CHAPTER. ONE

THE BACK OF ONE OF THE MASSIVE, OLD-fashioned houses in a Bloomsbury Square

was a single-storied structure originally intended

by the architect for a billiard room. It was

connected with the main building by a short

passage, and its windowless walls supported a

domed roof of glass. The present users of the

room, however, were apparently engaged in some

matter which did not require a good top light,

for a ceiling had been built across the span of

the dome, and save for the steady purring of an

electric fan behind the louvre boards of the

lantern, no sign of life was apparent from the

outside, the windowless walls and double roofing

rendering the building light and sound-proof.

This suited admirably the purposes of its present

users, whose work required absolute immunity

from any sudden sound or change of light, and

who had no wish to draw the attention of the

neighbours to their proceedings.

Although the night was a sultry one, the group

of men seated round the table seemed to suffer

no inconvenience. The faces varied greatly in

type ; the chairman of the meeting had the air

of a prosperous business man ; on his right was

an unmistakable lawyer ; on his left, a benign old

gentleman with a long white beard ; next to him,

a mechanic of the better class; opposite was a

journalist. At the foot of the table, however,

there sat a man who could not so readily be

assigned to a place; he might have been a

diplomat, he might have been a detective, or he

might have been one of those pseudo-aristocratic

adventurers who hang upon the fringe of smart

6 THE DEMON LOVER

society. With the exception of the mechanic he

was the youngest man present, and the minute

book in front of him marked him as the secretary

of the meeting.

Though the members were of such divergent

types, they had certain characteristics which

marked them as men whom some common

discipline had welded together. Each possessed

the power of sitting absolutely motionless unless

he had occasion to move, a far from common

accomplishment; each radiated a peculiar sense

of poise and power ; and each, with the exception

of the secretary, had a pair of absolutely

expressionless eyes; and even his did not respond

to emotion as eyes generally do, by alteration of

the muscles round the sockets, but marked his

feelings by an expansion and contraction of the

pupil itself, which produced an extraordinary

effect upon the observer. The eyes, of a very

dark hazel with greenish lights in them, together

with the sallowness of the skin, gave an unpleasing

impression which, in some way, the perfect

regularity of the features intensified. It was the

face of a man who might be exceedingly

interesting, exceedingly charming, and exceedingly

unscrupulous.

The meeting, proceeding quietly with the

transaction of business, was redeemed from

ordinariness by the fact that the seventh member

lay asleep on a couch, no one taking the slightest

notice of him except the secretary, who cast

quick, sidelong glances in his direction in the

intervals of note-taking, and seemed prepared to

spring up and catch him should he show any

signs of rolling on to the floor.

THE DEMON LOVER 7

The discussion of business was carried on

quietly, almost in undertones; accounts for large

sums of money being brought forward and

passed without comment, when a peculiar sound

broke the stillness of the room ; from the figure

on the couch came a long-drawn-out sibilant hiss.

No notice of this strange manifestation was taken

by any person present except the secretary, who

put a cross on the top of the pad on which he

was taking notes. A short while passed, during

which the committee still worked in hushed

voices, and then a second prolonged hiss came

from the sleeper, and the secretary made a second

cross on his writing pad. A third and fourth hiss

followed in quick succession, and successive

crosses were added to the row at the top of the

secretary's tablet. On the completion of the

fourth he looked up as if anticipating a command.

For the first time the other members of the

committee glanced at the sleeping figure.

" If he is sufficiently deep in trance," said the

chairman, " we will put aside the accounts and

proceed with the Housmann problem."

" He is on the fourth hypnoidal level," said the

secretary.

" That will do," was the answer, and with

cautious movements the committee disposed

itself so that the hitherto ignored seventh member

became the focus of attention.

The secretary stretched out a thin brown

hand and tilted the shade of the lamp so that the

sleeper's face was thrown into still deeper shadow,

then he left his chair and went and sat on the

couch beside the recumbent man, who never

stirred ; leaning forward, he tapped a certain

8 THE DEMON LOVER

spot on the unconscious head with a peculiar

rhythm. Immediately, without stirring a muscle

of his face, the sleeper emitted the most extraordinary

sound that ever issued from a human

throat--it could only be compared to the weird

noises that arise from a faulty gramophone--and

then the secretary proceeded in as calm and

matter of fact manner as if he were using an

ordinary telephone, to ask for a number, using the

unconscious man as a means of communication.

" Fifty North, fourteen East," he repeated

several times, as if seeking to call up some invisible

exchange. After a few repetitions the sleeping

man replied in the German language, asking his

interrogator who was calling.

" Thirty, nought," replied the secretary. " Is

that the Prague Lodge ? "

" It is," replied the sleeper, speaking in English,

with a slight foreign accent.

" We want particulars of Brother Hermann

Housmann, a German American, last heard of at

Prague, who is suspected of attempting to

negotiate with the Vatican for the sale of information

concerning the Brotherhood's policy in

regard to the French loan."

" He left here early in May for Switzerland.

Try the Geneva Lodge," replied the sleeper.

Again the secretary repeated his tapping, and

again the peculiar note, half-way between the

hoot of an owl and a telephone bell, was heard.

" Forty-six North, six East," said the secretary,

and the sleeping man replied in French this

time, asking again who called.

" Thirty, nought," replied the secretary again,

and again enquired of the sleeper for news of

THE DEMON LOVER 9

Hermann Housmann, and was informed that

he had left Geneva at the end of May and proceeded

to Naples and thence to New York.

Yet once more the secretary repeated his

tapping, and elicited the same peculiar sound

from the sleeper.

" Forty, North, seventy-four West," he

repeated several times, and finally a voice with

a strong American accent replied. News of

Hermann Housmann was again demanded, and

this time obtained.

" He came here early in June by the White

Star liner Cedric, and got in touch with the

Tammany bosses. We sent him a summons to

attend Lodge, and he got in a panic and started

West. Then it was decided to send him an order

of execution by means of the Dark Ray of

Destruction."

The men round the table stirred uneasily and

looked at one another.

" With what results ? " asked the interrogator.

" He stopped off at Buffalo, took the cars to

Niagara, and went over the suspension bridge."

" Over into Canada ? "

" No, over into the river," replied the sleeper,

his expressionless countenance strangely contradicted

by the challenging note in his voice.

The men in the dimly-lit room looked at each

other. The mechanic covered his mouth with his

hand to hide a nervous smile ; the journalist

shrugged his shoulders; the lawyer fidgeted with

pens and paper, and the pupils of the secretary's

eyes opened and shut like those of a cat. It

was the patriarch on the chairman's left who

broke the silence.

io THE DEMON LOVER

(< I don't like it," he said. (< I don't like it at

all. I cannot approve of these methods. For

God's sake let us leave the issue to higher intelligences

then ours, and not take the law into our

own hands."

" There is a spirit growing up in the

Fraternity," said the chairman, in a deep,

booming voice, " which can lead to nothing but

disaster," and he glared at the secretary as if

he were responsible for the American's death.

The pupils of the secretary's peculiar eyes completely

disappeared, and the irises filled with

green gleams like the fire in a black opal, but it

was the journalist who took up the defence.

" This is no time for half measures," he said

" Be sure your policy is right, and then go ahead

and make a clean job of it. Look at the difference

in our position since the new spirit came into

the Fraternity, from being a group of antiquarians,

we have become a factor to be reckoned with in

international politics."

One after another they spoke with considerable

feeling, but the secretary kept silence; he, although

he was never directly addressed, seemed to be

regarded by the others as responsible for the new

spirit. Finally, each having said his say, silence

fell upon the men round the table. The secretary

raised his peculiar eyes to the chairman.

" Shall I bring him round ? " he enquired.

The chairman nodded glumly. The brown hand of the secretary passed swiftly across the

face of the sleeper with a peculiar snatching

movement several times repeated, who thereupon

stirred slightly and snuggled down into the

cushions. It was apparent, however, that the

THE DEMON LOVER n

death-like passivity had given place to natural

sleep. In a minute or two he stirred again,

roused, sat up, and blinked dazedly at the lamp.

The secretary poured a cup of steaming coffee

from a vacuum flask and handed it to him, for

close though the night was, the man was shivering

with cold. The hot drink speedily restored him

to his normal consciousness, and he enquired

whether any news had been obtained of Hermann

Housmann, and the words that had issued from

his lips were repeated to him. At the news of

the suicide he gave a long whistle and stared

hard at the secretary.

Presently the meeting broke up, the members

departing in twos and threes; at the door each

of these sober-minded men of the world did a

peculiar thing, they turned and genuflected as if

leaving a church, for in the shadows in the far

end of the room the dim outline of an altar

could be discerned on which a red light was

burning.

Among the last to leave was the old man with

the long white beard. Pausing before the secretary,

he held out his corded old hand. After an

almost imperceptible hesitation, the thin brown

fingers were placed in it.

" Lucas," said the old man, " no one appreciates

more than I do what your work has meant to the

Fraternity, but I hope to God you will never

want anything you ought not to have."

CHAPTER TWO

LEFT ALONE, THE SECRETARY SWITCHED OFF THE

electric fan and silence shut down upon the

room like a thing palpable. He paused for a

moment with his hand on the switch, as if

uncertain what to do next, then he crossed over

to the table and stood looking down at the

scattered papers, but made no movement to

gather them up; he was evidently deep in

thought, going over in his mind the events of

the evening and trying to interpret their significance.

It had been quite evident that he was

not in good odour; even his supporters had

been apologists and his opponents had been

among the weightiest members of the Fraternity,

and the evening's proceedings had served to

bring to the surface a dissatisfaction that had

been smouldering for some time. Lucas's doings

were not liked, so much had been made quite

clear to him ; and if his doings were not liked,

then he must be prepared to mend his ways or

there would be serious trouble, for, as most

people are aware, it is one thing to get into an

occult fraternity, but quite another to get out of

it.

He knew his chiefs, men of the highest ideals,

but also of the sternest justice, and he knew that

rebellion need expect no mercy. First would

come an order to attend Lodge and offer an

explanation ; should that prove unsatisfactory,

he would be commanded to return to the archives

all insignia, symbols and manuscripts, and he

would be solemnly warned, in a formula thousands

of years old, that for the future he would exercise

occult powers at his peril; and then he would be

12

THE DEMON LOVER 13

bidden to go forth and associate no more with

his brethren.

Should he, however, persist in his evil ways,

should he, especially, pervert to his own ends the

powers he had acquired, then something that was

not of this plane of existence dealt with him.

No man raised a finger against him, the law was

not invoked, his name was not mentioned for

evil, but, all the same, something happened to

him, and after that which was to fall had fallen,

he was incapable of either good or evil for the

short span of existence which usually remained

to him.

Lucas knew all this quite well, and, hands deep

in trouser pockets, he slowly paced the room,

calculating his chances of escape should he decide

on the course of defiance.

Six years ago, with a promising journalistic

career before him, he had suddenly abandoned

Fleet Street, and to the surprise and disgust of

his colleagues, become secretary to a society for

the study of comparative folk-lore. Why he did

it, they could not make out, and Lucas did not

enlighten them ; but, if the truth were known,

he was controlling the mundane fied-d-terre

that even the most esoteric of occult fraternities

must have, and to this fraternity he dedicated

his existence. As had been truly said that

evening, he had raised the Fraternity to a very

different position to that which it had occupied

when first he took its affairs in hand. He had

found it engaged in study for study's sake, and

he had shown it the practical application of its

knowledge. Hitherto it had contented itself in

dealing with the individual, his development or

14 THE DEMON LOVER

regeneration. Lucas showed it that its methods

were equally applicable to international affairs,

and he had interfered with such notable success

in certain coups d'etat that the great majority

of his Fraternity looked upon him as the coming

leader. It was only a minority that viewed his

doings askance, but, as he had seen that evening,

the seniors of the Fraternity were in that minority

to a man, and it was they alone who could bind

or loose. It was useless to have the support of

numbers if those who held the keys of power

closed the door upon him, and it had been borne

in upon Lucas recently that these doors were

closed, had, in fact, been closed for some time.

He had realized that no amount of hard work,

no amount of devotion, would take a man up

the Fraternity if that man's heart were not right.

Lip service would not avail, either ; the trained

clairvoyants who had charge of these matters

judged a man neither by what he said nor what

he did, but by the colours of his aura, and that

tell-tale emanation revealed the truth. No

amount of ostentatious church-going on Sundays

and wearing of crosses on watch-chains could

conceal the dull red glow that Saturday night's

diversions left behind, or counterfeit the bright

clear electric blue that had to show before a man

was judged fit for the higher degrees.

Lucas knew that although his aura showed

the occult green, that green was not right, and

he could not get it right except by changing his

whole nature, by casting out the inordinate

ambition and love of power that consumed him

and bringing in compassion for his fellow men,

and neither of these things could Lucas see his

THE DEMON LOVER 15

way to achieve ; he despised his fellow man too

much to feel anything beyond a contemptuous

pity for him ; and as for foregoing the fruits of

power, what else was there to live and strive

for ? He was quite willing to show kindness to

all and sundry, or any other manifestation in

fact that might be demanded of him as a

qualification, but laboriously to acquire power

and then to refrain from using it for one's own

benefit even when driven into a corner, this

was beyond his comprehension. He was prepared

to pay any price required for his apprenticeship,

he had worked as Jacob worked for Rachel, but

for two years his progress had been held up, and

men with half his capacities had preceded him

into the higher degrees. His theoretical studies

completed, he realized that the chiefs had no

intention of entrusting him with the practical

applications thereof. The secret science of the

hidden forces of man and nature he knew, but

not the Names of Power by which these forces

were controlled, and without them all his

studies were useless--he had the lock, but not

the key.

And so he paced up and down, pondering his

problem. The chiefs had openly declared their

dissatisfaction; a complete revision of the

Fraternity's policy might follow, and with it a

drastic clipping of his own wings; he might even

be removed from the post of secretary. For

this contingency he had endeavoured to provide.

Next door lived an aged general, gasping his life

out in repeated attacks of bronchitis, any one of

which might prove fatal; Lucas had judiciously

cultivated his acquaintance, and the first use he

16 THE DEMON LOVER

had made of his Delta Degree initiation was to

use the powers it conferred to cause the old man

to make a will in his favour, so Lucas hoped

before long to find himself among the landed

gentry and the possessor of private means, in

which situation he thought it might be easier

for him to come up to the moral standard of

the Fraternity and obtain the coveted higher

degrees. His only danger was that the will

might be contested and the transaction thus

brought to the ears of his chiefs, and what they

would have to say on the subject would not be

pleasant hearing, for he knew full well the white

occultist's horror of black magic, and his drastic

methods of dealing with it, and he supposed

they would consider his transactions very black

indeed, though he had no intention whatever

of doing harm with the money, which would,

he thought, be used to much better advantage

if it were in his hands than distributed among

the general's nephews and nieces of the third

and fourth generation.

All the same, Lucas had a very wholesome fear

of the dark force which almost invariably got the

man, sooner or later, who deviated from the

right hand path. Some, indeed, but not many,

had had immunity ; but they were men who had

climbed so high before they turned to the

left that they were senior to those who had to

deal with them and often, in fact, returned the

occult onslaughts in kind ; but these favoured

individuals were rare ; few men maintained themselves

long when the fraternity moved against

them.

So Lucas calculated his prospects, and they

THE DEMON LOVER 17

did not look to him very promising unless he

could get hold of those Words of Power that

should enable him to fight at least on a level

footing. That evening had shown him clearly

that the Fraternity would not give them to him ;

how, in the name of Heaven, earth, and the

waters under the earth could those carefully

guarded secrets be obtained ? Lucas's stride

lengthened and quickened as his perplexity

increased. Gazing before him with unseeing

eyes, he swung like a pendulum up and down the

room.

Suddenly his progress was arrested. His blind

march had gradually edged him across the floor

till he ran into the low couch upon which the

man who had served as the receiver of the occult

telephone had lain. He stood staring down at

it as if the sleeper still lay there, and through

those entranced lips might come the solution of

his problem. And come it did. With a sudden

start Lucas realized that anyone who could go

into a sufficiently deep trance could ' listen in '

at the occult ceremonies and learn the Words

of Power--provided he cared to take the risk I

Lucas had nerves of steel as an occultist needs to

have, but even he did not care about that risk.

Still he stood looking down at that couch,

seeking further inspiration from a source that

had already proved so fruitful. Supposing he

could ' get at' Spencer, and get him to join him

in this raid upon the secrets of the Fraternity ?

But he dismissed the idea ; the brethren were

all picked men, hard to corrupt by either threats

or promises ; besides, Spencer wouldn't like the

risk any more than he did, but the idea in itself was

18 THE DEMON LOVER

good. Supposing he could find a trance medium

who did not know enough to be scared, he could

have his own occult telephone and ' listen in '

with impunity. The powers might ' strafe ' the

medium, but they would find it exceedingly

difficult to locate the man who was operating

the medium.

Lucas thoughtfully gathered up the papers,

put the lights out, and went to bed.

CHAPTER THREE

WHEN A SCHOOL BREAKS UP FOR THE SUMMER

holidays it is usual for the pupils to go

their various ways to the country or seaside.

All are not so happily placed, however, and the

pupil who stepped out of the dark entry of the

business training college into the blazing sunshine

was engaged upon the urgent quest of fresh work

now that her secretarial course was finished.

Only the most rigorous self-denial had enabled

her to get through her training ; the third term

had been one of semi-starvation, and this, added

to the strain of the final examinations, had

reduced her to an abnormal state in which she

floated rather than walked, and saw grey ghosts

about her instead of men and women.

In her hand she grasped an envelope bearing

an address in a neighbouring square, and

containing an account of her attainments and

credentials, and in her heart was a gnawing

anxiety as to what she should do if she failed to

obtain the prospective post. Three other girls

joined her on the sunlit pavement, also bearing

envelopes, and demanded of her her destination,

which proved to be the same as her own, and her

heart sank still further when she realized that

there was going to be competition for the coveted

work, and into her mind there flashed a vision

of her own face as she had seen it in the dressing-

room glass while pinning on her hat--wliite and

exhausted, with deep lines under the eyes and

dark circles round them, and it seemed to her

that, were she herself engaging a secretary,

Veronica Mainwaring would not be her choice.

The others chattered gaily on their way to

'9

20 THE DEMON LOVER

the square, they did not care much whether

they got the post or not, they were only looking

at it in case it were so well worth taking as to

counterbalance the loss of a summer holiday,

and they made it quite plain to Veronica that it

had to be very good to be accepted by them at

that time of year. She, for her part, had

determined to accept anyone who would have

her, rather than be disengaged in the blank

emptiness of a London summer.

They were admitted through large double

doors by an impassive butler, and ushered into

a room which was obviously a waiting-room

rather than one that was lived in. Veronica, in

her abnormal, almost dream state, felt as if the

spirit of the place was audible to her inner

consciousness; the butler did not seem to her

to be an ordinary butler, but rather a lay brother

of some sort of fraternity ; she wondered whether

the immaculate shirt-front concealed a great

cross that hung from his neck by a chain, or was

it the symbol of some strange pagan worship he

wore ? She felt certain that the carefully

pomaded strands of hair disposed at regular

intervals across the top of his bald head rested

upon a store of knowledge such as is not usually

confined under a butler's skull. The atmosphere

of the room, while full of strange, almost electrical

vibrations, was brooded over by a great peace,

wonderfully soothing to the girl's overwrought

nerves. A longing to remain in the stillness

overwhelmed her, but she feared greatly less

the coveted post were not for her, for half

the secretarial agencies of London appeared to

have sent candidates of all shapes, sizes and

THE DEMON LOVER 21

descriptions, from a bemuslined flapper in a

picture hat, to a ferocious female of fifty in a

reefer jacket, and the more Veronica watched

them, the less she thought of her prospects.

Suddenly the door opened and a man stood

on the threshold surveying the assembly. Of

medium height and lightly built, he moved with

a springy alertness that put Veronica in mind of

a stag, as if he could be off and away at full

speed in the flash of a second. Deliberately and

entirely impersonally, he inspected the waiting

women one by one. Finally Veronica's turn

came for a scrutiny. The man's eyes met hers

with a normal, observant, not unsympathetic

glance, and then, all of a sudden, changed to an

expression of ferocious intensity, and yet he did

not appear to see her at all, but, on the contrary,

to be looking straight through her. A second

later he resumed his normal expression, and for

the first time since entering the room, he spoke.

<( If you will come to my office," he said,

(< I should like to have a talk with you."

Veronica followed him out of the room into

the one immediately behind it. It was a large,

pleasant room, furnished not as an office, but as a

sitting room, and surrounded by book-cases.

A faint, sweet smell, as if incense were habitually

burnt there, hung in the air,. The door of a

strong room, and a desk in the window, were the

sole indications that it was used for business

purposes.

The man seated himself at the desk and

motioned her to a chair opposite.

" My name is Lucas," he said, <( What is

yours ? "

22 THE DEMON LOVER

She told him, and with shaking fingers handed

him her training certificate, which he accepted,

but neglected to remove from its envelope.

" How old are you ? " was the next question.

" Twenty-three," said Veronica.

" What did you do previous to your training ? "

She told him how she had cared for 'her

widowed mother till the latter's death terminated

the little pension upon which they had both

subsisted, and then how the minute savings had

just served to launch her upon the world.

" Have you good health ? " he enquired.

" In the ordinary way, that is, when you are not

overworked ? Have you had any serious illnesses ? "

She was able to give satisfactory answers to

both these questions.

" I think you will do," said the man. " What

salary do you want ? "

Veronica had had so little hope of obtaining

the post that she had not thought about the

salary, and almost at random, stated the sum

that one of her companions had remarked would

be necessary to secure her own services, and then

her heart stood still lest she had demanded too

much and would be rejected, but the man in

the revolving chair did not seem disconcerted,

he nodded his head.

" We will see how it works," he said. " Now

when can you start ? "

Veronica said that she was disengaged and

could start forthwith.

" That will suit me very well," he said.

" There is no occasion for delay ; if we are going

to begin, we may as well begin at once. You

THE DEMON LOVER 23

will have a couple of rooms upstairs placed at your

disposal; I live in the house myself, but that need

not trouble you, you will never see me except

during business hours. Various other men come

and go. I don't know whether you will consider

the butler's wife an adequate chaperone, but

she is the best we can offer you. Get a taxi and

bring your things round right away."

Veronica accepted. The offer was beyond her

hopes. She asked no questions, she did not even

permit her mind to question, she literally flung

herself into this haven of refuge and thanked

whatever gods might be. Lucas himself let her

out of the front door and watched her for a

moment as she walked down the road, a little

smile curling his lips. He was evidently well

pleased with his bargain.

Veronica returned to the hostel that had been

her home during the long months she had

worked at the training school. There was little

enough in her cubicle to pack, and, having put

her meagre belongings together, she went to the

office to pay her bill.

" Where shall we send your letters ? " asked

the superintendent.

Veronica gave the address.

" So you have got a resident post. What

work are you going to do ? "

Not until the question was put to her did

Veronica realize that she had never inquired the

nature of the work on which she was about to be

engaged, any more than Lucas had inquired as

to her capacities or references. Reluctantly she

admitted her ignorance.

" But, Miss Mainwaring, you do not mean to

24 THE DEMON LOVER

say that you have accepted a post, and a resident

post too, without inquiring who you were

working for ? Perhaps you don't even know

whether it is a man or a woman ? "

" It is a man," said Veronica, " and his name

is Lucas," and she realized that that was absolutely

all she knew. She did not even know what

would be her hours or duties, what demands he

would make on her, or what qualifications she

would require, and she suddenly remembered

that he was paying her as a resident secretary

the salary she had demanded believing she would

have to support herself. Surely exceptional

requirements must condition the payment of

such a salary.

" I do not feel at all happy about you," said

the superintendent. " But at any rate you are

near here, so you must come round and let us

know how you get on."

Veronica wished her good-bye and transported

her few belongings in a taxi round to the house

in the square. The impassive butler again

admitted her, and again Veronica experienced

the sensation that she was in a church. The

strange, indescribable feeling of remoteness and

stillness enveloped her. A pleasant-faced woman

appeared from the nether regions and conducted

her to two rooms upon an upper floor. They

looked straight into the heart of a great plane

tree that stood in the garden of the next house,

for the whole of the back premises of the house

she was in were occupied by a large, one-storey

annexe.

The rooms led one out of the other, pleasant,

old-fashioned rooms with deep window-seats to

THE DEMON LOVER 25

the bow windows, such as Bloomsbury abounds

in, for the rich City merchants who inhabited

that district during its hey-day knew what

comfort meant. Big sash windows let in the

light, and heavy wooden shutters, folding back

into the walls, were equally capable of shutting

out both light and air. A capacious grate bore

witness to the good old days of plenty, and,

glimpsed through the open door of the adjoining

room, a high feather bed with a curtained

canopy declared that the tradition was not

forgotten, and that the present owners of the

house also knew what comfort, if not what

hygiene, meant.

Her reverie was interrupted by the butler's

voice. " We will send up your dinner at seven,

Miss. All your meals will be served up here."

(< Will Mr. Lucas want me this evening ? "

she asked.

" I don't know, Miss, he is out at present" ;

and she was left to her own devices with

instructions to ring for anything she required.

Her unpacking disposed of, she sat on the

broad, repp-covered window seat watching the

birds in the tree. She had a curious feeling that

she was a prisoner, free in appearance, as the

lions on the Mappin terraces are free, yet ringed

round upon every side by invisible barriers.

She wished the superintendent had kept silence

and refrained from instilling that uneasy doubt.

Why could not people leave one to one's own

devices ? True, she did not know the nature

of her work or the occupation of Lucas, but why

should things be wrong ?

The butler's wife came up with a tray, and

26 THE DEMON LOVER

Veronica determined to make good the deficiencies

in her knowledge by judicious questioning.

" Have you been here long, Mrs. Ashlott ? "

" Lor---- Yes, Miss. I come here when I

married. Ashlott's been here, man and boy,

these forty years."

" Has Mr. Lucas been here long ? "

" No, Miss. Only five or six years. He is

quite a new-comer."

" Does anyone else live in the house beside

Mr. Lucas ? "

" No, Miss. Only you and me and Ashlott

regular-like, but the gentlemen are always coming

and going, and we often puts them up for the

night. I always keeps the beds made up."

" What is Mr. Lucas ? " asked Veronica

boldly.

" Secretary, Miss."

" Oh I " said Veronica. " And the gentlemen?

What are they ? "

" Ah," said Mrs. Ashlott. " Now you're

asking. Them as knows most tells least." With

which cryptic utterance she departed.

It was after ten o'clock, and Veronica was

thinking of bed when there came a knock at the

door, and in response to her summons, Lucas

entered.

" Don't get up," he said as she rose nervously,

the superintendent's suspicions flashing through

her mind. " I won't keep you long. I only wanted

to explain to you one or two things about your

job. The work comes in rushes, and unexpectedly,

at all hours of the twenty-four, in fact, so I don't

want you to go out for the next few days, but to

be in the house so that I can get you if I want

THE DEMON LOVER 27

you suddenly. After that, if I decide to keep

you on, I will make arrangements for you to

have regular time off duty. The work is not

exacting, a good part of the time you will have

nothing whatever to do, but I want you to be

at hand in case I need you."

Veronica's heart had sunk while he was speaking.

So her post was not yet a security ? The

uncertainty, and the renewed anxiety it

engendered, made her acquiesce very humbly to

Lucas's request that she should not leave the

house for the next few days. He remained for

a few minutes, chatting with her pleasantly and

kindly, evidently wishing to put her at her ease and

make her feel settled and contented. Moreover,

his words had done their work; Veronica, secure

of her post, might have been tempted to question

and criticize the conditions of it, but Veronica,

insecure, clung desperately, dreading to find

herself out of work and with a black mark against

her name on the school register. At all costs

she must keep this, her first post, long enough

to have a respectable reference. With a single

phrase he had ensured her obedience. For one

week she would accept the most eccentric

commands without question, she would humour

him to the top of his bent, refuse nothing, protest

against nothing. And a week was all that Lucas

required for the installing of his occult telephone.

CHAPTER FOUR

THE NEXT MORNING VERONICA AWAITED HER

employer's pleasure at nine; likewise at

ten, but he did not come ; finally at eleven he

appeared, smelling pleasantly of soap and very

spick and span and cheerful, and the morning's

work commenced. Veronica found that hers was

to be the appalling task of copying voluminous

documents, every one of which was in cypher ;

letter by letter, the weird gibberish had to be

copied and then counter-checked. When the

copying was finished, however, there seemed to

be nothing else for her to do ; Lucas himself

worked indefatigably, but apparently did not

see fit to entrust her with any further tasks.

She sat at her desk, hands folded, watching his

bent back. Time went on, and time went on,

and still he worked, and still she waited. At

one o'clock he called a halt for lunch, bidding

her return at two. But when she returned at

that hour and inquired what she was to do next,

he appeared somewhat nonplussed, as if he had

not been expecting such an inquiry, and looked

vaguely round at the furniture, as if it might be

in need of her services. No response being

forthcoming, his gaze returned to Veronica, and

she fancied that he was trying not to smile.

" I have nothing for you to do at the moment,"

he said. " You can have a look at these if you

like," and he pointed to a pile of morning papers

ly ng on a chair.

Veronica read what the Tories had to say

about the Liberals, and the Liberals about the

Tories, and the Socialists concerning both, till

five o'clock, when Lucas, who had worked

28

THE DEMON LOVER 29

unintermittently, rose, stretched himself, and

announced that he had to go out.

" Will you want me again this evening ? "

asked Veronica.

He shook his head. <( I shall not come back

till late."

" Then would you mind if I just ran round to

the hostel ? It is only in the next square. The

superintendent asked me to go in and see her."

Veronica raised her eyes to his as she spoke,

and saw to her amazement that the pupils had

entirely disappeared ; two greenish-brown discs

looked back at her without a trace of expression,

inhuman, malignant, horrible. Anything more

sinister it would be impossible to imagine than

this human countenance from which all trace

of humanity had suddenly been erased. She

stood rooted to the floor, gazing at this horror

till Lucas's voice broke the spell.

" I would prefer you did not go out for the

present, as I have already told you," he said.

" Someone might ring up on the phone," he

added, by way of explanation. The pupils of

his eyes were slowly returning to their normal

proportions. He looked at her sharply, perceiving

her consternation. " What is the matter ? "

he asked.

" Nothing," said Veronica. She could not

very well explain to him that it was the horror

of his face that had overcome her. He continued

to stare at her, not with the offensive stare of a

man's curiosity, but with an entirely impersonal

inspection. Apparently the result was unsatisfactory,

for he took a step towards her.

Instinctively Veronica stepped back. Lucas

30 THE DEMON LOVER

took another step, and Veronica again retreated ;

she was against the desk now, and could go no

further, and Lucas came right up to her and

looked into her eyes; she was powerless to

withdraw them and gazed back at him helpless,

fascinated. He was not a tall man, and his face

was almost on a level with hers, but a sense of

power issued from him that held her spellbound.

She looked and looked, and did not wish to turn

away ; vitality radiated from those eyes, intense,

magnetic, compelling. Veronica went on looking.

She might have stood thus till she turned to

stone if the man himself had not released her.

Something shut down in his eyes, the power was

cut off, and she was looking into an ordinary

human countenance, olive-skinned, clear-cut, far

from unprepossessing. Her horror of him was

gone, in its place remained a curious fascination ;

what was he going to do next ? She wanted to

see. Her eyes followed every movement he

made about the room. She knew that he was

aware of this scrutiny, that he expected it, did

not resent it. She was sorry now that he was

going out; everything would seem very flat

and lifeless when he was gone. He looked up,

caught her eyes, and smiled. She did not

attempt to turn away.

" Go upstairs to your rooms," he said. " Mrs.

Ashlott will bring you your supper. You will

do alright."

Obediently she went towards the door, he

opened it to let her out, closing it behind her

with the click of a concealed lock. She went

upstairs. As she turned at the half landing she

saw that he was still looking after her, his eyes

THE DEMON LOVER 31

sparkling with some secret satisfaction. Dully

she wondered what it might be, but her mind

for the moment seemed at a standstill and

refused its service. She went up to her room

and flinging herself upon the bed, fell into a

deep sleep from which she was only awakened

by the appearance of Mrs. Ashlott with her

supper tray two hours later.

She did not feel hungry, but made some

pretence of eating her supper for the sake of

Mrs. Ashlott. Then, the meal dispatched, she

sat on the window seat, watching the setting

sun. All her uneasiness was gone; she was

placid, contented, non-thinking. She gazed at

the great red globe, shorn of its power by the

thick London atmosphere, with a face as

expressionless as its own. Slowly it sank. Its

rim touched the horizon. Gradually it disappeared.

With its going a change occurred.

The room felt suddenly cold, close August night

though it was. Veronica sat up, and pulled

herself together with a little shiver. What was

it ? What was the matter ? Then with a

rush the horror of Lucas's eyes returned to her.

She sprang to her feet. What house was this

that she was in ? The Ashlotts, Lucas, the

mysterious ' gentlemen' ? Who and what were

they all ? And she--was she trapped ? Did

Lucas not intend to let her out ? and if so, what

did he mean to do with her ? What was his

motive ? Was it all real or was it a nightmare ?

One thing was quite clear, she would not stop

another second in this awful place, she must get

out of it at all costs. Nothing mattered compared

to that.

32 THE DEMON LOVER

She put on her hat, and caught up her purse.

Her things did not matter, she could send for those later. Down the passage she sped on

tip-toe, her feet making no sound on the thick

dark carpet. But in an alcove was a settee, and

on the settee a man sat reading. It was Lucas.

" I thought you would," he said, without

looking up.

Veronica was desperate. For a moment she

stood poised, checked in mid-career, then she

sprang forward again. Lucas did not hear her,

the heavy carpet gave back no sound, and she

was a dozen feet down the passage before he

noticed her manoeuvre. She literally hurled

herself down the stairs, hardly touching the

steps with her feet, swung herself round the

bend by the banisters and was off down the next

flight. There was a thud behind her as Lucas

jumped the whole flight and landed in the

passage. Then she felt herself caught from

behind, and her elbows pinned to her sides.

She screamed shrilly, and a hand was clapped

over her mouth. Desperately she struggled till

the arm that encircled her shifted its grip and

clutched her into breathless immobility. Then

they remained motionless.

It was the first time that Veronica had had

closer contact with a man than the conventional

handshake, and her first sensation was utter

astonishment, his strength was so much greater

than she had expected. He was so surprisingly

hard too, as a sinewy forearm pinned her ruthlessly

against his chest; and he smelt of strong pipe

tobacco and shaving soap, strange, unfamiliar

unfeminine smells. Veronica was so taken up

THE DEMON LOVER 33

with her observations that she forgot to be

frightened till she felt Lucas shift his grip from

her breast to her waist, and with the breath half

crushed out of her, carry her downstairs and

drop her unceremoniously among the cushions

of the office sofa.

He stood back and inspected her, smoothing

his ruffled hair, breathless, laughing. Veronica

straightened her skirts and gathered together

the shreds of her dignity.

" I wish to leave," she said.

" Do you ? " said Lucas, tucking the ends of

his tie back into his waistcoat. I am afraid I

can't spare you."

" Why not ? "

" You happen to be useful to me."

" But you can get another secretary."

" I don't want a secretary."

" Then--then why did you engage me ? "

" You would not understand if I told you,

my dear child, so there is no use wasting time in

explanations."

He pulled down his waistcoat, shot forward

his cuffs, and adjusted his coat collar; then,

these preliminaries concluded, he gave Veronica

his undivided attention. For several seconds

they returned each other's gaze, then Lucas

reached forward a thin brown forefinger and

touched the soft round girlish throat.

" There is something round your neck," he said.

Up went Veronica's hand involuntarily.

" Look," he said, " it is a steel collar."

The image his words evoked flashed into her

mind, and as it did so, she felt cold hard metal

under her hand.

34 THE DEMON LOVER

(< There is a steel chain attached to it," the

man's soft level voice continued. " A slender

steel chain. Run your hand down it."

He took her hand in his and drew it towards

him, and she felt the links run through her fingers.

"And I hold the end of it," he added

significantly. " If you try to call out, or to tell

what I do not wish told, that collar will contract

till it strangles you. Feel, it is contracting

now."

Veronica felt something rigid grip her about

the throat. The pressure steadily increased.

She gasped and fought for air as the trachea

closed. Then Lucas touched her forehead.

(< It has relaxed now," he said, " but remember,

this will happen again if ever you try to give me

away."

Veronica drew in a great lungful of air and

rose to her feet. She was too perplexed to feel

frightened. Lucas was smiling at her pleasantly.

" Go to bed now," he said. " Sleep well,

pleasant dreams. Ten o'clock to-morrow

morning."

CHAPTER FIVE

VERONICA WENT TO HER ROOM, BUT SLEEP WAS

another matter. The events of the day had

been so strange that her bewilderment was

almost greater than her fear. If an event is far

enough removed from the normal, one doubts

the evidence of one's senses, the reliability of

one's memory ; retrospectively, it takes on the

appearance of phantasy rather than reality. To

Veronica it seemed that she must have imagined

the scuffle with Lucas--the extraordinary affair

of the collar and chain. What motive could he

possibly have in retaining a not very brilliant

shorthand-typist against her will ? He had not

attempted to make love to her, his touch had been

by no manner of means a caress, in fact he had

handled her as if she had been a recalcitrant

puppy. And that extraordinary phantom collar

and chain which appeared from nowhere at his

touch and vanished again at the word of

command ? They were the most tangible part

of the whole affair ; Veronica had a very distinct

remembrance of that strangulating pressure on

her throat; would that really occur if she tried

to break away from Lucas ? Would she feel

that awful tightening- -that inability to breathe--

if she attempted to appeal to others for help, to

tell that which he did not wish to be told ? If

so, then she were trapped indeed. And that

curious chain, what would happen if she tried to

run away ? Would it clank through the streets

at her heels ? And if so surely someone would

notice it.

Utterly bewildered, she sat on her bed staring

through the wide open window into the warm

3S

36 THE DEMON LOVER

summer night. It was too late to try the

experiment now, but she determined to arise at

daybreak and slip out before the household were

awake. Comforted by this thought Veronica

began to undress, and the events of the evening

retreated still further into the land of shadows

as the little everyday details of disrobing brought

her back to the workaday world where people

do not chase each other down the stairs or

ghostly chains materialize out of thin air. Then,

as she was about to put the light out, the sense

of reality returned with a rush--supposing what

he had said were true--supposing she were

bound by an invisible chain which would tighten

and strangle her if she disobeyed Lucas--why,

then, she was in his hands, body and soul. She

could not run away, she could not cry out, and

yet her bonds would be invisible, imperceptible

to anyone but herself, and no one would believe

her if she told them; and even if she tried to tell

them, Lucas's power would descend upon her,

choking, strangling her, and she would be fighting for the air that she was powerless to draw into

her lungs. She sat up in bed and with difficulty

restrained herself from shrieking aloud at the

horror of her invisible prison. She thought of

the lions on the Mappin Terraces, and

remembered her first impression of the house.

She was indeed in a cage, a cage whose bars

could not only prevent her egress but could cut

her on from God's good air at the will of her

master, and these bars were invisible. She

could not claim the help or sympathy of her

fellow beings. There, strangely enough, lay the

worst horror, in her isolation from the under-

THE DEMON LOVER 37

standing of her fellows; she was as much alone

in this world of men and women as if Lucas had

transferred her to another planet. She had a

notion that Ashlott might understand, but she

was quite sure he would not help ; but the

policeman at the corner, the superintendent of

the hostel, if she appealed to them for help

would think she was insane, and yet that collar

and chain were quite real enough to strangle

her. The problem was beyond her solution.

Despairingly she settled down upon the pillows

to wait for dawn.

Downstairs in the office Lucas was writing up

his diary. A green-shaded lamp cast a circle of

bright light on the desk and the rest of the room

was in darkness. The events of the day had

apparently been much to his liking, for a little

smile curled his lips as he wrote.

" Things came to a head this afternoon,"

the neat small writing, clear as print, advanced

along the lines of the book in front of him.

" Had to put the cards on the table sooner than

I expected, but found V.M. very suggestible

and got her well in hand, and do not anticipate

any difficulty in putting her into a trance. Think

she ought to do very well provided her body will

hold together, but her physique is frail and she

has been badly over-strained. Have told Mrs.

Ashlott to feed her up well. Mrs. A. thinks I

have a kind heart. V.M. tried to bolt. Chased

her down stairs and carried her into the office

where I suggested to her that I had put a collar

and chain on her. She took the suggestion very

well. Told her that the collar would strangle

her if she tried to talk, and she nearly choked ;

38 THE DEMON LOVER

very curious, same mechanism as asthma. Shall

have to be careful not to choke her altogether."

Lucas locked the book and put it away in his

private safe. Yes, he had every reason to be

satisfied with the day's work. He had backed

his clairvoyance to enable him to pick out a

potential psychic from the miscellaneous collection

of women the secretarial agencies had sent him

in response to his demand for a shorthand-typist,

and it looked as if he had picked a winner.

Veronica Mainwaring was certainly very sensitive,

the only question was, would she be strong

enough ? Trance work was a frightful strain,

it .always told heavily on the men who acted as

occult telephone when the lodges were communicating,

and they took the work in relays;

he couldn't keep a fleet of secretaries to relieve

one another, Veronica would have to do the lot.

She would probably last his time, however ; all

he wanted was the Words of Power; given

those, he would be independent. Yes, equipped

with the Words of Power and General Sawberry's

estate, life could have little more to offer Lucas.

Well, he had got hold of a very promising trance

medium and the General was ill again, so the caretaker

had told Ashlott; things certainly seemed

propitious; at any rate, he would have a look at

his horoscope and see what foreboded.

Like all who deal with the hidden side of

things, Lucas knew from experience the

influence of the macrocosm which is our universe,

upon the microcosm which is man, and he

would not, if it could be avoided, embark upon

an enterprise of such importance as the present

if the stars were unpropitious.

THE DEMON LOVER 39

<( True, a man can master his stars," he would

say " but why should I swim against the current

when, if I but wait a little while, the tide will be

with me ? " So he noted the set of the heavenly

tides and so ordered his course that they might

aid and not oppose.

What he found to-night was quite satisfactory.

Neptune, the occult planet, was well aspected

in his House of Fortune, reinforced by Mars,

the fighter; the only doubtful aspect was

Venus, much afflicted, and in the House of Death.

Lucas considered the chart carefully. " Ah,

well," he said finally, " one cannot have everything,

and anyway, Venus is not a lady who has

ever troubled me much." With which he too

went to bed.

Veronica did not think that the Ashlotts

would be stirring much before seven, but the

hostel would be awake well before that time,

for business girls have to rise early and be fed

before they go to their work. She set her alarm

for five o'clock, that would give her time to pack

her scanty belongings into the two suit cases

that constituted her luggage, and enable her to

slip round to the hostel before anybody in this

house was stirring. The superintendent had

been uneasy at the time she had accepted the

post, and would surely lend assistance, even if

Veronica judiciously suppressed the incident of

the collar and chain, which was likely to invalidate

her whole story, prime horror though it was.

The fact that Lucas had chased her downstairs

and forcibly prevented her from leaving the

house was quite sufficient.

She fell into an uneasy doze, between sleeping

40 THE DEMON LOVER

and waking, but whenever unconsciousness stole

over her she was snatched back by fear, and

wide awake, every nerve tingling, every muscle

taut, her whole soul stood upon the defensive.

It seemed but a little while before grey stole

into the sky, and as soon as it was light enough

to see, she arose and packed. It was before six

o'clock that she stole on tiptoe down the passage ;

there was no Lucas on the settee this time, as

she had almost expected to see him, and her

progress was unbarred.

