the lid of the nearest
cauldron. “—and none of us the worse for it,” he finished. “And fires?” he asked, still dazed, “there’ll be no more fires?”

“It is dissipated—partly, at any rate,” replied Dr. Silence cautiously. “And the man behind the gun,” he went on, only half realising what he
was saying, I think; “have you discovered _that?_”

“A form materialised,” said the doctor briefly.