And the least gifted
clairvoyant could tell you that the forms to be seen in the vicinity of
slaughterhouses, or hovering above the deserted battlefield, are--well,
simply beyond all description. I do not mean,” he added, noticing the
uneasy fidgeting of his host, “that anything in our laundry-experiment
need appear to terrify us, for this case seems a comparatively simple
one, and it is only the vindictive character of the intelligence
directing this fire-elemental that causes anxiety and makes for
personal danger.”

“It is curious,” said the Colonel, with a sudden rush of words,
drawing a deep breath, and as though speaking of things distasteful
to him, “that during my years among the Hill Tribes of Northern India
I came across--personally came across--instances of the sacrifices of
blood to certain deities being stopped suddenly, and all manner of
disasters happening until they were resumed. Fires broke out in the
huts, and even on the clothes, of the natives--and--and I admit I
have read, in the course of my studies,”--he made a gesture towards
his books and heavily laden table,--“of the Yezidis of Syria evoking
phantoms by means of cutting their bodies with knives during their
whirling dances--enormous globes of fire which turned into monstrous
and terrible forms--and I remember an account somewhere, too, how the
emaciated forms and pallid countenances of the spectres, that appeared
to the Emperor Julian, claimed to be the true Immortals, and told him
to renew the sacrifices of blood ‘for the fumes of which, since the
establishment of Christianity, they had been pining’--that these were
in reality the phantoms evoked by the rites of blood.”

Both Dr. Silence and myself listened in amazement, for this sudden
speech was so unexpected, and betrayed so much more knowledge than we
had either of us suspected in the old soldier. “Then perhaps you have read, too,” said the doctor, “how the Cosmic
Deities of savage races, elemental in their nature, have been kept
alive through many ages by these blood rites?”

“No,” he answered; “that is new to me.”

“In any case,” Dr. Silence added, “I am glad you are not wholly
unfamiliar with the subject, for you will now bring more sympathy, and
therefore more help, to our experiment. For, of course, in this case,
we only want the blood to tempt the creature from its lair and enclose
it in a form----”

“I quite understand. And I only hesitated just now,” he went on,
his words coming much more slowly, as though he felt he had already
said too much, “because I wished to be quite sure it was no mere
curiosity, but an actual sense of necessity that dictated this horrible
experiment.”

“It is your safety, and that of your household, and of your sister,
that is at stake,” replied the doctor. “Once I have _seen_, I hope to
discover whence this elemental comes, and what its real purpose is.”

Colonel Wragge signified his assent with a bow. “And the moon will help us,” the other said, “for it will be full in
the early hours of the morning, and this kind of elemental-being is
always most active at the period of full moon. Hence, you see, the clue
furnished by your diary.”

So it was finally settled. Colonel Wragge would provide the materials
for the experiment, and we were to meet at midnight. How he would
contrive at that hour--but that was his business. I only know we
both realised that he would keep his word, and whether a pig died at
midnight, or at noon, was after all perhaps only a question of the
sleep and personal comfort of the executioner. “To-night, then, in the laundry,” said Dr. Silence finally, to clinch
the plan; “we three alone--and at midnight, when the household is
asleep and we shall be free from disturbance.”

He exchanged significant glances with our host, who, at that moment,
was called away by the announcement that the family doctor had arrived,
and was ready to see him in his sister’s room. For the remainder of the afternoon John Silence disappeared. I had my
suspicions that he made a secret visit to the plantation and also to
the laundry building; but, in any case, we saw nothing of him, and
he kept strictly to himself. He was preparing for the night, I felt
sure, but the nature of his preparations I could only guess. There was
movement in his room, I heard, and an odour like incense hung about the
door, and knowing that he regarded rites as the vehicles of energies,
my guesses were probably not far wrong. Colonel Wragge, too, remained absent the greater part of the afternoon,
and, deeply afflicted, had scarcely left his sister’s bedside, but in
response to my inquiry when we met for a moment at tea-time, he told me
that although she had moments of attempted speech, her talk was quite
incoherent and hysterical, and she was still quite unable to explain
the nature of what she had seen. The doctor, he said, feared she had
recovered the use of her limbs, only to lose that of her memory, and
perhaps even of her mind. “Then the recovery of her legs, I trust, may be permanent, at any
rate,” I ventured, finding it difficult to know what sympathy to offer. And he replied with a curious short laugh, “Oh yes; about that there
can be no doubt whatever.”

And it was due merely to the chance of my overhearing a fragment of
conversation--unwillingly, of course--that a little further light was
thrown upon the state in which the old lady actually lay. For, as I
came out of my room, it happened that Colonel Wragge and the doctor
were going downstairs together, and their words floated up to my ears
before I could make my presence known by so much as a cough. “Then you must find a way,” the doctor was saying with decision; “for
I cannot insist too strongly upon that--and at all costs she must be
kept quiet. These attempts to go out must be prevented--if necessary,
by force. This desire to visit some wood or other she keeps talking
about is, of course, hysterical in nature. It cannot be permitted for a
moment.”

“It shall not be permitted,” I heard the soldier reply, as they reached
the hall below. “It has impressed her mind for some reason----” the doctor went on, by
way evidently of soothing explanation, and then the distance made it
impossible for me to hear more. At dinner Dr. Silence was still absent, on the public plea of a
headache, and though food was sent to his room, I am inclined to
believe he did not touch it, but spent the entire time fasting. We retired early, desiring that the household should do likewise, and
I must confess that at ten o’clock when I bid my host a temporary
good-night, and sought my room to make what mental preparation I could,
I realised in no very pleasant fashion that it was a singular and
formidable assignation, this midnight meeting in the laundry building,
and that there were moments in every adventure of life when a wise
man, and one who knew his own limitations, owed it to his dignity
to withdraw discreetly.