She crept on and on with her heart in her

mouth; she knew the Ashlotts slept in the

basement, but she was not sure where Lucas's

room was. A pair of brown brogues outside a

door on the lower landing informed her, and she

went past hardly daring to breathe.

The hall was filled with the stale odours of a

shut-up house, but the great front door presented

no difficulties, its bolts were never shot, a spring

lock alone securing the house from intrusion, for

Mrs. Ashlott's ' gentlemen' came and went at

all hours of the twenty-four. It opened silently,

but Veronica did not dare to risk the click of

the lock should she shut it behind her. For a

moment she paused on the broad step, was that

strange chain going to tighten and strangle her ?

Nothing happened, however, and in another

moment she was speeding down the street--free I

In five minutes she was round at the hostel;

where the superintendent, clad in a wrapper but

wide awake, viewed her with surprise mingled

with disapproval.

" What brings you here at this time in the

morning ? " she demanded.

THE DEMON LOVER 41

Veronica was almost too breathless to reply,

and the superintendent, seeing that trouble was

afoot, drew her into the office out of the gaze

of an inquisitive charwoman. There, she turned

gimlet eyes upon the girl and awaited her

explanation. The world is very ready with

advice and warning to save the young and

innocent from getting into difficulties, but once

trouble has supervened it is a different matter,

and the world begins to think how best it can

avoid being involved.

" There has been," began Veronica awkwardly,

" a little unpleasantness where I have been

working. Mr. Lucas, the man I am working

for ... I think he forgot himself . . . we had

a scuffle ... I don't want to go back again.

Can I stop here ? Is my cubicle still empty ? "

" Your cubicle is not let yet," said the superintendent

somewhat ungraciously. " Yes, I

suppose you can stop here if you want to, so

long as there is no further trouble, but we don't

want any unpleasantness here. I will send the

porter round for your box. I thought at the

time you were very ill-advised to take that post."

She paused, eyeing Veronica inquisitively;

all women have a nose for a romance, even of the

sordid, kissed-typist kind that Veronica had

implied in her half-confession. " What is Mr.

Lucas like ? " she inquired finally.

" He is a very strange man," began Veronica

slowly, " the strangest I have ever met." Memory

called up a vision of Lucas before her eyes.

Smooth olive skin, sharp-cut nose, thin lipped,

firm of chin, with the uncanny greeny-brown

eyes. What would he do when he found she

42 THE DEMON LOVER

had got away ? She paused, oblivious of the

superintendent, arrested by the image that rose

so vividly before her eyes. But horror of horrors

--it was ceasing to be a memory-picture, it was

becoming alive, actual, capable of action! A

thin brown hand was being stretched out towards

her as it had been the night before, a voice

(surely the superintendent must hear it ?) was

saying : " There is a steel collar about your neck,

you will not be able to breathe if you say any more.

There is a steel chain attached to the collar, the

end of it is in my hand, you will have to come

back." Jerk. Veronica took two stumbling steps

towards the door. Another jerk at the chain,

and she took two more.

" Where are you going ? " demanded the

superintendent, staring at her suspiciously.

" I--I have changed my mind," said Veronica,

" I shall have to go back after all."

The superintendent snorted. " You need not

come here again if you do," she said, and shut

the door in the girl's face.

Veronica, on the doorstep, realized that her

sole refuge was now closed to her, she was more

in Lucas's hands than ever. She had lost her

purse in the scuffle on the stairs, and it only

contained a few shillings had she had it; there

was nothing for her to do, apart from the pressure

of the steel chain, but to go back to the house

in the square. So back she went.

Mrs. Ashlott was cleaning the steps when she

arrived, so she was spared the ordeal of ringing

the bell.

" Been for an early morning walk ? " asked

the good woman, a smile on her pleasant face.

THE DEMON LOVER 43

" I like to see young ladies who can get up early,

so few can nowadays, not like when I was a girl.

I will soon have your breakfast up, Miss, I expect

you are hungry."

Veronica was too near tears to answer her ;

she slipped past the bucket and crept upstairs.

Lucas's shoes still stood upon the mat, likewise

his shaving water. He was not one to earn

Mrs. Ashlott's encomiums for early rising.

Back in her room, Veronica flung herself on

her bed and fell into a dead sleep, from which

she was roused by the sounds of Mrs. Ashlott

laying the table in the next room.

Veronica ate her breakfast and reviewed the

situation. She was absolutely penniless; she

had estranged the superintendent of the hostel

by her inexplicable behaviour ; Lucas had her

more completely in his hands than ever, had that

been possible.

That good man, singing lustily to the accompaniment

of running bath-water, was feeling

very well content with life ; and indeed he had

no reason to be otherwise.

Veronica, awaiting his pleasure at ten o'clock,

was informed that she looked as if she had spent

a night on the tiles, and had better go for a walk

in Regent's Park and get freshened up.

" On a lead, of course," he added with a

mischievous smile. " But if you are good, as I

think you will be, you shall have a nice blue

bow on your collar, and how would you like a

bell ? Wouldn't you like a bell on your collar,

Miss Mainwaring ? "

Veronica beat a hasty retreat. One of the

horrors of Lucas's personality was the pleasant

44 THE DEMON LOVER

way in which he did unspeakable things; that,

and his eyes--his eyes when the pupils contracted

to pinpoints. Veronica had not had very much

experience of life. For her, villains were villains

and looked the part, and Lucas, though he was

dark, which is one of the principal qualifications

for villainship, did not look a villain. Neither

did he behave like one, except at the melodramatic

moment when he chased her downstairs, then

indeed, he had acted according to the best

Surrey-side tradition, but his subsequent

nonchalance had almost annulled the impression.

No, Lucas was not in the least malignant, but

he just didn't care. Therein lies the key to

much of the world's worst cruelty.

CHAPTER SIX

VERONICA RETURNED FROM HER WALK TO FIND

a message from Lucas awaiting her ; she was

to go and lie down and have a good sleep, as he

would be needing her that evening and wanted

her to be fresh. The second half of the message

was quite sufficient to render the first half impossible.

She went to her room, but not to sleep ;

instead, she tossed backwards and forwards on

her bed wondering what demands were about

to be made upon her.

Veronica was young in years, and young for

her years. From the time she left school till

the break-up of her home, she and her mother had

lived in a little cottage in a Surrey village. The

garden, the church, an occasional tea party with

women who led lives as limited as their own, had

not tended to broaden her outlook ; and until

her mother's death had let cataclysm in upon

their placid stagnation, the years had left Veronica

as they had found her.

Hers was naturally a sweet nature ; gentle,

because she had never had need of anything but

gentleness ; affectionate, because her mother and

she, having no one but each other, had been

compelled to make a little world for themselves.

She had been trained in the Christian virtues,

and had practised them as women in secluded

backwaters can practise them, but she had had

no training for life as it is lived beyond the confines

of their quiet village. She had come into

the world sweet and unspoiled as any daydreaming

male could have wished, and the world

had taken cruel advantage of her. She had not

been able to hold her own in the give-and-take

45

46 THE DEMON LOVER

of the commercial college ; girls who had learnt

the pressure of life and the struggle for existence

from council school and rough home life readily

ousted her from coveted seat in class and convenient

locker in cloakroom ; and in the hostel

she suffered inconvenience at the hands of her

neighbours without the strident protest that is

necessary to ensure a hearing.

Now, in Lucas's hands she was equally helpless.

She did not know what to do or where to turn ;

she did not even know whether this was life as it

was usually lived out in the workaday world, and

that protest on her part would be laughed to

scorn as ultra-refinement, as had so often

happened before. She had gone for help to the

superintendent of the hostel, and, to her surprise,

found that she herself seemed in some mysterious

way to be held responsible for Lucas's behaviour,

as if her own character had undergone deterioration

from the treatment which she had not been

strong enough to resist, and from which she

desired nothing so much as to escape. The

superintendent had, by some alchemy of the

mind, been made the recipient of the obedience

and confidence that the mother had previously

received ; and, though ready enough to accept

the obedience which had made Veronica an

amenable exception among her undisciplined

room-mates, she was not prepared to repay the

confidence of another woman's child. Why

should she ? She, too, had to live, and one has

troubles enough of one's own without taking on

other people's.

After her rebuff by the superintendent,

Veronica's resources were exhausted. It did not

THE DEMON LOVER 47

occur to her to appeal to her class mates, for she

had never made friends among them, and had

gained herself a reputation for (standoffishness,'

yet, had she done so, they would have rallied

round her like little fighting-cats for defence

against their common enemy, the employer, and

especially the male employer who had tried to

take advantage of a girl's helplessness; the

rough and ready homes would have stood open

to her, and male relations to the third and fourth

generation would have been invoked for her

assistance, only too pleased for a chance of attack

from so good a vantage point. But Veronica did not know this. She had never been taught

to weigh the words distorted by an accent,

and Brummagem jewellery could still hide from

her perception the qualities of pluck and

generosity. Most defenceless of all creatures, a

lady torn from her environment, she faced the

world alone. Helplessly conscious of her

pennilessness, not knowing where to turn for

help or to whom to go for advice, with no

one to enquire what became of her or whither

she went--Lucas could not have had a better

tool for his purpose. Plucky, but purposeless,

quick-brained, but inexperienced, the end was a

foregone conclusion; Veronica, theoretically the

ideal young English girl, would go under.

I

So she fretted upstairs in her blue and white

bedroom--the room that had looked so pleasant

after the hostel cubicle, and that now seemed like

a den where animals were kept before they are

slaughtered. She had not seen much of life, and

still less of men, but her quick intuitions enabled

her to read Lucas pretty accurately. His care

48 THE DEMON LOVER

for her was the care of the butcher for the beast

he is fattening ; his kindliness meant nothing,

Lucas had no feelings; she would have thrown

herself on the mercy of the nearest policeman,

but a strange inhibition had been planted in her

own inner nature. Lucas horrified her, but at

the same time fascinated her. She knew nothing

of the psychology of suggestion, or the subtle

reactions that sex makes under hypnosis ; these

things are not put in the text-books; all she

knew was that Lucas's power over her had an

element of fascination about it that she could not

explain even to herself.

As the time drew near for her to face Lucas,

she changed her tumbled jumper and skirt for a

little grey frock, a frock that had not seen the

light of day since the last tea party under the

tree in that Surrey garden. Wavy brown hair

was brushed and bound with a ribbon, and

though her eyes were heavy because she had

cried, she was a very different girl to the thin

and haggard creature who had first come to the

house.

At nine o'clock Lucas sent Ashlott up to fetch

her, and with her heart beating uncomfortably in

her throat, she followed him down the thickly-

carpeted stairs to the room, half office, half

study, where Lucas spent his days. There she

found him, smoking an after-dinner pipe, which

he waved cheerfully at her on her entry. He was

very wide awake and well pleased with life;

Veronica had already observed that he always

seemed to wake up towards evening, but to-night

he seemed extra wide awake. Silently she took

the seat he assigned to her in an enormous

THE DEMON LOVER 49

arm-chair which completely engulfed her small

person, and looked up at Lucas as he stobd before

her, nursing his pipe and studying her quizzically.

" Have you been a good child and had your

sleep ? " he demanded.

Veronica, in a very small voice, replied that

she had.

(< That's right. I have told Ashlott that we

are not to be disturbed, but we may as well lock

the door. No, you needn't look at me like

that, I am not going to murder you, but if anyone

wakes you up suddenly when you are in a trance

it gives you a nasty shock."

He walked across the room and turned the

key, then knocked the ashes out of his pipe and

put it away. Veronica, motionless, as if bound

to her chair, watched every movement he made

with that eerie fascination he always had for

her. His quick, silent step, his alert yet graceful

carriage, were unlike those of any man she had

ever seen before. Lucas was so very much

alive that he made every other being seem

devitalized, flat, and stale. The green eyes with

their strange gleams, the slender student's hands

with their long brown fingers, the crow-black

hair that he rubbed up on end when he was

puzzled, the neat, thin-lipped mouth that always

seemed to be enjoying some quiet joke at her

expense in which the eyes never joined--all these

gave the girl an intense and vivid sense of the

man's personality. Lucas, if it had not been for

his eyes, would have given the impression of

being a pleasant enough fellow, but there was

something wrong with the eyes; it was not the

brooding, in-looking gaze that characterizes the

50 THE DEMON LOVER

eyes of men trained in occult meditation, it was

a kind of detachment, as if he did not belong to

the order of beings that makes up our pleasant

human world ; from another planet, or another

evolution Lucas had come, and he had no ties

with us or our kind; our little affairs were

nothing to him. Whence he had come, thither he

would return, bearing with him such loot as he

could gather from our race, and he had no

intention of making Persephone's mistake and eating the pomegranate seeds, such as had

bound her to her dark lover. Therefore, it was

that Veronica, watching him, knew that she was

dealing with something that was not quite

human, and that appeals for human mercy would

have no meaning for him.

Lucas fidgeted about the room, apparently

waiting for the sunset, Veronica's eyes following

him. Then as the last light died, he came over

to Veronica. He dropped on one knee in front

of her, bringing his keen dark face on a level

with hers.

" Look straight into my eyes, Miss Main-

waring," he said.

Veronica, horrified but fascinated, looked as

bidden, and saw that the pupils were pulsating

with a strange inner light, as if Lucas's skull

contained, not brains, but a blazing fire that

shone out through the lens of the eyeballs. Once

she had met those eyes, she was powerless to

withdraw her own. The blaze grew brighter

and brighter, the man's face disappeared,

and she was gazing straight into the furnace of

which his form was but the screen. She seemed

to be passing through the flames into that which

THE DEMON LOVER 51

lav beyond. Then, suddenly, the ground went

from under her feet, and she plunged downwards

into illimitable blue-blackness; out between the

planets she seemed to fall into stellar space.

Then the curve of her course turned upwards as

a diver returns to the surface, the blue grew

lighter, it was the pale sapphire that precedes

the sunrise. Back she came through rosy dawn

clouds, and woke up in her chair.

Lucas stood before her in his shirt sleeves.

The twilight was still coming in through the

window, but the green student's lamp was

lighted.

" Well ? " he said, " safely back again. Not

so very bad, was it ? "

Except for the awful swoop into space,

Veronica could not honestly say that it had been

bad, and admitted as much.

Lucas heaved a sigh of relief, which ended in a

yawn;, stretched himself, and walked about the room as if to relieve cramped limbs. A little

cold wind blew in through the window and

stirred a great pile of manuscript in Lucas's

handwriting that lay upon the desk. Veronica

wondered where he had got it from, it had not

been there when she had closed her eyes a few

moments before. The cold air from without

made Lucas shiver, and he picked up his coat

that lay on the floor and slid himself into it.

The action made Veronica realize that she, too,

was cold, perishingly cold, as if with the chill of

outer space, and a convulsive shudder ran through

her. Lucas smiled as if he had been watching

for this to happen, and took up a small vacuum

flask that stood upon the desk. A curl of steam

52 THE DEMON LOVER

ascended into the air as he unscrewed the cover.

" Cold ? " he said. " You always are after a

trance. Have some hot coffee," and he poured

the contents of the flask into a cup that stood

ready to hand.

" If I had known that we were going to have

such a long seance," he said, " I would have had

a supply for myself as well. As it is, I will have

to be content with beer. I don't like to take

spirits after an outing of this kind. You drink

that off while I go and hunt up some beer."

Left alone, Veronica sipped her coffee,

wondering what the meaning of Lucas's behaviour

might be. She noticed that the light in the room

was getting brighter, though the student's lamp

on the desk was looking palid and unwholesome.

The brightening light was coming from the

window. A twitter and rustle from the ivy

announced that the sparrows were rousing;

Veronica, bewildered, wondered what could have

disturbed them at that hour of the night. Lucas

returned with his beer and switched off the lamp

on the desk, and Veronica saw that the room was

full of a cold grey light, twilight indeed, but the

growing, not the waning, twilight, and she

suddenly realized that in some peculiar way,

seven hours had vanished out of her life. She

had never lost consciousness; for some few

seconds she had swooped into space and then

returned, from a half to two minutes might have

elapsed in the process, but seven hours had

vanished out of her life, leaving no break to mark

their going. She had passed from the twilight

of night to the twilight of dawn, and what had

been done to her in that interval she would

THE DEMON LOVER 53

never know; the seven hours were gone beyond

recall, and could never be accounted for. There

was Lucas, looking very tired but quite ordinary

and matter of fact; there was that great pile of

manuscript, evidently written during those seven

hours, but of whose nature she was ignorant,

and there was the little cold dawn-wind coming

in at the window after the hot London night.

A fresh horror had been added to Veronica's

cup of life, the horror of that lost seven hours

and what might have occurred during that time.

She looked fixedly at Lucas, as if she would

drag the truth from him by the very intensity

of her gaze.

" What happened while I--was asleep ? "

" You went out."

(< Out. What do you mean ? "

(< Out of your body. Your soul went out of

your body. I pushed you out."

"But why. What for?"

<( Because I wanted to use your body as the

receiving-instrument of a wireless telephone.

When you are in your body, the impulses of

your mind control the vocal cords, and you

speak; but if you are out of your body, the

impulses of other people's minds can be made to

control your vocal cords, and they speak. Do

you know any German ? No ? Well, you have

been talking it fluently all night and told me a lot

of things I wanted to know. That is why you

are useful to me, little girl, and that is why I

want to keep you. You can go about and have

as good a time as you like, provided you do not

impair your sensitiveness, but you must not go

away." He came close up to her and gazed

54 THE DEMON LOVER

deeply and fixedly into her eyes. " You can go

just the length of your chain, but not further.

Understand ? "

Veronica received his explanation without

grasping its import. It was so much beyond the

sphere of her concepts that it conveyed very

little to her. She realized that Lucas made some

curious use of her, that he set a good deal of value

on her as an instrument, and that she would be

kept, as a domestic animal is kept, under the

best conditions, but for the uses of its master.

Horror and fear overcame her ; the whole transaction

was not human ; Lucas was not regarding

her as a human being, but as a tool or instrument;

the purposes for which he was using her were

not human purposes, motived by lust or greed,

but some ultra-human or infra-human aim,

altogether outside the scope of our earth-life.

What he was trying to do, she did not know, but

she was certain he was damaging her soul; in

spite of his pleasantness and agreeableness he was

hurting her in some way that was not physical,

but that was doing her infinitely more harm

than anything done to her body ever could have

done. She vvas afraid with a cold and deadly

fear, a fear not of the body, bur of the soul; a

fear, not of our earth, with its human wickedness,

but of outer space and the things that are not

human. Lucas himself was not quite human.

Sitting there on the office table, swinging his

legs and drinking beer out of a tea-cup, he

looked more than human, he looked positively

ordinary," but she knew that he was not. She

stared at him intently, trying to solve the riddle;

what was it about him that was not human ? It

THE DEMON LOVER 55

was his hands, his eyes, and, funnily enough, his

feet. Veronica could not make out why she

included his feet in her inventory, but she did.

Looking up, he met her gaze and smiled at

her over the tea-cup.

" Go to bed, Miss Mainwaring," he said.

I am not sleepy," she replied.

Of course, I forgot. You have had seven

hours double-distilled sleep. I am, though, if

you are not, so I will bid you good-night, or

good-morning, whichever you prefer."

CHAPTER SEVEN

VERONICA FOUND THAT, FROM THE MUNDANE

point of view, her life was an easy one. There

was no drudgery over typewriting or bookkeeping ;

all day she could do as she pleased,

read, sew, knit jumpers, walk in the park, go to

a cinema, anything, in fact, so long as she did

not over-tire herself, for that made Lucas very

cross indeed.

Three or four nights a week Ashlott would

bring a message to say that she was wanted in the

office, and then Lucas, gazing deeply into her

eyes, would push her soul out into space and use

her body for his own purposes. At dawn she

would return to the vacated tenement,

frightened, dazed, and utterly cold. Never again,

however, did she experience the complete loss of

memory that had occurred on the occasion of her

first trance. Shreds of consciousness carried over ;

sometimes she would be aware of faces that moped

and mowed at her as she swept on the downward

curve of her arc, and, like a frightened bird, she

would round the nadir and speed upwards to the

dawn clouds. Upon one terrible, never-to-be-

forgotten night, they had chased her through

inter-planetary space, and she had woken up,

long before her appointed time, shrieking with

terror, to find Lucas, half angry, half alarmed,

holding her down in her chair. She had told

him of the fiend faces and clawing hands that had

pursued her, but he merely shrugged his

shoulders and offered no comment or explanation,

though she noticed that it was some time before

he summoned her again.

She had been three weeks in that strange house, so

THE DEMON LOVER 57

and a sultry August had changed into a burning

September, when Lucas came to her with a key

in his hand.

" A pity I never thought of it before, but here

is the key of the Square gardens, you can go and

sit there in the evenings while I am away. I am

getting off for the week-end," he added.

A little later she saw him in motor-cycling kit,

and guessed that his holiday would be spent on

the open road. Wistfully she thought of clear

wind-swept spaces and fresh air. Bloomsbury,

never a very cheerful part of London, is the most

intolerable, cat-haunted vacancy in the summer.

Veronica went over to the Square gardens and

played ball with a languid child whose nurse

desired to read a novelette, and when the child

went in to its tea she fetched a book and sat

under the trees. The gardens were a godsend ;

though parched and faded, there was some

green left, and at any rate she was not between

four walls.

Meanwhile, Lucas, having cleared the London

traffic, was speeding North at a good pace. He,

too, was rejoicing in freedom from bricks and

mortar. It was a long while since he had had his

motor-cycle out ; the amount of time he was

spending over Veronica Mainwaring and the

results he was obtaining from her made it necessary

for him to employ the week-ends in catching up

with his regular work. But it was worth it,

such a medium was not to be met with every day.

Clear as a bell, the messages came through, and he was getting them co-ordinated ; bit by bit

he was piecing together the rituals of the higher

degrees of the great Fraternity to which he

58 THE DEMON LOVER

belonged. Lucas chuckled as he thought of what

his private safe contained.

He was sliding down the northern face of the

hills that guard London, city staleness left behind

and the trees thick overhead. The wind of his

speed sang in his ears, and his blood sang, too,

for he was a man, and young, and even his wholehearted

absorption in his occult studies had not

deprived him of his manhood. Sometimes he

wondered if it were worth it, this ascetic strictness

of discipline, this sacrifice of the things that

made life worth living for most men. Ahead of

him and behind him were other motor-cycles,

some with a sidecar attached, some with a girl on

the carrier. Lucas had never taken a girl on his

carrier; one of the brethren, perhaps, who

happened to be in a hurry, but a girl, never.

Women did not come into his life. The Order to

which he belonged did not admit them, and the

few women he had known in his journalistic

days had slipped out of his life when he joined

the Order.

He stopped for tea at a wayside inn. In the

bay window of the parlour a young fellow and a

flapper were eating eggs and watercress and

chaffing each other. Lucas was no hermit.

Unless his skin lied, there was Latin blood in

him, and his temperament had the quick liveliness

of the South. He watched the man and his girl,

and felt out of it. For the first time since he had

escaped from the turgid 'teens, he considered a

woman attentively. It might be rather amusing to

take a girl out. Of course, he had his work to

do, nothing could be allowed to interfere with

that, but why should he cut himself off from all

THE DEMON LOVER 59

the pleasant things of life ? He was no better

than General Sawberry, who was dedicated to a bath chair and a respirator. Why should he

work like a galley-slave to win power and independence

when by the time he had obtained

them he would be too old and too inured to his

solitude to be able to enjoy them ? Lucas

finished his tea thoughtfully ; a new idea had

been presented to him, and he was assessing it.

What would be the effect upon his life if he

admitted to it that neglected factor ? Trained

to absolute self-control by the great Fraternity

whose pupil and servant he was, he had had little

difficulty in banishing from his life women and

all the tangled problems they presented. Completely

possessed, body and soul, by his absorbing

studies, he had hardly missed them, or realized

how much his life deviated from the normal

till he had sat, a solitary observer, watching the

great game of man and woman being played

under his eyes. Perhaps if he had maintained his

almost monastic isolation in the old Bloomsbury

house, having speech with no woman save Mrs.

Ashlott, who, good soul though she was, was

not one to tempt virtue from the narrow way, his

humanity might have continued its slumber;

but into his seclusion he had introduced a disturbing

element. Veronica Mainwaring when

he first saw her, haggard, shabby and weary, had

not been, any more than the butler's good woman,

an object 'of allurement ; indeed, he had classed

them both together as the ordinary females of

everyday life, a different species to the wonder-

woman of novel and stage, and had regarded her

impersonally, looking upon her simply as an

60 THE DEMON LOVER

instrument to serve his ends, like typewriter and

telephone ; using her when required and putting

her by when her purpose was served. But

Veronica, unluckily for her, had not remained as

she was when she entered the big house in the

Square ; Lucas, in order to ensure her efficiency,

had had her fed and cared for, and the result had

shown on other planes than the psychic one.

The dull skin had cleared, the heavy eyes had

brightened, and the frail figure had filled out

surprisingly quickly. And with the return of

vitality a change had come in her spiritual

quality ; the life in her, which hitherto had had

all it could do to hold its own, to maintain its

slight tenement in face of the forces that assailed

it, now began to overflow in subtle vibrations

that Lucas, quick to sense an atmosphere, had

become aware of.

Veronica, who regarded Lucas as a bird regards

a cat, had exercised upon him none of the feminine

arts that come so readily to the least sophisticated

of women, but the pressure of the race behind her

had flowed out, and Lucas, who had so carefully

guarded himself from all calls of the race, found

the tide about his feet before he was aware of its

existence for him. That thing had befallen him

against which he had carefully guarded himself

all his life; he had formed a tie, some external

object had become necessary to his inner being,

the subtle barriers were down, and through the

breach, narrow as yet, the race-tides were

beginning to pour in.

Veronica's presence intensified his self-

consciousness, caused the pressure of his vitality

to rise ; life appeared in more vivid colours when

THE DEMON LOVER 61

she was present; she was a stimulus to him, and

deprived of her, the characteristic reaction of the

dram-drinker set in, and life felt stale, flat and

unprofitable.

All this was not present to the man's consciousness,

however, as he wheeled the heavy

cycle into the roadway and stood debating.

All he realized was that he was missing something

which appeared to be amusing, and was

wondering whether it was worth the trouble of

obtaining. Had he suspected the true nature of

his impulse, there would have been little hesitation

in his mind; he would have set his back to London

and sent the little machine ripping down the long

straight road. He, knowing what he did, dared

not risk the bursting of the dykes so carefully

built to hold his power within himself; but

Nature is an old and subtle woman, jealous of her

own way, and she did not reveal to him the meaning

of the call that sounded in his ears. It is not

her will that any of her children should break from

their allegiance ; in humankind she works with

the group as her unit, and it is not well that any

one individual should liberate himself from the

restraints of social life while still free to reap the

advantages of the social organization.

Occult power can be obtained in two ways,

by placing oneself in the van of evolution, where

force has not yet been confined in form but lies

loose, as it were, free to enter whatever channel

is opened to it ; or by retreating to the rear of

the race, where unabsorbed force is again available.

Lucas had chosen the latter path ; he, with all

the endowments of modern humanity, had

deliberately reverted to an earlier phase of

62 THE DEMON LOVER

evolution, to a time when space was void and

forms were being built, before the time when

Jehovah had made it plain to man that he was

his brother's keeper and accountable for him.

Lucas, the non-social, the solitary, and therefore

the free, had been drawn into the current

of evolution ; his race had captured him, he

who had set out to master his race and was well

on the road to accomplishment was a Samson

shorn of his locks ; his source of strength had

been his complete freedom from all sense of

obligation to his kind, and therefore from scruple

or remorse, which naturally placed him at a great

advantage in dealing with men who were subject

to both ; like an electric filament, the occulist

of the left-hand path can only glow in a moral

vacuum, and Lucas's soul was no longer Hermetically

sealed.

It was the beginning of the end, had he known

it, when he wheeled his cycle out into the road

with the handle-bars to the South, for a prince of

evil must become a slave of good, a slave beaten

with many rods, before he can win back to the

cross-roads where he turned to the left. Nature

had caught Lucas ; would he escape from her

in time to resume his own dark path, or would

he, swept by her ever-swiftening current, be

returned to the pit whence he had issued by

unnatural means, to start again the slow and

painful ascent, aeons behind the evolution of his

race, and suffering acutely because he would

retain his consciousness of better things ?

That day, for the first time since he had left

his boyhood behind him, Lucas had had a thought

that did not centre about his own ego--he had

THE DEMON LOVER 63

handed the key of the gardens to Veronica, and

thereby Nature had noosed him, for when a man says to evil, " Be thou my good," he can own no

divided allegiance, for his god is the most jealous

of all the gods, and his own human nature will

betray him should one thought stray from its

dark loyalty. It is only the very strong who

can hope to swim against the current of the

universe.

CHAPTER EIGHT

HE SUN HAD SET, AND THE GLOW OVER THE

T

London chimney pots was failing, but

Veronica still sat on in the shabby garden of the

Bloomsbury Square. She had not sat under a

tree since she had left the little Surrey village that

now seemed like some dim memory of another

existence. She was languid and apathetic ; the

air, stale and heavy, hung about her without

movement ; her mind was almost a blank, for

Lucas's operations had tended to slow her

mental processes, and, although a background of

fear still remained, she no longer planned escape.

She felt herself to be helpless, completely under

Lucas's control, and she had no thought of

defying her gaoler, but merely a dim hope that

his will might alleviate her lot, and that he

would not lay upon her burdens too great to

be borne.

She did not perceive a man who stood behind

the railings, watching her through the scanty privet

hedge that enclosed the gardens. Locked up

in her own thoughts, the London square had

faded, and she was back again on the Surrey hills.

Her old daydreams were rising before her mind

in little pictures; the Prince Charming, who had

never appeared, was evoked from his palace in

the clouds and set to his task of dragon-slaying

(the dragon being Lucas), and then she would

fly away, as with the wings of a dove, and be at

peace. No castle in the clouds did she construct

for herself, the Surrey hills were good enough

for her tired little soul; the rambler roses, the

pear trees, and the tall blue lupins of her little

garden, with the old servant, half nurse half

64

THE DEMON LOVER 65

housekeeper, to give her her tea, and the cat

purring on the rag mat before the kitchen hearth.

Meanwhile, the man watched her through the

railings.

She arose, gathered up her forgotten needlework,

and moved slowly over the deadened grass

towards the gate; the stale twilight had turned

to the hot airlessness of a city night, and the

arc-lamps at the corner of the square deprived

even the darkness of its relief. As she reached

the gate she became aware that she was looking

into a pair of eyes; to her, moving in a waking

dream, they seemed just eyes, independent of

any face in which they might be set, till a voice

broke upon her reverie.

" The gate is locked, you will have to unlock

it before you can get out." And she found

herself face to face with Lucas.

She returned to waking life with a shock.

For a while her dreams had enabled her to

escape from reality--to imagine that she still

lived in the Surrey cottage where the cat purred

and the kettle sang, and the pears ripened on the

wall, and that the strange life of the house in

the Bloomsbury Square was some fantasy she

had woven for her own amusement and from

which she could awake at will; but now, with

Lucas's strange eyes looking into hers, she plunged

into waking life as a swimmer plunges into deep

water, with a shock and a gasp, striking out

desperately to keep her head above the surface.

The search for the key gave her an excuse to

withdraw her eyes from Lucas's, a thing she

found difficult to do when once she had looked

into them, for she was always watching for the

66 THE DEMON LOVER

change to take place in the pupils, thankful for

every moment that they remained normal.

The rusty lock yielded reluctantly to her efforts

and she stood beside the man on the pavement.

They walked across the road without speaking.

Lucas seemed absorbed in thought, but the girl

had a notion that he was watching her covertly.

In unbroken silence he admitted her with his

latch key, and switched on the light in the

darkened hall. Without glancing at him she

made straight for the stairs, throwing him a little

nervous good-night over her shoulder, to which

he did not reply. As she turned to ascend the

second flight she saw that he was still watching

her, standing where she had left him, face and

clothes grey with the dust of the road. She

hastened her steps into the sheltering darkness of

the upper floors, thankful to escape from this

disturbing scrutiny. Why had he returned so

unexpectedly ? Why did he look at her in this

peculiar way, as if he had never seen her before ?

To neither question could she find an answer;

the uncertainty was not reassuring, and dawn

was grey before she fell into an uneasy

sleep.

She was finishing a belated breakfast on Sunday

morning when the door opened and Lucas

announced himself.

" I should recommend you," he said, " to

remove that muslin dress and put on something

ancient in the way of a skirt, also a hat that

won't blow off, and then, if you are a good girl,

I will take you for a little jaunt."

Veronica stared at him uncomprehendingly;

what new psychic experiment was this he

THE DEMON LOVER 67

contemplated ? He surveyed her with an amused

smile.

(< Don't you think we deserve a little holiday ? "

he said. <( Have you ever ridden on the pillion

of a motor-bike ? It's great fun, I can assure

you. I thought we would run down to Brighton

for lunch, listen to a concert or something, and

come back in the cool of the evening."

Veronica continued to stare at him without

reply, and the man's face darkened.

(< What do you imagine I intend to do with

you, cut your throat ? " he asked, sharply.

" Oh, no," replied Veronica, " Ijust didn't

quite understand."

<( Well, you understand now, so go and get

your things on," he said, and turning on his heel,

left the room.

f.

He was oppressed by a sense that something

was not quite right. This was not the way in

which the little expedition should have started;

and when Veronica, leaden-footed, reluctant,

descended the stairs ten minutes later, his

oppression deepened. In unbroken silence she

perched herself upon the carrier according to his

instructions, but twice she had to be told to

grip the leather belt that encircled his waist.

" If you don't hold on, you'll fall off round the

first corner," he said angrily, starting the machine

off with a jerk that enforced his commands.

Veronica clutched him frantically and shut her

eyes as they shot into the traffic of the main

road ; she opened them a moment later to find

herself staring straight into those of a woman on

an island in the middle of the street. The face

was familiar, but for a moment Veronica could

68 THE DEMON LOVER

not place it. Something in the disapproving stare,

however, carried her thoughts back to the training

school, and she remembered that it was the

registrar of the women's department who was

surveying her so censoriously. She was an

intimate friend of the superintendent of the

hostel, and Veronica had little doubt that her

own adventures had been a subject of discussion

when the two cronies met. She shrugged her

shoulders. Whatever happened to her now, she

stood self-condemned ; according to the ethics

of the school, no girl should enter into even the

mildest of social relations with a male employer ;

if she did, then she had no one but herself to

thank if trouble followed, and need expect no

sympathy ; and here was Veronica, after already

having had trouble with Lucas, clutching him

round the waist and careering off for a day

in the country with him. The training school

employment bureau was closed to her, there was

no mistaking the look in the registrar's eye;

undoubtedly the stars in their courses were

fighting for Lucas.

Veronica relaxed her grasp on the leather strap

and sat inertly on the carrier, holding on by

nothing.

" For God's sake, hang on. You'll break your

neck if you don't," exclaimed Lucas, angrily.

(< I don't care if I do," replied Veronica, " in

fact, I think I'd like to."

He reached back and caught her limp hand in

his, and placed it on his belt again.

" We shall both break our necks if you don't

take care," he said, and sent the machine

forward once more.

THE DEMON LOVER 69

The silence was unbroken till they had topped

the first of the ridges that guard London to the

south, and were racing down the long slope to

the valley.

<( How do you like it ? " he called back over his

shoulder to the girl behind him, but she, the

wind of their speed singing in her ears, did not

hear him. He, however, thought her silence

was deliberate, and sent the machine flying

down the. slope, brakes off, exhaust roaring, as

if he meant to drive the pair of them to eternity.

At the bottom he stopped the machine, slipped

out of the saddle, and stood in the roadway

facing Veronica, his eyes blazing.

<l Is this the way you mean to behave ? " he

said.

Veronica stared back at him. This was a

different Lucas to the one she had encountered

before, and one that she was not in the least

afraid of. This one was human.

" I don't know what you mean," she said.

" I mean--are you going to sulk all day ? "

Veronica looked up at the branches that met

over their heads, and at the blue sky beyond them.

She had no hope, her last refuge was gone, and,

strangely enough, her fear was gone with it.

<( I don't care what you do," she said. <( You

can do anything you like, and if you killed me,

I shouldn't mind."

" Do you dislike me ? "

Yes."

Why ? "

" Because of what you do to me. I can't put

it into words, but you know quite well what I

mean."

70 THE DEMON LOVER

What do I do to you ? "

" I don't know. I don't know what you do to

me, but it is all wrong, you have no right to do

what you are doing. I know that much, anyway."

" Ah, so you are one of those people who hold

that it is unlawful to break a superficies ? "

** I don't know what you mean, but I know that

what you are doing is wrong.11'

" But you don't know why I am doing it."

She looked at him in surprise, the tone was one

she, had never heard him use before.

Listen, Veronica, I am after a big thing, so

big you couldn't understand it; it means everything

to me, and this is the only way in which I

can do it. Stand by me, see it through, and I

swear you shall never regret it. Be a pal,

Veronica."

This was indeed a reversal of their positions.

Lucas the aloof, Lucas the autocrat, pleading

for something that it was in her power to give

or withhold I Why did her mind work so slowly ?

She could not reply to him.

Then the man spoke again. (< Listen, and I will

tell you what I am after. I am after knowledge,

Veronica. Knowledge that I can alter the

world with. If I get that knowledge, I should

be able to make the nations put aside their

armaments, I could make the legislatures put

through social reforms, I could do all these

things, I have already done bits of them--and

the fools who hold this knowledge make no use

of it and they won't let me, who am entitled to

it--who could make use of it--have it. That

is why I am stealing it, Veronica, because I can

make use of it, and they can't."

THE DEMON LOVER 71

" I don't know what you are talking about,

Mr. Lucas," said Veronica, " and I don't know

what it is that you want, but I think they are

quite right not to let you have it. I wouldn't

trust you with anything."

Lucas gasped. His was at no time a personality

to be lightly set aside, and this attack, coming

from little Veronica who always crept about

like a mouse and seldom replied, even if directly

addressed, took his breath away.

<( What do you mean ? Why wouldn't you

trust me ? What have I done to you to make

you say that ? "

" I don't know what you are doing to me, but

you know; and I know it is harmful, and you

know it, too; but you think because I can't

say it in so many words exactly what it is you are

up to, that I don't suspect anything. I mayn't

know things, Mr. Lucas, but I can sense them.

I can almost smell them, and I know that you

are all wrong, right from the very beginning;

you don't only do wrong, you are wrong."

" What do you mean. How much do you

know ? "

" I don't know anything. I don't pretend to

know anything, but 1 feel things, and I feel that

you are not one of us."

" Many a true word spoken in ignorance.

And if I am not one of you, what may I

be?"

" I don't know what you may be. I only

know that you are different. If I said to any

other man (You are hurting me,' he would

stop, but if I said it to you, you would only say

'Don't make a noise.' You don't feel about

72 THE DEMON LOVER

things as we do. I think you are going a different

way."

Lucas looked out into the shadowy spaces of

the wood with unseeing eyes. There was a long

pause.

" Yes, that is just about it. I am going a

different way, and I'm damned lonely. I had

never realized it before. That is what has been

the matter all the time. There is not one solitary

human being who would understand what I am

driving at, whom I could talk things over with.

I am going absolutely alone. And even if one is

on the left-hand path, one likes companionship.

And by God, I'll have it! " He caught Veronica

by the arm. " You're coming, too, Veronica.

There are possibilities in you. Your nature is

so simple it is almost primitive. A very little

more, and you would turn feral. I'll push you

back to Pan. I'll put you on the Green Ray.

You with the pale nature-green, I with the

dark occult-green, we should have the complete

Green Ray between us. Veronica, will you

come ? It means power, it means life. Not the

cooped-up existence of civilization, but free,

big, as the pagans lived. Say you'll come,

Veronica I "

The man's face was alight, pupils distended

into pools of gleaming blackness, a flush under the

dark skin. Veronica looked back into those eyes,

and, as ever, their fascination drew her ; but now

there was no sense of horror, just a pouring forth

of power that quickened the life within her,

causing it to flow forth in response to him. As

he spoke, the green forest twilight seemed to be

rayed with gleams of gold; it was no longer a

THE DEMON LOVER 73

shadowed green, but a glowing green. A faint

airy piping, as of little pipes in the air, came to

her ears, half heard, half dreamed. Was it the

image aroused by the name of Pan that made her

think these things ? Something naked, non-

human, but alive as no human being ever is

alive, slipped from bush to bush behind her,

edging nearer and nearer; the little pipes

sounded clearer; a patter as of small, sharp

hoofs was upon the fallen leaves, and the light was shot through with green gleams like the fire

in an opal. Something was almost at her elbow,

and it was calling to her, calling, calling, and in

another minute she would have gone : following

it into the greenwood to come back nevermore,

for the fairies would have taken her. What was

that old story told by her nurse of the children

the fairies stole if their cradles were left

unguarded ? And that was why children had

to be christened, so that the fairies could not

steal them. But she had been christened, the

fairies could not steal her. What were these

little Pan-things plucking at her skirts ? They

were not her kind. She had nothing to do with

them. She had been christened. She had been

taught her prayers. She saw herself kneeling

on the rag mat in front of the kitchen fire saying

them to her old nurse. She remembered learning

her very first prayer, it began, <( Gentle Jesus,

meek and mild, Look upon a little child."

With a gasp, as of a swimmer returning to the

surface, Veronica found herself standing in the

middle of the road. There was hard road,

dusty road, under her feet, and above her head

Were trees, their first leaves falling with the

74 THE DEMON LOVER

drought. Before her stood a man, and his face

was a queer grey, and sweat stood out on his

forehead.

" Hold this," he said, and thrusting the heavy

cycle into her hands, he staggered across to the

bank at the side of the road, and dropped down

on it, hiding his face in his hands.

Veronica stood helplessly, holding the cumbersome

machine and marvelling what could have

happened to Lucas, he looked as if he had had a

bad shock of some sort. She herself felt singularly

steady, and her mind was clearer than it had

been for a long time. It seemed as if her faculties,

sinking into abeyance since Lucas had commenced

his work, had returned to her.

Presently he raised his head and looked at

her.

<( I didn't know you were under protection,"

he said. " It is the first time you have ever

shown any signs of it."

He rose, and somewhat unsteadily came across

and took the machine from her, fixing it upon

its stand.

" Come and sit down," he said, leading her

over to the grass at the road side. We will go

on presently."

For a long while they sat in silence, and then

Lucas said, without looking at her : (< Do you

know what it was you did to me ? "

Veronica shook her head.

<( No, you don't know anything, do you ? All

the same, I have got a pretty shrewd suspicion

that you know a good deal more than you know

you know."

Silence fell again between them.

THE DEMON LOVER 75

Then the man spoke once more, still never

looking at her.

(< I am going to tell you a story. There was a

xnan in Rome, ancient Rome, who, as a boy, had

lived at his uncle's villa outside the walls because

he was an orphan. He was affianced to his

cousin, a girl much younger than he; and,

although his life had a dark side to it, he always

returned to the villa outside the walls, for he

cared for that girl very much, more than she was

old enough to understand, for they married them

young in those days. He was a student of the

Mysteries, and one day he went away to Eleusis

to take his initiation, expecting that when he

came back they would be married. On his

return, he found that she had become a Christian,

and, taught by her new doctrines, considered

him a bad man, and would not marry him.

<( So the best thing in his life went out of it,

the thing that had been his sheet-anchor, and he

turned to the dark side of the Mysteries. He

said to Evil, be thou my good, and Evil took him

at his word."

Silence fell again. Veronica broke it this time.

