moon is at the full"--here he glanced at mefor a moment--"and partly to the fact that we have all been sodeliberately concentrating upon the matter. Our thinking, ourinvestigation, has stirred it into unusual activity. I mean that theintelligent force behind these manifestations has realised that some oneis busied about its destruction. And it is now on the defensive: more,it is aggressive."
"But 'it'--what is 'it'?" began the soldier, fuming. "What, in the nameof all that's dreadful, _is_ a fire-elemental?"
"I cannot give you at this moment," replied Dr. Silence, turning to him,but undisturbed by the interruption, "a lecture on the nature andhistory of magic, but can only say that an Elemental is the active forcebehind the elements,--whether earth, air, water, _or fire_,--it isimpersonal in its essential nature, but can be focused, personified,ensouled, so to say, by those who know how--by magicians, if youwill--for certain purposes of their own, much in the same way that steamand electricity can be harnessed by the practical man of this century.
"Alone, these blind elemental energies can accomplish little, butgoverned and directed by the trained will of a powerful manipulator theymay become potent activities for good or evil. They are the basis of allmagic, and it is the motive behind them that constitutes the magic'black' or 'white'; they can be the vehicles of curses or of blessings,for a curse is nothing more than the thought of a violent willperpetuated. And in such cases--cases like this--the conscious,directing will of the mind that is using the elemental stands alwaysbehind the phenomena--"
"You think that my brother--!" broke in the Colonel, aghast.
"Has nothing whatever to do with it--directly. The fire-elemental thathas here been tormenting you and your household was sent upon itsmission long before you, or your family, or your ancestors, or even thenation you belong to--unless I am much mistaken--was even in existence.We will come to that a little later; after the experiment I propose tomake we shall be more positive. At present I can only say we have todeal now, not only with the phenomenon of Attacking Fire merely, butwith the vindictive and enraged intelligence that is directing it frombehind the scenes--vindictive and enraged,"--he repeated the words.
"That explains--" began Colonel Wragge, seeking furiously for words hecould not find quickly enough.
"Much," said John Silence, with a gesture to restrain him.
He stopped a moment in the middle of his walk, and a deep silence camedown over the little room. Through the windows the sunlight seemed lessbright, the long line of dark hills less friendly, making me think of avast wave towering to heaven and about to break and overwhelm us.Something formidable had crept into the world about us. For,undoubtedly, there was a disquieting thought, holding terror as well asawe, in the picture his words conjured up: the conception of a humanwill reaching its deathless hand, spiteful and destructive, down throughthe ages, to strike the living and afflict the innocent.
"But what is its object?" burst out the soldier, unable to restrainhimself longer in the silence. "Why does it come from that plantation?And why should it attack us, or any one in particular?" Questions beganto pour from him in a stream.
"All in good time," the doctor answered quietly, having let him run onfor several minutes. "But I must first discover positively what, or who,it is that directs this particular fire-elemental. And, to do that, wemust first"--he spoke with slow deliberation--"seek to capture--toconfine by visibility--to limit its sphere in a concrete form."
"Good heavens almighty!" exclaimed the soldier, mixing his words in hisunfeigned surprise.
"Quite so," pursued the other calmly; "for in so doing I think we canrelease it from the purpose that binds it, restore it to its normalcondition of latent fire, and also"--he lowered his voice perceptibly--"also discover the face and form of the Being that ensouls it."
"The man behind the gun!" cried the Colonel, beginning to understandsomething, and leaning forward so as not to miss a single syllable.
"I mean that in the last resort, before it returns to the womb ofpotential fire, it will probably assume the face and figure of itsDirector, of the man of magical knowledge who originally bound it withhis incantations and sent it forth upon its mission of centuries."
The soldier sat down and gasped openly in his face, breathing hard; butit was a very subdued voice that framed the question.
"And how do you propose to make it visible? How capture and confine it?What d'ye mean, Dr. John Silence?"
"By furnishing it with the materials for a form. By the process ofmaterialisation simply. Once limited by dimensions, it will become slow,heavy, visible. We can then dissipate it. Invisible fire, you see, isdangerous and incalculable; locked up in a form we can perhaps manageit. We must betray it--to its death."
"And this material?" we asked in the same breath, although I think I hadalready guessed.
"Not pleasant, but effective," came the quiet reply; "the exhalations offreshly spilled blood."
"Not human blood!" cried Colonel Wragge, starting up from his chair witha voice like an explosion. I thought his eyes would start from theirsockets.
The face of Dr. Silence relaxed in spite of himself, and his spontaneouslittle laugh brought a welcome though momentary relief.
"The days of human sacrifice, I hope, will never come again," heexplained. "Animal blood will answer the purpose, and we can make theexperiment as pleasant as possible. Only, the blood must be freshlyspilled and strong with the vital emanations that attract this peculiarclass of elemental creature. Perhaps--perhaps if some pig on the estateis ready for the market--"
He turned to hide a smile; but the passing touch of comedy found no echoin the mind of our host, who did not understand how to change quicklyfrom one emotion to another. Clearly he was debating many thingslaboriously in his honest brain. But, in the end, the earnestness andscientific disinterestedness of the doctor, whose influence over him wasalready very great, won the day, and he presently looked up more calmly,and observed shortly that he thought perhaps the matter could bearranged.
"There are other and pleasanter methods," Dr. Silence went on toexplain, "but they require time and preparation, and things have gonemuch too far, in my opinion, to admit of delay. And the process needcause you no distress: we sit round the bowl and await results. Nothingmore. The emanations of blood--which, as Levi says, is the firstincarnation of the universal fluid--furnish the materials out of whichthe creatures of discarnate life, spirits if you prefer, can fashionthemselves a temporary appearance. The process is old, and lies at theroot of all blood sacrifice. It was known to the priests of Baal, and itis known to the modern ecstasy dancers who cut themselves to produceobjective phantoms who dance with them. And the least gifted clairvoyantcould tell you that the forms to be seen in the vicinity ofslaughter-houses, or hovering above the deserted battlefields,are--well, simply beyond all description. I do not mean," he added,noticing the uneasy fidgeting of his host, "that anything in ourlaundry-experiment need appear to terrify us, for this case seems acomparatively simple one, and it is only the vindictive character of theintelligence directing this fire-elemental that causes anxiety and makesfor personal danger."
"It is curious," said the Colonel, with a sudden rush of words, drawinga deep breath, and as though speaking of things distasteful to him,"that during my years among the Hill Tribes of Northern India I cameacross--personally came across--instances of the sacrifices of blood tocertain deities being stopped suddenly, and all manner of disastershappening until they were resumed. Fires broke out in the huts, and evenon the clothes, of the natives--and--and I admit I have read, in thecourse of my studies,"--he made a gesture toward his books and heavilyladen table,--"of the Yezidis of Syria evoking phantoms by means ofcutting their bodies with knives during their whirling dances--enormousglobes of fire which turned into monstrous and terrible forms--and Iremember an account somewhere, too, how the emaciated forms and pallidcountenances of the spectres, that appeared to the Emperor Julian,claimed to be the true Immortals, and told him to renew the sacrificesof blood 'for the fumes of whi
ch, since the establishment ofChristianity, they had been pining'--that these were in reality thephantoms evoked by the rites of blood."
Both Dr. Silence and myself listened in amazement, for this suddenspeech was so unexpected, and betrayed so much more knowledge than wehad either of us suspected in the old soldier.
"Then perhaps you have read, too," said the doctor, "how the CosmicDeities of savage races, elemental in their nature, have been kept alivethrough 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 whollyunfamiliar with the subject,