" What became of her ? " she said.

" There were no nuns in those days, or she

would have become one, but she ministered to

the poor Christians and saved many souls. But

she didn't save his, she lost that. You owe me

a debt, Veronica."

CHAPTER N1NK

IT WAS SOME LITTLE WHILE BEFORE LUCAS WAS

sufficiently recovered to make a move, and

even then his nerve seemed to be shaken, for he

drove with much more caution than was his

wont. As it was, they arrived at Brighton later

than they had intended, and finished a belated

lunch only just in time for them to go on the

pier and find seats for the concert.

From where they sat they could see the

steamers on the horizon, all the busy shipping of

the English Channel, the most populous water-

highway in the world ; Lucas, hardly listening

to the music, watched the shadowy procession of

sea-power with unseeing eyes. The girl at his

side, as a physical entity, was forgotten, he conceived

of her only as a soul, voyaging through

time towards some goal of her own choosing, her

feet set upon a path from which he had failed to

deflect her. She was following the way of her

race ; a flock of sheep in a gully, was the simile

that always rose to his mind when he thought of

that well-worn path staked out by the creeds of

his countrymen ; foolish eyes fixed on the woolly

back just in front, and patient little hoofs

going patter, patter, patter over the rough

track that ended at the slaughter house. As for

him, he was a goat of Ishmael's flock, free upon

the mountains with his Dark Master. Yet,

when he sought to cut out his little chosen ewe-

lamb from the herd below, a great Crook had

struck him back.

What was this power that intervened ? He was

familiar enough with the punitive rays the Order

could employ upon occasion, but this was of a

76

THE DEMON LOVER 77

different type of force, it was unfamiliar to him.

It shook his nerve, making him feel uncertain of

his path, doubtful of his goal. He stole a glance

at the girl who sat beside him ; she had the soft

round face so common among English girls, but

there was upon it an expression that was not

common, the calm of absolute repose. The face

was still as is the face of one just aroused from

deep sleep ; the strained, haunted look that had

become habitual to her during the past weeks

was wiped out, and in its place was a great

peace; some power had passed and left its mark

upon her. He studied the face intently, trying

to divine its secret. Veronica, he knew, could

tell him nothing, however much he questioned

her, not because she would not, but because she

could not put her thoughts into words. She was

of the feeling type, not the reasoning type.

The man withdrew his eyes from her face and

re-pondered the problem. She was an ideal tool,

too good to be lost, but a* hitch had occurred in

the handling of her. Suddenly, at a time when

he believed her to be completely subject to his

will, there had come through her one of the

rushes of unseen force with which those who

traffic in occult things are familiar, and Lucas

had been knocked out as a boxer is knocked out

when hit on the solar plexus.

He knew quite well what that meant. Like

all students of the hidden side of things,

he was a believer in reincarnation, and he held

that each soul that aspires finds its way sooner

or later into one or other of the great occult

fraternities; then, life after life, it always

returns to the shadow of that fraternity, for "once

78 THE DEMON LOVER

an Initiate, always an Initiate," and just as he

could have availed himself of the power latent in

his Fraternity, so Veronica, in her moment of danger,

had found a force overshadowing her, and it

was a force with which he was unfamiliar. He cast

his mind backwards into the past, seeking some

clue that might enlighten him. Like all occultists

of a certain degree of initiation, he could

remember his past lives as other men remember

their childhood, dim and far away, but none the

less tangible; and though, like a child, he

might remember people whom he had met in

those far off days, he did not always recognize

them when they reappeared under their present

guise.

He cursed himself for not realizing that something

more than rational judgment must have

been at work when, out of a whole roomful of

women he chose one, and one only, for use in

his dangerous adventure; never deliberating,

never comparing, but unhesitatingly laying his

finger upon one and saying " Come."

He analysed his feelings of the past weeks.

Subtly but surely the girl had bound him to her.

That no conscious act of hers contributed to

the binding he readily conceded, but none the

less the bond had been forged. True, he had

made a collar and chain for her, but though the

collar might be about her neck, the staple of the

chain was in his own soul. He who was dedicated

to the Left-hand Path, who worked with the

forces of disruption and separateness, had become

drawn into the whirlpool of our common

humanity.

He had often lived over again in memory that

THE DEMON LOVER 79

Roman life of his: seen the white villa and

talked with the gentle girl who dwelt in it, and

passing from that life back along the chain of

memory, seen other lives where they, priest and

priestess, had borne their part in the mysteries

of many climes and ages, right back to the dim

dawn of knowledge in the sun-worship of ancient

Atlantis. Undoubtedly the bond had held age

after age, and such a bond as that is not a thing

to be ignored; the causes it had set going

would actuate events in the present life to an

extent undreamed of by the ordinary man; if

he could estimate those forces he would be

able to form a very fair idea of the conditions he

would have to cope with in working out this

problem, and he cursed himself again that his

knowledge had not enabled him to avoid involving

himself in such a Karmic tangle. Here he was,

half-way through a most critical and vital experiment,

and the forces of a forgotten Roman

summer had wakened to life again and threatened

to complicate the whole affair.

Lucas brought his mind forward, life by life,

from the remote past to the immediate present,

striving to see the course events had taken in

past lives so that he might be able to deduce

their tendency. He had not recognized in

Veronica the presence of the soul whose orbit

he had repeatedly touched in the past (and when

an occultist says " past " he means the past of an

evolution, not the past of an incarnation, which

he calls the present). That soul had had an

element of greatness in it, and there was nothing

big about Veronica, she was more of a child

than anything else. He found no clue to the

80 THE DEMON LOVER

problem till he came to the Roman incarnation,

whose images, rising vividly before his mind in

that moment of stress in the roadway, wiping

out the features of the present-day Veronica,

and superimposing themselves as successive

exposures are superimposed in a composite

photograph, had revealed to him that here was

another appearance of the reality that was so

intimately interwoven in his fate. Yet beside

him sat a mindless bit of pink-and-white whose

ears he could cheerfully have boxed, who bore

no trace of the greatness of the past, and yet who

had a hold upon him.

Lucas stirred impatiently in his chair. If she

had been the woman who had worked with him

in the past, what a different proposition it would

have been, but something had gone wrong in

that Roman incarnation to which he had not

go the clue, and he was baffled.

He touched Veronica's arm.

" If you have heard enough music, we will

have tea and start for home."

She acquiesced, passive and unresponsive as

ever, and they, or rather he, for she took no part

in the quest, sought out a tea-shop where food

might be obtained. She irritated him beyond

measure when she was in this mood. He felt

like a man who has ill-treated his dog in private,

and then, when he takes it out, finds that the

creature's habitual cringing tells the secret to

all men. To attempt to bully Veronica into

better behaviour would only make her lie down

completely ; to cheer her was impossible.

But Veronica's mind was not as passive as he

credited it with being. She was brooding deeply

THE DEMON LOVER 81

over the happenings in the roadway. The story

he had told her, trite enough in its way, had

made a deep impression, and the images it

evoked rose persistently before her mind. She

could see the white villa, the sub-tropical gardens,

the oxen at the well-wheel, and the slaves who

tilled the vine terraces, with the clear, vivid

detail that she could see the Surrey cottage. Of

course the girl refused her lover, what else could

she have done ? Their lives were going different

ways, they could not walk together. But she

had not forgotten him, Veronica was certain of

that; no, she had remembered the dark patrician

Roman as she worked among the outcasts of the

city, separated from him by less than a mile, as

men count space, but each facing a different

way so that they never saw each other.

Had she been right to escape temptation by

avoiding him ? The whole temperament of that

age was for those who sought righteousness to

leave a too sinful world and its contamination,

but might not the world, unleavened by their presence, incline to greater and greater extremes

of evil ? For the first time in her life, Veronica

was thinking rather than feeling, and the

unaccustomed experience gave her a sensation of

bewilderment. She turned to Lucas, feeling

that she needed the steadying of his matter-of-

fact demeanour, and found the man's eyes fixed

on her face. Spontaneously, unreflectively, she

asked the question fermenting in her mind.

t( What was his name ? "

And the answer came equally spontaneously,

as if but a moment before the subject had been

under discussion.

82 THE DEMON LOVER

" Justinian. He was called after the general

his father served."

" And hers ? "

<( Veronica, the same as yours. (Damn fool

that I was not to spot it)," he added, under his

breath.

" What became of them--afterwards ? "

" He studied with some of the greatest black

magicians of the age, and when his body was

worn out, and it wore out pretty quickly, he

took another, and went on studying. Later, he

had an incarnation at Avignon during the great

days of witchcraft, and was burnt in the market

place there, together with a number of others."

" Was that while she was a nun ? "

" How do you know she was a nun ? "

" You said so, didn't you ? "

" I never said anything about it. I lost her

trail after I parted from her in the garden."

" I'm sorry. I got the idea she became a

nun. But what happened to him ? "

" He was burnt for witchcraft, I told you that."

He was watching her closely.

" But after ? "

" How do you know there was any after ? The

man was dead."

Veronica looked puzzled. She had felt so sure

that the tale was not ended, for the moment she

had forgotten that death ends everything, and

Lucas, having learnt what he wanted to know,

skilfully directed her attention to other subjects.

CHAPTER TEN

FROM THAT DAY THE RELATIONS BETWEEN THE

man and the girl changed profoundly. For

neither of them did the old forces waken as yet,

but they stirred in their sleep. The girl found

herself intuitively understanding the aims and

motives of the man who had appeared so incomprehensible

to her, and though her antagonism

was in no way lessened, she had, to a very great

extent, lost her fear of him, and the sympathy,

born of understanding, was, unperceived by

herself, dawning faintly in the background of

her mind.

For his part, the man watched events with

apprehension. Old causes, he knew, were

actuating from the past, but as to when and how

they might come into operation, of that he was

ignorant; and he was engaged in a piece of work

that would not permit of disturbance, either

he must push through his investigations and

finish with the trance-work before the Karma

began to operate, or heaven knows what complications

might not be introduced into the

affair. Moreover, he was still completely ignorant

as to the nature of the power that had intervened

in the roadway upon Veronica's behalf. Why

had it never made itself felt before when he sent

Veronica out upon her deadly work ? When

would it elect to interfere again ? Now that

she had picked up its trail, would it always

be present ? These were all questions he

was powerless to answer until they should

answer themselves, and then it might be too

late.

He determined, therefore, to push on with the

83

84 THE DEMON LOVER

trance-work, and four nights in succession sent

Veronica out upon her astral journeyings. He

had never risked working her so hard before, but

he dared not delay now that the Karma had

begun to stir. Out she had to go, and if she

failed to return one night, then so much the

better, he would be free from the old problems

for the rest of this incarnation, at any rate.

The continuous trance-work was not without

its effect upon the girl itself. The strange world

into which she passed when she crossed the

threshold of consciousness was becoming familiar

to her, and its memories were beginning to link

on to normal consciousness.

Never again, after the experience in the roadway,

did she go out in terror and dread, for she

knew that, just beyond the portal, a Presence

would meet her and remain at her side till she

returned. Of the nature of that Presence she

had little conception, but her attitude towards

It, inspired, no doubt, by a sense of Its personality,

was that of a child towards a formidable but

well-loved teacher.

Whereas her first expedition into the realm of

the unseen had remained an utter blank in

memory, her later expeditions had become

increasingly tangible. Memory, at first a thing

of shreds and patches, had begun to piece itself

together until the pattern of the experience

became visible. She was aware that she heard

great rituals being enacted, but rituals that

differed vastly from her previous concept of such

things, based as it was upon church services,

for there one person performed the ritual for the

benefit of the congregation, but in these the

THE DEMON LOVER 85

congregation performed the ritual for the benefit

of one person.

Though each expedition differed from another,

there was a certain system which seemed to prevail

in all of them. First, after voyaging through

blue-black space, she would perceive a glow of

light dawning in the distance, and her soul,

apparently set for that point of the compass as

the steering-machinery of a torpedo is set, would

draw steadily nearer to it. Then she would

perceive that the light proceeded from some sort

of an enclosure that was guarded by a

barrier, but a barrier such as she had never seen

upon earth, for this wall was not stationary, but

revolving, resembling nothing so much as a band- saw, and reflecting gleams of light from its

swiftly-moving surface. Nothing, she felt, could

have projected her soul through that whirling

circle, but a great, though oftentimes very

spasmodic force was exerted beneath her, and

with a levering motion she was lifted up and

over the barrier and dropped down upon the

inner side. There, as in a dream, she found

herself floating; voices, faint and far away,

sounded in her ears; pictures, small and as if

seen through badly-focussed opera glasses, crossed

her vision; and then a curious thing happened.

It seemed as if a tenuous silver thread connected

her soul with the body left behind under Lucas's

care, and down this thread the impressions

received by her soul were transmitted to the

mindless brain at the other end and acted out

under its direction. The words she heard

stimulated a reflective activity in the vocal

cords of the distant throat, and the actions of

86 THE DEMON LOVER

the prime mover in the ceremonial were repeated

by the vacated body. And all this while,

consciousness in abeyance, she lay back, as if in

deep blue water, and observed, a disinterested

spectator, that which her soul perceived and

transmitted to her brain. It seemed as if while

her body alone, bereft of sensation, or volition,

remained with Lucas, her senses alone, bereft of

emotion, entered the enclosure ; but herself, her

consciousness, all that was she, was diffused where

there was neither time nor space, impinging

upon both body and senses, but coalescing with

neither.

But a change had begun to come over the spirit

of her dream; experience had rendered the

hidden side of things less unfamiliar to her, and

since the event in the roadway and the coming

of the Presence, she had become increasingly

self-reliant when out of hei body ; she was no

longer a leaf blown by the winds of space, but

was fast developing powers of flight of her own,

and a natural curiosity led her to concentrate

more and more upon the strange scenes that

were enacted before her, so that, as time went on,

more and more of her personality began to

follow her simulacrum in its scramble over the

barrier, till finally, upon the fifth night of

consecutive trance, the dream-scene suddenly

grew real and materialized before her eyes and

she found herself standing upon a broad flagged

pavement with cowled figures seated all round

her, and her eyes looking straight into those of

one who sat upon a raised dais behind an altar.

For a long moment they stared into each other's

eyes, mutually staggered by the encounter, and

THE DEMON LOVER 87

then, rising from his seat, the cowled figure

pointed a finger at her and a strangely vibrant Word rang out across the rhythms of the ritual.

Instantly there was a crash as of a thousand

earthquakes; lightning, tempest and thunder

seemed let loose, with herself as the focus of

their force. What appeared to be a black tidal

wave caught her up and swept her away as a

rtraw in floodtime. Gasping, drowning in the

darkness, she turned her mind rather than her

eyes in search of the Presence that had moved at

her elbow, and instantly, as she did so, she felt

herself gripped, lifted, and drawn out of the

maelstrom and landed upon the bank of the

flood, with a voice that boomed in her ears

saying:

" Return, my daughter, and We will close the

gates behind thee. Seek not to come forth again

unless We summon thee."

Down and down her soul sped in its dive from

the heights, and with a crash and a gasp she shot

into her body in full consciousness; behind her,

something that was halfway between a guillotine

and a portcullis came down with a crash, and she

felt rather than saw a great Hand mark it with

the Sign of the Cross.

She was flat on her back on the floor, Lucas

kneeling on her chest and gripping both her

wrists,

" My God," he said, " What strength you've

got! I thought I should never have been able

to hold you. What happened ? "

Veronica examined her bruised wrists and,

collecting her scattered wits, told him as well as

she could remember, all that had occurred. As

88 THE DEMON LOVER

she did so, she saw his face turn ashy

grey.

" Do you think the man you saw would be

likely to remember your face ? "

" He stared at me hard enough," said Veronica.

" Then you must clear out of here right away

and we must chance the Ashlotts gossiping."

He paused, and then continued as if speaking

to himself.

" Now what in the world am I to do with her ?

Can't let her go altogether, no, can't possibly do

that." Pause. " I know, the general's fishing

box. Put her there. Caretaker look after her.

Deaf as a post. Do as she's told and ask no

questions. She knows I act for him. Keep

quiet if I pay her. What time is it ? Quarter

past twelve. No trains to-night. Sunday

to-morrow, damn it; no trains then to that

God-forsaken spot. I'll have to take her down

by road. Hundred and twenty miles. Council

meeting to-morrow at ten; daren't miss it.

Two hundred and forty there and back. Can I

do it ? Got to." Then he seemed to wake up.

He went over to a cupboard in the corner and

raking about on its lower shelf, drew out a dust-

covered haversack.

" Here, Veronica, you can take as much as you

can stuff into this. Get your nightgown, hair

brush, and washing-tackle, enough to keep you

going for a day or two. I'll send your things on

after you. Now hustle."

" But Mr. Lucas, what do you mean ? What

are you going to do with me ? "

" Don't ask questions, hurry," and taking her

by the shoulders, he almost flung her out of the

THE DEMON LOVER 89

room. " Put on your warmest coat," he called

after her.

Infected by his haste, she was not many

minutes in carrying out his commands, but he

had already changed into his motor-cycling

overalls and was standing in the hall impatiently

awaiting her descent.

(< Is that the thickest thing you've got ? " he

exclaimed at sight of the thin little wrap that had

to serve her needs. " Here, take this," and

catching up an old trench coat that always hung

upon the hall stand, he thrust her into it,

buttoning and buckling it about her as one

dresses a child. It was dirty as only a man's

macintosh is allowed to get dirty, and reeked

of the strong pipe tobacco he always smoked,

and Veronica, cased from heel to eyes in its

stiff folds, felt as if, in some strange way, the

man's personality enwrapped her.

Silently, as was her wont, she followed Lucas

out of the door into the close London night,

the coat heavy upon her shoulders. They walked

quickly, Veronica half smothered by its weight,

till they came to the mews where he kept his

motor cycle. He unlocked a clumsy door and

got the machine out. The roar of its starting

woke the echoes and he cursed it savagely, then,

bidding Veronica mount behind him, he sent

the machine shooting out of the yard almost

before she had got her balance. Through the

wide emptiness of the night streets they flew,

and in an incredibly short time Veronica felt

fresh air in her face and saw the loom of Harrow

on its hill upon her left.

The wind blew fresh as they cleared the

90 THE DEMON LOVER

brick-ridden city, and when they got into the

hills it cut like a knife. Never, till her dying

day would Veronica forget that ride. Lucas

had got to do two hundred and forty miles in

a little over ten hours, and he wanted to get a

rest and a meal between the journeys, for it

would not do to come into the council meeting

dead beat and occasion questions, so he meant

to average thirty miles an hour, and in order to

do this, he drove the machine " all out " whenever

the road permitted, climbing well up into

the forties when the grades were in his favour.

Veronica clung like an infant monkey to its

parent hurtling through the tree tops, and

Lucas set his jaw and prayed that his luck would

hold, for he could not have pulled up within

the range of his headlight should any obstacle

bar the way.

On and on they went, the open exhaust

roaring at Veronica's ankles and the inequalities

of the road jarring the very soul out of her.

Presently the darkness began to thin, the loom

of objects showed up at greater and greater

distance, and Lucas switched off the headlight,

driving through a ghostly twilight that had

something strangely unwholesome about it.

The risen sun found them upon the top of a

hill with a mist-blanketed valley lying below

them. For the first time since they had started

upon their wild ride, Lucas broke silence.

" That's Beckering," he said, as they slid down

through thick woods towards the bottom.

They passed through a straggling village, not

yet astir, and crossed a broad but shallow river

by a hump-backed bridge ; then, turning off

THE DEMON LOVER 91

down a rutted side road, they followed the

windings of the river bank for close upon a mile.

Thick, neglected woods closed in upon them,

and the uncared-for bank broke down into the

water in bays and headlands that endangered the

road. Little traffic could have passed along it,

for it soon degenerated into a mere cart track,

and the tires refused to grip the slimy weeds of

its surface.

Suddenly it broadened out, however, and a

pair of brick pillars holding up rusty iron gates

appeared upon their left; gates, pillars, everything,

in fact, upon this sinister river bank, was

covered with the same green slime. The gates

were secured by an enormous padlock, but Lucas

solved the problem of entry by riding straight

in at a spot where the single strand of wire that

flanked the gates had been lowered to the ground

by the rotting of a post. It looked as if someone

had set out to build a mansion, and had either

run short of money or changed his mind.

They went up a broad drive completely

clothed in a green velvet of close-growing moss,

and Veronica was at last permitted to stretch

her cramped limbs while Lucas smote upon a

door whereon the ubiquitous green slime strove

to conceal the defects of peeling paint.

The bell-pull was too firmly rusted home to

permit of its ringing, and Lucas, after an assault

upon the knocker that echoed like a bombardment

through the silent house, leaving Veronica in the

company of the motor cycle, went pushing

through an overgrown shrubbery in search of

the back door, bent, as he said, upon disinterring

the caretaker. Disinter seemed the only word

92 THE DEMON LOVER

to apply to the process, no ordinary human

awakening would have sufficed.

At the end of close upon half an hour Veronica,

exhausted, frightened, and filled with a nameless

horror by her dank and mouldering surroundings,

heard sounds of movement approaching through

the silent house ; a great rattling of bolts followed,

and the opening door revealed Lucas's sharp-

cut and somewhat drawn features, with a hag-

like face peering over his shoulder.

The leathern racing helmet he wore, backed

by the marble pilasters of the porch, made Lucas

look exactly like an Egyptian priest, and the

huddled figure at his side seemed some strange

familiar he had invoked for his magical work.

A dingy crimson dressing-gown had been hastily

dragged on over an unbelievably dirty pink

flannelette nightgown, and around all a gorgeous

patchwork quilt was swathed, for the good dame

had been aroused from her slumbers by the simple

expedient of putting half a brick through her

bedroom window. What explanations Lucas had

shouted into her deaf ears will never be known,

but apparently the little wad of Treasury notes

clutched in her gnarled old hand was a satisfactory

reason for anything that might be required

of her.

She peered at Veronica through hanging elf-

locks of grey hair and, addressing her as " dearie,"

started a long rigmarole, apparently of apology

for the state of the house and garden, but so

toothless was she, that not one word could be

made out.

Lucas solved the problem of this address of

welcome by pushing her aside, and taking the

THE DEMON LOVER 93

now almost fainting girl by the arm, he led

her into the house.

" Come along," he said, " There is one decent

room in this mausoleum, anyway. We will have

a fire put in it and the place will soon look more

cheerful."

He led the shrinking girl down a long passage

to what had apparently been a billiard room,

though the table was gone. Rugs covered the

polished floor, low bookcases stood round the walls

from the tops of which enormous fish goggled at

the intruders in their varnished dignity. Guns

stood in a rack at one end, and a litter of fishing

tackle filled all four corners.

Lucas dropped Veronica into one of the great

leather armchairs and went to open the shutters,

letting in a flood of early morning sunshine, and

when the hag, who, for all her years, moved with

a mouselike quickness, returned with a bundle of

brushwood and kindled a fire upon the great

open hearth, the place looked far from unprepossessing.

An oval mahogany table inlaid

according to Victorian taste stood in the window,

and Lucas and the hag between them carried

it over to the fire. In a marvellously short space

of time bacon and eggs and tea appeared upon

it, and the two travellers who since their entry

into this dismal house had hardly addressed each

other, set to work upon their welcome meal.

Nothing but the commonplaces of the table

Passed between them till Lucas lit his after-

breakfast pipe.

" Listen to me, Veronica," he said. " That

m, if you can keep your eyes open, and you had

better keep them open until I have told you

94 THE DEMON LOVER

what I have to say, because it is very important.

We are in a very tight hole, both of us, at the

present moment. The trouble may blow over.

On the other hand, it may not, and then we shall

have to look out for squalls. I shall know pretty

soon. All you have got to do is to stop here and

keep absolutely quiet. You can't talk to this old

dame, whatever her name is, because you can't

make her hear, and you mustn't try to talk to

anyone else. Don't communicate with your

friends, either, especially the Ashlotts, this is

most important, because your only chance of

safety is for no one to know of your existence.

Understand this, Veronica, we are in grave danger,

very grave danger, both of us."

Veronica had only to look at his strained face

to know that he spoke the truth, or at least what

he believed to be the truth, but she did not feel

alarmed. Horror she might feel of the house

and the whole situation, but she felt no anxiety

for her personal safety. Her companion, however,

seemed to take a different view of the matter.

Lucas, glancing at his watch every other

minute, allowed himself half an hour's rest, and

then he announced that he must set forth upon

his return journey. He heaved himself out of

his chair and stood looking at Veronica as if he

expected some move upon her part. She, however, stared vaguely back at him as usual, not

knowing what was expected of her by this

unaccountable being.

Aren't you coming to see me off ? " he said.

She rose obediently, and followed him, dog-

like as usual, across the tiled hall to the front

door. In the porch he paused, and looked

THE DEMON LOVER 95

steadfastly at the girl beside him. Then he

suddenly caught her and drew her to him.

Veronica," he said, " you've got no one to

look to but me, and I've got no one but you ;

we have got to stick together. Say you'll stand

by me, Veronica ? "

Veronica's soft little heart was easily touched.

She only saw the man's face, strained, tired and

anxious, close to hers; everything that had gone

before was forgotten, it was a different Lucas,

changed and softened, who stood before her now.

Almost involuntarily she smiled back at him.

It was the first time Lucas had ever seen her

smile, and so completely did it change her face

that he hardly knew her for the same girl; his

arms tightened about her, and before he knew

what he was doing, he had kissed her on her lips.

Who can say what magic passes from lip to

Up ? The man's face changed even more than

the girl's had done. Many thoughts chased

each other through his mind, if his changing eyes

were any clue to them. Then, reluctantly, he released her and turned away. Half in the

saddle of his cycle, and half out of it, he paused,

and looked at Veronica again; then suddenly

he leant towards her.

S,

" I shall come back again," he said. (< I shall

come back again, dear, whether or no. Wait

for me, Veronica."

CHAPTER ELEVEN

SoUNDS IN THE HALL OF THE BIG HOUSE IN

s

' the Bloomsbury square showed that the members

of the council were assembling for their

meeting. The butler, who was also a lay brother,

was admitting them, and one by one they passed

down the long tiled passage to the room built

out at the back, which was designed for a billiard

room but was now the lodge of an occult

fraternity.

In the office the secretary of that society was

gathering together the papers that concerned

the business about to be transacted. A close

observer might have noticed that the lines of

the man's dark face had deepened, adding some

ten years to his apparent age, and that his eyes

appeared to be deep sunk in his head and heavy-

lidded ; save for that, and some dust-covered

motoring clothes, rolled hastily into a bundle

and thrown into the corner there was nothing

to show that he had travelled over two hundred

miles during the night.

His papers made ready, he paused, and

unlocking a cupboard that stood upon the safe,

he poured himself out the best part of half a

tumblerful of whisky and swallowed down the

raw spirit without water. By the time he had

walked down the passage that led to the billiard

room the lines also had gone from his face.

The members of the council had already

assembled, and the secretary's entrance was the

signal for them to take their places about the table

and proceed to the transaction of business. The

minutes of the preceding meeting were read and

signed, and the matters on the agenda proceeded

0

THE DEMON LOVER 97

as usual; then came the time when the chairman

said : Any other business ? " and looked from

face to face of the men surrounding the table.

Each responded with a shake of the head, and

the man at the foot of the table was permitting

his lungs to expand in a sigh of relief when the

chairman broke the silence.

" There is a matter, brethren, which I should

like to lay before you, and upon which I should

value your advice.

" Last night a ritual was being worked in -this

Lodge, the ritual of the Seventh Degree. I was

in the Chair. Suddenly I perceived a figure

materialize upon the floor of the lodge, several

of the other brethren perceived it also. By means

of a Word of Power I was able to banish it, and

we proceeded with the ritual, but it is a very

erious thing that any cowan should have been

able to pass through the seal set upon the room."

Grave faces received this announcement. Anyone

acquainted with occult work will know how

serious the matter was; for those to whom the

subject is unfamiliar it is enough to say that for

thousands of years the occult fraternities have

guarded their secrets, not only physically, but

mentally also by means of the mystic seals they

set upon their meeting places, and here was a

fraternity, one of the oldest and most powerful

in the western hemisphere, faced by the fact

that a stranger had succeeded in penetrating into

the working of one of their highest degrees.

The old man with the long white beard upon

the chairman's left spoke first.

Are you sure that it was a cowan ? I have

known it happen that a member of the Fraternity,

98 THE DEMON LOVER

taken over to the Other Side by sudden death,

had attended lodge from sheer habit, forgetting

that he was no longer in the body."

To an outsider, this might have sounded like

the maunderings of insanity, but to these men,

as accustomed to functioning out of the body

as in it, and to associate with dead and living

upon equal terms, there appeared nothing strange,

either in the statement that the dead had

returned, or that the distant had suddenly

materialized ; they were used to sitting in council

with men who had been dead for hundreds of

years or who were separated from them by the

breadth of a continent. The only thing that

puzzled them was, how the seal upon their

meeting place had been broken by one who was

not entitled to enter, and the chairman replied

in all seriousness, It could not have been a member

of the Fraternity, because it was a woman."

Lucas waited with suspended breath to learn

whether the intruder had been sufficiently clearly

materialized to be recognizable ; he dared not

ask any questions; the pupils of his eyes had

contracted to pinpoints and his face was set like

a mask.

The discussion turned this way and that for

some minutes, and the concensus of opinion

seemed to be that some outsider with considerable

occult knowledge had succeeded in breaking the

seal and effecting an entrance. Such a thing had

not happened since the sixteenth century, when

the Paris lodge had been similarly invaded, and

to this occurrence they turned for a precedent

that should guide them in their course of action.

The Fraternity had in its keeping the secret of

THE DEMON LOVER 99

the use of the Punitive Dark Rays of disintegration,

and these it was permitted to employ upon the

occasions, happily rare, when its secrets were in

danger of being revealed to the uninitiated. Not

that the brethren were blood-thirsty men, but

the secret knowledge entrusted to them was of

such power that its dissemination among those

unfit for such a supreme trust was a very serious

matter indeed, too serious to be trifled with ;

and when occult knowledge got into unworthy

hands, those who were responsible for its safe

custody were required to prevent effectually any

use or spread of such knowledge; if a man

chose to spy upon their secrets, then he must

take the consequences, for the knowledge was not

theirs to communicate at will, neither had they

the right to pardon a transgression. Some of the

brethren, having regard to the fact that the

transgressor was believed to be a woman, though

the chairman was not absolutely certain upon

this point, hesitated to cast their votes in favour

of action ; and though no one actually refused

to sanction the use of the Dark Ray upon this

occasion, two abstained from voting, so the

remaining five carried the decision.

Let it be realized, in judging the action of

these men, that they had a grave trust to fulfil

in safeguarding the knowledge placed in their

keeping, and that no one values human life more

cheaply than the occultist, for he holds the

belief in eternal life as a fact of his own personal

experience, not as a theory, based, at best, upon

the evidence of sacred writings. Some one had

learnt their secrets, and that person, must, at

all costs, be effectually silenced, only thus could

too THE DEMON LOVER

their trust be held to have been fulfilled.

Just such an occurrence as this Lucas had

foreseen when he determined to use an intermediary

to obtain the knowledge he desired.

He could have done what he employed Veronica

to do, but he made use of her for the purpose

of avoiding this precise risk. He himself

was perfectly safe; the brethren had no means

of associating the intruder with himself; she,

and she alone would be struck by the Dark

Ray, and he would pass scatheless; he had only

to send round once more to the secretarial

agencies of London in order to replace her with

a sensitive equally or almost as good, and yet he

sat staring at the chairman like a hypnotized

man, his soul frozen with horror. Absorbed in

their discussion, no one looked at the secretary,

or his face must surely have betrayed him.

Lucas, who had thought himself beyond good

or evil, immune from emotion, had been

humanized, and his humanity betrayed him. A

man upon the Left Hand Path finds his strength

in separateness; Lucas had formed a tie, he had

deviated from his perfect loyalty to evil, the

spark of good that was in him had been fanned

to a flame, and it was proving his undoing.

The brethren were discussing ways and means,

who were to be responsible for the task in hand,

and the time and place at which they should

meet for the united meditation that should let

loose the Dark Ray, and they did not realize

that anything untoward was afoot until the

scrape of a thrust-back chair drew their attention

to the foot of the table.

Lucas was upon his feet; his face was the

THE DEMON LOVER 101

peculiar grey-white a dark sidn goes when it

becomes absolutely bloodless ; for a long minute

the men round the table stared at him, arrested

by the expression of his face. It seemed as if

he would never find his voice, and then, with

difficulty, the words came.

"There is something I wish to say to you,"

he said.

The chairman signed to him to go on. For a

long time past the secretary had been an object

of suspicion, and it did not come as any surprise

to the men present that Lucas was involved in

the affair under consideration. They waited for

him to pull himself together. Presently he spoke

again.

(< This matter is not quite as you think it is."

Another long pause followed as Lucas sought

for the words that would not come. The men

round the table waited immobile in the half-

light of the shaded lamp, their gaze directed

towards him, no one offering to help him out.

With a renewed effort he continued.

" The person you saw in the lodge was not

directly concerned in the matter. She was

entirely passive. A trance medium in fact.

She is not responsible for anything that has

happened."

"Then," said the chairman, If she is not

responsible, who is ? "

" I am," said Lucas. I was operating her."

" In what way ? "

" Under hypnosis."

" Has she any recollection of what has

happened ? "

No, none; I swear she hasn't. She was

102 THE DEMON LOVER

nothing but a tool. She had no more to do with

it than a pen with what it signs. If you want to strafe anybody, you can strafe me. I am the

person responsible."

It was a strange scene in that darkened Blooms-

bury room. The circle of men round the table,

their faces dimly illumined by the reflected-light

from the shaded lamp ; behind them, a shadowy

altar with the Everlasting Fire glowing dimly

upon it; and before them, erect, tense, solitary,

the man who was about to die.

For there could be no doubt as to what the

verdict would be. A long time ago the Chiefs

had known that Lucas was unsuitable to be a

member of the Fraternity ; for some time past it

had been suspected almost to certainty that he

was intriguing against them, and now they had

caught him red-handed. He, a member of the

outer temple, had obtained possession of the

secrets of the inner temple up to the seventh

degree; they were not only angry at the theft,

but thoroughly alarmed that such a theft had

been possible, and their alarm made them

ruthless.

The chairman spoke. " There are two courses

open to us should a man obtain the secrets of a

degree he is not entitled to. Either we can

administer the oath of the degree to him, or--we

can silence him. Are you willing that the

oath should be administered to our brother

here present ? "

One by one, as he glanced at them, the men

shook their heads. Then," said the chairman,

" we have no option but to proceed with the

other course."

THE DEMON LOVER 103

He did not put the vote to the meeting, it

was doubtful if he could have got the men to

vote, for it was a sentence of death they were

passing, and though their minds were made up,

to give that deciding nod was not easy, and the motion would have passed without opposition if

the voice of the old man with the long white

beard had not broken the silence.

Though we are not willing to admit this

man to the degrees he has desecrated, is there no

other course than--to invoke the Dark Ray ? "

What other course would you suggest ? "

replied the chairman. Can we not bind him with an oath, and bid

him depart ? "

" What have the brethren to say upon the

matter ? " said the chairman, looking round at

the assembled men again.

There was a long silence, no one caring to take

the responsibility of voicing the thought that

was in the minds of all of them ; the man they

were trying stood tense as a bow-string, his

nostrils twitching like an animal's and his eyes,

now opaque as marble, now pools of blackness.

At length the journalist broke the silence.

"Daren't risk it. Can't trust him," he said,

and the rest breathed a sigh of relief that they

had been spared the voicing of the verdict.

Is that your opinion ? " asked the chairman,

again referring to the assembled men, who,

each in his way, by a nod or a half-spoken word,

assented ; save only the patriarch, and his voice

once more broke upon the assembly.

" We have long known this man for what he

is" he said. A man dedicated to the services

104 THE DEMON LOVER

of evil, following the Left Hand Path, a black

occultist; and yesterday, had I been asked, I

should have voted as you have done. But can

we say that this man is wholly given over to evil,

to separateness ? Remember, you are condemning

him upon a voluntary confession;

unless he had spoken, we should never have

known, and he has elected to sacrifice himself

rather than that an innocent person should suffer.

Greater love hath no man than this, that he

should lay down his life for his friend.' "

(< A man in love will do anything," said the

journalist, and Lucas started as if hot metal

had touched him. The words, or the sneer

with which they were spoken, seemed to galvanize

him into activity; for a moment he stood there,

as if poised for flight, and then his hand went

to his hip pocket, and the assembly found themselves looking down the barrel of a revolver.

If you want me, you can come and fetch

me," he snarled. Strafing is a game that two

can play at." And he backed slowly towards

the door, glaring at them along the shining

barrel of the revolver.

" You can put up your weapon, Mr. Lucas,"

said the chairman coldly. We shall not use

physical force."

CHAPTER TWELVE

LUCAS SLAMMED THE DOOR BEHIND HIM AND

turned the key. The lodge-room was remote

from the house and the Ashlotts' abode in the

basement. Some delay must occur before the

brethren could effect egress. He dashed down

the long tiled passage to the office, snatched the

papers out of his private safe, and raced upstairs

to his bedroom. Here he caught up just such

personal belongings as might readily be thrust

into a haversack; then he rushed downstairs

again.

A thundering upon the door at the end of the

tiled passage showed that he was only just in

time, and catching up a handful of letters that

had fallen from the letter-box upon the hall mat,

he passed out of the old house in the Bloomsbury

square where his life had been lived and his life-

work had been done. A new order of existence

opened before him ; what it held for him was

unknown, and never had any man more completely

burnt his boats behind him.

Soon he was speeding down the road by

which he had taken Veronica between moonset

and sunrise of that eventful day, the road which

he had already traversed a second time between

sunrise and noon; the excitement of the

happenings buoyed him up and he felt no fatigue,

but as he drew clear of the London traffic into

the open country roads and had time for thought,

a realization of his position dawned upon him.

He was out of a job to begin with, and had very

little prospect of getting one, being without

references. He grinned to himself at a vision

of the brethren's faces if they were asked for a

10$

106 THE DEMON LOVER

reference and requested to state the reasons for

dismissal. He was not penniless; he had a

small sum in the bank, but, as he remarked to

himself, it would not last the two of them very

long ; Veronica had nothing but what she stood

up in, and he very little more. They could

probably squat' indefinitely in the general's

fishing box, and he might be able to make some

use of his pen, but it was a precarious living at

best.

Lucas was not an introspective man ; if he

had been, he might have noticed that his

resources would last just twice as long for one as

for two ; he dared not use Veronica again, and

there was no reason why he should not cut loose

from her ; one is not obliged to employ a secretary

one does not require; all the same it never

occurred to him to abandon her. For the first

time in his life the man's strange nature had

formed a tie ; he had not yet had time to reason

things out, but a flash of self-revelation had come

to him at the words of the journalist, " A man

in love will do anything." Was he in love with

Veronica ? He hardly even asked himself the

question; he only knew that with the instinct

of a homing pigeon, he was going back to her as

fast as his machine would take him. She was

the only creature with whom he was in touch

in the midst of an alien and hostile world;

bereft of Veronica he would be utterly alone,

and to Veronica he clung desperately.

The mileage he had travelled began to tell

upon him, and it was a very weary man who

looked down from the crest of the hills upon the

valley of Beckering, spread out in the afternoon

THE DEMON LOVER 107

un. By the time he reached the rough cart

jack along the river bank it was all he could do

[0 hold the cycle steady, and when he dismounted

it the front door of the old house he had some

ado to stand. Knowing it to be useless to ring

the bell, he made his way round through the

shrubbery to the lawn upon which the one

inhabitable room in the place looked out, and

Veronica, sitting over her tea, looked up to see

a man come with uncertain steps across the

grass and knock upon the French window for

admission. She sprang up and opened to him,

and he crossed the threshold without a word

and dropped into a chair beside the table. She

asked no questions, she never did; he was a

remote, unaccountable being upon whom she

had no claims, but her woman's instinct made

her give him a cup of tea and watch with satisfaction

while he drank it. His face and clothes

were covered with a mask of dust, and he looked

more than ever like the statue of some fallen

Egyptian king in a forgotten tomb that the

sands of the desert have overcome.

There was a curiously changed 'feel' about

him; he no longer conveyed a sense of power

and aloofness; the mysterious force he always

seemed to emanate was gone, he was simply a

very tired man, and in some subtle way he had

drawn very much closer to her. He drank, but

would not eat; and when the third cup of tea

had passed his dust-grimed lips he rose stiffly to

his feet, and laid a hand upon Veronica's shoulder.

" I'm going to sleep, little woman; I'm

absolutely done in. Watch by me. Don't leave

me alone." And he flung himself, dust and all,

108 THE DEMON LOVER

upon a broad leather sofa that stood at the side

of the hearth.

He gave her no reason why she should watch

beside him while he slept, he would have found

it difficult to have formulated one to himself,

but he felt the greatest aversion from being

left alone ; whether it was that a lingering fear

of the Dark Ray and its attack shadowed his

mind, or whether, having for the first time

discovered the meaning of companionship,

he indulged himself in it as the newly-rich

indulge in luxury, he could not have said.

Veronica watched the golden afternoon light

fade to dusk, and then a shuffling in the passage

announced the advent of the old caretaker with supper. When she saw Lucas asleep on the

sofa, she mumbled something unintelligible and

went to fetch a second plate; she seemed quite

to have accepted their presence in the house for

which she was responsible.

Roused by her movements, Lucas woke up,

and arose to go and wash off the dust. As he

shed his motoring overalls, he felt something

bulky in the pocket, and drew out the bundle of

letters he had picked up as he left the house.

Two were for the Ashlotts, the rest for the Fraternity,

but one was addressed to him personally.

The Ashlotts' letters he tore up and flung in

the hearth, he dared not risk sending them on,

his safety lay largely in the ignorance of the

brethren as to his whereabouts, for it is very

difficult to focus an occult force unless one has

some idea as to at least the point of the compass

to which it is to be directed. The letters for

the Fraternity he glanced through out of pure

THE DEMON LOVER 109

curiosity; their writers would have to wait for

an answer; then he opened the letter addressed

to himself. It was brief and to the point, and

without any preamble, informed him that General

Sawberry had passed peacefully away at his

Woking home early the previous morning, and

that he himself was the principal legatee. Lucas

let out a long whistle that almost ended in a

war whoop. What astonishing luck, and just

when he needed it, too. If the rest of his luck

were as good as this, he would pull through all

right. He put the letter in his pocket and went

down to supper, patting Veronica on the

back in the most friendly fashion as he took his seat at the table. He chatted to her over the

meal, and she made her usual polite little monosyllabic replies, but he promised himself that he

would soon teach her to wake up and become a

live human being, and he looked forward to the

task as he might have looked forward to the

solution of some abstrue mathematical problem

or a defect in the motor-cycle's machinery;

Lucas was not quite human himself yet, though

he had made progress in that direction.

After supper, smoking a pipe, and covertly

watching Veronica as she read, he again congratulated

himself upon his good fortune. He

was master of this house, queer old ramshackle

place though it was ; and Veronica--a very little

would make Veronica quite charming, and it

would be a fascinating experiment to watch her

unfold. He asked nothing better than to be

left alone in the possession of his newly acquired

resources to develop the novel experience that

had come into his life.

no THE DEMON LOVER

If only the Fraternity would let him alone Perhaps if he disappeared completely from their

ken they would forget all about him in time, or

at any rate get over their rage. He did not

wish to think about that Dark Ray and its

effects, they were not a pleasant subject of

meditation. He remembered the German-

American who had preferred to plunge into

Niagara Gorge rather than face exposure to the

force of that ray. If it had not been for Veronica,

he himself would have followed some such

course ; but there was Veronica, with this new

experience just beginning, something that he

had never known before, and whose sweets he

was tasting for the first time-- there was Veronica

with the lamplight throwing into relief the soft

curves of chin and throat, and who held his

attention and interest in a queer, subtle fashion.

He longed to win some sort of response from her,

just such another smile as she had given him

upon his departure for London; and he sat

there, watching her in that dim-lit, tobacco-

clouded room, planning how he might bring

that smile to her lips again. The dog-like,

cowed Veronica was of no use to him, he wanted

a Veronica who would come of her own free will, and, above all, would smile.

He could not forget that smile ; it was the

first time any woman had shown him that side

of her nature ; the first time, indeed, that he

had ever sought to call it forth, for those smiles

are not bestowed upon cynical, cold-blooded

men, such as he had trained himself to be. But

fundamentally Lucas was neither cynical nor

cold-blooded, he was a hot-blooded man with

THE DEMON LOVER in

quick emotions and strong enthusiasms, but he

had been trained in a tradition that did not

fully understand human nature, by men who

believed that the race can best be served by

those who have no tie or bond of affection,

forgetting that it is only by loving an individual

that we can learn to love the race. A man who

has loved greatly can transfer his love from the

unit to the mass, and it is just such men as these,

of frustrated affections, who have best served the

cause of humanity; but a man who has never

loved does not know how to love, because he has

never learnt in the only possible school, the

school of experience.

And now Lucas was getting his training. As

he had surmised, he and Veronica had followed

the Way of Initiation together for many lives

until he had quitted the Path, and then their

ways had divided ; but now, with her re-entry

upon the scene of his life, the old influence

was reasserting itself and he was being slowly

drawn back towards the Path. There had come

a point in his evolution--in the course his soul

was pursuing through eternity--where a side-track

turned off that led across country, as it were,

to the path of the Right-hand Way. It is known

to occultists that periodically there are these

cross-paths that lead from the Right-hand Path

to the Left, from the Way of Light to the

Way of Darkness, and vice versa ; those upon the

Path of Light, the Right Hand Path, as it is

called, are periodically tempted to turn off by

this perilous short-cut to power which ends

upon the Path of Darkness ; and those upon the

Left Hand Path are equally given a recurring

THE DEMON LOVER

opportunity to cross-cut, as it were, on to the

Path of Light. But at what cost to themselves!

for ' the road winds uphill all the way, yea, to

the very end.' Those who have dedicated

themselves to evil are subject to temptation

just as are those who have dedicated themselves to

good; and as the pleasures of the senses call

back the children of light, so the children of

darkness become affrighted by their solitude,

the fruit of the separateness which is the law of

their service; and if, in their loneliness, they

form a tie with one who is upon the Right Hand

Path, they must either draw that one over to

their own dark allegiance, or they themselves

will be drawn into the light. Lucas, that day

upon the roadway, had failed to draw Veronica

over to the way of darkness, her early training,

the strongest thing in the world, had proved too

strong even for him, despite the hold he had

gained over her, for it is very seldom that those

who, in early childhood have been grounded in

even the most perfunctory and elementary of

religious teaching that calls upon a certain Name

can never be drawn completely under the power

of the Dark Masters. The country curate who

dabs some lukewarm water upon the little form

in his arms sets a seal that takes a very great deal

of breaking, as all those who deal in the hidden

side of things are well aware. Lucas, with all

his intellect and training, had failed to subvert

the influence of a simple old country woman

who had taught a little child her first prayers.

Let theologians argue as they will concerning

the vicarious atonement, the fact remains that

there is a Name and a Sign that are efficacious

THE DEMON LOVER 113

when that dark undertow sets in that drags a

goul down to the horrors that are not human.

Lucas, at the crisis in the Lodge, had been

tempted, just as a saint is tempted, and he had

failed in his dark allegiance because he had formed

a tie, he had forgone the fruits of his painfully

acquired knowledge for the sake of little Veronica ;

he had known enough to safeguard himself

perfectly, but when the test came, his heart

failed him, he could not take advantage of his

own foresight, and he fell, just as the saint falls,

the victim of a forbidden love. True, it was a

selfish love, thinking only of its own gratification

and not at all of the well-being of its object;

true, his loyalty to Veronica had been prompted

by a dread of losing her rather than any concern

for her welfare, but still, it was love, a germinating

seed, if not the perfect flower.

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

NEXT MORNING LUCAS, ACCOMPANIED BY

Veronica, set out to explore his little estate.

With the exception of the lawn in front of the

house, the rest of the grounds consisted of

shrubbery and woodland, both much overcrowded

and neglected. Straggling laurels grew up like

small trees, and oaks, herded together in ragged

negligence, lost all their native dignity and

contrived to produce a sinister twilight in the

underworld of their groves. Nature, left to her

own devices, is never morbid, but when man

takes possession of a place and then relinquishes

it, the impression of something evil or mournful

is invariably conveyed. Lucas had no intention

of reconstructing this domain, but it pleased him

to explore its resources. The Woking house

was, he knew, a much pleasanter and more

accessible abode, and thither he would remove

himself and his belongings (Veronica included

under the latter heading) as soon as the formalities

of his possession were completed.

Only the cart track lay between the grounds

and the river, and as the boundary was marked

by a single strand of slack and rusting wire, the

division was more a legal fiction than an actual

fact. Many trees had fallen and lay slowly

rotting, and upon one of these trunks the

wanderers seated themselves, gazing through a

green twilight on to the shadowed river, for here

the bed deepened and the banks narrowed, and

the current ran through a gorge of overhanging

trees. Occasionally a vole plopped into the

water; occasionally a kingfisher shot like a

streak of blue down the narrow path of sunlight

U4

THE DEMON LOVER 115

in the river's centre, and Lucas discoursed to

Veronica upon life in general, and his own in

particular.

Veronica, though she was no talker (which in

Lucas's eyes was not a drawback) was an admirable

listener, for she had a quick and receptive mind,

able to grasp the significance of new ideas;

and with wise little nods of her head she

considered and stored away for future reference

the concepts of men and things that were being

presented to her. For the first time she heard

the doctrine of the immortality of the soul

brought to its logical conclusion as Lucas talked

glibly of past lives and their influence upon the

present, treating these subjects with an easy

familiarity which showed that they were part

of the habitual content of his consciousness; he

did not reason about life after death, because,

as he expressed it, he " Was accustomed to

dying, though he had never quite got used to

being born ; birth was always rather a shock."

To him, death was on a par with emigration, a

serious undertaking for a poor man, but merely

an interesting and exciting adventure for the

man rich in knowledge. Premature death, however,

he objected to strongly, not because he

feared to die, but because of the time it took to

train a new body for service; there was the

intolerable tedium of infancy, childhood and

youth to be gone through again before fair

value had been received from the coveted

maturity.

Veronica found herself brought face to face

with a new set of values in life ; the body, the

world, held cheap and made to serve an end of

1x6 THE DEMON LOVER

which no hint had hitherto reached her ; indeed,

Lucas did not even speak of (< the body," but of

" a body," and the world was regarded as a world

of effects, with but little power to set up causes

on its own account. What happened there was

to Lucas an aftermath, the real struggle, the

real event, had taken place upon a subtler plane ;

Veronica found the concept presented to

her of great forces, governed by great laws, that

operated behind the multiplex happenings of

our haphazard existence; the aim of Lucas's

life she learnt, was to discover the nature of these

laws and so control their forces by balancing one

against the other that the power of his will,

infinite^mal though it was by comparison, should

be able to turn the scale.

Now Veronica, though she neither talked nor

reasoned, was not a fool, and her perception

pierced quickly and surely to the heart of any

matter that came under her consideration. She

soon perceived that, while Lucas talked much

of the occult powers and the means of their

attainment, he gave no hint as to the use he

meant to make of them when once attained, and

she set herself to work, in her quiet little way,

to find out what his ultimate aim might be,

and she speedily discovered that he had not got

one; he was playing with these powers as a

child might play with a Meccano outfit, making

little models that would hoist little weights, all

designed upon the best engineering principles,

but with never a thought of the greater purposes

of life to which these principles might be applied ;

the model bridge would never be translated into

reality unless Lucas himself happened to want

THE DEMON LOVER 117

to cross a river. He studied the Secret Science,

the Science of Kings, as it is called, for the delight of seeing the parts fit together and the

mystery explained ; and that great study, which

is as much a religion as a science, was no more

to him than a jigsaw puzzle. All this Veronica,

the simple, discovered while Lucas talked himself

out upon that summer day.

Lucas, absorbed in his narrative, never heeded

his listener's attitude, till, pausing to search for

a word, he found himself being surveyed with a

quaint detachment by the little person at the

other end of the log, and experienced an unpleasant

feeling that in some way or other he

had been making a fool of himself, just as a

student who had read a popular treatise on

astronomy might feel on finding he had been

trying to improve the mind of the Astronomer

Royal. Anxious to ascertain her attitude, he

shot a question at her, for the first time that

morning.

" Well ? What do you make of it all ? "

Veronica nodded her head sagely. I think

I see what you mean ; there are things that

cause other things to happen, and you want to

know what they are so that you can get at them."

" That's about it," said Lucas. The control

of causation, if you want to be precise."

" But what are you going to do with them

when you have got hold of them ? "

" You can do anything you like with them,

you could get anything you wanted."

" But one doesn't want such an awful lot,

unless of course, one wants to swank; but you

don't do that, Mr. Lucas."

118 THE DEMON LOVER

No, I don't swank," said Lucas, laughing.

(< That, at any rate, is not one of my numerous

shortcomings. But come now, wouldn't you

like to have great resources at your disposal ? "

" I'd like a certain amount," said cautious

Veronica, " But not too much ; it would take

such a lot of looking after. Besides, supposing

you were balancing the forces and one of them

slipped ? "

" That is just exactly what has happened,"

muttered Lucas to himself, and fell silent for

several minutes. Then he threw off his dark

mood and spoke again. " What would you do

with the resources of the world if you had

them ? "

" I should get some frocks and books and

pictures, and a dog ; oh yes, I should certainly

get a dog."

" But that would not exhaust the resources of

the world ; what would you do with the rest ? "

Veronica thought a moment. " I couldn't

eat all the bread in the world, but I could see

that the people who needed it got some, and

that the greedy people did not gobble too much,

which is what they do at present. Why did you

never think of doing that, Mr. Lucas ? "

" Oh, I don't know. What has it got to do

with me ? "

" But could you be happy, knowing that

someone else was starving ? "

" Good Lord, yes; that is their look-out.

People have got to stand on their own feet;

you would never get anywhere if you always

waited for the stragglers. You have got to

prune if you want to get choice fruit, you know ;

THE DEMON LOVER 119

you can't save the lives of all the poor little

apples and still have any fruit fit for dessert.

Civilization is built upon sacrifice, and if I have

any choice in the matter, and I think that I have,

I propose to be one of the civilized, not one of

the sacrificed."

This was logic hard to answer, and Veronica

did not attempt the task. She merely shook her

head and said : " All the same, I don't believe

you really like it, Mr. Lucas ; you are always

after something, and as soon as you get it you

want the next thing. It is like the Mad Hatter's

tea party,--jam yesterday, and jam to-morrow,

but never jam to-day. I like to enjoy myself

as I go along."

Lucas was enjoying himself vastly. Veronica

was beginning to wake up, and it thoroughly

amused him to reveal unexpected depths to her

and listen to her shrewd little comments. There

was more in her than he had expected ; her

mind was not empty so much from lack of

capacity as from lack of raw material. He

imagined that he was doing a very great deal to Veronica ; he little realized how much Veronica

was doing to him. He, as well as she, was being

presented with a new view point; he might

sweep aside her naive little assertions, but he

could not ignore the fact that, quaintly though

they might be expressed, they were singularly

relevant, and that she had an uncanny knack of

putting her finger on the weak spots in his

position. To travel hopefully may be better

than to arrive, but Lucas had been made to

realize that morning that he was merely on the

niove, and had no definite goal; he was a spiritual

i20 THE DEMON LOVER

nomad ; the very separateness of his existence

prevented him from availing himself of the

forces at his disposal. As Veronica had said, he

could not eat all the bread in the world, and

therefore, his own mouth being filled, he had no

further interest in the matter; whereas she,

having sympathies outside her own ego, could

overflow like a brimming pool, and vicariously

enjoy many satisfactions. Perhaps there was

something to be said for her point of view after

all; he himself had already experienced a keener

enjoyment than he had ever known before in

getting into sympathetic touch with this child ;

it was quite a different sensation to that of

power. The manipulation of another being had

its charms, of course, but they palled when the

novelty wore off ; but when, instead of manipulating,

and controlling, one could win another

person to respond to one, why, then one was, in

one's turn, stimulated, lifted on to a higher level,

whence one turned to inspire that person again,

and be again lifted. It opened up new vistas,

new possibilities of experience, this action and

reaction of two, as opposed to the solitary

working of the one. But to achieve this interaction,

one had to win the other to a willing co-operation, it was not enough to out-manoeuvrc,

to intimidate, one had to win over ; and he set

to work to discover the secret of this process just

as he had set himself to discover the forbidden

knowledge of the Fraternity.

His method was the Socratic method of

question and answer. With his conscious mind

he would formulate a question, which he put to

his subconscious mind, to which his occult

THE DEMON LOVER 121

training gave him access (for the occultist knows

a great deal more about the subconscious mind

than the psychologist does), and his subconscious

mind, in the light of its wider faculties, would

return him an answer. Absorbed in this occupation,

time slipped by unnoticed, and it was not

until the sun was setting that he returned to

Veronica with his plans fully formed. He knew

exactly how he meant to work upon her mind,

how to rouse her nature so that she should

expand from the child into the woman and make

that response to him for which he sought. He

was already well acquainted with her character--

or thought he was--and he knew just how he

meant to touch those secret springs that let

loose the forces which lie latent in the natures

of all of us, even the quietest.

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

THE OLD CARETAKER HAD PREPARED SUPPER

and Veronica had seated herself at table

when he made his belated entry. The meal was

quite a festive occasion ; Lucas absorbed in his

new pursuit was in an especially cheerful mood,

and Veronica, who was fast losing her fear of

him, was quite prepared to respond, with the

result that Lucas, who was of the mercurial

temperament, forgot all about his carefully laid

plans and all he had ever known of psychology,

and followed the way of a man with a maid,

which, according to the wisest of mankind, can

only be likened to the way of a serpent upon a

rock or a ship upon the sea.

Some shred of shrewdness that remained

revealed to him that it was Veronica who was

pulling the strings of his nature, not he of hers ;

it was the deep fountains of his being that were

unsealed, while she, aloof as only those who are

of virgin soul can be aloof, looked on, half

frightened, half fascinated, at the forces she had

roused, but, being a woman, thoroughly enjoying

herself. She was too unawakened for full

realization ; she only knew that, whereas he had

hitherto treated her as some creature of a lower

order of creation that he kept for his own purposes,

she was now exalted far above him and he was

reaching up to her ; and she, in her girlish mind,

debated whether she would reach him a finger

or whether she would not, and finally decided

she would do so. He had always had a queer

kind of fascination for her, and the fascination,

in some curious way, was enhanced by the fact

that she was afraid of him, so that, before the

THE DEMON LOVER 123

meal had ended, Veronica was drawn once again

to smile upon Lucas.

And the smile completed his undoing. It

dawned slowly, like the smile of Monna Lisa,

glowed for a moment with a revelation of all that

could be in a woman, and then fled suddenly, as

if alarmed at its own temerity. Lucas had set

out to play a game, but he found himself caught in

a current of the greater deeps. So does Nature

cheat those who seek to defraud her. Men have

thrown away kingdoms for just such a smile,

and Lucas threw away his soul; his only chance

of safety in the present crisis lay in allegiance

to his Dark Master whose law is separateness;

only thus could he draw upon the force necessary

to withstand the attack that was arrayed against

him. Here was he, whose first care should have

been the black magic necessary for his own

protection, forgetful of both attack and defence,

unmindful of those transcendent things he had

sought and worshipped, become human, all too

human.

What cared he for the secret magic of the

Egyptians ? He was learning a greater magic

than ever the celibate priests knew; the old

ritual of man and woman was being enacted, and,

priest and priestess of Nature's own mysteries,

they were initiating each other, and he reckoned

the world well lost. To see the slow smile begin

to dawn in Veronica's eyes before it reached her

lips, and to know that it was for him it dawned

--there was nothing the Fraternity had to

confer that was equal to this. Though he should

be able to summon Principalities and Powers to

appear upon his threshold, what could they avail

124 THE DEMON LOVER

to feed the human side of him that had always

gone hungry ? Separateness might mean power,

but it was in union that happiness lay, and union

could only come through love, and now that

Lucas had tasted love, he desired nothing else.

The good in a bad man can prove his undoing as

surely as the bad in a good man.

The moon was up by the time the meal was

finished, for meals go slowly under such

circumstances. The clear cold radiance shone

white upon the lawn save where the shadows of

the shrubbery fell black as ink. The summer

night in that shut-in valley was almost as warm

as the day, and they went out through the

French windows on to the terrace. There, as

they strolled up and down, Lucas slipped his

hand through Veronica's arm ; it rested upon

the soft rounded forearm, left bare by the short

sleeve, the long, olive-brown student's fingers

in sharp contrast to the girl's white skin ; and

she, half child, half woman, was well content to

let it rest there.

So they strolled and turned, and strolled and

turned, talking of life as each had seen it, and

Veronica heard for the first time that most

illuminating of all things, a man talking of his

own life and the experiences that have made him

what he is, speaking to the woman he wishes to

make understand him, and learning to understand

himself in the process. She heard how

Lucas had been born outside wedlock, the son

of an opera singer and a man who stood high in

political circles; how he had been brought up

in the family of a small shopkeeper, and how the

family circle had failed to contain him; a

r

THE DEMON LOVER 125

square peg had been driven into a round hole,

but the peg was of the tougher fibre, and it was

the hole that had split under the pressure. Then

came the history of a rebellious, unmanageable

lad, who jumped in and out of jobs as the hot

southern temperament of his mother flared up

within him ; but presently the intellect of his

father began to assert itself, and he struggled in

night school and Polytechnic classes to supplement

the grammar school education that had

been prematurely terminated by his irruption

into freedom.

At length he found himself as assistant to an

old man who kept a second-hand shop ; it was

not an antique shop of the inspiring kind, nor

yet such an old book shop as scholars go to in

search of rare tomes, but was what is euphemistically

known as a marine store dealer's, though such

emporiums often have nothing whatever to do with

the sea ; their title merely informs the elect that

they are of the scrap-iron persuasion rather than

the rag and bone faith, though, as a matter of

fact, they will deal in anything that any stretch

of the imagination can conceive to have a marketable

value.

Into this abode of unhallowed dust came one

day a curious article of commerce. It was a

white, or rather Isabella-coloured dust-sheet

ome three yards square, upon which, by means

of the liberal use of marking ink, a circle, four

feet in diameter had been drawn ; the interior

of the circle was, save for dirty marks, left blank,

but around its circumference was a most extraordinary

collection of strange hieroglyphs and

rude representations of creatures and things.

126 THE DEMON LOVER

The owner of the shop accepted the thing at its

face value ; a dust sheet was a dust sheet to him,

and could be used for covering up the stock until

such time as a purchaser should covet it, and

in such an event, Lucas had better not ask more

than seven and six for it, because of the marks,

but he wasn't to take less than half a crown

because of its extensive acreage.

The active-minded lad, however, was not so

easily satisfied ; every time he unfurled the thing

at night, he would puzzle over its hieroglyphs,

and every time he bundled it up in the morning

he would renew his quest. Then, one day when

business was slack, he was looking through some

of the books that lay about the shop (for the old

junk-dealer would attend sales of household

effects and buy any lot that went cheap enough,

regardless of its nature) and in one of these

bouks he found the clue to the mystery in a

rough wood-cut of which the dust sheet was

evidently a copy. Wild with excitement, he

devoured the letterpress, and learned that the

mysterious sheet was a floor-cloth used by a

magician when he wished to invoke certain

elemental presences ; the operator stood in the

centre of the magic circle, and protected by the

symbols that surrounded him, called upon the

beings of another order of creation to take their

stand each on his own sigil depicted upon the

corners of the cloth.

When closing-time came the young assistant

locked the door from the inside, not the outside,

and spreading the magic dust-sheet upon such

Hoor space as he could clear of impedimenta, took

his stand in the centre of the circle and read

THE DEMON LOVER 127

aloud to the shadows the magical formula which

the book declared to be suitable to the occasion.

Then he waited.

Absolutely nothing happened, and disgusted

with the whole proceeding, himself included,

he turned out the gas and went home, and so to

bed. As he was dozing off to sleep, however,

he was aroused to consciousness by the feeling

that there was something in the room ; he tried

to reach out his hand to strike a light, but found

himself powerless to move. He felt a breath in

his face, a weight on his chest. Something was at

his throat, and still he could not move. Then,

with a supreme effort of will he sat up, but

found the room empty, even as the shop had

been.

Being a lad of sound nerves, he soon settled

down and went to sleep again, and would have

thought no more of his nightmare had it not

been that in the morning, when he placed a

reluctant foot upon the shabby oilcloth that

paved his meagre attic, he perceived that the

floor was covered with slimy tracks as if an army

of slugs had passed across it. The foul trail led

from the window to the bed and back again,

and when he examined it, he found that the

window frame was covered with the filthy stuff ;

the creature that had left the trail had evidently

entered by the six-inch aperture left open at the

top of the window for ventilation.

For many nights after that the boy slept with

his window shut, but the miscellaneous collection

of books that had come, along with the floorcloth,

from the house of some student of the

occult arts, so inflamed his imagination that he

128 THE DEMON LOVER

could think of nothing else ; his whole soul was

gathered up into a one-pointed desire to learn

the secret of the mystery to which he had been

given a clue. What was it men sought by these

mysterious means ? How did they seek it, and

who were the seekers ?

As such desires of the single-hearted will, his

bore fruit. One evening, as he was spreading

the magic dust-sheet over the more precious

of the rubbish, he saw a face peering at him

through the window, and in a minute or two

the owner of the face appeared in the doorway,

and an individual of uncouth and hairy appearance

demanded the price of the dust-sheet. Lucas

named seven and six, as he had been bidden, and

without demur the stranger laid down three

half-crowns upon the counter. Then he peered

curiously at the lad.

" Do you know anything about these things ? "

he inquired.

Lucas, like most people in a hostile environment,

was exceedingly reserved, but something

about the stranger drew while it repulsed him,

and before he knew what he was doing, he had

embarked upon the story of his invocation and

the subsequent slug-tracks. The stranger fairly

danced with glee, and almost without his consent,

Lucas, the book, and the floor-cloth were hailed

round to the stranger's lodgings; there, huddled

together inside the protecting circle, Lucas and

the stranger read out the invocation in unison.

So far as Lucas could see, nothing whatever

happened, but the stranger, squinting horribly,

announced that the Powers invoked had duly

appeared in their appointed places, and thereupon

THE DEMON LOVER 129

embarked upon an elaborate, arm-waving incantation,

for it seems it was one thing to call them

up, and quite another to get rid of them.

However, after some minutes of droning and

maneuvering, the stranger pronounced the room

clear of the Presences, and they sat down to a

supper of sausages served by a landlady as greasy

as if she had been fried herself.

That was the first of many suppers. Lucas

never overcame his repulsion for the man, but

his studies fascinated him, and he would return

night after night to hear his host discourse of

Paracelsus, Roger Bacon, Robert Fludd, and the

knowledge that had died with them. There

was a miscellaneous collection of Theosophical

and American New Thought books in the

frowsy lodgings, and the keen-minded lad soon

had gathered the gist of them and drawn his

own conclusions. A very little experimenting

sufficed to show him that there was something

tangible lying behind all the verbiage, but he

also saw that the heart of the matter was

not set down in the books. If he wanted

knowledge he would have to find someone who

had that knowledge ; they might tell it, though

they would not be willing to put it on paper.

Again his whole nature gathered itself up into a

demand for knowledge, and again its wish was

granted. As he was raking in the bins of a

second-hand book shop one evening, he fell into

conversation with a man engaged in the same

occupation, for there is a freemasonry of secondhand

book shops, and many valuable friendships

are formed there, for the poor scholar comes in

earch of the cheap book, and the rich scholar

130 THE DEMON LOVER

comes in search of the rare book, and their

common scholarship serves as an introduction

and lays the basis of a friendship.

His new acquaintance was a very different

type of man to the purchaser of the floor-cloth.

He was, in fact, none other than the old man

with the white beard who always sat upon the

chairman's left at the meetings of the council.

Taking the measure of the shabby lad, he had

decided that here was a mind of no ordinary

calibre, and had taken him under his wing;

books were at the boy's disposal, and the stimulus

of the conversation of a scholar had any stimulus

been needed, and for the first time in his life, Lucas

found himself in a congenial atmosphere. It

was not long before initiation into the outer

temple of the Fraternity followed, and Lucas

found that that which he had so long sought

was his, for good or evil.

Passed on from one introduction to another,

Lucas made his way into Fleet Street and rose

rapidly until his journalistic career was cut short

by his appointment to the secretaryship of the

Fraternity.

Then began the struggle between the idealism

of the brethren and the fierce ambition of the

man who was among them but not of them.

Lucas told the story in vivid detail, never sparing

himself, but using Veronica as a confessional for

the relief of that which so long had been pent up

within him without any means of expression.

Before the story drew to its close the moon had set, and darkness and dewfall drove them to

take refuge in the house. Upon the step of the

French window they paused, reluctant to leave

THE DEMON LOVER 131

the cool night for the close stuffiness of a lamp-lit

room.

Veronica lifted her hand. " Listen," she said,

Foxhounds."

Nonsense, you silly child," said Lucas.

They don't hunt at this time of year, or at

this time of night, either, for that matter."

" But listen," cried the girl, " They are quite

close ; listen to the way they are baying. They

have sighted their quarry."

To her ears the bell-like notes of hounds

hunting in view were coming nearer and nearer

through the woods; then she suddenly clutched

her companion's arm.

" Mr. Lucas," she cried, " They are not on

the ground, they are overhead, in the air I "

She felt herself suddenly snatched through

the window and the shutters slammed behind

her. Lucas, ghastly-faced, stared at her for a

moment without speaking, and then dropped

into a chair by the table and buried his face in

his arms.

Veronica, poor child, stared at him, helpless

and distressed ; the belling of the hounds that

seemed to come from high overhead in the darkness

sounded incredibly sinister, and the sight

of the man bowed in distress over the table

filled her with fear and foreboding even while

it made her heart ache in sympathy for his

uncomprehended trouble.

She laid a timid hand on his shoulder. " Mr.

Lucas, what is it ? What is the matter ? "

For answer an arm reached out and encircled

her and drew her to him, and he hid his face in

the folds of her dress. For a long while they

132 THE DEMON LOVER

remained thus, the man rigid and motionless,

the girl with her hand resting on his shoulder,

every now and again stroking the rough tweed

of his coat to convey the comfort she knew not

how to express.

Finally, he raised his face, curiously changed,

and looked at her.

" Those were the astral hunting-dogs," he said.

" The Hounds of Heaven. They hunt traitors

with them."

" Who hunt traitors ? " said Veronica.

" The brethren. And it was I who taught

them to do it, too. And now they are hunting

me. The new spirit in the Fraternity. They

didn't like the new spirit in the Fraternity, but

they make use of it all right when it suits them."

" But, Mr. Lucas, they can't be hunting you

with dogs! "

" No, they don't hunt with the dogs, they only

use them to locate me ; it is the Ray they will

use to kill me."

" Kill you. They aren't going to kill you ? "

Veronica's fingers drove into his shoulder as she

clutched his coat in her distress. He looked up

at her.

" Would you mind if they did, little

Veronica ? "

Oh, but it isn't possible, Mr. Lucas, it is all

a bad dream."

" It is no dream, Veronica. They mean to

kill me, and they are quite right. I am better

dead, and if it were not for you, I should be

glad to go, but I do not want to go now I have

known you."

He rose to his feet and faced her, the pupils

THE DEMON LOVER 133

of his eyes narrowed to pinpoints, his expression

very evil, as she had not seen it for many days

past.

" But I am not going," he said. " Not very

far, at any rate."

He felt in his pocket and produced a pen-knife

and opened it, and, before she realized what he

was about, drove the blade into her arm.

" Don't be frightened," he said, as with a cry

of mingled pain and terror she strove to escape

from him. " I won't hurt you. I am only

doing this in order that I may be able to keep

in touch with you when I get over on the other

side. It is the blood-link that savages use when

they admit a stranger to the tribe, and it holds

even through death. It is stronger than

marriage." Then, holding her in a grip she

could not resist, he raised the bleeding arm to his

mouth and sucked the blood.

She gazed at him in horror mingled with

amazement. This was the old Lucas back

again, the Lucas she had almost forgotten. He

let go her arm, but retained his grip on her wrist

so that she could not run away.

" Don't be angry with me," he said. I did

not hurt you much, did I ? " Then he put

both hands on her shoulders and looked straight

into her eyes. " Listen, Veronica, I may have

to go, but I shall not go far. I shall come back

again, keep a look-out for me."

She still looked at him speechlessly, the old

mute terror beginning to rise in her eyes. He

drew her to him, and laid his cheek against hers.

Be nice to me, Veronica. I may have to go

soon."

134 THE DEMON LOVER

The tone of the man's voice, the ominous

stillness of the silent house overcame Veronica,

and she burst into tears and clung to him sobbing.

For a while they stood thus, and then he gently

released himself. " That is midnight striking,

I must go. The Lodge sits at midnight. Kiss

me good-night, Veronica."

Of her own free will she flung her arms round

his neck and kissed him.

r

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

VERONICA'S SLEEP WAS TROUBLED BY DREAMS OF

foreboding ; a shadow seemed to hang over the

house like the shadow that hangs over the district

that surrounds a prison when it is known that a

man is to be hanged at dawn ; the tense vibration

of the soul, keyed up for its departure, sets the

keynote for all other consciousnesses within range

of its vibrations, for no soul either lives or dies

by itself ; society is solid, Nature has no breach

of continuity, and aura interpenetrates with aura

throughout the entire range of our race, and the

agitation of a soul spreads in ripples throughout

the sea of spirit till the impulse that gave rise to

it is exhausted ; the ripples of an idea that is

charged with emotion, be it good or bad, spread

through space and time. This is the clue to a

good many things.

So Veronica slept under a shadow. Through

her dreams wandered the figure of Lucas, sometimes

as the man she had known when she first

went to live in the house in the Bloomsbury

square, when he appeared to her as the experimenter

appears to the animal undergoing vivisection--destruction

incarnate--yet without

malice ; a being of another order of creation,

' whose doings were actuated by motives so

different from her own that they were completely

' incalculable. At other times he appeared as the

man who had talked to her in the wood beside the river, opening up wide vistas of life that

passed far beyond her horizon, and yet tempting

her to go on and on as the white road tempts

the traveller. But chiefly did he seem to her to

be in some strange unfathomable need that he

'35

136 THE DEMON LOVER

could not explain, appealing to her for a help

whose nature she could not divine. He would

appear suddenly in the mazes of her dreams,

holding out hands of entreaty, his eyes pools of

blackness as they always were when the softer

side of his nature was aroused ; she would strive

towards him, but he always eluded her, and she

would toil across vast spaces, like the steppes of

Russia, anxiously seeking for him ; knowing him

to be in trouble, knowing him to need her, and

yet unable to find him. Out of this troubled

sleep she would awake every hour, only to find

the shadow of impending tragedy awaiting her

upon the threshold of consciousness.

Just before dawn, however, a change occurred ;

the shadow that had been vague, though portentous,

suddenly gathered itself together into a

definite shape; it condensed, narrowed,

lengthened into the form of a great cross-handled

sword ; for a moment it drew back, as if to gain

room for a blow, then it was thrust rapidly outward

and downward with the force of some cosmic

Arm behind it; for a second it quivered, as if

in the heart of a living creature, and then it was

withdrawn, and Veronica, falling into a dead

sleep, knew no more.

She slept that heavy, dreamless sleep that

leaves the body drugged by its own poisons, and

would probably have slept till noon if she had

not been aroused by the old caretaker shaking her

violently by the arm. The horrified expression

of the old woman's face told her that something

had happened, though her toothless mumblings

were unintelligible ; but Veronica did not need

to be told, she knew. Wrapping a kimono about

r

THE DEMON LOVER 137

her, she followed the old woman to Lucas's

room.

He lay upon the bed, stretched straight out, flat

upon his back, feet together and arms crossed upon

his breast, left over right, like a sculptured figure

upon a tomb ; the sunlight fell upon his face,

and a drift of scarlet petals from the rambler

that' grew over the window had blown in and

lay upon the white bedspread. The bedclothes

were untossed, and the pillow bore the single

hollow where the dark head rested. The

room was utterly and completely still, and

Veronica knew that she was alone in it; as

quietly and deliberately as a man takes off his

clothes, Lucas had withdrawn from his body

during the night and passed into the realm of

shadows that to him was the plane of reality.

Whether he had awaited the thrust of the sword,

or whether he had unlatched the door and

stepped forth, she did not know, all she knew was

that this was not death as she had been taught to

conceive it. Lucas had gone, leaving his body

behind, as a hurried summons might have caused

him to go and leave his luggage behind. Lucas

was not there, the olive-skinned body which had

served them as a meeting place would be used no

more ; her friend had left, and she did not know

his address, and whether he would communicate

with her again was uncertain, but her friend had

not ceased to be. She had no sense of grief or

loss, but only of perplexity ; how would Lucas

manage to re-establish contact with her ? Would

he remember her, or would he forget ? There

was no sense of tumult in the room, whatever

battle Lucas had had to fight had been fought

138 THE DEMON LOVER

out before his departure ; he had been beaten,

she knew that, for it was not his wish to go, but

the war was not yet finished, he had only retreated

to his second line of trenches; with his departure

the sounds of battle had died away, and now only

the peace of emptiness brooded over the room.

For a long time she stood thus, looking down

at the form upon the bed ; quite unshocked,

only perplexed as to what the next move in the

game might be. A sound of heavy footsteps

upon the stairs roused her from her reverie, and

she turned to face a man of the labourer type,

whom the old woman had apparently summoned.

" Eh, mam," he said. " This is a terrible

business. Your pore 'usband---- "

Her ringless hand caught his eye, and he paused

uncertain, for the rustic mind is profoundly

conventional. His intrusion grated upon every

nerve in Veronica's body ; she wished to remain

in the strange high atmosphere to which she had

become habituated of late, a mental atmosphere

that had the same effect upon the mind as

the rare air of a mountain-top has upon the body.

She did not wish to speak, that would have

spoilt her atmosphere by putting her in touch

with the person she had to speak to ; without a

word she moved across the floor, pushed the man

gently out of the door and shut it in his face ;

then she seated herself in a chair beside the

window, and sometimes she gazed out into the

sunlit garden, and sometimes at the sunlit face

upon the bed.

Presently her solitude was again interrupted.

A man stood in the doorway surveying the room,

in his hand the little brown bag of his calling.

THE DEMON LOVER 139

He looked from the face on the pillow, stilled by

the peace of death, to the face of the woman by

the window, who seemed to share equally in the

peace. Then he stepped over to the bed and

commenced to make his examination without

speaking; it seemed as if he dared not intrude

upon that silence. But it was broken by Veronica.

The man's action galvanized her into activity,

and she was instantly upon the defensive.

" I do not wish him touched," she said, speaking for the first time that day.

The newcomer replied gently : " I am afriad

he must be touched. There are many things we

shall have to do, but you may be quite sure we

shall do the very best we can for him, and for

you, too. Tell me, are you any relation of his ? "

" I am his secretary," said Veronica.

" Oh," said the doctor. " Well, anyway, we

will do the best we can for you. But do you

know where his relations may be found ? "

" No," said Veronica. " I do not think he

has any."

" You have not been here many days, have

you ? Where were you before you came here ? "

Veronica told him.

" And what were you doing there ? "

For one instant, Veronica was about to tell him,

and then she knew that she could not; she had

touched the hidden side of things and he had not,

she could not speak to him about them, a great

gulf was fixed between them ; he was an outsider,

he dwelt among the surfaces of things, but she

was an initiate, she had passed behind the veil

and seen the causes at work y henceforth she

belonged to the hidden side of things, she was

140 THE DEMON LOVER

only a stranger and a sojourner in the world of

appearances, and could form no tie, make no

friend, receive no sympathy, save from those who

saw life as she now saw it. She must walk alone,

save for those of her own kind, and the doctor

was not of these; she could not tell him anything,

he would not understand.

So she fell back upon bald statements of facts.

She was in Lucas's employment. He had left

his own employment and come down here,

bringing her with him. She did not know why

he had left his employment; she did not know

who his employers were, some sort of a learned

society, she thought; at any rate, if the doctor

wrote to the Bloomsbury house they would

probably give an account of themselves; it was

no business of hers, she was well paid, and asked

no questions. No, she was no relation of Mr.

Lucas's, she had already told him so once. No, she

did not know what his Christian name was. No,

nor his age. He signed documents J. Lucas.

No, she did not know what the J stood for, it

might be James or it might be John, she had no

idea, it was no business of hers, she had never

troubled her head about it. She had always

addressed him as Mr. Lucas. No, she could

throw no light on the cause of his death, he had

been quite well the night before. He had never

complained of any illness, though he had spoken

recently of feeling tired. The doctor grasped at

this statement as the first tangible thing that had

been offered him, and Veronica, as he did not

ask, did not feel it incumbent upon her to inform

him as to the cause of Lucas's exhaustion ; those

who deal with the hidden side of things stand

THE DEMON LOVER 141

apart from their race, and they settle their

differences among themselves by their own

methods. Veronica did not look upon Lucas as

murdered ; she knew that he had been forced to

abandon his body, but she was quite confident of

his ability to look after himself, and pending

instructions from him, she would take no action.

Finally the doctor coaxed her out of the room

and handed her over to the caretaker, who,

poor old soul, fussed round her, striving to express her sympathy by inarticulate mumblings.

The long afternoon hours passed slowly, leaving

the girl in a half-dreamy state ; she could not

realize that the man who had filled her whole

horizon during the past months lay dead upstairs,

and that, whatever the future might hold for

her, that phase of her life had closed for ever.

To her consciousness, a sudden change in their

plans had occurred ; a check, it might be, but

not a finish ; the next move she could not conjecture,

but the game was most certainly not

ended, and she had a sense of expectancy, of

waiting for something to happen.

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

'HE INQUEST WAS REPORTED AT LENGTH IN the local papers, but it is needless to chronicle

it in these pages ; the reader is already aware of

the causes that led to the hurried departure of

Lucas, and there is no occasion to weary him with

the half truths that were told to those who

concerned themselves with the fate of the sheath

of dense matter that he had been forced to

abandon in his haste ; the doctor certified that

death was due to heart failure brought on by

over-exertion ; that was all he could say. The

most rigorous cross-examination of Veronica,

the most careful analysis of the viscera, had failed

to reveal any reason why the man should die, he

had simply ceased to live, and that was all there

was to it. All the same, there was left upon

the minds of all who contacted the case the same

curious impression, they all felt that there was

much that had not been revealed, and yet no

man could frame a question that should lay bare

that which they sought.

They all knew that the young girl who had been

the dead man's companion knew more than she

chose to tell; they also knew that the hard-faced

man who elected to come down from London

and who said he was the dead man's employer,

was not taking the court into his confidence ;

and when it transpired that he had in his possession

a recently-made will, in which everything was

left to the aforesaid young girl, the mystery

deepened, and yet no one could strike upon the

link that connected them with the tragedy.

It was a riddle to which they could find no

solution, so they gave it up, and a verdict was

4

THE DEMON LOVER 143

returned of death from natural causes, in conformity

with the medical evidence, yet all the

countryside knew that something that was not

natural had happened among them.

After the close of the inquest, however, an

interview took place at which they would

have given much to be present, though what

they would have made of that which transpired

would be difficult to say. The hard-faced man

came to see Veronica. She was sitting upon

the terrace as the sun went down, when she

heard footsteps upon the gravel, and looking

up, saw him beside her.

He seated himself upon the stone balustrade

that bounded the terrace, leant forward, resting

his elbows on his knees, hands clasped, and looked

straight into Veronica's eyes, his face close to

hers.

" Now, Miss Mainwaring, I want the truth.

What was the nature of your association with

Lucas ? "

" I was his secretary," replied Veronica.

The man's eyes changed as Lucas's had changed

on the day when he made his selection from among

the women whom the London employment

bureau had sent to him ; he looked straight

through Veronica, not at her, the eyes out of

focus and glazed.

" You are a psychic, and accustomed to leave

your body ; tell me, can you go out at will, or

has someone got to hypnotize you and push you

out r "

" I don't understand what you mean," said

Veronica, looking as blank as she knew how, and

Veronica's round, childish face could look very

144 THE DEMON LOVER

blank indeed when she did not choose to understand,

as they had found out at the inquest.

" It doesn't matter whether you understand

or not. The images rise in your mind, and I can

read them. As a matter of fact, you know what

I mean perfectly well. Come, Miss Mainwaring,

won't you take me into your confidence ? I come

as a friend, not an enemy ; we are quite aware

that you were not responsible for the use that

was made of your faculties."

Veronica still elected to look blank, and the

man said sharply : " It is no use pretending that

you know nothing, because Lucas confessed the

whole business. Moreover, it was I who saw

you materialize that night in the Lodge, and as

soon as you entered the witness-box I recognized

you."

At this statement, Veronica produced a handkerchief

and took refuge in tears. The stern-

faced man tugged angrily at his moustache ; a

woman scores heavily on these occasions.

" It is apparently no use trying to reason with

you," he said, " But remember this, however much

or however little you know, you are not to talk

about it. You have seen what happened to one

traitor, take care it doesn't happen to another."

Veronica raised her face from her handkerchief

and looked straight at him ; during the last few

days a new spirit had begun to dawn in her, and

it was with that spirit she spoke.

" You take too much upon yourself," she said.

" You have no right to take the law into your

own hands. That was not an execution, it was

a murder, and you will have to answer for it.

If you had given him time, he would have

THE DEMON LOVER 145

straightened himself out, but you did not give

him time, and now he is dead."

" That is precisely my own opinion," said a

voice behind them, and they both turned in

surprise to find that an old man with a long

white beard had crossed the lawn unperceived

during their conversation.

I was responsible for that boy. It was I

who put into his hands the knife with which he

cut himself, and you should have left him to

me to deal with. I could always manage him, he

was fond of me in his way, and she and I---- "

indicating Veronica, with a wave of his corded old

hand, " Could have pulled him through between

us. Now you have set going causes that we

cannot easily calculate. But what is the attitude

of this young lady towards the matter ? "

" Mulish," said the hard-faced man, tugging

his moustache more furiously than ever. " I wash

my hands of the whole affair."

" It is a pity that you did not do so sooner,"

replied the newcomer coldly, and the hard-faced

man turned on his heel and strode off down the

path, still tugging his moustache.

" Now, my child," said the old man, turning to

Veronica. " Let us talk this matter over and see

what we can make of it. We know practically

everything, so you need not feel that you are

giving us information Mr. Lucas would not wish

us to have ; all that we do not know is the nature

of your own position in the affair. Did you know

what you were doing, or were you a passive tool

in his hands ? "

" I will tell you nothing," replied Veronica. " I

don't see why I should answer your questions ;

146 THE DEMON LOVER

you killed Mr. Lucas, and you can kill me too, if

you want to, but I will tell you nothing about

him."

The old man sighed. " I cannot urge you

further, in the face of the debt you owe him,"

he said.

Veronica looked up quickly, in astonishment.

" What debt ? what do you mean ? "

" Then he has not told you ? He did not take

you into his confidence ? "

" He told me practically nothing. I am in the

dark, save for what I have guessed."

" Then why are you so loyal to him if you are

not his partner ? You must be his victim, his

tool, used more unscrupulously than any man in

my experience has ever used a living creature."

Veronica looked out into the last of the sunset.

" You wouldn't understand if I told you," she

said at length. " I am not sure if I understand

myself, but there was some tie between us ; I

didn't know its nature, but I was conscious of it.

Besides, there is no one to stand by him if I do

not, and if no one stands by him, then he will be

lost altogether. He was a bad man, but he was

not a wholly bad man ; I think there was something

good in him, and I think he would have got

better if they had given him a chance."

The old man held out his hand. " Go on

believing in him," he said. " If there is anything

that can save him, it is your faith that will do it."

Veronica noticed that he too looked upon Lucas

as a living entity, and was about to frame a question,

but checked herself lest she should be betraying

information the significance of which she could

not gauge.

THE DEMON LOVER 147

He had retreated a few paces down the path

when he returned again. " He was a much

worse man than a child like you can realize," he

said. " You will want all the faith of which

you are capable if you are to regenerate him, and

I am going to tell you something in order to

reinforce your faith, though I am afraid that it

will pain you very much. Do you know that

Lucas died in your place."

Veronica stared at him wide-eyed.

It was known to the Fraternity of which I

am a member that our secrets had been penetrated

by some person, and we decided to strike that

person, as we are able to do, even though he be unknown

to us; and Lucas, knowing this, stood up

and said, That person is nothing but a tool, it is I

who am responsible,' so the brethren left you alone

and struck at him, and I think that they erred

grieviously in so doing, for they should have

known that a man who made that confession had

set his face towards the light, and they should

have given him time to tread his path.

" My dear, I am afraid you have seen the darker

side of the Secret Wisdom ; you have seen it used

for evil, and you have seen it used in judgment

without the the saving grace of mercy; but

I would ask you to remember this, though

perhaps you know it already from your own inner

consciousness, for I think you are not wholly asleep

to such things, that the power which lies behind

the brethren is beneficent, though men may take

its name in vain and use it in error ; for it is only

men of the greatest calibre who can carry that

force and not be bent and twisted, or even burst

asunder by it; therefore do not judge a man harshly

148 THE DEMON LOVER

who fails in occult work. Do not be misled by

our errors, our lack of vision, or the fear that makes

men cruel; we serve a reality, my child, though

we may not always perceive it clearly."

Veronica rose and held out her hand to him.

" I am a stranger to you, and have no claim upon

you," she said, " but I feel that I can trust you ;

will you help me ? I have no one I can turn to,

and there are all sorts of business matters that I

do not understand, and I do not know where to

go for advice."

The old man took her hand. " I accept the

responsibility that is laid upon me, and I pray

that I may discharge it better than I did my

responsibility towards the elder child of my

spirit, whom we have lost."

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

THE OLD MAN WITH stayed VERONICA THREE

days and straightened out her affairs. Not

that they were in any great tangle, for Lucas had

evidently expected his death and made full

preparation for it. The death of General

Sawberry some five days before himself had

placed him, and consequently Veronica, in possession

of a considerable estate, of which the house

in the river valley formed an outlying portion.

Many affairs had to be settled before Veronica

could enter upon the possession of her fortune,

and the old man was very anxious for her to leave

the gloomy and unhealthy house that had been

the scene of the tragedy and make her home with

himself and his sister pending the settlement of

her affairs. But she refused. She had a feeling

that Lucas was not far from her in this place, but

that if she left it and went among the busy haunts of

men he would lose track of her, and sinister though

he had been in life, and ill-omened though the

house might be, yet she could not bring herself

to leave it. She longed for nothing so much as

to be finished with the coil of affairs that had

surrounded her since his death, and be free to

enter into the silence where alone he might be

able to approach her.

Therefore she bade the old man farewell,

promising to call upon him if need should arise,

and settled down to her solitude with the old

caretaker as her sole attendant. No one came

near her. The doctor, suspicious of the whole

affair, was only too thankful to be clear of it ;

and the vicar, believing Veronica to be a black

sheep, had no mind to prejudice himself in the

149

150 THE DEMON LOVER

eyes of his white and woolly flock by trying to

save her.

So the days went past. Veronica kept close

to the routine that they had followed during the

few short hours that she and Lucas had spent

there together. In the morning she walked

about the grounds and sat upon the log by the

river, and in the evening she walked upon the

terrace. Between whiles, she sat, sometimes in

the room that had been a billiard room and which

served them as a living-room, and sometimes in

the room in which Lucas had died. She believed

that in the places which were familiar to him

Lucas would wander, and that sooner or later

they would meet ; but as day followed day and

she got no hint of his presence, a chill fear crept

into her heart. Was he indeed dead ? Dead m

the sense in which most people use that word ?

She knew quite well that he had discarded his

physical body, that a man with an olive skin and

erect carriage would no longer walk towards her

with that light springing step that was so characteristic

of him ; but she firmly believed that Lucas

as a personality continued to exist--that the

organized system of thoughts and feelings that

made up his character was still held together by a

centralized consciousness, was still actuated by

desires and controlled by a purposive will, and

it was this organized consciousness that had been

her companion, not the five foot nine of flesh and

bone that now mouldered in the churchyard.

The summer had changed into autumn, and

coming down one day after a night of rain,

Veronica found a chill wind blowing. It was too

cold to walk in the garden unprotected, so she

THE DEMON LOVER 151

took from its peg the old trench coat in which

Lucas had wrapped her when he brought her down from London, and clad in this garment,

she went out into the woods.

Clothes are strange things, they seem to absorb

something of the personality of their wearers.

Veronica found herself enveloped in the mental

atmosphere that Lucas always emanated, as if

the man himself had stood before her, talking in

his characteristic fashion.

The vagueness of retrospect was gone and he had

become a living reality again, and it suddenly

seemed to her that he wished her presence by his

grave. She had never gone there, for it had never

teemed to her that it was her friend that lay

Juried there, moreover she dreaded the curious

yes of the village. But now, just as she was,

Eatless, and wrapped in the old trench coat, she

It out upon her errand.

' By a detour, she reached the church through

the woods and entered the burial ground unperceived. Two men were engaged in digging a

grave, a small grave for a child, and beyond them, thrree other little mounds. Veronica thought it

strange that so many children should have died

so small a village, for the four little recent

graves represented a heavy infant mortality for

that small population.

Veronica kept some bushes between herself and

the grave-diggers, but as she passed, a snatch of

conversation reached her ears.

" ----an' it was four days to the inquest, an'

then they adjourned for a week to hear what the

doctors in Lunnon had to say, and then Mester

Sampson had to coffin him, but Joe Wellan, wot

152 THE DEMON LOVER

helped, told me that he was as fresh as the day

he died, not a mark on him---- "

As Veronica passed round the church in search

of Lucas's grave, a hand touched her elbow, and

she turned to confront a pleasant-faced, fresh-

coloured young man who addressed her, hat in

hand.

" I--I beg your pardon, but--Miss Mainwaring, is it not ? "

Veronica bowed.

" Then, if you will allow me--this is the way,"

and he led her through the shrubs to a remote

corner of the graveyard, for the instincts of the

village men had told them that Lucas was not

of their kind, and even in death they had removed

him as far as possible from the place where they

and their children should lie.

Veronica stood looking down at the mound of

rough, newly-turned earth ; there lay all that

was left of Lucas as the world knew him, and she

felt a cold tide of fear rising in her heart lest

the world should be right after all; there was no

evidence to the contrary, no shadowy hand from

beyond the grave had touched her, as she had

half expected, no intuition had stolen into her

consciousness, and now, confronted by this

mound of clay among the yew-trees, death, as

the world knew death, seemed incontrovertible ;

her faith slipped from her ; what strange phantom

of belief had Lucas pursued, dragging her in his

train ? He had died from heart failure following

on over-exertion, so the coroner's jury had

decided ; and before he died he had suffered

from delusions, and she, drawn under the sway

of his personality, had shared in them. But

THE DEMON LOVER 153

now he was dead, and here his body was buried,

and his soul, according to all orthodox tenets,

had gone to hell. This was the end.

II Veronica roused from her reverie. The wind

blew coldly through the dreary evergreens, she

drew the heavy coat she wore closer about her

body, and pulled her feet out of the sodden ground

into which they had sunk. A dozen yards away

the man who had shown her the grave was still

waiting, bare-headed, watching her, and as she

turned away from the grave he approached her

with the awkward sympathy of an Englishman,

rendered still more awkward by the ambiguity

of her position; but whatever her relations with

Lucas might have been (and the village was

quite certain upon this point), he was touched by

the sight of the lonely girl coming down to the

still lonelier grave.

" I--I'm afraid it is rather rotten for you up

at the Grange," he began diffidently, " especially

after the shock you have had. It's a beastly

place at the best of times. I am awfully sorry

about the whole business. You must have had

?, a rotten bad time."

Veronica looked up at him steadily for a moment

without replying. He was a big-boned, fresh-

complexioned young fellow, just such a one as she had often played tennis with in the gardens

y on the Surrey hills; he belonged to the old days

before her world had fallen about her ears, days

K that she had thought to be gone for ever, and for

the sake of those days, Veronica smiled.

In repose, Veronica was a pretty doll; in

animation she was a pretty child, but her smile

was the smile of the Monna Lisa, and in that she

154 THE DEMON LOVER

was the eternal woman, world-old but unageing,

revealing the hint of life's essential forces lying

latent and unfired, only awaiting the touch that

should arouse them; and no man who saw that

smile could withhold his hand from the attempt

to bestow that touch and see the fire blaze up at

his command.

At length Veronica spoke. " It is very kind

of you," she said, " but I have not been lonely.

After all the trouble was over I was glad to be quiet."

" But it is a rotten place for a girl up at that

God-forsaken Grange. How long are you going

to stop there ? "

" I don't know," said Veronica. An hour ago

she would have answered that she was going to

stop there for the rest of her life, but now a

strange detachment had taken place. Lucas was

dead, it was all over ; there was no point in

remaining.

" Are you going back to the Grange now ? I

can show you a short cut through the woods if

you like, it will save you going through the

village," and he led Veronica down a path that

passed through a gap in the low stone wall that

surrounded the churchyard. " My name is

Alee Butler," he continued. " My pater is

doctor here."

" I remember him," said Veronica. " He

came when Mr. Lucas died."

" Er--yes," said Alee, awkwardly, and silence

fell between them, which Veronica did not

trouble to break.

It was suddenly broken by the man, however.

" I say, look at your hand I " he exclaimed.

" It's bleeding."

THE DEMON LOVER 155

Veronica raised her hand in astonishment. A

thin trickle of blood ran down the wrist and a

heavy drop fell from her finger-tip upon the

dead leaves at her feet, lying there, a scarlet

t splash in the watery sunlight that had at last

penetrated the clouds. A similar crimson stain

marked the grey stones that lay about the ruined

wall. Veronica thrust back the stiff sleeve of

the trench-coat and found that, drop by drop,

blood was welling from the veins of the fore-arm;

the wound that Lucas had given her in that

strange scene that had been enacted the night

of his death, had, for some unknown reason, re-opened, and was bleeding afresh.

Is " I say, that's quite a gash," said Butler. How did you manage to do it ? " and producing

a large white handkerchief, he bound it up, not

unskilfully. He was in no hurry to complete his

task, however, and Veronica suspected that, with

a very little encouragement, he would have held

her hand, but she resolutely pulled down the

rough sleeve and thrust the injured arm into

the breast of her coat; for a moment they stood, however, the man looking down and the girl

looking up. They were sheltered from the wind

by a hollow, and though it threshed among the

tree-tops, the undergrowth was unstirred. But as they stood, a little wandering wind came

by and blew round them; little vortices of air drew the dead leaves up into miniature whirlwinds,

and this wandering draught was cold with

a strange coldness, like the wind from a cavern.

Veronica shivered and drew her coat closer, and

Butler, moved by he knew not what impulse,

glanced over his shoulder, and simultaneously they

156 THE DEMON LOVER

set off down the path at a quickened pace.

Butler accompanied Veronica as far as the

strand of slack wire that flanked the rusting

gates, and paused irresolute, waiting for an

invitation to enter. It was not given, however;

Veronica had many things to think over, and

wished to be alone, and reluctantly he raised his

hat and turned away.

The little cold wind still blew around Veronica

as she went through the shrubbery, she could

hear it rustle the boughs behind her as she

passed, and saw the unkempt lilacs stir above her

head and the leaves come down in a shower.

At the window opening upon the terrace she

paused, a little spiral of leaves danced in the

unswept corners of the steps, and as she opened

the unlatched pane, a stream of the fallen Virginia

Creeper, scarlet as blood, swept across the floor

and rose up in a giddy dance in the eddies before

the open fire-place.

Veronica dropped into a big leather-covered

arm-chair and stared at the smouldering hre.

The leaves, the draught withdrawn, lay in

brilliant patches upon the faded carpet. All

was quiet.

Veronica had come to the dividing of the ways,

and with a woman's intuition she knew it; she

might, by turning her mind towards Butler and

the things he stood for, bring back her soul to

the normal; or she might, by dwelling upon the

personality of Lucas and all the strange world

to which he held the key, pass even as he had

sought to pass, into the greater freedom of the

soul. All her early training, the strongest thing

in life, turned her towards the things that

THE DEMON LOVER 157

Butler symbolized, her beloved Surrey hills, the

gardens, and the fire-sides of every day ; but

Lucas had made her free of interstellar space and aeonial time, and had shown her the path

of the soul from the dark ocean of the Unmanifest

to the Cosmic Fire. She had seen, and she

could not forget ; no soul can. Like the swallow

that has been long in the air, Veronica was well

content to fold her wings under the eaves of

a human habitation, but all the same, she was a

bird of the air, not of the barnyard, and sooner

or later she would take wing again ; sooner or

later, she knew in her heart, a call would come

out of the Unseen, and she must hold herself in

readiness to respond to it.

So her moods alternated. A greeting from the

gardener, the shouts of playing children down the

lane, and she knew that Lucas was dead and

buried and the mad dream over; then the

daylight would fade, the wind of evening blow

round the house, dancing the leaves into spirals,

the dying fire would throw a lessening circle of

light about the hearth, and the corners fill with

shadows; then the unseen drew very close to her , Veronica, and the veil that shelters us mortals from

the too-great blaze of life would grow very thin,

' and through the rifts she would catch brief,

shifting glimpses of the speeding currents of

space, the rolling, banking clouds of glory, rising

like fume from a furnace, and great Forms moving

among them ; and over all, like a flight of golden

bees, the little, upward-pointing flames that are

the innermost souls of men ; some, freed by sleep

< during the brief span between birth and death,

and others in the greater freedom that lies between

158 THE DEMON LOVER

death and birth. Behind the shadow-show of

our world she caught a glimpse of the great

Presences that cast the shadows, and sooner or

later, out of the swirlings and speedings of

space would come one whom she knew, who

would summon her.

Then the old caretaker would bring in the

morning paper, arrived by a belated country

post, and Veronica would shake off her dreams

and return to realities.

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

SO VERONICA'S MOODS ALTERNATED AS THE SUN

and shade alternated on those shortening

autumn days, but still she lingered on in the

mouldering old house. Meanwhile, Butler

assiduously developed the friendship that had

begun by the newly-made grave. He would

drop in at odd times, the middle of the morning,

after tea, after supper, but he would never stop

to a meal even were one upon the table. To do

so would have occasioned comment in the home

circle, and he had no mind that they should know

of his visits to the Grange or its solitary occupant. Veronica, unskilled in the ways of the

world, wondered at his refusal, but could not interpret it. Butler was a champion of beauty in

distress, but only up to a point; beyond that

point, his world bound him.

But nevertheless, in spite of difficulties, he

came so often by the secluded wood path that led through the churchyard, that even the

mastiff which, chained to a barrel, guarded the

back premises, got to know his footstep and

ceased to give tongue. Time and again, sitting

in the warm lamp-lit room with Veronica, he

was on the point of asking her to be his wife,

and time and again he hesitated. She would

talk freely of her childhood, of the training college, but of her life with Lucas she would tell him no more than she had told the coroner. She had been Mr. Lucas's secretary in London

[ when he had managed the affairs of the Society

for the Study of Comparative Folklore ; she had

accompanied him to Beckering to continue her

duties when he left London ; he had been very

159

160 THE DEMON LOVER

good to her, and she would permit no aspersion

on his memory. Like all the rest of the district,

Butler knew that there was much that these

obvious statements did not explain, but Veronica

did not offer to enlighten him, and he lacked the

courage to put a direct question.

Unable to get work in the disorganization

following on the war, living at home, dependent

on his father even for pocket-money, and not

yet come to his full strength after having been

badly gassed, he was not in a position to embark

upon a course that would meet with opposition

from his parents, so Butler took no definite stand

with regard to Veronica. The days drifted by

pleasantly enough, he saw just as much of her as

if they had been officially engaged, and he was

spared all the unpleasantness that publicity

would have occasioned ; no other male showed

any signs of competing, so he was not driven to

clinch his bargain from any fear of losing it.

Veronica, on her part, still the prey of alternating

moods, adopted an equally drifting policy towards

Butler. Although he could well have qualified for

the post of Prince Charming and dragon-slayer

in the Surrey days, those days were gone for

ever, and in the brief stormy interregnum

Veronica had known a man in whom the fire of

life burnt so fiercely that all other men seemed

extinguished by his light as is a stove upon

which the sun shines. All men now seemed to

her either immature or senile, Lucas alone was

a man in his strength. Butler was a child, a

puppet; she liked his companionship and was

glad that he liked her, but he woke no fire within

her. Lucas, by the alchemy of his personality,

THE DEMON LOVER 161

had raised the flash-point of her emotions so

high that few men were in existence who could

ever fire her again.

So things would have continued to drift

indefinitely had not Butler come in one day

unannounced, to find Veronica nibbling the end

of her pen in the effort to cope with some legal-

looking documents. His offer of assistance was

accepted, and he speedily discovered that he

was disentangling the affairs of a considerable

estate. This put an entirely different complexion

on the matter. Butler did not wish to be mercenary, was not, in fact, of a mercenary nature, but merely weak, and with passions

insufficiently strong to cause him to drive through

all obstacles to the object of his desire. The

discovery that Veronica had private means, and considerable means too, would remove the financial barrier that prevented their marriage. Of course he would not live on his wife, he would

] get a job and keep his end up, but they would

1 not be dependent on the good-will of his family,

a good-will which, he felt sure, would never be

extended to Veronica, even if she were able to

prove her innocence, after the notoriety which

she had achieved in the county, and Veronica

had never shown any inclination to clear her

character of the aspersions that had been cast

upon it. As a matter of fact, she was too innocent

of life to realize that she stood in any need of

whitewashing, her conscience was clear, and that

was all she thought about.

Butler drew his chair up to the table and

helped Veronica to fill in dividend warrants.

Though it was sufficiently dark to demand the

162 THE DEMON LOVER

lamp, his head was perhaps closer to hers than it

need have been, and in another moment the

fatal words would have passed his lips, when a

sudden patter of dead leaves struck the glass as

a gust of wind set all the windows rattling.

They both looked up in astonishment, for the

night had been quiet hitherto.

" A storm getting up," said Butler, and even

as he spoke a fresh gust smote the window with

renewed vigour ; the panes bulged, rocked, and

then the crazy fastening gave way, both panes of

the French window burst open, and a great rush

of wind laden with a stream of dancing leaves

drove into the room. Out went the lamp, but

the flames of the logs leaped up as the feathery

ashes of the hearth joined the leaves in the wild

whirlwind dance of the gale. Butler seized the

flanges of the window and forced them shut,

then he struck a match and relit the lamp ; the

renewed light showed scarlet leaves and grey ashes

settling slowly down all over the floor. Veronica

amid her strewn papers, was staring into space

with unseeing eyes. Something of the wild

night without seemed to have entered with the

rushing wind, and though the uproar had subsided,

a lingering spirit of darkness brooded over

the room ; the lamp gave less light, the fire less

heat, and the veil that hides the unseen hung in

tatters that the lightest breath might displace.

Veronica felt that, should the strange atmosphere

that brooded over the room grow the least

degree more tangible, something would become

visible to the physical eyes of both of them, een

the unimaginative Alee, just as a liquid in which

the solution reaches saturation point suddenly

THE DEMON LOVER 163

crystallizes. The Unseen that had drawn near

to her this time, however, was not the unseen of

inter-stellar space, but rather of the waters under

the earth ; it was dark, thick, oppressive, like the

air of a well; the lamp would not burn in such

an atmosphere, little blue flames showed among

the logs on the hearth; but Butler, happily

oblivious with a wholesome stolidity, gathered

up the fallen papers, lit a pipe, and took his seat

at the table again to finish the task in hand.

Luckily it was nearly completed, for Veronica

found it hard to keep her attention on the

documents that demanded her signature ; Butler,

too, was in a hurry, for supper time was

approaching, and he had no wish to draw attention

to his movements by being late for the family

', meal, so the task was speedily despatched, and he rose to his feet to depart. Veronica, however,

[ was reluctant to let him go, but he resisted all

} her efforts to persuade him to stay and share her

? evening meal. She opened the French window

} and stepped out on to the terrace. To their surprise they found that the wind had died away as suddenly as it had arisen, and no noticeable air was moving in the sheltered garden. Commenting on this, they stood looking up at the unclouded stars for a few moments, and Butler had just turned to Veronica for a last farewell when the piercing howl of a dog's agony cut through the stillness of the valley. The sound came from

the outbuildings where the old watch-dog abode,

- and instinctively the country-bred Butler

; answered the cry of an animal's distress, dashing

? round the corner of the terrace at top speed

I with Veronica close behind him.

164 THE DEMON LOVER

They discovered the old mastiff, whose function

it was to guard the house, lying on his side on the

flagstones outside the barrel that served him for

a kennel; a little foam hung from his dark

muzzle and he was panting, otherwise he seemed

unharmed. He lifted his head as he became

aware of their presence, but dropped it back

on the stones again, appearing completely

exhausted.

Butler knelt and examined him. " Poor old

chap," he said. " He must have had some sort

of a fit." And gathering the heavy dog up in

his arms, he managed to bundle him back among

the straw of his kennel, the creature, too weak

to resist, accepting his ministrations sullenly.

" I wonder what can have been the matter

with him," said Veronica. " Last night he was

howling in the most unaccountable fashion. I

have never heard a dog howl quite like that

before ; a long drawn-out wail on one note.

The gardener told me it was the death-howl,

and said they were quite upset about it at the

cottages down the road ; he said that dogs howl

like that when they see the souls of the dead

passing out, but no one had died during the

night, unless some tramp or gipsy had died in

the fields. The men are going out to see if

they can find anything."

" Oh, bunkum, Veronica I You don't mean

to say you take that sort of tosh seriously ? "

exclaimed Butler. " Mother's pug got at the

ashbin once and ate the fluff that came out of

the sweeper, and he howled just like that when

he couldn't get his breath ; I raked the stuff out

of his throat with a feather. Your beast had

THE DEMON LOVER 165

probably got something stuck in his wind-pipe,

but whatever it is, he has coughed it up now, for

he is breathing all right again." And he led her

round the corner of the house on to the terrace

and saw her safely in at the window again before

he set out on his walk to the village.

His head was among the stars and his feet

scarcely touched the earth as he walked ; Veronica

was within his reach (it never entered his head

that she might not accept him if he proposed),

and he whistled Mendelssohn's Wedding March

as he went through the darkness of the wood

path. He stopped his musical efforts as he set

foot in the churchyard, he had been well brought

up, and it did not seem to him reverent to whistle

in such a place. The newly-risen moon made

lakes of light among the dark yews, and in one

such silver pool lay the rough mound of clay

that covered the man whose influence still

overshadowed the girl of his choice. He paused

beside that mound. What secret lay concealed

there ? He must tackle Veronica straight about

that matter before he popped the question ; it

didn't do to have secrets between man and wife,

he wanted to know the ins and outs of the matter.

Who was this chap, and what had he been up to ?

Jolly good job he had departed and left the

coast clear for himself, Alee. So long, old chap," he said half aloud, nodding

to the man that lay below. " I am afraid I have

bagged your girl, but you had no further use for

her, had you ? You have departed to the place

where they neither marry nor are given in

marriage; good luck to you, I hope you are happy

with your harp and don't ever regret the binges you

166 THE DEMON LOVER

used to have. Wish me luck, old bean, even if I

have done you in the eye." And he went on again, whistling. Not even the graveyard could subdue

his spirits when he thought of the prospect that

lay before him. The night was calm, and this

time no little whirlwind blew about the grave

to chill body and heart and hasten his steps.

Veronica, left alone at the Grange, ate her

solitary supper and then sat over the fire, gazing

into the flames. There were no blinds to the

windows, and the heavy serge curtains would

have come away in the hand at any attempt to

draw them, so rotten were they with damp and age,

so the night looked in unhindered, and whatever creatures happened to be wandering in the night.

Veronica was not nervous, however ; the flights

out of her body, to which Lucas's processes had

accustomed her, had largely robbed the unseen

of its terrors; she knew what moved there, they

were not unfamiliar, and she also knew the protection

she could invoke at will, she felt as secure

as the little child who breathes the old prayer :

' Four angels round my bed,

Two at the foot, and two at the head,

Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John,

Guard the bed that I be on.

So she sat, gazing into the flames and reviewing

her life. Her childhood on the Surrey hills

where nothing ever happened ; the strain of her

life at the training school; her association with

Lucas, when altogether too much happened;

and now her strange tie to this dismantled,

sodden place, where he had died. Then her

mind turned to Butler; sensitized by the

THE DEMON LOVER 167

processes through which Lucas had put her, she

had readily picked up his thoughts as he sat

beside her at the table, and she knew quite well

that he would soon ask her to marry him, and

she debated her answer ; if it had not been for

Lucas, she would have liked him very much, he

would have just suited the unawakened doll-

child she used to be ; he was big ; handsome in

his blond way, and good natured ; fond of the

things she was fond of, dogs, a garden, a little two-seater or a push-bike; read the lighter

novels, liked popular music with a catchy refrain ;

hHe was always ready for a bit of fun, and in all

fthings was a thorough good pal: he had already

(adopted little proprietary ways towards her

which she rather liked. But behind him loomed

the dark personality of Lucas, and though Butler

Would have appealed to the girl she used to be before she went to the house in the Bloomsbury

square, a side of her nature had been awakened

to life that he could neither comprehend nor

Satisfy. To her it seemed quite natural that the

dog should see the souls of the dead pass by as

they set out upon their journey, and should be

frightened; she herself would have been

frightened if she had not known what she did, but why should one fear one's friend, whether

fin his body or out of it ? Death made no

rdifference to his disposition, if he was one's friend

?in life he would be one's friend after death. She

iherself had been just as much a ghost as any

fdead man when she materialized on the floor of

Ahe Lodge, but her nature had undergone no

^Change ; and the man who had seen her, Mr.

Fordyce, had not been frightened ; he had

168 THE DEMON LOVER

merely been angry and considered her guilty of

an impertinence, just as much as if she had

slipped in with her physical presence where she

was not wanted. Yet Alee, in the first place,

regarded all such things as fake or superstition,

vet, if he were to see any such manifestation for

himself, would have been frightened out of his

wits. What a freedom this knowledge gave

one, even the little bit of it that had come her

way ; life was made infinitely bigger, and death

was robbed of its terrors; in spite of all she had

suffered, she would not wish the past undone.

She had something that Butler had not got, and

could never have, unless he also trod the path

by which she had come, which was not likely;

one had to pay a price for this strange freedom

of the soul, but it was worth paying. As old

Dr. Latimer had said, she had only seen the

dark side of occultism; she had seen Lucas

trying to use black magic, and she had seen the

Fraternity smash him ; all the same, she knew

by her own inner consciousness the light that lay

behind. She had felt a Presence that was as

much higher than a man as a man is higher than

a dog ; she had known a Power that can light a

fire in the soul never to go out. She wondered

what her last incarnation had been ; she felt

sure that Lucas had had some part in it. She

wondered what her next life would be ? She

felt sure he would appear again, and she wanted

things to be on the right lines next time, not all

this strife and tragedy. To-night the things of

the inner world were very near to her and very

real, facts of her own experience, not tales out

of a book.

THE DEMON LOVER 169

Lucas she felt sure she would meet again in

another life, but would they meet again in this

life ? He had gone out prematurely, in the

prime of his strength, his work unfinished, and

all his desires focussed upon this earth ; it was a

very different death to that of an old man who

had worked out his allotted span, whose hold on

life had been steadily loosening, and whose

friends were awaiting him beyond the veil;

such a one might be held to be finding his freedom

when he shed his body, but Lucas was a

frustrated soul, and she knew he would return if

it were within his power. A sudden thought

struck her, was it Lucas that the dog had seen,

and at whom it had howled ? Had he really

come back and was he in the neighbourhood ?

And if so, how could she get in touch with him ?

She sat up erect in her chair as the thought took

hold of her. Forgotten was her terror of Lucas

in the Bloomsbury days, she only remembered

the man of the final forty-eight hours, she

only felt the strange bond that existed between

them, a bond that death had but served to

strengthen.

As she pondered, a sound upon the gravel

outside drew her attention to the window,

something was moving in the darkness; her

heart stood still, for such stealthy movements are

little liked in a lonely country house that contains

only two women. A shadow came up

to the uncurtained window and stood looking in,

and she saw that it was the old mastiff who had

got loose from his kennel and now stood gazing

into the lighted room, his eyes gleaming green

with the reflection of the lamp. These strange,

iyo THE DEMON LOVER

incandescent eyes put her in mind of Lucas

when he hypnotized her, his eyes seemed to shine

with an inner light in just the same way ; in fact,

Lucas seemed very close to her to-night.

She had no fear of the dog ; dogs were her

passion, and she was in two minds about inviting

him in to share the warmth of the hearth when

he settled the matter for himself by rearing up

on his hind legs and setting his fore-paws against

the window ; the crazy fastenings gave way for

a second time that evening, and in he came, a

great brindled beast, the black of his muzzle

touched with white, for he was an old dog.

Veronica crossed the room and closed the

window behind him, for the night was cold.

The dog walked over to the fire and stood upon

the hearth rug looking round the room ; he did

not wander about sniffing, after the custom of

dogs in a strange place, but, using his eyes

rather than his nose, he turned his head from

side to side, surveying his surroundings, and

especially Veronica.

She returned to her seat by the fire, and he

came and stood before her, gazing into her face

with his brown dog's eyes. She leant forward and

returned his gaze. " What was it you howled

at last night ? " she said. The dog blew out

his nostrils and woofed heavily, and a clumsy

paw scrabbled at her skirt. He came nearer and

laid his heavy black jowl on her knee and looked

up at her with the worried expression that the

facial wrinkles give to a mastiff. She bent down,

and, looking straight into his eyes, spoke : " If

you meet Mr. Lucas again, tell him I want to

see him."

THE DEMON LOVER 171

The dog gave a great woof, as if of relief, and

sat down on his haunches. His mouth opened,

his red tongue came out, and he grinned as only

a dog can grin. Veronica did not quite like

that grin ; there was something sinister in the

way this dumb animal was laughing at her.

<( Lie down," she said, indicating the hearth rug,

and obediently he disposed himself as she had

directed. She herself took up some fancy-work,

and the dog lay at her feet, motionless but

watching every movement, till bedtime came

and she rose.

" Come along," she said to her companion,

I must fasten you up for the night." He

followed her to the window, and laying a hand

on his massive neck, she guided him back to the

yard, the great creature padding beside her

upon silent feet. There she discovered that he

had escaped from his chain by slipping his head

out of his collar, so she discreetly drew the

strap one hole tighter, for she did not like the

idea of this great dog being at liberty ; true, he

had shown himself a friendly enough creature,

but his silent appearance at the window .had had

in it something of the sinister ; this looming up

out of the darkness had seemed to let the night

in upon her, as if a rush of the invisible denizens

of the underworld had entered with him. She

returned to the lamp-lit sitting-room through

the window that she had left open behind her ;

but even here she did not find refuge, it seemed

as if a darkness had entered during her absence

that the light of the lamp failed to dispel; the

nickering flames of the wood fire, now rising,

ttow falling as the logs stirred in their burning,

172 THE DEMON LOVER

cast fitful gleams into the darkness till it seemed

as if the eyes of the great goggling fish in the

glass cases were alight with life. Veronica lit

her candle and hastened upstairs away from

those ill-omened shadows.

CHAPTER NINETEEN

IN THE MORNING HER NERVOUSNESS SEEMED

ridiculous. True, she still shrank from the

idea of the mastiff being free to roam about the

house, but then he was a large and powerful

dog and would be a very ugly customer should

his present good-will be changed to resentment,

and a dog who has been a chained watch-dog all

his life is not apt to have the sweetest of tempers.

Something about him, however, attracted while

it repelled ; he was a dog that gave a curious

impression of personality, as some dogs do who

are deep in the confidence of their masters and

who seem to have acquired a human view-point

from their constant association with human beings.

After breakfast Veronica went to pay him a

visit and see if he suffered any after-effects from

his curious indisposition of the night before. He

did not come out to greet her, as she had half

expected he would after his previous friendliness,

and it was not until she knelt down at the entrance

to his barrel that a head was thrust out in response

to her summons. A pair of misty eyes blinked

dazedly at the sunlight, then the head was withdrawn

again and no appeals of hers could induce

it to reappear, though the eyes glowed with a

strange green animal fire out of the darkness; it

seemed to Veronica as if the saliva of the jaws

were faintly phosphorescent, and the whole " feel"

of dog, kennel, and surroundings was so repellent

that she drew hastily back and hurried away

from the yard and its sinister occupant.

By the time she had reached the lawn in front

of the terrace she was half minded to return ; it

was ridiculous to feel like this about the dog;

'73

174 THE DEMON LOVER

the previous evening she had quite liked the

friendly old thing, and anyway, the animal was

obviously ailing. Seeing the gardener among the

shrubs, she went over and spoke to him concerning

the dog's condition, and he told her that the

animal had refused its food that morning, but

that he did not care for the task of examining it

single-handed ; there was a very good vet. in

the village, however, and if Miss Mainwaring

liked, he would ask him to come round and have

a look at it, and Veronica agreed that this should

be done if the creature did not seem alright by

the following morning.

Wrapping herself in Lucas's coat, which had

become her regular wear now that the weather

had turned colder, Veronica went for a walk

down by the river-side, trying to blot out from

her memory the image of the glowing eyes and

faintly luminous muzzle that she had seen in

the darkness of the kennel. Her walk took her

past the row of labourers' cottages that stood

a little way down the lane ; several children were

playing outside who regarded her with an awed

curiosity, and of the glances she received through

the open doors from their elders, some were

pitying and some were hostile. Veronica passed

on; their opinions did not trouble her, she

belonged to another world, whose denizens,

hostile or friendly, were not of this plane of

existence, and only such human beings could be

her fellows as also had the freedom of that

world. The hard-faced man, though he had

been hostile, was nearer to her, in some subtle

way, than Alee Butler, well as she had got to

know the latter; and as for old Dr. Winthrop,

THE DEMON LOVER 175

he seemed to be almost a blood-relation ; she

made up her mind that she would take counsel

with him should Alee ask her to marry him, as

she felt convinced he was going to.

She could not make up her mind concerning

Alee. Her old self would have been well enough

content with his easy, pleasant surfaces, but her

present self had known Lucas, and the heights

and depths. She was torn between her two

selves, she felt that, according as she willed, she

might be either one or the other, but she could

not be both, there was no possibility of blending

them. Should she wish to become again the

Veronica of the Surrey hills, then her way of

return lay by the path that Butler was opening

before her. She was powerless to return alone;

so far had she penetrated into the hidden kingdom

that the riven veil had closed behind her; only a

close union with a dweller in the outer world

could draw her back. All this she knew by means

of an inner intuition that day by day was

becoming more acute ; almost like a voice, it

seemed at times, so that Veronica was sometimes

tempted to personalize it; her Friend of the

Shadows, she called it, and visualized it as a

bright, radiant Being that moved upon feet of

flame, of the same order of creation as the Presence

to which she had become accustomed during

those strange flights of the soul upon which Lucas

had sent her in the far-off days at the old house

in the Bloomsbury square. She remembered

the great Hand that had closed behind her the

gates of the invisible world, sealing them with the

Sign of the Cross ; she had been forbidden

to seek that world again, but now in a strange,

176 THE DEMON LOVER

subtle way it seemed to be approaching her ;

impalpably, imperceptibly, as objects loom into

sight as a dawn advances, her gradually quickening

senses were perceiving dim outlines in another

state of existence ; sometimes she would perceive

intangible presences, and sometimes the intangible

factor in living beings that seemed in an

impalpable way to image forth their inmost,

hidden thoughts and the secret essence of their

souls. Fair words or a pleasant face no longer

counted with Veronica, it was by this subtle

emanation she judged, as a dog is said to identify

its master, and she experienced comfort or discomfort

according to the quality of this subtle

aroma. It was the faintness of this spiritual

flavour that rendered Butler distasteful to her ;

in her own mind she likened him to a lemon

squash made by someone who had been mean

with the lemon ; the faint tang of a negative

presence spoiled the pure water of solitude,

and there was not enough of the flavour of

personality for companionship; his voice had

no feeling behind it, his physical presence no

force. Looking at his clear-cut, handsome face

and big powerful form, Veronica wondered

whether it was she who was to blame ; had her

taste in these intangible spiritual flavours been

vitiated by her association with Lucas ? Could

she, if she no longer received unhealthful stimuli,

grow accustomed to a wholesome but insipid

diet ? All Veronica's early training, the influence

of her home-life, her religious teaching, bade her

forget the macabre dream of the past months and

return to the healthy normal life symbolized by

Butler.

THE DEMON LOVER 177

It seemed as if her guardian angel stood at

the cross-roads, and said to her : " This way lies

peace and a simple happiness. That way lie

battle and storm, and a soul to be snatched from

the burning. We would not have you driven to

such a destiny, therefore we have placed before

you an alternative that your choice may be free."

But she had known Lucas, and she could not

forget. He had opened up to her soul wide

vistas down which go the paths that lead over

the horizon ; he had taught her the need of

spaciousness; could she ever settle down within

the small circle of protecting walls that would be

drawn around her should she cast in her lot with

Alee ? Would the friendship of the village

respectables compensate her for the closmg of

the veil ?

It would not! Veronica knew that it would

not, and it was only because she had glimpsed

the sinister side of the Unseen that she could

even contemplate such a thing. The little cold

wind that died down as suddenly as it sprang up--

the strange glow of the mastiff's eyes seen in the

darkness of his kennel--if it had not been for these

things she would not have looked at Butler, but

they seemed to presage a strange world of

unknown horrors that might at any moment close

in upon her, and from which he, and he alone,

could save her ; should she remain by herself,

then, step by step, she would be drawn deeper

into the unseen world of whose heights and

depths she had hitherto had but fugitive glimpses.

It was this dread that made her try to see all

the best that was in Butler and what he had to

offer her, and to esteem a tranquil though

178 THE DEMON LOVER

humdrum life at a high value as an alternative

to the heights and horrors that Lucas, even though

dead, seemed still to be able to open up to her, and

to value the simple, kindly, conventionally good

character of Alee, even though she could not

help contrasting it with the strange fire that

had burnt in Lucas.

It was these thoughts that made her bestow

upon the former her rare, slow, Monna Lisa smile

as she opened the window to admit him when

he came to see her that evening, and this smile,

following upon the removal of material obstructions,

swung the keystone of his resolution into

place. Without waiting to enter the room, half

in and half out of the window as he was, he

caught her in his arms.

" Veronica," he said, " do you know what I

have come for ? " He looked down into her

big, grey-blue eyes, and for the first time a twinge

of doubt assailed him, the eyes were veiled,

remote, something lay behind them that was

hidden from him ; there were depths in this

girl that he could not comprehend, that were so

far outside his understanding that he could not

even frame a question as to their nature. Veronica,

however, though she remained passive, did not

repulse him, but allowed herself to be led to the

fireside in his embrace, where she gently disengaged

herself and sank into her usual chair.

He stood before her. " Veronica," he said,

" I want you to be my wife."

Veronica did not answer. Chin on hand, she

sat motionless, gazing into the fire. Among the

coals her imagination pictured the face of Lucas,

and her mind asked him : " How will it affect

THE DEMON LOVER 179

you if I do this thing ? Do you still need me

in your new state ? Will you feel that I have

been disloyal to you if I take this means of

escape from the things with which I cannot cope ?

I gave myself to you when I kissed you, here, on

the very spot where he is standing, that last

night of your life ; and now that I know that you

died for me, the pledge is doubly binding. If

you need me, I will remain, but if you do not

need me, then I will take this way of escape

that is offered me."

/

A faint sound from the other side of the room

roused her ; a dead leaf, borne by some wandering

current of air, had drifted across the window-sill

and fallen upon the polished wood within.

" Damn that window," exclaimed Butler,

upon whom the interruption seemed to have an

irritating effect, and, crossing the room in his

heavy shooting boots, he shut it noisily. Returning

to the hearth, he took his stand before the girl

once more. " Well, Veronica," he said. " What

is it to be ? "

To Veronica, a cold, invisible darkness seemed

to have flowed into the room while the window

was open. Her old terror of the Unseen returned

to her with renewed force, and, turning to Butler

as a tower of refuge, she held out both her hands ;

he caught them in his strong, warm grasp, and,

dropping on one knee before her, brought his

eager face on a level with hers. But as she

looked into his eyes, a sudden knowledge

came to her that she had nothing to give him,

for her soul had followed another man out into

the darkness; then, looking over his head, she

saw that the flame of the lamp was burning with

180 THE DEMON LOVER

diminished luminosity, the shadows from the

corners of the room were closing in about the

hearth, and her grip suddenly tightened upon

the hands that held hers. And yet she could

not give him her promise ; could not, in spite of

the horrors it contained, cut herself off from

the unseen world.

She rose unsteadily to her feet. " I must have

time to think," she said. " It means so much,

I must have time to think it out. Go, now,

please, Alee. Come back to-morrow morning,

and I will give you your answer."

He straightened himself beside her. " Any

way," he said, " I am going to kiss you before I

go," and catching her in his arms, he kissed her

full on the lips. For an instant a vision of

Lucas's face, distorted with rage, gnashing its

teeth at them, appeared before Veronica's eyes.

Butler released her. " Bye-bye," he said. " I'll

be round bright and early ; or if anything should

happen to prevent my coming, I will see that

you get word."

A sudden thought leapt to Veronica's mind

that, had she been the lover, there was nothing

that would have prevented her from coming to

learn her fate, and securing the window behind

him, she stood listening to his departing footsteps,

heavy upon the gravel. He reached the edge of

the wood, and the sounds ceased as he set foot

upon the soft earth path. Suddenly

Veronica's heart stood still ; silent and swift-

moving as a shadow, the mastiff passed the

window, nose to ground, hot upon the scent of

the retreating man.

Veronica, her senses paralysed, leant up against

THE DEMON LOVER 181

the window-frame for support. Should she cry

out to warn him ? Should she snatch up some

weapon and go after him ? Should she run to

the cottages for help ? Even as she debated,

there rang out upon the night air a cry, wild,

appalling, cut short in the middle. Then there

was silence. Veronica's knees gave under her,

and she dropped in a huddled heap into a near-by

chair.

For a time she lay with her head buried in

the cushions. Then she lifted it. Would the

dog return ? Eyes straining into the darkness, she

waited, and she had not long to wait. An

uncertain shadow moved upon the lawn, and then

a heavy head rose above the steps that led to the

terrace, and the dog stood without.

A rope of dark-coloured foam hung from his

muzzle, and his flanks heaved ; he was an old

dog, and the struggle had tried him. The eyes

of the girl stared into the dog's, those of the

animal filled with a strange phosphorescence.

He reared up on his hind legs and placed a paw

on the window-pane. Veronica watched with a

helpless fascination as the crazy woodwork bulged

inwards till the catch slipped and the window

burst open ; a pair of brindled shoulders filled

the aperture and paused, as if waiting for an

invitation. Veronica made neither sound nor

movement, and the animal entered.

It came up to her and rested its muzzle upon

her knee. Still she made no movement; the horror

of the beast that had killed one of her own kind

surged up within her, but a strange paralysis held

her motionless. A sense of her feeling towards

it seemed to communicate itself to the dog's mind,

182 THE DEMON LOVER

for the hair upon its neck rose in anger and a low

growl came from between its teeth ; then, as

Veronica watched, the pupils of its eyes slowly

contracted till two disks of greenish-brown,

opaque as china, looked back at her. Something

in Veronica's brain snapped and then seemed to

open ; the face of a man superimposed itself

upon the face of the dog ; old, forgotten tales of

were-wolves came to her, of creatures, half animal,

half human, the bodies of beasts ensouled by

magicians, a tangle of fairy tales and ghost stories

raced through her mind, till the animal at her knee

sat back on its haunches and lolled a red tongue

out of its mouth in a grin, as if to say, " So at last

you understand."

Then Veronica fainted. When she recovered,

the dog had gone, but the window still stood

open ; with shaking hands she secured it, and

then, dazed and numb, dragged herself up to her

room. Between sleeping and waking she lay till

the dawn was grey against the windows, and then

exhaustion supervened and true sleep came upon

her.

CHAPTER TffENTT

VERONICA WOKE TO FIND WARM AUTUMN SUN-

light streaming into her room and her ears

filled with the song of the birds; for a moment

her spirits rose up to greet the bright fresh

morning, and then a shadow fell across them,

making the sunlight seem pale and cold ; newly

roused from deep sleep, she could not for a moment

realize what it was that set her apart from the

bright morning about her and enveloped her in

cold dark shadow. Then she remembered Lucas.

Sitting up in bed and gazing with unseeing

eyes at the treetops outlined against the blue of

the sky, she reviewed her life since she had come

in contact with that strange being. Doors had

. been set ajar in her soul; a door that led up to

; I the stars, and a door that led down to the under-

j , world, and the denizens of both planes now had

i access to her ; she had been caught up in currents of fate that mercifully leave most men untouched,

and she was being carried swiftly forward towards some goal; there was no purposelessness, no

random eddy in the great tide that set so swiftly,

and only the most resolute struggles on her part

could enable her to reach the fast-receding shore.

Lucas was not dead ; she knew that much with

a certain inner conviction ; moreover, he had not abandoned his pursuit of her, she knew that also ; somewhere, close to her though invisible,

. he hovered, and there were certain forms of matter that he could bend to his use and make to serve him, for a few seconds at least, as a vehicle of manifestation ; spirit of outer darkness that he was, he came in the cold eddying wind

183

184 THE DEMON LOVER

that, arising out of stillness, tossed up the dead

leaves in a spiral dance and died away as suddenly

as it had come ; not many seconds could his will

hold that fugitive form together, but long enough,

and strong enough to burst open the frail

fastenings of the French window and cast her

papers to the floor as if with the sweep of an

angry hand.

She saw it all so clearly now ; Lucas, the disembodied

mind unable to manifest, unable to

materialize save in fleeting and unstable forms,

yet fully aware of all that transpired, and unchanged

by death, was actuated by the same

unscrupulous will that had carried him through

life ; all his interests and desires being centred

upon matter held him earth-bound ; bodiless,

formless, he still craved the things of the body,

and Veronica was the focus of his desire.

Finally, urged on by who knows what devils

of jealous hate and frustrated longing, he had

seized upon and obsessed the body of the dog,

poor brindled brute, and now, velvet-pawed,

heavy jowled, went upon his purpose in the

vehicle of a lower life, yet one to which his

temperament was closer akin than to that of man

whose form he aped. There was more of the

hunting-hound in Lucas than of the human

being; the gentle spaniel, the wise shcepdog,

were nearer humanity than he ; no such vehicle

had he chosen, but an older, savagcr breed had

been found to fulfil his purpose.

In the old days in the Bloomsbury square

Veronica had felt the prime horror to be that she

could not speak to any human being of the

experiences through which she was passing; she

THE DEMON LOVER 185

would only have been looked upon as mad ; there

were times when she looked upon herself as mad,

when she wished with all her heart that Lucas

and all appertaining to him were a delusion even

at the cost of the deprivation of her freedom ;

at least she would know that the world was sane,

built to the measure of the three dimensions and

solid substance, but she found herself moving in

a world that was as mad as a lunatic's dream.

The invisible collar that Lucas had put about

her neck was a commonplace phenomenon of

suggestion, had she but known it; but what of

this dog with the eyes and purpose of a man ?

Mediaeval literature is full of such stories, often

of a very circumstantial nature, but she did not

know that either, and perhaps it was just as well.

Butler she thought of with pitying horror as a

man who had met with a terrible death ; from

herself he seemed strangely remote, his love-

making she had almost forgotten--that long

drawn out second in which she had watched the

dog's eyes contract to angry pinpoints had swept

her back into the heart of the maelstrom from

which she had sought to escape ; Lucas alone she

was concerned with, and Lucas filled her horizon.

No longer, however, did she think of him as the

man towards whom her heart had softened as the

time of their brief association drew to its close,

rather he was once again the man of dark and

unknown purposes who had used her unscrupulously

for his own ends. Lucas, the man of the

trance-work, Lucas, the murderer of Butler, who

would drag her with him to the darkness whence

he rose upon his evil work could he once lay hands

upon her soul,--and alone in her sunlit bedroom,

186 THE DEMON LOVER

she shivered as if the chill of that darkness were

already about her.

She did not remain alone long however; the old

caretaker appeared, and by gestures rather than

speech intimated that someone was below who

wished to see her. Dressing hastily, Veronica

descended to the shuttered hall of the old mansion;

there she found two men, one of whom she knew,

but the other was a stranger. The former was

the doctor who had been called in when Lucas

was found dead ; but he was also the father of

Alee, and from his presence Veronica guessed

that the odium of the whole terrible affair would

be laid at her door. Powerless to defend herself,

to offer any explanation, or to make known the

real state of affairs, she fell back upon the tactics

of, the inquest whereat she had been asked to

explain the fate of another man who had been

found dead in her vicinity, and now, as then, her

interlocutors knew perfectly well that there was

more in the matter than their questioning could

lay bare. They also felt, and the doctor, for his

part, showed it very plainly, that the two deaths

were in some way connected, and that Veronica

was at the bottom of them, and his attitude

towards her could not have shown greater

detestation if he had caught her red-handed ;

his companion, obviously uncomfortable at this

manifestation of hate, stood switching his riding-

boots uneasily with a hunting-crop, and staring

at this girl, the subject of so much local rumour,

whom he now met face to face for the first time.

Veronica, for her part, merely stated any facts

that were required of her, offering no comment

upon them, well knowing that neither of these

THE DEMON LOVER 187

men could hit upon the hidden links that bound

the whole affair together ; Lucas's struggle with

the Fraternity, his abuse of its teaching and his

| execution, the very existence, in fact, of a secret

science that dealt with unknown powers, were

beyond the ken of these two matter-of-fact

Englishmen, save that the father, his wits

sharpened for a moment by the shock of his

son's death, realized intuitively that this strange

outbreak on the dog's part was no more in the

ordinary course of events than the stoppage of

Lucas's heart, and circumstantial evidence

directed him towards the girl who in each case

had been the last to see the dead man alive.

Finally, the cross-examination having elicited nothing save that Butler was a regular visitor at the Grange (Veronica spared her interlocutor the information that his son had proposed marriage,

the man, baffled and angry, turned to his companion and exclaimed, " Well, Hargreaves, what

do you make of this extraordinary affair? For the first time the other man spoke: " If

you want my opinion, doctor, there is nothing

bmysterious about it, it is just a plain case of

hydrophobia, and the best thing to do is to dispose of the dog so that he can't infect any others. The only thing that isn't plain is, how a chained-

up beast like that got it in the first place ? I suppose you have no objection to my destroying

him. Miss Mainwaring ? It has got to be done,

and I will do it quite painlessly. I am the Vet.

.you know."

Veronica recoiled till she came to the wall and,

cleaning up against it, gazed into space with

Unseeing eyes, the men staring at her in astonishment.

188 THE DEMON LOVER

To her, Lucas and the dog were one, and,

horror though he might be, she could not pass

sentence of death upon him.

Finally she found her voice. " I--I should

like time--to think it over," she said.

The doctor spoke sharply. " You can't

have time," he said. " The beast is loose,

and heavens only knows what he may do

next."

Here was a fresh horror, the dog, mad or

obsessed, was free to range at will, she had

forgotten that.

Then the stranger spoke : " I quite understand

your feeling for your animal," he said. " But I am

afraid he will have to be destroyed, and without

delay, too ; think of the children down the lane ;

it is much the most merciful thing to do, and he

is an old dog, any way."

Veronica bowed her head. " Do as you

please," she said, " Only bury him a long way off,

and deep," and she turned away into the billiard

room.

For a time she sat alone, staring into space,

companioned only by the goggling fish in the

glass cases. Lucas, who had drawn so near,

seemed very remote at the present moment. She

wondered what they would do to him--those

men out there, and what would happen to him

when they destroyed his dog-form ? Now that

he was in danger of attack her sympathies, womanlike,

went out to him. Would he be able to

pick up his contact with her again when forced

out of this, his present refuge ? Evil though he

was, the thought of his loss filled her with

desolation.

THE DEMON LOVER 189

Even as she mused, a wild hullabaloo broke

out in the kitchen; someone, feminine, was

having violent hysterics, and her shrieks rose high

above a chorus of male voices raised in consternation.

Veronica ran down the long passage that

led to the back premises, and there found

the old caretaker laid out upon the floor and

shrieking at the full pitch of her lungs ; a number

H of white-faced rustics drew back at Veronica's entrance, eyeing her askance.

What is the matter ? " demanded the girl, confronting them.

a No one replied, and the group faded away through the half-opened door almost invisibly ; the old woman, rising with difficulty, crept into the pantry, where a pop, followed by a gurgling, sufficiently accounted for her activities. Spying

'. the inevitable small boy in the yard, watching

proceedings, Veronica darted out and caught

him by his ragged jacket before he could

escape.

" What happened ? " she demanded of him.

" They shot the dog, miss," he replied writhing

in her grasp.

" I know that, but what are they all so

a frightened of ? It is no use wriggling, I won't let you go till you tell me." " It--it was the gentleman, miss," said the boy

s in a husky whisper. " He's come back."

" What gentleman ? " demanded Veronica.

The dark gentleman, who was here with you,

ii Miss. He came out of the kennel when they

- shot the dog, I seed 'un myself, we all seed 'un ; he came out of the kennel, and he stood up there

in the sunlight, as plain as plain could be, grinnin'

190 THE DEMON LOVER

at us, and then he faded away like a puff of smoke,

a bit at a time, like, till he was all gone. But I

seed 'un, and we all seed 'un. Let me go, Miss,"

and with a final squirm he shot out of Veronica's

hands and escaped.

Veronica returned to the billiard room in a

brown study, but even as she opened the door,

she was aware that some one awaited her. Had

the doctor or his companion returned to have

speech with her ? She looked round for them by

the hearth, in the window embrasures, but there

was no one there. Crossing the room, she

stepped out through the French window on to

the terrace, and almost without realizing what

she was doing, held it open for the one who

followed. There she turned and faced That

which was beside her.

" So you have come back ? " she said.

She waited, as if expecting a reply, but none

came. Then she spoke again. " I cannot forgive

what you did to Alee Butler, nor this matter of

the dog ; I can forgive what you did to me, that

was over and forgotten, but the dog was horrible,

and I cannot forgive that."

Silence fell again. Veronica had said what she

had to say, but no reply could reach her senses.

She turned, recrossed the gravel path, entered the

French window and shut it quickly behind her.

Then she stood watching. The day was still and

sunny, a true day of the Indian Summer, but

presently, as she expected, the dead leaves lying

in the angles of the steps began to be stirred by a

little breeze ; they rose up in the grip of a miniature

whirlwind and smote upon the pane ; the

window bulged inwards, the crazy catch slipping,

r

THE DEMON LOVER 191

but Veronica put her hand on the frame and thrust it home again, then she set a heavy armchair against it. The leaves, tossed all over the terrace by the last indignant gust, slowly settled down again, baffled.

I

CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

FROM THAT TIME ONWARDS VERONICA SELDOM

knew what it was to be alone. It was just

like the old days, Lucas was somewhere about.

The vividness of the impression varied however

during bright sunlight, especially if she herself

were in the direct rays of the sun, she would be

immune from his influence, but on a grey day,

and especially as dusk crept on, the presence

would grow increasingly tangible, till, with the onset of darkness, Lucas himself was beside her.

She could see nothing, hear nothing, no shred of

communication reached her from beyond the

grave, yet she felt the very moods of his temperament.

Sometimes there was a delighted Lucas,

an angry Lucas, or a Lucas striving his hardest

to bend her to his will and finding the medium

in which he functioned too tenuous for his

purpose. Then sometimes would come the quick

transition from an unseen, disembodied mind to

the only material form that he could command,

a fugitive vortex of ice-cold air that tossed the

fallen leaves about her in its impotent endeavours

to clasp her form with its formless arms. This,

she knew, was the manifestation of an angry

Lucas, and she could quite understand why spirits

are always regarded as being either devils or

angels, for it is only under the impetus of a strong

emotion, whether of hate or love, that the

majority of them can manifest themselves upon

the material plane ; the man, in his ordinary

state of consciousness, can only be perceived by

those few unfortunates we call sensitives.

Having at last succeeded in making her aware

of his presence, however, his powers seemed to

192

THE DEMON LOVER 193

?,

| be increasing. Whether she was growing more

H psychic, or he more adept at bending matter

to his will, cannot be known, but the fact remains

that a rapport had been set up between the mind

of the dead man and the living girl, and that

telepathy was in full swing between them.

To the living, the return of even the beloved

dead is apt to be something of an ordeal, but to

Veronica, knowing Lucas to be evil, and feeling

herself in his power, the manifestation of that

dark presence was the consummation of all the

horrors of nightmare and childhood's phantom

terrors. Though she knew his moods, she could

not divine his thoughts, and it was some little

time before she discovered that hers could be

read by him with the greatest readiness. If she

allowed her thoughts to wander to Alee the

atmosphere in her immediate vicinity filled with

a menacing anger, and time and again the whirlwind

dance of the leaves would toss themselves

up in their impotent displeasure. But if, on the

other hand, she allowed her thoughts to dwell

upon the few short hours of companionship and

sympathy that had preceded Lucas's death, if she sent out a questioning wish into the darkness,

j. seeking to know if it were well with her friend,

^ then the room glowed with a strange warmth that

I' seemed to wrap itself about her form in a mantle

"" of invisible light.

Veronica gradually learnt to know the moods

of her unseen visitor, and soon the presence, which at first had had for her all the horror of the

unknown, became familiar and was accepted more

or less as a matter of course ; though she still

dreaded it, she feared it no more than she had

194 THE DEMON LOVER

feared the man while he still dwelt in his

habitation of flesh, and as time went on, his old

uncanny fascination began to assert itself again ;

she found herself watching for his approach as

the light faded, and in some curious, subconscious

way, lending herself to his manifestation. She

dreaded him, yet she would have missed him

had he not appeared, and so, in her old state of

repulsive fascination, or fascinated repulsion, the

days passed by, and with the passing of each,

darkness fell earlier and Lucas's period of power

lengthened.

It was towards All Hallows Eve that he at

last succeeded in crossing the boundary of the

unmanifest and gaining his footing upon the

plane of life. A bright frosty day had tempted

Veronica to a long walk, and coming in as dusk

fell, she had been glad to fling her weary body

into a big arm chair by the hearth and doze in

the fire-lit room till such time as the old caretaker

should bring the lamp. There, every

muscle relaxed, she lay back among the cushions,

her mind questing out in the long daydreams

of youth. Lucas, as an entity, seemed remote

that night; she had shaken off his presence

when she passed in her wanderings beyond the

range of his manifestation, and he had not yet

re-discovered her. So, for once, she was alone.

Her mind wandered towards the strange

being who, crossing her path, had deflected the

whole course of her life. She thought of him

and she thought of Alee, comparing the two men,

and she knew beyond all doubting that never,

never, could she have found contentment with

that good-hearted, cheery fellow whom the world

THE DEMON LOVER 195

would have considered such an ideal husband.

There was more satisfaction for her in being bent to

the dark purposes of Lucas than in being cherished

by Alee, for in so doing, she was living ; the

great currents of the universe swept around her,

the tremendous vitality of the man radiated out

upon her, and she felt that she was growing,

advancing, rising above herself, and that the

Great Unseen, whence all things come and

whither they all return, was drawing near to her.

Musing thus, between sleeping and waking, her

eyes gazing steadily into the heart of the glowing

coals, she suddenly felt that swift swoop into outer

space that had always heralded her departure

upon the strange journeys of the soul on which

Lucas had despatched her. This time, however,

oblivion did not close upon her ; instead,

she remained aware of her surroundings, although

all power of movement seemed to be inhibited.

For a while she lay thus, in a dreamy, somnolent

state that was not unpleasant, then a new

sensation made itself felt, as if something were

being drawn out of her left side, at first a trickling,

then a strange draining sensation, and she saw a

white, mistlike pool accumulating at her feet.

Slowly the pool spread out, rose up, took form

in front of her in the semblance of a tenuous,

sheeted ghost, and then, in a dark hollow of the

draperies, a face began to form, and it was the

face of Lucas I

Veronica, drained of vitality, lay back in

her chair, and saw the dead man take life before

her. The bright dark eyes gazed into her clouded

ones; the lips, red with lifeblood, drew close to

her palid ones; and the arms, strong as in life,

196 THE DEMON LOVER

closed round her form that seemed all shrunken

inside her clothes.

This strange manifestation did not last many

moments ; Lucas dared not prolong it; and in

a few seconds the devitalized girl felt life flowing

back into her, and simultaneously, saw the form

before her shrink, lose outline, and subside into

an amorphous pool of mist at her feet. Then she

awoke as from a dream, asking herself whether

this strange experience had any existence outside

her imagination.

After supper it seemed even more unreal,

and when she awoke from a heavy dreamless

sleep in the morning, all but a vague memory

had vanished. The day passed slowly by in minor tasks; a walk in the intervals of rain, needlework,

a novel, received, but did not engross her

attention, until, the lamps being lit, Veronica

suddenly remembered a letter to her lawyer that demanded an answer. Sitting down to

the writing table, she dipped her pen in the ink,

and then fell to nibbling the end of it, for she

was not a fluent correspondent, and business

matters had ever been beyond her, and, having

written ' Dear Sir,' she stuck fast, pen poised

above paper, when, to her surprise, she saw a

line of writing slowly trace itself across the

blank white page.

" How are you, Veronica ? Justin writing."

The girl stared in amazement at the words

that slowly formed themselves under her

eyes. The pen, without volition of hers, had

written ; the writing, though done by her hand,

was not her usual script, yet it was curiously

familiar. It was a man's hand, and Justin was a

THE DEMON LOVER 197

man's name. She knew no one called Justin,

yet, in some odd way, it sounded familiar in

her ears. Where had she heard it before ? Ah,

now she lernembered, it was the name of the

Roman Lucas had told her about, the man who

had loved and lost a girl in the days of that

ancient, world-wide empire.

" Exactly. Justinian was his name, and Justin

is my name, the English version of the Latin

word, just as I am the English version of the

Roman soldier, only perhaps you know me better

as J. Lucas."

Again the hand had written without her

volition, and Veronica sat transfixed, gazing at

the words that formed themselves upon the

paper, so aptly answering her unspoken thought.

Once again the writing commenced. " You

will stand by me, won't you, Veronica ? You

will see me through ? I am depending on you,

you know." Then, as if divining with that

shrewd mind of his the line of appeal that would

influence her : " If you do not help me, I am lost.

Don't fail me, Veronica I "

What woman could resist such an appeal ?

Veronica--whose first thought had been panic-

stricken flight out into the garden, the road,

anywhere--remained motionless, listening, waiting

for the next manifestation of this unseen presence

that hovered about her.

Again the pen began to move, and her eyes

followed the writing.

" You did very well last night; the subtle

ethers are easily detached from your dense

body, and I can draw them out and build myself

a form with them, but I am afraid it will be too

198 THE DEMON LOVER

much of a strain for you to do it often by yourself ;

what we really want is a group of people to sit

in a circle, then everybody contributes a little,

and no one has the whole strain of it. It is one

thing to take the ethers out, and quite another

to put them back again, and if they don't go

back, then you die too. I suppose there is no

possibility of forming a circle ? "

Veronica had no comment to make, all this

was entirely beyond her. There was certainly

no one whom she could ask to join her in this

strange and terrible undertaking, if that was

what he meant. Evidently it was, for the writing

continued. " Then the only thing I can suggest

is that I form a partial materialization from you,

and then we get as close as we can to some other

people, and I pick up the rest of the stuff I want

from them. I think I can manage it if we wait

till they are asleep. At any rate, we can but Veronica flung down her pen, hastily opened

the window, and went out on to the terrace.

What horrible experiment was the dead man

contemplating ? She was entirely ignorant of

these things, even her imagination had never

envisaged the strange forces. Lucas.employed nor

the yet stranger aims and affairs that occupied

his attention. The secret fraternity that taught

these things--the unseen beings that co-operated

--the invisible forces that gave rise to the effects

we see upon this material plane--of all these

she had never even suspected the existence

until she found herself plunged into the very

midst of them. Now, it seemed to her, that she

saw them upon every side, as if, having once got

THE DEMON LOVER 199

in touch with these forces, she could never now

' escape from them, and whereas most people

only experienced the result of their own actions,

great currents of evolving and disintegrating life

swept her backwards and forwards in their tides.

Alone, bewildered, helpless, the concentrated

will of Lucas held her bound, unable to resist;

and Lucas was no more dead than she was, he

was merely without a body, and was evidently

bent upon supplying the deficiency by whatever

means he could bend to his purpose.

Maddest of phantasies! Veronica knew it

could be nothing but a dream. Her mind was giving way under the strain. She had better go

1 and see the doctor and ask him to take charge of

her and put her in an asylum or wherever it was

that people who dreamed such dreams as hers

were safely put away. But then, irony of ironies,

, the doctor would have none of her ; even in

death Lucas's arch-enemy served his purposes,

I and the dead Alee effectually barred Veronica's

retreat; she could almost hear chuckling laughter as she realized this.

; Soon the gathering darkness and bitter wind drove her within doors, and the evening passed rapidly away to bedtime as Veronica turned over and over in her mind the memories of all

these uncanny transactions. The more she

thought about them, the stranger they became ;

any single incident could be explained away, but

not this consecutive series, each of which seemed

1 to hinge upon the others and play its part in

causation. There were too many of them for

R casuistry to deal with, and perforce she had to

accept the theory that she had got herself into

200 THE DEMON LOVER

the track of some little-known, but by no means

non-existent form of energy.

Veronica, stretching out her hand to her

candle, paused, her hand in mid-air. The

Presence was in the room, she could feel it at her

elbow. Slowly she sank back into the chair

from which she had risen, and as she sank back,

the downward rush of the soul into space

commenced. Once again the strange substance

which was her life flowed from her left side and

drew itself out into the sheeted form with which

tradition has made us familiar, and again Lucas's

eyes looked out at her from the folds of its

whiteness. But here the process was arrested,

condensation went no further, only the eyes were fully materialized ; the rest of the form hung

like a wreath of smoke upon the air.

Veronica, still in full possession of her

faculties though feeling strangely light and

detached, returned gaze for gaze of those dark

eyes. Lips and throat were not sufficiently

materialized for speech, but the eyes compelled

her with their hypnotic gaze, and slowly she rose

from her chair and stood before him, compelled,

yet eager to do his will. Following him, she

moved over to a corner of the room where the

old trench coat lay over a chair, the coat that

to her always seemed an emanation of Lucas's

personality, and with this girt about her, she

seemed more than ever bound to him in some

strange unity of the soul.

The eyes shone with an uncanny light, half

tenderness, half triumph, and as the grey form

moved over to the window, Veronica moved

after it. It seemed to her as if no weight pressed

THE DEMON LOVER 201

her feet to the ground and that she had only to

think of a place in order to find herself there;

and indeed her body responded with an extraordinary

facility to every command of her mind ;

swiftly, effortlessly, all impulses were acted out

as fast as they were formulated, and on the heels

of the drifting mist-like form she moved swiftly

down the darkened terrace.

A tenuous silver cord of vapour connected

her with the gliding shadow ahead, and she

knew that at all costs that cord must be kept

intact. Then she noticed another and still

stranger phenomenon, pitch dark though it was,

she could see quite plainly in a leaden-grey

twilight. To her, the landscape was illuminated

with a peculiar livid light such as is seen at

the time of a total eclipse of the sun, only of

much less intensity, and no shadows were thrown

by any object.

They moved with swift, effortless speed down

the weed-grown driveway and out into the road

on the river bank, and then turned to the left,

and Veronica guessed that their objective was

the row of labourers' cottages that stood a little

way down the lane. Hardly daring to breathe,

she followed the shadowy form that drew her

by the silver cord till both she and her half-

seen guide halted under the wall of the nearest

cottage.

For a moment the dark pools of the eyes were

turned towards her, and then, like a wreath of

smoke, the form rose into the air above her head,

and she saw that it was pressing itself againt the

small leaded panes that hung in the crazy window-

frame up under the cottage eaves. Some crack

202 THE DEMON LOVER

must have been found, for the drifting mist

slowly disappeared till nothing but the tenuous

silver trail was left that connected it with her

own body.

For an eternity she waited, no sound issuing

from the cottages, and then she heard a faint

creaking as the casement above her head was

opened and a hand appeared upon the window

sill. An amorphous mist had drifted in through

the crack, but it was a distinctly physical form

that came out, and from the thud with which

it struck the ground, Veronica knew that it

must have a certain amount of weight. Then

it came towards her over the rank winter

vegetation, and she saw, swathed and cowled in

soft grey drapery, the -figure of Lucas as

she had known him in life.

Slipping his hand through her arm in the old

familiar gesture, he led her swiftly down the

lane by which they had come, and back through

the garden to the terrace.

Wood-ash still glowed redly on the hearth in

the billiard room, and Veronica, seizing the poker,

would have stirred it into flame, for she was

perished with cold and fear, when a hand that

was entirely tangible was laid upon her arm, and

a familiar voice said in her ear : Steady, child,

I cannot stand much light, you know."

With that authoritative touch of his he led

her unresisting back to her chair, and there,

as she lay among the cushions, he bent over her.

" Now I am going to give back to you what I

have borrowed. It will not be safe to keep you

too long in your present condition." he said,

and even as he spoke the words, Veronica felt the

THE DEMON LOVER 203

returning flow of the vital forces that had been

partially withdrawn. This time, however, the

figure before her did not entirely dematerialize

when she returned to waking consciousness,

there remained of the erstwhile tangible form a

drifting mist marked by dark pools of blackness

where there had been eyes. That which he had

taken from the sleeping people in the cottages

he retained, while returning to her the elements

she had lent him.

The floating form drew near as if to take

farewell of her, and then, gliding over to the

window, slowly drifted forth through an aperture

in the rotting frame, while Veronica, dazed and

exhausted, struck a light and surveyed the now

empty room.

CHAPTER TWENTr-TVO

THE NEXT MORNING VERONICA FELT THAT SHE

could but regard the whole transaction as a

bad dream, and lying in bed between sleeping

and waking, she was thanking her stars that it

was not real, when a pair of soaked and mud-

stained slippers caught her eyes. She gazed at

these, but still refused to admit the possibility

of reality to the memories of yesternight; a

dream they must be if she were to keep her

sanity, and to her sanity Veronica was determined

to cling.

After breakfast she was taking her morning

walk along the lane on the river bank, when a

sound of wheels behind her made her look round,

and there was the doctor, Alec's father, driving

along the grass-grown roadway in his dog cart.

He gave her one glance, and shaking the reins,

drove swiftly past without any other sign of

recognition than was conveyed by that look of

hate and repulsion. True, this man of the

objective world had not been able to assign any

other cause of death than heart failure in the

case of Lucas, nor of haemorrhage of the jugular

vein from dog-bite in the case of his son, yet the

intuition that slumbers in the densest of us told

him that in some way Veronica was connected

with these happenings--that there was something

about the girl which did not fall within

the laws of his three-dimensional universe. What

it was, he could not define, even to himself,

but he hated and dreaded her as children and

dogs hate and fear, without reason assigned, yet

with an unerring instinct.

Veronica continued her walk down the over-

*o<

THE DEMON LOVER 205

grown lane, and presently reached the row of

labourers' cottages that had been the scene of

her dream of the previous night. Even by

daylight she could not cast off the horror of that

memory; its shadow still hung about her. There

was the angle of the rose-covered porch where

she had stood; and there, up under the eaves,

the little window by which Lucas had entered.

Thank God it was but a dream, she reassured

herself. Then she dropped her eyes to the muddy

ground over which she was picking her way, and

stopped as if turned to stone : a footprint which

was not that of a heavy peasant boot was clearly

outlined in the soft earth. Small feet in high-

heeled slippers had passed that way. She

remembered the little grey suede shoes, with

their Louis heels and shining buckles, one of the

first things that she had bought with the lavish

salary Lucas had paid her, and that now lay

soaked and ruined upon her bedroom floor.

With fast-beating heart she searched the soft

ground for the print of a man's lightly shod foot

that should companion them if her terrible

dream were reality. But such there was not.

The small feet had walked alone down that

pitch-dark lane through the stormy night. Hobnailed

boots had passed that way, but no other

human foot had left its track. But even as she

drew a sigh of relief at this lack of confirmation

of her fears, she saw that beside the print of the

high-heeled shoes ran another and stranger

trail, as if something had been dragged along over

the ground, yet with here and there a footprint;

yet not a true human footprint, but rather a pad-

like mark, as of extremities imperfectly finished.

206 THE DEMON LOVER

A sound attracted her attention, and she

looked up to perceive what she had not noticed

before, that the doctor's horse was tied to the

fence, and that the doctor himself stood at the

gate of the first cottage, from which he had

evidently just issued, and was observing her

actions intently.

She faced him, alarmed. What was the

meaning of this scrutiny which was so manifestly

antagonistic ? Did he suspect that midnight

expedition, and if so, what would he do to her ?

Then he spoke. A child died in that cottage

last night, and four others are seriously ill. They

were quite all right when they went to bed."

They stood looking into each other's eyes,

neither able to offer any comment on this brief

narrative; Veronica, because the paralysis of

utter horror had descended upon her, and the

doctor because he had no words that would

embody the unformed intuitions within him.

The man's eyes were directed to the ground

where Veronica's had been, and he took a step

forward as if he were about to inspect that which

had attracted her attention. But even as he did so,

the little cold wind, now so familiar, sprang up,

and a great drift of autumn leaves swept across

the roadway in its wake, completely obliterating

the tell-tale prints. At the same moment the

horse, that had been standing quietly waiting

for his master, suddenly reared up with such

force that the rotting wood to which he was

tied gave way, and he was off down the lane with

the reins streaming behind him.

The doctor paused irresolute, uncertain for a

moment whether to pursue his investigation or

THE DEMON LOVER 207

his vanishing steed, and finally set off at a run

after the latter; the marks on the ground,

which the girl had apparently been examining,

would keep, any attempt on her part to obliterate

them must be detected.

Veronica, her knees giving under her, crept

away from the ill-omened spot till, unable to go

any further, she sank down upon one of the many

fallen trees that lay about in that neglected place.

From there, she could still see the lane by the

cottages, though herself hidden by undergrowth.

Presently she heard the sound of wheels in

the roadway, and saw the doctor returning with

his now chastened horse. When, however, the

sober beast again reached the last cottage, he swung

round so suddenly that one wheel of the trap

went down the ditch and very nearly tipped

the doctor out. That worthy, believing himself

to be unobserved, relieved his feelings with

words, then, taking the now thoroughly

demoralized horse by the head, proceeded to

lead him past the scene of his panic. Dark

streaks of sweat sprang out on the sleek bay coat

despite the coldness of the day, as with ears laid

back and eyes rolling wildly, the terrified animal

reluctantly followed its master down the lane.

It was obvious that the doctor wished to pause

and examine whatever it was that had attracted

Veronica's attention upon the ground, but the

horse was almost unmanageable ; moreover the

great drift of leaves, diligently swept up by the

little cold wind, had obliterated all landmarks

of stone and puddle by which he had calculated

on identifying the spot, so that he himself

searched where no mark was, and the pawing

208 THE DEMON LOVER

hoofs of his beast obliterated for ever the only

physical evidence of the midnight expedition.

Returning to the billiard room, where the

goggling fish lent her their company, Veronica

faced the issue. It was useless to regard the

happenings as a bad dream ; however far they

might range beyond normal experience, she had

to accept them as actual. There in the cottage

a child lay dead, and four others sick unto death.

Such was the price that had to be paid that a

dead man might live even such shadowy life as

Lucas had achieved. The vitality which vivified

him could only be obtained by the depletion of

others. There was not enough to go round,

and some had to go short when the uninvited

guest dipped his spoon into the platter. Lucas,

remorseless individualist that he was, stole from

those who could offer least defence to his

depredations--young children. Veronica remembered

the little new-made graves that she had

seen when she visited the churchyard, and

wondered how many lives had been sacrificed in

order that Lucas might keep his footing on the

plane of manifestation.

Of one thing she was quite determined,

however, no more little children should be

harmed if it were in her power to prevent it.

There was a very great deal of the mother

instinct in Veronica, and Lucas could not have

found a surer way of making her turn at bay

than by attacking children. Timid, ready to

suffer all things rather than rebel where her own

welfare was concerned, she rose up like a tigress

when little helpless things demanded her protection.

Lucas had outraged the eternal mother,

THE DEMON LOVER 209

preserver of life, and the force of all the conserving

powers of Nature came in behind little simple

Veronica, now roused for the first time.

Small personal matters that affect the lives of

individuals can be fought out upon a personal basis

and need spread no further, but when men and

women tamper with unseen forces, they are apt

to become the channels of those forces in a way

with which they have not reckoned. That which

they have invoked for their use is liable to use

them, and their individual struggles overflow

into the cosmos. So Lucas, using elemental

forces, had aroused the elements, and they,

striving to adjust the balance that his self-seeking

hand had thrown out, found a channel through

a nature that was close kin to their own.

Veronica, because she used her mind but little,

was much influenced by the great forces that

press the simpler forms of life into manifestation,

forces with which the average civilized man has

little concern, but which guide children, animals,

and those animal children which we call savages.

Likewise they take under their protection those

child-souls which sometimes come to birth even

in the most civilized of industrial cities, and then,

provided these are allowed to live close to nature

as it is necessary to their well-being that they

should, the elemental forces playing upon the

human intellect will produce those outbursts of

lyric creativeness that lighten the darkness of our

bat-eyed culture. But civilization seldom cares

to risk such outbreaks, and education, ethics, and

philanthropy do their utmost to minimise the

risk.

Veronica had not the intellect necessary for

210 THE DEMON LOVER

the translation of the forms of one plane of

existence into their corresponding symbols upon

another plane ; she was a medium in the true

sense of the word, a transparency through which

the light of a higher world could penetrate the

opacity of our earth, and ere long that world

discovered her, and then her days of peace were

at an end.

Veronica had not many ideas in her little head,

but she had a harmonized nature that enabled

such ideas as she had to be given effect. All her

resources could be brought to bear at a single

point ; there was no division of aims in Veronica.

Upon one thing she was quite determined now,

Lucas should attack no more children ; she would

lend herself to no more materializations that

could be turned to such ghastly purposes. As

the day wore on she waited the coming of dusk,

knowing full well that it would bring Lucas, and

she prepared herself for the contest that she

knew must ensue. What line he would take

with her, she did not know, but upon one thing

she was doggedly determined ; she would not

leave the room, and she shrewdly suspected that

if she wouldn't, Lucas couldn't, owing to the

tenuous silver cord that united them when

materialization took place. What Lucas would

do to her by way of retaliation Veronica did not

know, and strangely enough, had ceased to care.

Things had gone too far for her to care: it was

like some wierd dream in which one leaps off

precipices and nothing ever happens.

Darkness set in early that night, for the sunset

had been veiled in clouds, and hardly had the

last light gone before Veronica was aware of the

THE DEMON LOVER 211

shadowy cowled figure with the dark flashing eyes

that seemed to build itself out of the shadows.

Apparently Lucas had now got enough ectoplasm

gathered together to enable him to manifest at

will, provided the light was dim enough, but not

enough for speech or any definite action. More

of this strange subtle substance had to be obtained

from somewhere if he were to continue in the

land of living beings, and Veronica was

determined that he should not have it at such

ghastly cost. How he was to be prevented was

another matter, but she was determined that he

should not have her co-operation, and she

believed that her refusal would cripple his power

in the present stage of his upbuilding.

She knew that they were embarked upon a

trial of strength, and braced her whole being to

meet it. The dark eyes among the grey drapery

showed that their owner was well aware of this

change of attitude on her part; they looked

surprised, reproachful, but the anger that

Veronica had expected was absent.

The sensation of the swift downward swoop

with which she was now so familiar passed through

Veronica's nerves, and once again she saw the

mist-like substance flow from her that should

turn Lucas into the semblance of a living man.

Not much was needed for this accomplishment

now, and in a condition very near her normal

consciousness Veronica saw Lucas materialize

before her.

There he stood in the dim red glow of the

coals, swathed and cowled in soft grey drapery,

but the hands looked as if they could grip, and

the face showed the colour of life under its dark

212 THE DEMON LOVER

skin. She had never thought of her friend as

dead, and so his return, from that point of view,

was no shock to her ; from the moment of her

discovery of his body upon the sunlit bed on that

far-away summer morning, she had known that

he was only waiting his opportunity to come back

to her, and that sooner or later that opportunity

would come. She had watched for him, and

finally her watching had been rewarded, and he

had appeared. She had for him now just the

same feelings that she had had for him in life,

in fact in some ways she liked him better ; in

the old days, in the house in the Bloomsbury

square, she had been dependent upon his goodwill

(a somewhat uncertain quantity), now he was

dependent upon her for his very existence, part

of her substance had gone to build up his form,

and in some curious way her mother-instinct

went forth to this being that was made of her

own life. His very dependence upon her gave

him his strongest hold over her. Veronica, in

her new-found mother-spirit, might resist

aggression, but, on the other hand, she would

cherish fiercely anything that depended upon

her, and Lucas in his half-materialized condition

was as dependent upon her life as an unborn

child.

The process having gone as far as Lucas dared

to carry it, the available life forces having been

shared out between the partners in this strange

enterprise, they faced each other, the man

partly materialized, and the girl partly de-

materialized. Again the grey world that shone

with its own light was open to her ; again the

soul that she had known as Justin Lucas took on

THE DEMON LOVER 213

the semblance of a man, and actuated by the

same emotions that had stirred it in life, moved towards her, and a voice, low and toneless, but

quite distinct, sounded in her ears.

" Well, Veronica, are you pleased to see me ? "

She made him no answer. Great as was her

horror of him, and of the strange conditions of

his reappearing, yet he still had a fascination

for her. This he seemed to divine, for the

shadowy lips curved into a smile.

(< Not altogether displeased ? We are coming

along, Veronica."

There was, a pause while they studied each

other. Veronica noted the way he had concentrated

such substance as was available for

his use in the upper parts of his form ; head,

shoulders and hands were well materialized, but

the lower limbs tailed off in a long floating wisp

of drapery. Like some strange merman of the

shadows he rose "up before her, his body from the

hips downwards merging into the dark ocean of

chaos whence he drew his being.

Then the man spoke again. " Now, Veronica,

the next thing is to finish the process we began

last night. I have marked down a house on

the other side of the village that I want to go to,

and if you will put on some shoes that have not

got high heels, we will make a start."

But Veronica did not stir, and the dark eyes

among the shadowy drapery opened wide in

amazement, for, practised hypnotist that he was,

Lucas had never before had experience of a

subject who went easily into trance and then

Proved unamenable to suggestion. He did not

know that Veronica had ' gone off' with her

214 THE DEMON LOVER

mind concentrated upon the idea that she would

not leave the room, and that this prior autosuggestion

would nullify all subsequent commands.

Within the limits of the four walls she was his to

command at will, but outside the four walls

neither he nor anyone else could make her

go.

Baffled by the turn affairs had taken, Lucas

shifted his ground.

" Aren't you going to help me ? " he said.

Veronica, motionless in her chair as a statue,

tuined her face towards him as if the closed eyes

had sight.

" One of those children is dead," she said ;

" and the others are very ill."

" I am sorry the child is dead," said Lucas.

" I must have taken more from it than it could

stand. The others will be all right in a day or

two ; they will soon pick up again."

(< There have been several children who have*

died from what you did to them," said Veronica,

drawing a bow at a venture.

" Have there ? Children die very easily ; such

a small withdrawal of vitality seems to deplete

them."

" There won't be any more," answered

Veronica.

" No, I hope not," said Lucas. " But come,

now, we want to make a start. I think one more

expedition will do the trick."

" There will not be another expedition," said

Veronica.

" Oh yes, there will," said Lucas, and the dark

brows met in a frown under the grey hooded

draperies as he concentrated the gaze of his eyes

THE DEMON LOVER 215

upon her. The hand, long-fingered and flat-

palmed as in life, shot out towards her and

passed with a slow stroking movement down

across her face. Veronica's body did not stir,

but down again into the dark blue abyss sank her

soul as the hypnotic trance deepened under

Lucas's manipulations.

Again he essayed to command her upon this

deeper level of trance, and again her mind, set

to a keynote, resisted. Yet again he sent her

swooping to a still lower level, and yet

again she eluded him. Then, angered and

baffled beyond caution, he thrust her out a third

time, when, to his surprise, the rigidity left her

figure, and she sank back among the cushions

like a child asleep, a look of wonderful peace

taking the place of the strained, anxious expression

of her face. For Lucas had over-reached himself

as those so often will who seek to tamper with

natural laws, he had thrust Veronica out beyond

any plane upon which he himself could function ;

she had escaped from his control; her soul

had passed from the subjective condition of

hypnotic trance and become objective upon a

higher plane of consciousness; subconsciousness

had given place to superconsciousness, and

Veronica had escaped.

There are not many hypnotists who can put a

subject in this state of trance, and there are not

many individuals who are capable of so functioning,

but such exist, of both kinds, and sometimes they

meet, with astonishing results. Veronica's soul,

hounded deeper and yet deeper into the subjective

ttatc, had suddenly broken through into those

regions known to occultists as the Spheres of

216 THE DEMON LOVER

Safety. The soul had gone to its own place and

was among its own kind.

A smile parted Veronica's lips, and she seemed

to be answering a greeting. Lucas, watching

her, knew that she had passed to those regions

for the right of entrance to which he had sold his

soul ; something in her own nature had given

her the key to the gate that was barred to him.

He watched and waited, unable to follow her

where she had gone. He remembered the time

when an unknown Power had intervened on her

behalf upon the road to Brighton, striking him

down with the sudden impact of Its force, from

some such plane as this It had come, and Lucas

asked himself what manner of soul it was that

functioned through the child-like personality of

Veronica. Of ancient lineage and high initiation

it must be in order to contact these levels ;

Lucas wondered that he had never detected her

status before. He had believed her to be a

little, primitive, unevolved creature ; whereas,

she was evolved beyond the transmitting power

of her brain.

The immortal soul overshadowed rather than

incarnated in the body of Veronica Mainwaring,

and the personality built up by the experiences

of a single life had hitherto given but little

indication of that which lay behind it. He

guessed that she had no need to incarnate

upon her own account ; earth had no lessons to

teach a soul of this type, her place was elsewhere ;

he might have guessed this from her desirelessness and lack of all resentment. Why, then, was

she here at all ? Some tie held her bound ;

some link yet remained between her and this

THE DEMON LOVER 217

plane of existence. Lucas was well aware that

in past lives they had trodden the same path,

and worked together at the same occult work ;

there is no stronger bond than this; it will hold

when the cords of love and hate are loosened.

Lucas had lost track of her after that last fateful

incarnation at Avignon, when she had definitely

chosen the White, and he the Black Path, and had

paid with his life for his choice. That age may

have been dark in many respects, and its wisest

men ignorant as we reckon learning to-day, but

there were some things which they knew that

their successors of a more enlightened period

have forgotten, and certain aspects of psychology

were among them. They had some acquaintance

with the rarer powers of the mind and they knew

their dangers. The white magic of the mystic was

understood and reverenced, but they saw to it

that he or she who manifested these abnormal

powers was well disciplined by confessor and

convent rule ; they did not permit such folk to

be a law unto themselves, well-knowing the risks

to which they were exposed ; and if any person

showed signs of a like power which was not

dedicated to holy use, that person was burnt to

ashes, and his knowledge perished with him ;

for, knowing the dangers of such power should

it be unhallowed, the men of that age took no

chances, and they were wise in their generation.

No doubt many innocent persons perished, no

doubt evidence was admitted at the trials that

was not weighed in the balance of impartial

justice, but there is equally no doubt in the

minds of those who have studied the evidence

that there was a widespread knowledge at that

218 THE DEMON LOVER

time of certain practices which the great occult

fraternities, who are the guardians of these

things, have always tried to keep secret, and that

this knowledge got into evil and untrustworthy

hands and was terribly abused. It is believed

to-day by those uninformed that it was an

ignorant and corrupt priesthood who instigated

these prosecutions, but this was not so. The

first alarm came from the men who held the

keys of the secret gateway in that generation ;

men who were far more highly trained in the

arts they tried to stamp out than any

of those who practised them. The Church has

never sought to destroy the powers of the inner

life, she has only sought to regulate their use and

to prevent their unguarded and unhallowed

abuse, and in so doing she has safeguarded

mankind from evils little suspected by modern

men in a Christian country. Such men as Lucas

were common in Europe in the Middle Ages;

the well-attested records of their doings exist

in official archives for any who care to look for

them, and they are only rare to-day because a

priesthood despised as ignorant and obscurantist

stood on guard between common men and the

powers of darkness; and well it would be in this

day, which is seeing just such a recrudescence of

interest in the unseen, if an initiate priesthood

could again guard our civilization from dangers

of which it little suspects the nature.

Lucas waited impatiently while Veronica's

soul wandered in the regions of light whither he

could not penetrate. The shadows were his

kingdom, and the dark waters of the abyss whence

elemental substance can be drawn ; he was of

THE DEMON LOVER 219

the Unseen, but she was of the Light that

blinds by its brightness--and that light barred

his way as effectually as a granite wall; he could

but await her return, not knowing what she

would bring with her.

What Veronica brought, she herself could not

have told him, for the doors of that bright

world closed behind her as she passed out and

memory was sealed. She woke from her trance

as naturally as a child from sleep to find the room

glowing with a strange warmth. She was alone,

but the aroma of Lucas's presence hung about

the room just as the odour of tobacco smoke

lingers, and was readily perceptible to her hyper-

sensitized condition. Somewhere, in the stormy

: night outside he was tossed and buffeted by the

' winds of space, houseless, companionless, with no

', rest for the sole of his foot nor where to lay his

; head. He who had defied the laws of life was

' caught in their cross-currents, and the great

smooth flow of evolution was twisted into a

maelstrom as he sought to deflect its tides to his

petty personal ends. He had invoked the wind

with success, but the whirlwind had followed on

its heels. It is one thing to call upon the cyclone

to fill our sails and drive us upon our course

regardless of what men's houses be blown down

and the crops of their patient toil laid to the

earth, but it is quite another thing to tack into the

teeth of the anti-cyclone that inevitably follows ;

if we invoke the laws of nature, we must abide

by the lav/s of nature, and their prime maxim is

that action and reaction are equal and opposite

on the plane upon which they are invoked.

Back they come with the swing of a pendulum,

220 THE DEMON LOVER

and though the initiate of the Lesser Mysteries

can set going that pendulum, he cannot escape

its return swing; it is only the initiate of the

Greater Mysteries who knoweth the secret of

the escapement.

Veronica was aware of a curious sense of

buoyancy and freedom ; she seemed to have been

relieved of a great weight, a load had rolled from

her shoulders. Life pulsed within her, and yet

she was heavy with sleep. Like one roused in

the middle of the night, she was refreshed, yet

ready to turn over again and sink back into the

depths of slumber whence she had been recalled.

Veronica lit her candle, and with unsteady

feet went up to bed, as yet she did not seem to be

fully back in the flesh after her far journey;

her soul still desired to move without her body,

and made no allowances for its limitations.

CHAPTER TffENTr-THREE

SHE AWOKE IN THE MORNING CONSCIOUS OF

having dreamt, but her dreams were vague

and fugitive, as dreams usually are, yet somehow

she had the impression that these dreams were

not as other dreams, there was a different quality

about them, and the dream-images that floated

vaguely through her memory were of a type she

had never known before. And yet they were

vaguely familiar; like forgotten childhood

memories, they drifted elusively and would not

be linked on to the chain of her history. Somewhere,

at some time, she had known those tall,

slow-moving figures, distinguished by the colours

of their cloaks; somewhere she had heard the

deep resonant tones of their speech, and their

language was not strange to her.

The wind had fallen, and the day was still with

the warm stillness that sometimes comes in the

late autumn, and Veronica, walking in the garden,

sought to piece together her broken memories.

But they resisted all her efforts; sought, they

fled before her ; but left to their own devices

as in dreamy abstraction she gazed at the blue

distances, they thronged and pressed about her

as if seeking to attract her attention. The

corner of some grey mediaeval cloister faded into

the high white pillars of a great temple, and these

again gave place to the clear bright radiance of

last night's dream scene.

Sometimes the sound of the voices returned

to her ears. Someone had told her to place

herself in his hands and trust him; she was

to trust unreservedly, and she would be guided ;

something was to be made plain to her, someone

221

222 THE DEMON LOVER

was to be sent, but who, and what, remained

obscure ; broad general impressions lingered in

her mind but details eluded her. She gathered

that the struggle she had hitherto waged unaided

had been taken in hand by higher powers which

were in some way concerned in what was going

on, as if Lucas had intruded upon their territory

and outraged them. He had often hinted to

her of other forms of existence, none the less real

and potent because they are imperceptible to

our senses. It seemed to her that, even as these

forms of life are unreal to us, so must we be

unreal to them, but upon this occasion, deflected

from the normal by the machinations of Lucas,

she had become aware of their existence, and

they, equally, had become aware of hers. She

realized their wisdom and power to aid, and they

were aware of her defencelessness and danger.

A link, slender and uncertain, but still a link,

had been formed between the two phases of

existence, and across the gulf they could signal

to each other.

She was no longer alone and unfriended;

solitary though her life might appear, yet the

unseen was close about her and she was aware of it,

There are some people who, once having become

aware of the existence of a supernatural reality,

attribute everything to its agency ; the mouse

in the skirting, the wind in the chimney, are

ministering spirits, and a special providence

attends upon all their affairs; or, contrariwise,

malignant devils lurk in creaking furniture and

have to be chivvied with elaborate rituals. To

neither of these types did Veronica belong;

when the Unseen obtruded itself upon her, she

THE DEMON LOVER 223

was forced to accept it, but as soon as it receded

into the background again, she questioned the

truth of her memories and attributed them to

dream or imagination. Veronica did not wish

to believe in the Unseen, but she had had it

forced upon her.

She queried persistently the reality of last

night's experience; there was no means by

which she could test its truth, no trace was left

by the presences that had come and gone. There

was but one thing she could test them by, in her

memory there lingered a feeling that a definite

promise had been made that someone would

come to her upon the physical plane,

that the Unseen could communicate with others

as well as herself, and that one of these others

had been told to come to her and help her.

She gathered that she had found her way into

some great organization that had branches upon

many planes of existence, and that its members

would come to her assistance in case of need,

and at the same time had the right to demand

service of her. They differed entirely from the

dark, cold, forces that companioned Lucas,

these seemed to belong to something old, subhuman,

that mankind had left behind and

forgotten ; that aspect of the Unseen which now

approached her seemed to belong to a kingdom

that mankind had as yet hardly glimpsed. Lucas

resuscitated the dead past; through Veronica

there came to birth the living future.

The day passed away uneventfully, Lucas's

hour had not yet come, it was not till after dark

that he could function. Veronica knew the time

of his manifestation, and awaited him. As before,

224 THE DEMON LOVER

the deepening of the twilight heralded his arrival,

and with the passing of the last light a presence

made itself known in the room. Again the same

process was repeated, the available life forces were

divided, till these two met upon common ground,

half way between the unseen and the seen.

The cowled figure formed itself and spoke :

" Veronica, we must come to an understanding.

Are you going to help me or not ? "

Veronica faced him as she had often faced him

in life. " I will do anything I can to help you,"

she said. " But you shall not do that ghastly thing

to the children again if I can prevent it."

" What else can I do ? " said the cowled figure.

" If I do not replenish my vitality I cannot hold

even this form together, and then I go to the

Second Death. You do not know what that is,

do you, Veronica ? "

She shook her head, " I know nothing about

these things."

" Just as well for you. All the same, we are

in for them now, and have got to cope with them

as best we can. But I can tell you this, I do not

wish to go to that Second Death. You will not

send me to that, will you Veronica ? "

In his urgency he swayed towards her, and a hand

that was as real as in life was laid upon her arm.

Veronica put out her hand, and the soft smooth

draperies under her touch were like no textile

she had ever felt. " I do not want to do you any

harm, Mr. Lucas, I would not do you any harm

for the world, but I cannot let you hurt those

children, I must protect them. It is all so

horrible. Why must these things be ? "

" Because they cannot be helped," answered

THE DEMON LOVER 225

the man. <( I have got to feed or die, and I don't

propose to die if I can help it."

" But you are dead," cried Veronica.

" There is no such thing as death in the way

you mean," answered the man. " I have lost

the machine that was given me to work before

such time as the forces that drive it are withdrawn.

The forces are there, intact. I am alive, very

much alive, and if I can once succeed in building

myself a machine, I will live as you live, and then

I will come for you, Veronica I But at- present I

am only half way there, I must have more life,

and I have got to take it where I can get it."

" You shall not take it from the children again,'

said Veronica. " I will not fail you ; I promised,

and I shall keep my word. What I can do for

you I will do, but the children you shall not

have."

She faced him : young, and even for her years

curiously immature, yet with a force that was as

old as Nature shining through her. Motherhood

incarnate represented itself through that childish

figure ; she was the immortal female defending

the young of her kind, the fiercest thing alive.

Even the man she loved might not touch the

children. And Lucas knew it. Veronica moved

blindly, as her instincts prompted her, but Lucas

knew what forces they were that drove her ; he

knew that he had sought to revive a thing that

evolution itself had stamped out, the power of

the strong to break away from the herd and feed

upon the helpless young of their own species,

and Nature herself had risen up and said : " This

shall not be," and found a ready means of expression

in the pliable young girl whom he had himself

226 THE DEMON LOVER

taught to be a medium. The anti-cyclone had

set in, and the principalities and powers that

Lucas had outraged were coming into action.

Veronica spoke again. " I do not understand

these things, Mr. Lucas, but I am willing to do

whatever I can to help you, I am not afraid ;

and although I do not understand them, yet I

seem to know something about them."

" I dare say you do," said Lucas. " And you

will know more before you have finished. There

is only one thing I ask of you, to lend me enough

of your subtle ethers to enable me to collect

material for a body through which I can function,

and if you will not do that, then there is nothing

to be done, we are at a deadlock."

" I am willing to lend you my forces," said

Veronica. " But I will not let you touch the

children."

" And it is only from the children that I am

strong enough at present to take the forces

right out and keep them," he answered. " If I

persist in drawing upon your forces, I shall draw

you over to my phase of existence--death in life--

Veronica, and even I draw the line at that. I do

not draw the line at much, but I draw it at that.

You won't let me come to you, and I won't draw

you over to me. So there we are, and I hope

you can see a way out of it, for I cannot."

Veronica had no answer to offer. The grey

form before her swayed like the blown flame of a

candle as emotions that were still human

coursed through it.

Lucas spoke again. " If I did not love you

it would not matter, but I love you, and I cannot

do this thing. Why is it that my love for you

THE DEMON LOVER 227

--the best thing I have ever known--should be

the thing that has dragged me down ? If I had

not cared what happened to you, I could have

let the brethren strike you and escaped myself

as I had always intended to, but when it came

to the point I couldn't do it. I should have

lived, but I should have been alone, and that

was no good to me. Now, again, I could draw

myself back on to the life-plane by using your

forces, but then I should have pushed you out

here, we should only have changed places, and

I should be alone again. Why didn't I meet

you before I got myself mixed up in these things ?

I do not believe I should have wanted to do them

if I had had you ; and now it is too late, there is

no path of returning from the place I have come

to save by the use of other people's lives, and

that you will not let me do, and I'm damned if I

am going to use your life, Veronica. I am damned

already, so it probably would not make much

difference, but, anyway, I am not going to do

that."

The room, dimly lit by the dying fire, was a

cave of darkness; no stars looked in through the

uncurtained windows, for the night was clouded

without. The lamp was unlit, and the fire, that

form of life which is not of our evolution, seemed

repressed and made sinister by the presence of

this being who had intruded upon a world where

he had no right to be. Something of his nature

had entered into the fire and influenced

its burning; it was no longer the cheery hearth

of human comfort, but a flickering witch-light

that ministered to spells. Lucas, when he

returned from the unseen, did not come alone,

228 THE DEMON LOVER

but a multitude of others slipped through the

door that opened to admit him. Beings of

another order of life, penetrating to our world

with the eager curiosity with which the psychic

investigator intrudes upon theirs.

The thinning of the veil had set up a process

of spiritual osmosis, and the more vigorous

forms of the unseen were beginning to absorb

the life of the plane of manifestation. Lucas

had known all along that herein lay the danger.

By refusing to pass on to the place appointed, the

Judgment Hall of Osiris, as it is called, he had

taken up his abode in the antechamber between

the unseen and the seen, the realm of that which

has no form, whence the root-substance of matter

is drawn and to which it returns when the

ensouling life has outworn it. Herein function

creatures of another order of creation to our

own, whose nearest analogy is in the saprophytic

life of the bacteria ; the scavengers of creation,

they have their place in its processes, but, should

they obtrude beyond their appointed sphere,

they are the most horrible of phenomena.

It was in this world of the abyss that Lucas

was dwelling, and to whose influences he was

exposing the only being he had ever cared for.

He knew, both from the teaching of the occult

school in which he had been trained and by his

own experiences since he had quitted the physical

body, what cold hell of disintegration it was to

which he had come ; he also knew that, should

he fail to keep his footing in the world of manifestation--should

he no longer be able, through

depletion of vitality, to hold his tenuous form

together, then he would be drawn again into the

THE DEMON LOVER 229

flow of the cosmic laws, and the process of death,

which by his knowledge he had been able to

hold in abeyance, would continue its course, the

last shred of etheric substance which served to

anchor him to the world of matter would fall

away, and his naked soul would depart to the place of judgment to face its reckoning. For

there is a balancing of accounts at the end of

each incarnation ; the books are made up, that

which we owe the universe is demanded of us

and that which the universe owes us is paid

over; these two transactions constitute the

experiences known as Purgatory and the Lesser

Heaven. Then, the balance having been

adjusted, as far as it can be adjusted, by subjective

realization, the soul is ready to embark upon a

new venture in the world of matter ; experience

having been transmuted into faculty and a balance struck between the good and evil of its

nature ; it has, as it were, gone into voluntary

liquidation, realized its assets and acknowledged

its debts. Lucas was an absconding debtor, he

dared not present himself for examination because

his transactions in the unseen powers had been

fraudulent, he had converted trust monies to his

own use when he employed cosmic powers for

personal ends; an account would be demanded

of him which he could not give, and he had little

mind to face the consequences.

Having no physical organs that could draw

energy from the animal and vegetable kingdoms

by the processes of ingestion and digestion, he

had to obtain his energy ready-made from those

who had--he thus became a parasite, living upon

the vitality of others, and what happened to

230 THE DEMON LOVER

those others we have already seen. Had such

mysterious child-deaths taken place in the Middle

Ages they would have been recognized for what

they were, and a vigorous vampire-hunt set on

foot; the body of the suspect would have been

dug up, and if it were found to have resisted

decomposition, as would be the case if the soul that

had inhabited it were maintaining its hold upon

the world of form, it would have been burnt to

ashes, for fire alone can break the hold of the

semi-dead upon their house of flesh.

No such knowledge was available in our

enlightened day, neither coroner nor undertaker

guessed the significance of the unmarred

body of Lucas, and so the drama of life-in-death

was allowed to work itself out. The forces of

the Outer Dark were taking part in the events

of human life; it remained to be seen if the

forces of the Inner Light could cope with them.

CHAPTER TfFENTT-FOUR

FERONICA AWOKE TO FIND THE FIRE SHROUDED

V

in grey ash and the dawn-light looking in

at the windows. It had frozen hard in the

night, and the sun rose upon a silver world.

Lucas was gone, but the atmosphere of his

presence still hung about the room. The girl

flung open the windows and stepped out into

the clean coldness of the autumn dawn ; the

grey light was fast changing to a rosy radiance

and, late in the year though it was, there were

murmurings in the tree-tops. Veronica stood,

face to the east, waiting for the sun to clear the

hills, for though the sky was alight, the valley

lay in the shadow of the earth-bend. She was a

very different girl to the one who had watched

sunrises among the Surrey hills; naturally of a

sensitive disposition, as Lucas had divined when

the employment agency sent her, among dozens

of others, in response to his bogus request for a

secretary, the experiences through which she had

passed were rapidly awaking her psychic vision,

and things which, though all about us, pass

unperceived by ordinary mortals, were fast

coming into the focus of her consciousness; and

so, in that clear, frosty winter dawn she heard

one of the most wonderful things in the world--

the cosmic powers changing guard as the sun

forces ' take over' from the darkness, the

manifest alternating with the unmanifest; she

heard the great humming musical rhythms by

which the sensitive can recognize the potencies

that are manifesting, just as the experienced

mechanic can tell the make of a car by its engine-

note ; she felt the wind of their passing and

*3

232 THE DEMON LOVER

could see the great rivers of light up and down

the sky that marked their path. The ebbing

tide of night gave place to the flood of daybreak

and all creation rejoiced, but she did not forget

that the relaxation of evening would be equally

welcome to a tired world. Light is good and

darkness is good, if so be they keep their just

proportions; ebb and flow, action and reaction,

all equal and opposite, through which, and by

means of which, evolution mounts its spiral.

For a while she listened until the cosmic

rhythms settled down to their new motif and the

world took up its day's work. Cocks crowed on

distant farms, and a clop-clop of heavy hoofs

on the high-road showed that the plough teams

were going to their labours. Man's day had

begun. The still, mist-laden air of the valley

began to throb with the sound of human activities.

The harsh panting of a locomotive as it breasted

the grade out of Beckering Junction gave the

rhythm of the age of iron, and Veronica, back

once more in the world of matter, set herself to

pace the terrace until such time as her ancient

domestic should elect to serve breakfast.

Time never hangs upon the hands of those who

have once penetrated into the subjective world of

mind, for there is ever work to be done with the

mental images, and Veronica had much to think

about. As she walked, she reviewed the transactions

that had led up to her present situation ;

to her mind had come a lucidity it had never

before possessed, and behind the train of memory-

pictures she could discern the causes that linked

them together. Some door within her consciousness

had been opened during the night's

THE DEMON LOVER 233

experiences, and it seemed as if she had gained

access to chambers in her house of mind which

hitherto had been barred to her.

In these new regions of the opening subconscious

she found a series of vignettes--clear

but remote, like the memories of early childhood

--of herself under different circumstances and

conditions of existence, and these she recognised

to be memories of previous lives. She knew that

she had formed a tie with Lucas at some time

during these lives, and that it was the influence

of this tie which she still felt, and which made her

feel that she could never achieve with any other

human being the closeness of spiritual relationship

which was possible with him. Evil though

he was, he was nearer to her than anyone

else.

As she studied the dream-pictures, they grew

clearer. Temple and grove and great resonant

rituals built themselves up before her inner

vision in elaborate fantasies, and with a sudden

flash she realized that these were akin to the

scenes she had witnessed when Lucas drove her

across the spinning barrier of psychic force that

guarded the forbidden degrees of his own

Fraternity. These things, if not identical in

form, were similar in force, and some connection

existed between them.

But these new chambers that had opened in

her mind were not only stored with picture-

images, but with a forgotten lore that, fragment

by fragment as associations touched it, came

back into memory; the subconscious was

becoming conscious, and in its depths were found

stored the memories of past lives. Swiftly the

234 THE DEMON LOVER

revelation dawned upon the girl pacing the

terrace in the pale early sunlight. In the bright

dawn of human life, when the unseen world had

been very close to mankind and the priest-kings

still ruled their peoples, she had entered the

mystery-schools that then flourished and had

there learnt to work with one with whom, when

once the bond was established, she had worked

again and again until there came a life of crisis

in which one was tempted and fell to the lust of

power, while the other held firm to the faith.

The physical vehicles, shattered by the rending

forces that now tore them, soon released the

souls they held bound in the flesh, and in due

season these souls had again returned to the

world of form in that Roman incarnation of

which Lucas had told Veronica the story upon

the road to Brighton ; Veronica, with her widened

vision, was now able to read behind the incidents,

and knew that the one had been able to enter

the great new tide of spiritual life that had been

poured out upon the world from the hills of

Galilee, whereas the other had sought the old

pagan mysteries, had turned from the future to

the past, and reverted to a primitive type.

Again, at Avignon, the story had been repeated,

one soul had been drawn into the spiritual current

of its age, and the other had turned to a pagan

folklore. In the present life Veronica knew

that they had come together again, but the end

of the story was not yet written. A flash of

intuition revealed to her that of these spiritual

yoke-fellows, the one had dealt with the forces

of the mind, and the other with the forces of

the heart ; and that each, deprived of the other,

THE DEMON LOVER 235

was baffled. The one was a mind without

conscience; the other, feelings without understanding.

Together they could touch the heights,

but apart, the one was a knave and the other a fool.

It was the contact with Lucas that had opened

Veronica's intellect, and the contact with Veronica

that had touched Lucas's conscience.

Realization had come to Veronica and was

dawning in Lucas, but they were in the thick

of a toil of consequences that past lives had set

swirling about them, and it might well be that

realization had come too late for any solution to

be found in the present incarnation. Veronica

could not see her way through the maze, and she

realized that Lucas, in the strange, morbid,

life-in-death and death-in-life to which he had

condemned himself, might well pass beyond the

power of any aid, human or divine, and be drawn

into the gulfs of Chaos, whence there is no return.

Smoke rising from the kitchen chimney showed

that breakfast was at last under way, and Veronica

was turning towards the house when a footstep

attracted her attention, and she saw, approaching

through the dew-laden shrubberies, a figure

voluminously garbed in an old-fashioned Inverness

cape and laden with an antique Gladstone bag,

and in another minute her old friend of the long

white beard stood before her and grasped her

hand in greeting.

Amazed beyond words at this unexpected

visitation, Veronica entirely forgot the duties of

hospitality, and it was not until the old man

had led her into the billiard room and divested

himself of his wrappings that she enquired the

reason for his journey.

Z36 THE DEMON LOVER

He shot a keen glance at her from under his

heavy grey brows.

" Did you not expect any one ? " he said.

Veronica looked at him blankly for a moment,

and then, remembering the promised visitor of

her vision-dreams, hesitated, uncertain whether

to speak or not, for, though she herself was fast

becoming more certain of the reality of her

experiences and had ceased to attribute them to

imagination, it had never occurred to her that

anyone else might share them, and she feared to

expose herself to ridicule or suspicion should she

reveal her knowledge. But the old man's eyes

challenged hers, and she accepted the challenge.

<( Yes," she said slowly. " I was expecting

someone, but I was not quite certain--I did not

know it would be you--it took me by surprise

when I saw you."

The old eyes, strangely brilliant in that faded

face, continued to study her acutely.

" Who was it told you to expect someone ? "

he asked blandly.

Veronica returned his gaze squarely, she knew

that she was being tested ; the old man's thoughts

were perceptible to her, and she felt that hers

were equally so to him ; concealment between

them was both useless and needless. She

answered his question in the spirit in which it

was asked.

" THEY told me," was her reply.

" Then you know THEM ? "

She bowed her head. It was sufficient. They

understood each other.

The old woman appeared with a laden tray,

and seeing a second person present, shuffled off

THE DEMON LOVER 237

to boil another egg. Nothing ever perturbed

her or seemed to rouse her curiosity. Had she

found the Cham of Tartary confabulating with

Veronica, she would have boiled him an egg

without question. Lucas had trained her well.

The meal was occupied with the courtesies of

the table and enquiries as to Veronica's health

and other mundane matters. Both felt that there

were things to be told that were too momentous

to bear the interruptions necessitated by eating,

but as soon as the old man was ensconced in one

of the big leather arm-chairs, and his pipe was

well alight, he looked across the fireplace to

where Veronica occupied the other arm-chair,

and remarked : " Things, I take it, have been

happening ? "

He invited confidences, and Veronica determined

to burn her boats behind her and give

them.

" Dr. Latimer," she said, " I am going to tell

you the truth ; perhaps you will think I am mad,

but it is the truth, whether you believe it or not."

" I expect I shall believe it," the old man

replied. " There are certain things which some

of us know, though the world in general may be

ignorant of them."

" After you left me," Veronica began, " everything

was quiet for a little while, and I began to

think that I had made a mistake and that death

was--what most people think it is, and that

everything was finished ; but, on the other hand,

I felt it wasn't, and that presently I should be

wanted."

" You neither heard nor saw anything ? "

questioned the old man.

238 THE DEMON LOVER

" Nothing. I simply had a kind of feeling, and

though one part of me said it was all nonsense and

I was making a fool of myself, it was the deep,

inner part of me, my real self, that felt like that,

and I stuck to it; but it was so vague, and so

faint, that I could not make out anything definite

until one day I happened to put on an old

coat that had belonged to Mr. Lucas, and that

seemed to put me right back into his atmosphere

again, and I knew that he wanted me to go down

to his grave. I had never been, because I did

not wish to think of him as dead, but when I got

that feeling I obeyed it and went."

" Did you feel anything there ? " asked the

old man.

" Nothing," replied Veronica. " It simply

made me realize that Mr. Lucas was really and

truly dead and tha^ I had better think of other

things. But on my way back through the wood

there was something, I don't know quite what it

was. It was like a little cold wind that came

from nowhere, and it simply made us shudder."

" Who was ' us ' ? " enquired the old man,

quickly.

<( It was Alee Butler and myself. He was the

son of the doctor here; you may remember him

at the inquest."

" Was the son ? " the old man queried again.

(< Is someone dead ? "

Veronica twisted her hands together nervously.

" Yes," she replied slowly. " Several people are

dead. That is the thing I want to talk to you

about."

The old man removed the pipe from his mouth,

and the curl of smoke arising from it slowly died

THE DEMON LOVER 239

away. Veronica glanced furtively over her

shoulder, as if in search of eavesdroppers, and then

plunged into her story.

" When I went to the graveyard," she said,

" I saw four children's graves, all newly made,

and this is a tiny village, only one street." She

paused and looked sharply at the old man to see

what he would make of this statement. He

nodded.

" I am not surprised," he said.

" There have been other children who have

died since then : two others that I know of. I

will tell you about them presently, but I want to

tell you about Alee first. I got to know him when

I went to the churchyard. He was very kind

and showed me where the grave was. It would

have been rather trying, all alone."

" Did they bury Justin in consecrated

ground ? " asked the old man.

" I think so," said Veronica, " but not in the

old part of the churchyard round the church,

but in the new part, over against the river, and

right up in the far corner of that."

" That accounts for a good deal," said the old

man. " A modern Anglican consecration is

nothing approaching as powerful as one that was

done before the Reformation. They would have

spared themselves a good deal if they had allowed

Justin to lie in the shadow of the church.

Christian charity can rarely be dispensed with

safely."

" Alee walked home with me through the

wood. I was rather upset by the visit to the

grave, and also I think that he was attracted

towards me ; after that, he often came to see

240 THE DEMON LOVER

me, and in the end he asked me to marry him.

I think that that was what did it."

" Did what ? "

" Led to his death," said Veronica, steadying

her voice with an effort. " We had a dog here,

and one night it had a queer kind of seizure

and---- " She hesitated. How could she possibly

recount these wild imaginings ? <( And it

went mad and broke loose and killed Mr. Butler,"

she tailed off lamely.

" What was done with the dog ? " demanded

her interlocutor.

" They had it shot."

" And its body ? "

" They thought it had hydrophobia, so they

sent its body to the destructor at Ambridge."

" Good," said the old man, with an air of

satisfaction. " That is the only thing to do in

a case like this. And after the dog was destroyed,

did you have any more trouble ? "

" Yes," said Veronica, slowly. " We did.

Mr. Lucas came here into this very room, and

materialized over there where you are sitting."

" Did any one see him beside yourself ? "

" Not on that occasion, but when they shot

the dog a whole lot of people saw him, and the

district is simply scared to death, and the old

caretaker started drinking and has been drinking

ever since."

" How did he perform the materialization ? "

" He had got a certain amount of substance

from the children he had killed, and he borrows

the rest from me."

" Borrows ? "

" Yes, he borrows enough to be able to

THE DEMON LOVER 241

materialize and talk to me, and then returns it

and dematerializes when he has finished."

" Has he done this often ? "

" Four or five times."

(< What effect does it have on you ? "

Veronica hesitated. " It does not affect me

much at the time," she said at length. " In

fact, each time he does it it affects me less, but

I find that I am beginning to want to--to do

the same sort of thing to other people. When I

went down the lane the other day a little child

ran out to me, and I picked it up and cuddled it;

it seemed to me as if I could feel the vitality

radiating from it. The mother ran out and

snatched it from me, and I was thankful, for I

realized that I was doing just the same thing as

Mr. Lucas had done. I wouldn't do it again,

now I know what it means, but it is rather awful

to feel that way, isn't it ? "

The old man pulled at his extinguished pipe

for some time before replying. Finally he

spoke.

" Would it be possible to open Lucas's grave

without being observed, or should we be obliged

to get a permit from the Home Office ? "

" I should think it would be quite possible,"

replied Veronica. " But I should not like

anything to be done that could hurt Mr. Lucas.

The old man looked at her keenly.

" What is the position between you and

Lucas ? " he asked.

" There is an old bond," answered the girl.

" I thought as much. And what may be the

nature of that bond ? "

" We worked together in some of the old

242 THE DEMON LOVER

temples, and then, later, there was trouble and

we drifted apart. But we needed each other.

In fact, I think a great deal of the trouble came

from our being apart. He acted as a brain to

me, and I was a heart to him. Then in this life

we met again, but things were in such a tangle

that we can't get them straightened out. Mr.

Lucas did all sorts of wrong things with me.

He doesn't care what he does. And even now he

isn't properly dead, and he daren't die completely,

because if he did he would go to some awful

place and probably be lost altogether, and the

only way he can keep alive is by taking other

people's vitality."

" Have you ever heard of vampires ? " said the

old man.

" Yes," answered Veronica. " And--and I

have also heard of were-wolves."

Silence fell. between them.

Finally the girl spoke. " Do you know what

the Second Death means ? " she asked.

" It means the disintegration of the personality,

the unit of incarnation--and its absorbtion by

the individuality--the unit of evolution. John

Smith, shall we say, dies, and the ego, which we

will call Johannes, absorbs the experiences of

John Smith. The personality is as mortal as

the body, it is only the spirit which is eternal.

The first death is that of the physical form,

and the second death that of the body of desire

ensouled by the concrete mind. When that is

gone, the abstract mind, ensouled by the divine

spirit, abides in its own place, which is commonly

called heaven, until the time comes for its

reincarnation."

THE DEMON LOVER 243

" Why is Mr. Lucas so afraid of the Second

Death ? "

" Because that is the day of reckoning whereon

the personality has to answer for its doings.

Lucas dreads the day of reckoning, and not

without reason, either."

Veronica gazed dreamily out of the window

for a while.

" I suppose if anyone heard us," she said at

length, " they would think we were mad, and

that our minds were wandering."

" Doubtless," said her companion drily. " But

how would they propose to stop the deaths ?

They have an amazing infant mortality for so

small a place : they cannot explain that away."

CHAPTER IWWir-PIVS

LUCAS NEVER APPEARED DURING THE HOURS OP

daylight, it was only as the darkness came

on that he might be expected, so Veronica

showed the old man over her little estate, and

pointed out the different objects that were

connected with the problem they had to solve.

They had visited Lucas's bedroom, where the

last blooms of the red rambler shed mildewed

leaves upon the windowsill. As the old man

gathered them thoughtfully into his hand,

Veronica felt that he was surveying the scene with

other senses than his five physical ones.

They inspected the empty dog-kennel, beside

which still lay the unbuckled collar attached to

its chain, and then, from a discreet distance, they

surveyed the cottages in the lane. Finally they

followed the wood path that led to the churchyard

and stood beside a mound of rough earth that

was slowly subsiding under the autumn

rains.

For a long time the old man remained bareheaded

beside the mound, musing upon who

knows what ? Communing with the soul of the

dead man, or dreaming of what might have been

had the son of his spirit been a worthy successor.

Finally he knelt and laid upon the wet earth the

handful of rain-beaten blooms that he had

gathered from the rambler that encircled the

dead man's bed-chamber. Veronica also knelt,

and shaped the dull red flowers into the semblance

of a cross. The old man did not seek to dissuade

her, indeed, she seemed to have carried out a wish

which he had not dared to express.

" Perhaps, after all, he was entitled to it.

244

THE DEMON LOVER 245

Who are we to judge him ? To each man his

own Master," was his only comment.

The evening saw them gathered in the familiar

billiard room. The wood fire threw its uncertain

light, and as soon as the old woman had removed

the evening meal, Dr. Latimer extinguished the

lamp.

" In the ordinary way," said the old man,

" I should not allow you to go into trance without

taking the proper precautions, but under the

present circumstances we must leave the gates

open and allow what will to come through,

otherwise we might exclude something which

was essential."

They had not long to wait. As the flames died

down and the logs sank to a red glow, Veronica

felt the draining of her substance which showed

that her resources were being drawn upon, and

once again the cowled figure began to form

itself in the shadows. The mist-like exudation

condensed itself into floating draperies in the

folds whereof hands and features slowly appeared,

with pools of illimitable blackness for the eyes.

His attention being concentrated upon

Veronica, it was not until fully materialized that

Lucas perceived the presence of a third person.

Instantly his form shot up to twice its normal

height, and the draperies spread out into great

bat-like wings as he hovered over the venerable

white-^bearded figure sitting motionless in the

depths of the chair. So readily did the tenuous

ectoplasm respond to the ensouling mind that

great claws sprang out at the ends of the fingers

as they stretched towards the throat of their

intended victim. There they hovered for a

246 THE DEMON LOVER

moment, irresolute. But the clear brilliance of

the blue eyes never wavered under their heavy

white eyebrows, and the threatening, overhanging

form slowly retreated, the spreading bat-wings

were indrawn, till at last, in the exact semblance

of an Egyptian mummy, Lucas stood upon the defensive.

At length the old man spoke.

" Greeting, my son, in the name of Those

whom we both serve."

A quiver ran through the rigid form confronting

him, and a thin fold of drapery seemed to shake

itself free from the swathing mummy-bands and

hang like a long, loose sleeve.

" Whence come you ? " came the questioning

voice, as if in some set formula, the quaver of

old age sounding in an undertone through its

ritual resonance.

" From the Abyss," came at length the

unwilling answer.

" And whither go you ? "

There was a pause, broken only by the slow

ash falling in the fire and the rhythmic breathing

of Veronica. The log had burnt through and

broken before the answer came, but the old man

nevef stirred.

Then Lucas spoke.

" I am in Outer Darkness," he said. " Blown

about by the winds of space. It is useless to ask

me whither I am going, for I cannot tell you."

" Depart, my son, depart, and be at peace,"

said the old man. <( Face your reckoning and

meet it, and then, when the day of life dawns

for you once more, you can return to the Path

whence you have turned aside."

THE DEMON LOVER 247

The bat-like wings unfolded themselves

threateningly from the drapery as Lucas answered

angrily. " It is not in your power to bid me

depart; I have made good my foothold on the

plane of manifestation to that extent at any

rate. We can defy you, between us."

The old man turned to Veronica. " My

daughter," he said, " it is not in my power to

make Justin face his reckoning, as he very truly

says, because I cannot drive him out of the form

he has built for himself without shattering you,

for it is built in part of your substance, but if

you will withdraw yourself from him, then I

can send him to his own place."

Veronica slowly raised herself up in her chair

and looked from one to another of the two

who confronted her. To her psychic condition,

neither of them seemed material, but to be

different types of force, each expressed through

the vehicle of a mind. The old man appeared

to her as a prism, transmitting a ray from a

great sun hung in space, but Lucas shone with a

phosphorescence, luminous as certain fungi are

luminous, with the light of their own putrefaction.

" Where will he go ? " she said at length.

<( Where is his own place. Will it be well with

him there ? "

Lucas laughed, and the sound seemed to be

taken up by innumerable voices. Every flicker

of firelight, every draught of the crazy house

seemed to cackle with ghastly merriment.

" My own place," he said, " is the Dark Planet

of Disintegration, the Wandering Planet, that has

no orbit. There I shall be returned, cell by

248 THE DEMON LOVER

cell, molecule by molecule, atom by atom, to

the primordial substance whence I arose, for it

will not be Purgatory I go to, but annihilation,

for I have given myself unreservedly to darkness

and said to evil, ' be thou my good.' "

" Are you quite sure, my son, that you have

given yourself unreservedly to evil ? " said the

old man.

" It is not my fault if I haven't 1 " snarled

Lucas.

Veronica's voice cut across their dispute. " I

could not send him to destruction, Dr. Latimer.

I may be very foolish and very wrong, but I

really could not do it. I do not think he can do

anyone any harm if I won't help him, and perhaps

if we give him time, he may have a chance to

put things right."

(< Time is the one thing we cannot give him,

my dear. There is no slack water in the cosmic

tides. He must go one way or the other, back

into life or out to the death of the soul."

" Then why can he not come back, if such a

thing is possible ? "

" Because he can only come back through you,

and then you will be where he is now."

" Is that so very terrible ? " said Veronica.

" It is," said Lucas, briefly.

" For the second time," said the old man,

concentrating his gaze upon the shrouded figure

before him. " Where are you going, my son ? "

Lucas did not answer.

" Do you intend to go to your reckoning ? "

The bat-wings folded closer round the swathed

figure and a shudder seemed to run through it.

" Not if I can help it."

THE DEMON LOVER 249

" Then do you propose to maintain yourself

in manifestation by means of the life-forces of

this girl ? "

There was a long pause as Lucas seemed to be

unable to come to a decision.

" It will have to be one or the other," said the

old man.

" I know that," said Lucas.

He looked at Veronica as she lay back in the

big chair, and she leant towards him anxiously.

(< I do not know what it all means," she said,

" but I shall not send you away, I said I would

stand by you and I will. I cannot let you hurt

the children, but I will not send you away

myself."

Lucas smiled a crooked smile.

" I may have to send myself away, little

Veronica."

The old man became tensely still in his chair,

and seemed hardly to breathe as he waited for

the next words from the grey shadow in the

corner.

The fire had died to darkness before they were

spoken.

" There are some things---- " the words came

slow and heavy, like drops of water falling in a

cavern, " --which cannot be done."

Again silence fell upon the room, unbroken

by any sound, within or without, and finally the

voice of Lucas spoke again.

" If it were anyone but you, Veronica--no, it

cannot be done." Then the voice, gathering

strength, rang like a bell, and into it came a

note that was almost joy. " This is good-bye,

Veronica. Good-bye and God bless you, go free

250 THE DEMON LOVER

and be happy. Forget as much as you can and

forgive the rest. Or, if you must remember,

then remember that I loved you."

Veronica rose up in the darkness and faced

him, and the old man, watching, saw that the

child Veronica was no more, for the soul which

had lived through the ages had at last entered

into full possession of its tenement.

" I shall forget nothing, and there is nothing

to forgive. This thing had to be, and we have

worked it out together. To you I have been a

soul, and to me you shall be a mind. If you go

to the Dark Planet, I will go with you, and if I

remain here, you will return to me."

" It is not for us to say what we will do," said

Lucas. " I go to Those who will deal with me as

They see fit---- " and throwing up his hand he

cried in a voice of evocation " ----for I go to

my reckoning."

The utterance of the words seemed to bring

with them a sudden change. The cowled grey

figure was shot through as with streaks of fire,

and crimson fumes rolled up all around like the

light of a burning city. Once again the cackling

laughter rose up from every shadow and crevice

of that haunted house, and peal upon peal of

hooting merriment answered from high overhead

where the night clouds raced across the face of

the moon. It seemed as if every patch of gloom

harboured triumphant evil and Lucas had been

delivered into its hands. A blast of furious gale

struck the house broadside till the place rocked

on its foundations, rafters and beams creaking as

if the whole crazy structure were coming down.

The windows, torn bodily from their frames,

THE DEMON LOVER 251

crashed on to the floor in a shower of flying glass.

Something that was thicker than the darkness

swept into the room with the gale, passed swiftly

over all its surfaces, touching them with intangible

tentacles till it found that which it sought, and

then swept out again as it had come. The gale

sank as suddenly as it had arisen; the room,

vacated of all presences, was simply a shattered

human dwelling-place wrecked by a cyclone.

No trace remained of the forces that had swept it

or the passions that had invoked them, save only

that an intolerable stench of putrefaction rolled

up in waves from the corner where the grey

cowled figure had stood.

CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX

THE TERRIFIC WIND DIED AWAY AS SUDDENLY AS

it had arisen, leaving the room in utter

darkness. Veronica could hear the old man

fumbling for the matches. The little pale flame

lit up at last, a feeble gleam among the shadows

The lamp, smashed to fragments, lay in a corner,

and the old doctor turned slowly round, seeking

for something to ligh". As he turned, he suddenly

stopped with a half-strangled exclamation, for,

framed in the shattered window-space, stood the

figure of a man. They both gazed at it in

speechless amazement as the dying flame of the

match illumined the strange, impassive countenance,

exaggerating with its nickering shadows the

deep lines of the parchment skin, the hollow

cheeks, the high cheek-bones, the great jaw and

the lofty forehead. The eyes, deep-set and

glittering, were those of the hawk, not the

Mongol, otherwise the newcomer might have

passed for an Asiatic rather than a European, and

the lithe, silent movement with which he entered

the room confirmed the illusion of the East,

yet Veronica knew that this man was not an

Asiatic, any more than he was a Westerner ;

he was absolutely detached. He gave the impression

of tremendous power, utterly impersonal,

completely under control. Veronica had seen

enough of the members of the mysterious

Fraternity in whose headquarters she had been

concealed to recognize the sign manual of its

discipline. The glittering eyes of Dr. Latimcr,

the catlike movement of Lucas, the sense of

impersonal power of the hard-faced man, all

these she saw developed to a far greater degree

252

THE DEMON LOVER 253

and concentrated in a single individual. She

knew without telling that this man had to do

with the Fraternity, but was far higher, far

bigger, than the men she had so far encountered

in the handling of its affairs. He as far transcended

Lucas as Lucas transcended herself, and

she knew without telling that he was not only a

man to be obeyed, but to be trusted.

The match burnt itself out in the old man's

fingers while he gazed speechless at this apparition,

and the room was once again in darkness and

silence.

The voice of the stranger broke the spell.

" You know me ? "

" Yes, you are--you are--the Third." Dr.

Latimer spoke brokenly, like a man overwhelmed

by emotion.

" Quite right. I am the Third. Now I

suggest that you strike a light. There are

matters I wish to discuss with you."

Veronica could here the footsteps of the

stranger as he crossed the bare parquet. He

moved in the darkness with the precision of a

man who could see where he was going, and the

clink of metal told her that he had laid hands on

the two brass bedroom candlesticks that stood

on the table near the door. By the time Dr.

Latimer had got the match alight, he was standing

before him, holding the candlesticks.

Veronica could now examine him at her

leisure. The loose frieze overcoat he wore

exaggerated his height and the massiveness of

his frame, but as he laid it aside she saw that

he was clad in the ordinary lounge suit of civilization.

Unlike some students of the occult, the

254 THE DEMON LOVER

members of this fraternity, which really possessed

power and knowledge, did not seek to be

impressive, but rather to conceal themselves

under the bushel of convention in order to

pursue their studies undisturbed. " Don't stir

up Mrs. Grundy," Lucas had once said to her,

" she is an old lady well worth conciliating if

you want to be let alone." The newcomer was

evidently of the same opinion, for mien and

manner were studiously approximated to the

ordinary.

He knelt before the smouldering hearth and

drew the ashes together gently, as if handling

living creatures. The instantaneous blazing of

the fire under his hand seemed to Veronica of a

piece with his power to move in the darkness:

he might wear ordinary clothes, but he was no

ordinary man.

For the first time he looked directly at her as

she sat motionless in her big chair, as she had

sat ever since his entrance.

" Come, my child," he said, laying his hand on

hers. " Draw up to the fire and warm yourself.

You are cold."

That kindly touch, which had nothing of a

man's familiarity in it, told Veronica yet more

about the stranger. Dr. Latimer had brains

and kindness, but no strength ; the hard-faced

man had brains and strength, but no kindness ;

the newcomer had all three, and Veronica knew

by this that he was a far greater man in every

way than either of the others was ever likely

to be.

" Talk of angels and you hear their wings,"

says the proverb, and even as she thought of her

THE DEMON LOVER 255

old opponent, a step sounded on the gravel of

the terrace, and his burly figure stood framed in the window.

He looked just as surprised to see the man

who had called himself the Third as Dr. Latimer

had looked, and Veronica had a secret suspicion

that he was not any too pleased. He was not the

type of man who would take kindly to yielding,

and the stranger would certainly rule any group

in which he found himself. On the other hand,

she knew intuitively that Dr. Latimer was

immensely relieved at the intervention of the

unknown man, and quite ready to trust the issue

into his hands.

" If you will be good enough to come in, Mr.

Fordice," said that personage, " we will be able

to close the window."

The hard-faced man gave a grunt that sounded

rather resentful of even this reasonable request,

but nevertheless he did as he was asked, and lent

his assistance to secure the mouldering shutters

that threatened to fall bodily into the room.

No questions were asked or answered, but

nevertheless, Veronica, with her quickened

intuition, felt certain that each of these three

men had obeyed a silent summons, though

whether that summons had issued from the Third,

or whether he, too, had been summoned, she

could not tell. They were gathered in a semicircle

round the now blazing fire, and two pipes

and a cigar were rapidly obscuring the atmosphere,

and still no word was spoken ; she felt that these

men were " sensing" the state of affairs,

" sensing " each other, and acting and reacting

in a way which she could not divine. She had

256 THE DEMON LOVER

always thought that occultists were ascetic

people who touched neither meat, drink nor

tobacco, but Dr. Latimer had always eaten

without a murmer whatever the caretaker had

chosen to set before him, and the Third was

smoking a long black cigar that would have put

the average man upon his back. They might

be psychics, but they were certainly not sensitives.

Finally the Third spoke. " We must settle

this matter as speedily as possible," he said.

" Time is an important factor in the case."

" I thought it had been settled," said the

hard-faced man, with something that closely

approached a sneer.

" I thought so, too," said Dr. Latimer, looking

up in surprise. " Lucas, in my hearing, accepted

his fate and went out to the Judgment Hall of

Osiris."

" And was turned back at the gate," said the

Third, " for his time was not yet come. They

would no more accept him than they would

accept a murdered man or----" he paused

significantly, " --a suicide."

" Would you consider," said the hard-faced

man, " that a criminal who was executed in

accordance with the law was a murdered man ? "

" The law of the land rules the land," said the

Third, " and when the Race Spirit takes a life,

it is a death according to the law, and therefore

a natural death ; whether it is right or wise to

take that life, is another matter, and in any case

the issue is one we are not concerned with here,

for the law was not invoked. It was a private

vendetta, gentlemen, and it is no use pretending

otherwise, and the consequences of your rash

THE DEMON LOVER 257

action you must face, for you have caused a soul

to leave its body before its natural term had

arrived, and that soul, therefore, ' walks' as

surely as any other suicide."

" Why do you keep on emphasizing the word

suicide ? " asked the man he had called Fordice,

peering sharply at the Third.

<( Because I do not know what other word to

use for a man who voluntarily vacates his body,

the makers of dictionaries had not foreseen such

an eventuality as the one we are discussing.

No, gentlemen, with all your cleverness you did

not even succeed in ' bagging' our friend. He

eluded you."

Fordice gave a sound that was almost a snarl.

He was evidently more annoyed to learn that

his magic had failed of its purpose than relieved

to find that he had not got a crime on his

conscience. His character appeared to have

undergone a profound change even during the

short time that Veronica had known him ; the

evil of which Lucas had rid his soul seemed to

have entered into him.

<l The question is, what do you propose to

do with our friend ? " continued the Third.

" He is a member of your Lodge, gentlemen, it

is your problem."

" The reason he does not go to his last account

is that he is a vampire," said Fordice. " If you

opened the grave you would probably find his

body as fresh as when it was buried."

" Precisely," said the Third. <( We all know

that. But the question is: What are you going

to do about it ? "

" You also know the traditional way of dealing

258 THE DEMON LOVER

with vampires, no doubt ? " answered his

opponent, the sneer appearing openly on the

surface of his expression.

" I knew it before you were born," said the

Third, a slow smile stirring the lines of his face.

" But, considering the circumstances under which

this man became a vampire, would you be justified

in using it. You, of all men ? "

At this home thrust the hard-faced man

winced and kept silence.

" It has always been my belief," said Dr.

Latimer, " that Justin, with all his faults, did not

enter our Fraternity without a reason, and it is

also my belief that when he gave himself as a

voluntary sacrifice to save another, he wiped

out a very great deal, if not all, of his debt."

" Did he not contract a fresh debt when he

elected to become a vampire ? " asked Fordice.

" Admittedly. But do you not think that he

wiped that out also when he went voluntarily

to the Second Death ? Remember, we had not

power to force him to surrender his wraith-form,

he laid it down of his own free will rather than

injure one whom he loved. The Second Death

is a terrible thing for a man in his position to

face, and he had no means of knowing that the

Second Death would reject him."

" And even if he had known it," interposed

the Third, " to wander homeless in the Intermediate

State is a much worse thing than to

burn in Hell, for you suffer all the pains of

purgatory with none of its purification. That

soul is out on the astral now, where, between

you, you have despatched him.

" Now, gentlemen, as I told you before, time

THE DEMON LOVER 259

is the essence of the contract, for, deprived of his

peculiar form of sustenence, Lucas will no longer

be able to hold his physical body together, and

you have just about the same time in which to

act as would elapse between death and burial

in the ordinary way. Lucas has returned to his

grave by now, for it is past cockcrow, and he

will probably return to it again to-morrow, but

I doubt if he will be able to use it much longer."

" The correct thing to do is to ' Bury him

at four cross roads, with a stake in his inside,' "

said the hard-faced man, his sneer again getting

the better of his discretion.

His interlocutor looked at him sharply. " Don't

talk nonsense," he said. " That is nothing to do

with the matter. The body will disintegrate,

anyway. Lucas has already renounced his vampiri-

cism. What we have to decide is, whether

we will let events take their natural course and

leave Lucas to wander as an earth-bound spirit

till his time is up, or try to get him back into his

physical body, which is at present lying in deep

trance in the graveyard."

The old man sat up with a start. " Then- then he is not dead ? " he said.

" By no manner of means," said the Third.

" He has performed a very advanced yogi operation,

just such a one as Stevenson records in

' The Master of Balantrae.' If you were to

examine his body, you would probably find that

even the injuries inflicted by the post-mortem

had been reconstructed. He had been out of

his body some time when the death-stroke fell

upon it, and had evidently planned to lie in

trance until he could arrange to get his body

z6o THE DEMON LOVER

exhumed under the proper conditions, living as

a vampire meanwhile. You can read an account

of similar occurrences in ' Dracula,' written by

a man who had more knowledge than Stevenson.

Lucas took a very long chance, it was a thousand

to one against his experiment succeeding, but as

he had managed in holding his form together so

long there is a possibility that he might have

succeeded had he continued. He is a brave

man, and whatever the cruelties by which he

had kept himself going, I can forgive a great

deal to bravery."

He paused and looked round the room, studying

the effect his words had had upon his hearers.

Dr. Latimer was gazing at him in eager perplexity.

There could be no doubt as to the way his wishes

went, but he feared to allow himself to hope too

much lest the disappointment should be too

keen. Lucas had meant a great deal to him,

had been like a son to his lonely old age, and he

had painstakingly transmitted to him all his

laboriously acquired occult knowledge, hoping

to see the younger man accomplish the Great

Work that had been denied to himself.

The hard-faced man had lost the immobile

calm of the trained occultist and had his hand

at his moustache, tugging at it nervously. It

was obvious that a vindictive temper was striving

for the upper hand. He hated having his judgments

reversed, he resented the tacit assumption

of superiority by the stranger, but he appeared

to consider resistance as futile and showed signs

of making good his retreat as best he could. He

rose to his feet.

" I have given you my opinion," he said, " but

THE DEMON LOVER 261

I don't resist your authority. The responsibility

is yours. All I ask is, that you will excuse me

from sharing the consequences."

" That is an absolution I have no power to

give," replied the Third. " You will not see the

end of the consequences of this affair for many

a long life to come. But we hold no man against

his will. If it is your wish to withdraw, you

have my permission to do so."

The hard-faced man pulled on a heavy leather

motoring-coat, his eyes wandering from one to

another of the faces before him. For Veronica

they held something that almost approached pity :

to old Dr. Latimer he gave a glance of resentment

and contempt: the eyes of the Third he was

unable to meet. Nevertheless, he addressed him.

" Things may turn out as you expect," he

said, " or they may not. Lucas may have

succeeded in eluding the Dark Ray or--he may

not. But in any case " (turning to Dr. Latimer),

" I wish him joy of the leavings of the postmortem."

With which parting shot he closed

the door behind him, and they heard his footsteps

die away through the empty, echoing

house.

CHAPTER TffENTr-SEVEN

<( npHAT, OF COURSE, SAID THE THIRD, IS THE

-HL crux of the matter. What has the postmortem

left ? We cannot tell that till we open

the grave. Our immediate practical problem is,

how to get the grave open. There is one person,

however, who has got to be consulted before we

commence this undertaking. Now, Miss Mainwaring, what is your feeling about the matter ?

Do you wish to stand clear of it, also ? If so,

I can put you in my car and drive you across

running water and effectually prevent Lucas

getting on your trail again.Veronica gazed at him, unable to reply for a

moment. The thought of meeting Lucas

quickened her pulses and brought a faint flush

to her cheeks, but the fear of what such a meeting

might mean closed like a cold hand about her

heart. The dark hawk's eyes of the strange man

before her watched her compassionately, but he

made no attempt to help her. It was her deepest

instincts that had to give the answer, and no

influence must be used to sway the surface.

But Veronica's answer was a foregone conclusion.

She had gone too far down this path

to turn back, and the Karma of a million years

was behind her.

" I will stand by--Justin," she said, using the

Christian name of her sinister lover for the first

time. " For I think he will need me when he

comes back."

" I think so, too," said the Third. " In fact,

it would have served little purpose to bring

him back without you, but the decision had to

be free. Pity and duty are no substitutes for

6

THE DEMON LOVER 263

love." He looked at the watch on his wrist.

" It has just gone three ; the sun rises at seven-

thirty ; we have, therefore, about three hours

between now and second cock-crow to do that

which we have to do."

" How are we to get the grave opened ? "

enquired Dr. Latimer. " We have no time to

get an order from the Home Office, and clandestine

digging is impractical."

" There are more ways of opening a grave than

with a spade," said the mysterious man with the

hawk-like eyes. " Have you got your robes with

you ? "

" Of course," said the old man, and taking one

of the bedroom candles departed into the

draughty darkness of the whispering, creaking

house.

The solitary remaining candle did no more than

make the darkness palpable in the big room with

its shadowy furniture. The man who called himself

the Third sat for a while gazing silently into the

dying fire, the dull red glow from its embers

throwing strange lights and shadows on his rugged

features, making him look like a giotesque idol

carved by some forgotten race. He seemed far

away in the depths of thought, oblivious of his

remaining companion, and Veronica was able to

study him at her leisure, wondering what manner

of discipline had made him the man he was. Suddenly

he looked up, and crossing the hearthrug,

sat down on a chair close beside hers, taking her

hand in his.

" My child," he said, " Do you realize what

lies before you ? Have you any understanding

of the matter ? "

264 THE DEMON LOVER

Veronica gave him her slow Monna Lisa smile.

" I understand better than you think," she said,

" I have known these things before ? "

" And you remember ? Yes, I see you do.

That is good, very good. I believe we shall be

able to carry this thing through with your

assistance. To rouse Lucas from his trance is a

simple enough matter, but to make him live

afterwards, ah, that is the problem. You will

have to marry him, my child, do you realize that ?

And the mating of an occultist is much more than

the ordinary marrying. You will have to mate

with him in the Unseen as well as on the earth,

and in the Unseen, you must be the male force,

you must be the controller. Your spiritual

nature has got to marry his intellect, and you

must fertilize it, not be fertilized by it. Do you

understand that ? You cannot lean on him on

the Inner Planes, by sheer spirituality you have

got to take the lead. His mind must never get

the upper hand again, your spiritual nature must

be the dominant. Child that you are, can you

do it ? Can you hold a man of that type by his

ideals ? "

Veronica withdrew her eyes from his and gazed

far off into the shadows. Could she do what

was required of her ? Or had she in her ignorance

committed herself to tasks utterly beyond her

capacity ? No one knew her weaknesses better

than Veronica did ; she was only too well aware

of the simplicity and inexperience that made her

a ready prey to the designing, of the diffidence

that prevented her from giving effect even to

that which she knew, and the lack of self confidence

that held her helpless and inarticulate.

THE DEMON LOVER 265

Yet within her there was a curious sense of

power. Little, bright, clear-cut pictures, like

the images seen through the wrong end of a pair

of opera glasses, broke and re-formed before her

eyes in an ever-shifting kaleidoscope. The

portico of a temple, with its great pillars sparkling

white in the sun ; then the bowed, silent congregation

within, the drifting incense and the

shifting lights; then the darkness of the Holy of

Holies, with the coals in the tripod glowing redly

and the dim forms of elemental spirits shaping

themselves in the fume.

The man's hands held hers in a grip of iron, his

eyes burned themselves into her brain.

" Oh Pythoness! " he said, " Can you not

remember ? "

She looked at him with eyes that seemed to

gaze through deep water, but as the light cleared,

she saw that about his face were forming the

folds of the striped head-dress of Egypt ; behind

him rose the shadow of a vast pylon. His hands

crushed hers as his will drove into her, and she

could feel the burning heat of them against her

skin.

" Oh Priestess of Isis, have you forgotten ? "

His voice boomed and rolled like a drum through

the room. The shadowy pylon behind him came

clear for a moment in rose-red sandstone, then

changed into another though similar, type of

masonry, more roughly hewn, though white as

milk. Far below her, as if seen from a precipice,

the huddled roofs of houses, covered with some

yellow metal that was not gold, gleamed dully

through the thick, misty air, and the sun hung

large in the heavens, like a disk of copper.

266 THE DEMON LOVER

" Helios, Helios, Quanto Rhopantanek! "

breathed the voice in her ear, and all Lost

Atlantis woke to the chant of the Sun-god.

She saw the great processions of the white-clad

priests and remembered the part she had taken

in them : she saw the smoke rise from the sacred

volcano, and knew what her function was, and

she heard her voice answer in the antiphone,

" Quanto Rhopantanek, Helioun I "

She sprang to her feet and threw up her hands

in the Salute of the Sun. The ancient invocation

to the Great Initiator sprang to her lips.

" Waft thou my out down the River of Naradek :

Bring it to Light, and to Life, and to Love."

The man who was called the Third rose from

his chair and gave the answering salute. Through

all the changes of the vision, his face had been

the one thing that had not changed, under

Egyptian nemys or Atlantean filet, it had been

the same. He looked deeply into her eyes.

" Do you remember me ? " he said.

" Yes," she answered.

" By what name did you call me last ? "

" You were known to us as The Count."

He nodded, and the tenseness went from his

attitude as he relaxed the effort of will he had

been making.

At that moment the door opened and Dr.

Latimer entered, bearing a small black bag in his

hand. He laid it on the table beside another of

similar shape and size that evidently belonged to

the newcomer ; then, without instruction, he

assisted the man who was called the Third, and

also the Count, to shift the furniture into the

THE DEMON LOVER 267

corners of the room and clear a floor-space. Then

he knelt in the middle and held one end of a

thread while his companion drew out a circle

with a lump of putty-like substance attached to

the other end, which left a luminous mark upon

the floor, as of some phosphorus compound.

" What sygils ? " said he, taking another lump

of the same stuff out of his black bag.

" Put the Signs and Seals of the Princes of the

Powers of the Air," replied the other, " I am

going to invoke the Spirits of Tempest. What

we cannot dig up we may be able to wash out

as the grave is almost on the bank of the river."

Veronica was reminded of the famous floorcloth

that Lucas had told her about, the thing

that first turned his thoughts to the study of

occultism. The old man left his companion to

complete the hieroglyphs, and put a small piece

of some black substance on the glowing embers

of the hearth ; when it began to smoulder, he

took it up with tongs and placed it in a

copper thurible of antique workmanship, and

sprinkled what looked like fine gravel upon it. A

dense cloud of smoke went up instantly, filling

the room with aromatic odours and curling into

fantastic forms as the draughts took it. He

delivered the little censer into the hands of

Veronica.

" You must take charge of this," he said, " And

you must on no account let it go out. Keep it

swinging gently all the time."

They turned to see that the other man had

lifted a small table into the centre of the circle

and draped it with a black cloth into the semblance

of an altar. In a little bowl of ruby glass

268 THE DEMON LOVER

a floating wick showed a point of flame as it swam

on the surface of the sacred oil; its light fell with

a ruddy glow on certain metallic objects of peculiar

shape that were disposed around it.

Veronica's attention was distracted for a

moment by the censer in her charge, from which

the smoke had ceased to issue, and mindful of

Dr. Latimer's warning, she swung it back and

forth till the glowing charcoal once more set the

incense smouldering. She looked up to find that

a change had occurred in the room. The personality

of Dr. Latimer had completely disappeared

under the flowing black robe and cowl of an

Inquisitor which he had assumed, but the

individuality of the Third was revealed rather

than hidden by his robes, for his cowl was pushed

back to frame the face, and upon his head he wore

the royal head-dress of Egypt.

He came towards Veronica holding out a

similar robe to that which shrouded Dr. Latimer.

" This you must wear," he said, " for you will

need protection in that which we are about to do."

Veronica, completely enveloped in the flowing

black draperies of the voluminous garment, felt

strangely cut-off from the world. It had evidently

been used for rituals before, for its folds

were full of the smell of incense.

" Now," said the Third, " are we ready ?

Have we got everything ? We can't step outside

the circle once we have started, you know."

He came towards Veronica.

" This is your place," he said. " Whenever you

have finished a circumambulation, come back

here, and be sure and keep the censer going.

There is some more incense in that box. The

THE DEMON LOVER 269

charcoal ought to last out all right. Always go

round the way of the sun. Be sure you never

get into the reverse circumambulation. Don't

try and cut across the circle; whatever happens,

keep going round, and whatever you do, don't

step outside that line. Get the censer going well,

and then walk three times round the circle the

way of the sun."

He returned to the altar, taking his stand with

his back to the East, immediately in front of it.

The light from the floating wick threw into

strong relief the rugged lines of his face ; and the

hawk-like eyes, deep set under heavy brows,

flashed with an unnatural fire. The long black

lines of his draperies added to his height and made

him look gigantic in the shifting shadows, and

the golden head-dress of Egypt, with the serpent

rising as if to strike from above the brow, seemed

the fitting crown for a face that was neither

young nor old, but strangely deathless in its

calm, as if all the races of the earth had risen and

fallen before its unageing wisdom and power.

He raised his arms above his head to their full

extent, and a great shadow followed him across

the ceiling. In his right hand he held a sword,

and the towering figure and the flashing blade

seemed gigantic among the shadows. The Kab-

alistic Cross of purification was marked on brow

and breast, and a strange stillness fell upon the

room.

At a sign from him, Veronica set out upon her

task of pacing the circle. The cowl stifled her,

she could see out of the eye-holes with difficulty,

the incense rose in clouds into her face as she

moved, and at every step she found an increased

270 THE DEMON LOVER

difficulty in balancing. To walk that circle was

no simple task, for she seemed to be pushing her

way through invisible currents. The second

time round, however, was easier, and at the third

round a force seemed to push her along, and when

she returned to the station assigned to her, she

saw that a circle of fire now shone where she had

walked. It appeared and disappeared as she

gazed at it, and she could not make out what it

was that she saw. At first she thought it was an

optical illusion, then she thought that something

had actually caught fire, and finally she realized

that what she saw was not of this earth, and

appeared and disappeared as her consciousness

wavered between two planes.

The Third dropped the point of his sword

upon the symbol on the altar and began the chant

of evocation. Vibrant Names of harsh consonants

rang out into the darkness as demon after

demon was reminded of his oath and conjured

from the abyss to come to the service of the magus.

By the Secret Names of God were they conjured,

and by the names of the great Archangels of the

Elements ; and as each Name rang out in resonant

syllables the atmosphere of the room changed

perceptibly.

Demons of storm, Princes of the Powers of the

Air, Vice-Regents of the Elements, he called them

all by name.

" Oh fiends of the abyss, remember your oath

upon the Symbol. Oh dark and mighty ones,

remember Who calls upon you."

The night without was still, pitch dark, and

frosty. There was no sound within but the

faint shifting of logs on the hearth and the

THE DEMON LOVER 271

perpetual creaking and whispering of the old house

settling upon its timbers. Both men stood like

statues, and Veronica, old memories stirring

within her, maintained the same stillness, for she

had worked ritual magic before, and knew the

discipline that teaches immobility.

The evocation ended, dead silence fell upon the

room. Force seemed to be pouring in a river of

light down the sword on to the symbol, and the

figure of the magician was like a dynamo, vibrating

with the power of its invisible speed. A faint

sigh of wind in the treetops at length broke the

stillness ; then it came again more strongly, and

they heard the scurry of dead leaves over the

frosty ground. It was not the kind of night for

a thunderstorm, but Veronica was put in mind

of the sudden wind that heralds the thunder.

Again the wind rose with a wailing moan, and

the snapping of dead twigs in the shrubberies

could distinctly be heard above it. And then,

without any warning, the crackling volley of

thunder broke out immediately overhead, and

rain came down in torrents.

Veronica had never seen such rain ; it had the

violence of a tropical storm, and falling upon the

frost-bound ground, it ran straight off down every

slope in sheets of water. All about them they

could hear the sound of water on the move, and

before many minutes had passed, the voice of the

river had changed its note.

With the outbreaking of the thunder the

tense forces of the room seemed to be released.

It was as if the power generated by the invocations

had passed from the altar into the cloud, there to

be released as lightning and tempest. The two

272 THE DEMON LOVER

men relaxed their vigilance, and going to the sole

remaining window, stood watching the storm.

As the lightning lit up the sky in flickering

sheets, they could see the river through the gaps

in the trees. It drove before the wind like a

miniature sea and had already risen to cover the

road. Suddenly a far away roaring, like a train

going over a viaduct, fell upon their ears above

the din of the storm. It came steadily nearer,

as if some heavy vehicle were charging down the

cart-track beside the river, and then into their

line of vision came a wall of dark water edged with

foam that rushed along the surface of the river

with the speed of an express train.

" Good heavens, what's that ? " exclaimed both

men simultaneously. They had evidently bargained

for no such manifestation.

In the heaving billows behind the line of foam

great timbers rose and fell like the lances of a

charging army ; part of a hay-rick went past, and

then a farm cart, turning over and over.

<( A dam must have gone somewhere up

stream," said Dr. Latimer, and a big sluice-gate,

coming down flat like a raft, confirmed his words.

Lucas, terrible in death, was even more terrible

in resurrection.

" Quick," exclaimed the Third, " we haven't

a moment to loose I Heaven knows what that

flood-water has done in the graveyard," and out

he went into the raging, buffeting darkness.

Veronica, clutching her censer as if her life

depended on it, went after him, the old man,

still cowled, close upon her heels.

They made their way through the tormented

woods, guided by the squat tower of the church

THE DEMON LOVER 273

that stood out against the darkness at each

lightning-flash. The trees screamed, roared,

crashed and shuddered ; branches came down

like javelins, and the water ran ankle-deep over

the frozen ground that it could not penetrate.

It was undoubtedly the frost-bound earth that

had caused the catastrophe, for all the water that

fell in the valley ran straight down every slope

into the river. Thunder-rain usually falls upon

parched ground that absorbs a vast quantity

before any is thrown off, but frozen ground can

absorb nothing, and rain runs off it as off a roof ;

English streams are not calculated to stand such

an emergency, and the river, already full with

winter rains, was over its banks in five minutes.

They stumbled across the fallen stones of the

graveyard wall and found themselves under the

lee of the church. The ground rose slightly

towards the graveyard, and the road that ran

beside the river was cut out of the slope. The

swollen river was six feet deep on the road, and

raced madly along the retaining wall that held

up the face of the bank, and as they approached

the spot where Lucas lay, a great spout of foam

went up high in the air as a long section of the

wall, its foundations undermined, fell into the

river.

" Here--here it is! " cried Veronica, stumbling

over a low mound of rough earth that lay at the

very edge of the water.

" Be careful. Come back," cried Dr. Latimer,

seizing her arm, " More of the bank may go at

any minute."

" It is going now," said the Third, and even as

he spoke, another mass of the bank peeled away,

274 THE DEMON LOVER

and Veronica had a glimpse of some dark object

sticking out of the yellow clay as the moon broke

fitfully through the racing clouds. It slowly

tilted as the earth was cut from under it by the

water, and the loose clods above, washing away

in the downpour, revealed the long dark outline

of a coffin, which slowly up-ended and slid towards

the river.

With one spring the Third was into the washed-

out grave and seized the metal handle at the

coffin-head that gleamed dully in the moonlight.

The bank was crumbling fast, but he stood his

ground, and Veronica heard a sound of splintering

wood as he forced open the lid of the coffin with

some metal tool. The wood was cheap

and frail and yielded easily, and as the water

reached him, he clambered out of the grave

bearing in his powerful arms a long white form,

and a flash of lightning revealed to Veronica the

features of Lucas, serene in death but unmarred

by corruption, swathed in the stained cerements

of the desecrated grave.

CHAPTER TVENTT-EIGm

THEY MADE THEIR WAY BACK THROUGH THE

roaring darkness. The flickering lightning

revealed sudden glimpses of the churchyard,

with its rows of headstones and black writhing

yew-trees rent by the storm. The ground was

sodden by now, and the two men slipped and

staggered with their burden, leaving Veronica to

follow as best she could, still clutching the censer,

which for some unknown reason, had managed

to remain alight. The girl hoped and prayed

that no one would look out from the upper

windows of the cottages and see them in the

fitful moonlight. What they would make of the

black-robed, ghoulish procession, she could not

guess, but she knew it would certainly be attributed

to the Grange, and even that stolid countryside

had reached the point when it was nearly

ready for a lynching.

They were still far from the shelter of the wood

when her fears were realized. She heard a

window thrown up in the neighbouring darkness.

Then she heard a door open and shut. So far as

she could judge, the sound came down the wind,

indeed, it could hardly have been heard from the

contrary direction, and she guessed that it came

from the house of Dr. Butler, whose garden

abutted on the churchyard.

<( Hurry, hurry," she cried to her companions.

" Some one is coming." They struggled on

towards the shelter of the wood, guided by the

line of tormented yew-trees, and as they passed

the gap in the wall, Veronica, gazing over her

shoulder in terrified apprehension saw the flash

of an electric torch by the corner of the church.

275

276 THE DEMON LOVER

Her companions hurried on, but Veronica paused,

she felt that she must see who came and what was

discovered. The moon broke through a rift in

the clouds, and she distinctly saw a bulky figure

clad in the white macintosh that Dr. Butler

often wore. What strange fatality, what invisible

link caused this man invariably to appear when

anything was toward with regard to Lucas ?

She saw him pause suddenly, as if he had heard

something. He looked about him as if trying to

identify the direction of the sound. She wondered

what it could be. Then he set off and

made a straight line towards the place where she

was hidden. An eddy of wind from the lee of

the woods had carried to him the odour of the

incense from the censer she still bore with her.

She crouched among the bushes like a hunted

creature, petrified, unable to move. The man

came on till he was some thirty feet from the edge

of the trees, and paused irresolute. The eddying

draughts around the yew-trees had carried the telltale

fragrance away. He was not a primitive

savage, and his nose gave him no sure information.

She saw him stand there irresolute, and then,

believing himself to be alone in the darkness,

he lifted his arms above his head and poured out

an incoherent mixture of prayer and cursing in

which her own name was mingled with that of

Lucas and Alee. Then he turned and stumbled

off over the grave-mounds in the direction of his

home, taking with him his grief and his suspicions

to brood over in silence.

Veronica rose from her hiding-place and

followed the half-obliterated path through the

woods, a sudden realization coming to her that

THE DEMON LOVER 277

she was alone in the darkness and storm with all

the unseen presences of the abyss let loose about

her. The storm was not merely a hurricane of

wind and rain, it was unspeakably sinister, like

hands reaching out from the shadows, and the

darkness was palpable, like veil upon veil of soft

black woven stuff. But even as she realized the

subtle intangible influences abroad in the night,

a change began to make itself felt. The howling

tumult of the storm was being penetrated by a

musical note, which gradually dominated its

numberless discordant voices. Slowly they were

dominated, gradually they were drawn into tune ;

then the rhythmical singing itself fell silent and

all was still. The storm had died away as suddenly

as it had risen.

All about her Veronica could hear the drip of

moisture; little wandering eddies of draught

blew in all directions, and the whisper of innumerable

streamlets sounded in the darkness.

The sudden stillness after the din of the storm

left a singing in the ears, the cessation of the

lightning gave the eyes a chance to become

accustomed to the darkness and use what half-

light came from the waning moon. Veronica

hastened down the sodden path, going knee-deep

into the channels of new-formed streams, pushed

through the sodden shrubbery, and mounted the

steps from the lawn, just as Dr. Latimer stepped

out on to the terrace to come in search of her.

A banishing ritual had evidently been done in

the billiard room of the old house, for the altar

had been dismantled of its symbols and the lamp

extinguished.

The body of Lucas lay upon the long sofa

278 THE DEMON LOVER

beside the fire. The grave clothes had been

replaced by one of the black robes worn by the

brethren of the Fraternity, the stains of the

soil were removed, and the black hair, that had

grown long and shaggy, had been roughly cut and

smoothed. There was nothing in his appearance to

shock her, except that the eyes were deeply sunken,

giving an indefinably deathlike look to the face.

Otherwise he might have been lying there asleep.

The Third, still in his sodden robes, stood

beside the window, evidently awaiting her arrival.

" Go quickly," he said, " and change into dry

clothes. We have none too long for the resuscitation, it must be completed before cock-crow.

Now hurry."

Veronica needed no second bidding. She fled

up to her room and hastily changed her dripping

garments and was back again in the billiard room

before the fumbling fingers of old Dr. Latimer

had completed his toilette. The Third still

stood beside the inanimate form of Lucas, and

as she came timidly up to the couch, he put his

arm round her and drew her towards the body

of the dead man he had told her she must marry.

Together they stood looking down into the

masklike face with its sunken eyes.

Veronica was too dazed and numb to know what

she felt towards the man who lay before her.

The fact that corruption had not touched him

convinced her that it would be even as the Third

had said, and that Lucas was in a deep trance

and capable of resurrection. All thought of his

death and burial was obliterated from her mind.

She thought of him as an unconscious man who

would shortly recover consciousness, and with

THE DEMON LOVER 279

whose strange and sinister temperament she would

once again have to contend. She remembered

all he had been to her and all he had done to

her, and if it had not been for the arm of the

strange master of men, adept, saint, or sorcerer,

whatever he might be, that held her so securely,

she felt that, like Ahab, she would have turned

her face to the wall and yielded up her spirit.

But in him she felt an absolute trust, she knew that

it was he who would cope with Lucas, though

he had to depend upon her as the instrument

of his purpose, and she knew that she would not

fail him. Whether her love or her horror of

Justin were the greater, she could not have said

even to herself, but the mysterious adept absolutely

dominated her, not because he controlled

her, but because he inspired her.

The old man joined them, and the Third bade

him sit at the far side of the hearth while he

placed Veronica at the foot of the couch so that

her face would be the first thing the dead man

should see when he opened his eyes. Then,

bending over the inanimate body, he made the

same passes that a hypnotist makes when he recalls

his subject to consciousness.

He had not long to wait. At the third or fourth

stroke a shudder ran through the form of Lucas

and he tried to move, but subsided again. Life

had not yet reanimated the tissues, it was a mere

galvanism of the nerves that followed the movements

of the magnetiser's hand. The Third

placed his open palm upon the chest of the dead

man and slowly raised it up and down ; after a

moment or two the chest followed the movements

and breathing was restored. It was soon

280 THE DEMON LOVER

obvious that the heart had also taken up its beat,

for the face was losing its waxen appearance and

assuming a more normal tint, though still bleached

like the skin of one who has long been in the dark.

The Third turned to Veronica.

" Speak to him," he said, " Call him by name.

Make him come back."

Veronica bent over the foot of the couch.

" Mr. Lucas! " she said hesitatingly.

The hand of the Third fell heavy on her

shoulder.

" That will not do," he said. " You must call

him back with love. He will not come for that."

Veronica struggled with her feelings. The

horror of the dead face, the horror of what the

dead man- had been, filled her with dread and

repulsion. She could not love that, it was no

use. Then came to her the thought of the old

man's words, (< He died in your place. He went

voluntarily to his death to save you." If it had

not been for his love for her, Lucas would not

now be lying dead. She must love him as a

struggling human soul, if not as a man. The

will of the Third compelled her ; it was her

lower self that feared, her higher self that loved,

and having known the higher, she must follow it.

She bent further over the sofa.

" Justin" she said softly, "Justin"

A quiver passed over the face of the recumbent

man. He stirred stiffly, as if with limbs numbed

and cramped, and slowly rose to a sitting position ;

but his face was still that of a sleeper and the

eyes remained closed.

" Can you bear to touch him ? " whispered

the Third to Veronica.

THE DEMON LOVER 281

She came to the side of the couch and took

Lucas's hands in hers. They were cold with the coldness of a serpent, and as she held them the

snake-like fingers slowly closed round hers and

gripped them, and she saw that the nails had

grown long like those of a Chinaman. The man who was called the Third came behind Lucas

and placed his palms on either side of his head.

" Lucas Justin Lucas!" he said in deep

vibrant tones like the low notes of a 'cello.

The lips of the mask-like face slowly unclosed

and a husky murmur came from between them.

" Do you know who I am ? " said the voice of

the man who bent over him.

A faint nod responded.

The Third let go his hold on Lucas's head,

straightened himself, and resting his elbow on the

chimney piece, stood waiting for him to regain

full consciousness. The expressionless face, like

some carven effigy on a tomb, was gradually losing

its ghastly pallor as the slow-moving blood began

to circulate through the veins. The deathly

coldness was passing out of the hands that

Veronica held, and it was obvious that moment

by moment Lucas was returning to life. He

seemed suddenly to become aware of the hands

that held his, and shifted his grip on them as if

to feel their texture.

" Is that Veronica ? " he said-

Veronica could not speak, but her hands quivered

in his, and he bent forward and slowly raised first

one and then the other to his lips, and then sank

back upon the cushions.

For a long time there was silence, Veronica

half-kneeling, half crouching beside the couch

282 THE DEMON LOVER

and Lucas lying motionless as if dead, but with

a difference ; something about him had indefinably

changed, he was obviously a man who was

neither asleep nor dead, but resting; only his

face, with its unopened, sunken eyes, still looked

deathlike.

Finally he spoke again.

" What has become of--the man who was here

when I--first woke ? "

" He is still here," said Veronica.

" Where ? "

" Over there, by the fireplace," replied Veronica.

Lucas slowly turned his head.

" I can't see in this pitch darkness," he said.

" Can't you strike a light ? "

Veronica, nonplussed, did not know what to

reply. The soft warm radiance of the lamp

fell full on his face and the room was brightly lit.

The Third crossed the hearthrug towards them,

and taking Lucas's head in his hands again, turned

his face full to the light and gently lifted first

one and then the other of the eyelids, revealing

empty sockets. He and Dr. Latimer looked at

each other.

" Removed at the post-mortem," said the

Third.

Lucas swung his feet off the couch and sat

upright on its edge.

" Is it necessary to be in the dark ? " he said.

(< Can't anyone strike a light ? "

The Third laid a hand on his shoulder.

" There will be no light for you, my son," he

said.

" What do you mean ? " exclaimed Lucas in a

quick, strained voice.

THE DEMON LOVER 283

No one spoke. He raised his hands to his face

and felt the sockets of his eyes hollow under his

touch.

" Is the room lighted F " he said at length.

" Brightly lighted," said the Third.

Lucas, his face in his hands, sat for a long time

silent. At length he spoke.

" I can't complain," he said. " It is just."

" Well done, my son I " exclaimed the Third.

" There speaks a man. You shall soon see the

Inner Light."

All Veronica's horror of Lucas seemed gone with her knowledge of his blindness, and she

knelt beside him, anxiously watching his face.

He turned his head slowly, from habit, as if

looking round.

" Are you there, Veronica ? " he said.

" Yes," came her whisper from close beside

him, " I'm here."

He put out his hand towards her, and she put

out hers, but he missed it, and touched her head.

His hand rested on it for a moment, and then

dropped to her shoulders, encircling them. He

opened his lips as if to speak, and then paused,

thinking. The realization of his blindness was

gradually dawning on him, and he knew that

he could no longer carry out the scheme he had

planned. True, he had evaded death and returned

to life, but it was death-in-life to which he had

returned.

A chorus of cocks rang out from the distant

farms.

" My curfew," said Lucas with a smile, and

relapsed into silence again.

The Third took his elbow off the mantelpiece,

284 THE DEMON LOVER

and drawing up one of the big leather arm-chairs,

lowered himself into it.

" My son," he said, " the past is past. Let

us consider the future. Have you any plans ? "

" None," said Lucas. " Do with me what you

will."

" But I have many plans, my son, and since

you have put yourself into my hands, I will take

you at your word. You must take up your work

again."

Lucas did not answer.

The Third continued : " As you know, I have

been put of Europe for a good many years now.

Too many, I am afraid. The Fraternity sank to

its embers till you, my son, tried to rekindle it."

Lucas smiled. " It certainly showed signs of

life in places," he said.

" Yes, my son," said the Third, " you were

right, it needed a fresh impulse, but you were

not able to do it single-handed. Three are

required for that, in order to work the sacred

triangle. A positive force, a negative force, and

the reconciler between them. You, my son, are

a positive force."

" I used to be a positive force," said Lucas,

(< but I should not say I could be now."

*' There you are wrong," said the Third. " Being made negative on the physical plane,

you have become positive on the Inner Planes, the

planes whereon we shall work ; and Veronica,

whom your helplessness on the physical plane will

cause to become positive, will again be your

fitting complement for Inner Plane work."

" What has it got to do with Veronica ? " said

Lucas. " She cannot have anything to do

THE DEMON LOVER 285

with the Fraternity, they don't initiate women."

" That is exactly where the trouble has originated,"

replied the Third. " They must have

women in the Fraternity ; it has been the greatest

mistake to exclude them. It was only in

mediaeval times it was done. They must have

the two forces in the Lodge. Strength and

beauty, justice and mercy. For although unbalanced

mercy is but weakness, unbalanced justice

is cruelty and oppression. I propose to initiate

Veronica ; and that you and I and she, silently,

behind the Fraternity, should bring through the

balanced forces that will regenerate it. Are you

willing for that, Veronica ? "

" I am ready for whatever is right," she

answered.

" Then," said the Third, turning to Lucas,

" I propose that you and Veronica should marry."

Lucas threw up his head like a startled horse,

then checked himself.

" What has Veronica got to say to that ? " he

asked in very level tones.

" She gave her consent before we started on

this operation."

Lucas's arm tightened round her.

" Is that so, Veronica ? " he whispered.

For answer she crept closer to him, and forgetful

of the onlookers, he hid his face in her hair.

After a moment or two he raised it.

" There is one other person I should like to

see," he said, " A man who was very good to me

in the old days. Dr. Latimer."

" I am here, Justin," said the old man.

Lucas put out his hand and the trembling old

fingers were placed in it, and for a long time he

286 THE DEMON LOVER

sat silent, his arm round Veronica and his hand

in the old man's.

When at length he raised his face it had a very different expression.

" This is a very big thing we are on," he said.

" Yes, my son," said the Third, " it is. Much

bigger than you realize at present."

" I know that," said Lucas and lapsed into

thought again. Then, " What have I done to

deserve such a chance ? " he said.

" You have realized your mistake and paid for

it without murmuring," replied the man who was

known to them as the Third. " You have

turned again and retraced your steps over the

burning coals without flinching. You have

passed your tests, my son, you are back on the

Path, and the gates stand open before you.

Enter ye in."

The Society of the Inner Light, founded by the late Dion

Fortune, has courses for those who wish seriously to pursue

the study of the Western Esoteric Tradition. Information about

the society may be obtained by writing to the address below.

Please enclose British stamps or international postal coupons

in your letter if you wish a response.

The Secretary

The Society of the Inner Light

38 Steele's Road

London NW3 4RG, England