The Secrets of Dr. Taverner by Dion Fortune read by Lee Vogler Part 1/2 | Full Audio Book

Section one of the secrets of Dr Taver this is a LibriVox recording all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit librivox.org the secrets of Dr Taver by Deon Fortune introduction these stories may be looked at from Two standpoints and no doubt the

Standpoint the reader chooses will be dictated by Personal Taste and previous knowledge of the subject under discussion they may be regarded as fiction designed like the conversation of the fat boy recorded in the pck papers to make your flesh creep or they may be considered to be what they

Actually are studies in little known aspects of psychology put in the form of fiction because if published as a serious contribution to science they would have no chance of a hearing it may not unreasonably be asked what motive anyone could have for securing a hearing for such histories as are set forth in

These Tales beyond the not unreasonable interest in the royalties that usually fall to the lot of those who cater to the popular taste in Horrors I would ask my readers however to credit me with another motive than purely commercial I was one of the earliest students of psychoanalysis in this country and I

Found in the course of my studies that the ends of a number of threads were put into my hands but that the threads disappeared into the darkness that surrounded the small circle of light thrown by exact scientific knowledge it was in following these threads out into

The darkness of the unknown that I Came Upon the experiences and cases which turned into fiction are set down in these pages I do not wish to imply by that however that these stories all happened exactly as set down for such is not the case they are however all founded on fact and

There is not a single incident herein contained which is Pure Imagination that is to say while no picture is an actual photograph not one is an imaginary sketch they are rather composite photographs obtained by cutting out and piecing together innumerable snapshots thought of actual happenings and the whole far from being an arbitrary

Product of the imagination is a serious study in the psychology of ultra Consciousness I present these studies in supernormal pathology to the general reader because it has been my experience that such cases as I Chronicle here are by no manner of means as uncommon as might be supposed but being unrecognized

Past unhealth helped I have personally come across several instances of the PowerHouse some of which are well known to the members different codies who are interested in these matters bloodlust is literally true and both of these stories far from being written up for the purposes of fiction have been toned down

To make them fit for print Dr Taver will no doubt be recognized by some of my readers his mysterious nursing home was an actual fact and infinitely Stranger than any fiction could possibly be it is a curious thing that the picture of him drawn from Fancy by the artist who

Illustrated these stories for the Royal magazine is a recognizable likness although that artist had neither seen a photograph nor had a description of him to Dr Taver I owe the greatest debt of my life without Dr Taver there would have been no Deon Fortune and to him I offer the tribute of these

Pages Dion Fortune London the work of a modern occult fraternity by Gareth Knight introductory essay to the secrets of Dr tavner spiritualism is a movement for establishing the fact of life after death occultism is a movement for utilizing this fact for practical purposes given that there is life after

Death and only genuine inquiry can verify it it follows that of those Beyond some would be of sufficient altruism and caliber to try to rec contct Earth conditions to help improve the sorry scheme of things entire it is these who are behind any genuinely contacted occult group to contact any

Discarnate Tom Dicker Harry through a medium is like going into Picadilly circus where Tom Time Square and button ho holding the first person you meet and asking him for the answer to the import of the revealed law the destiny of man Etc you are likely to get a similar

Answer after death removed from the objective physical world people are in a subjective State inhabiting a private world of their own imagination hence the varying accounts of the heaven worlds in various spirit rist books most people are bound up in their own small subjective worlds in the

Hurly Burly of physical life let alone when this continual bombardment of physical sense perception has ceased while people are dead they go through a process of assimilating and assessing the experiences and actions of the past life hence the ideas of a judgment and various eschatologies also they may burn with

With unfulfilled desires as they have no bodies to fulfill them till the desires are burned away hence the popular ideas of hell and Purgatory eventually all that is left is the abstract idea of all these desires and experiences in other words the deaths of the emotional and concrete mental bodies

The soul then remains in a state of relative quesence until it begins again to process of reincarnation the theory of reincarnation is not widely held in the west except by a cultists like many occult Facts of Life it cannot be proved to another only to oneself students are thus asked to hold

It as useful working hypothesis in the early stages of their training until they are in a position to know for certain it is by the restimulation of desires that a soul turns its attention back to the physical world again and collecting mental and emotional mind stuff bodies about it eventually physically

Reincarnates and according to the nature of the desires so will the circumstances be if Souls desire power they come back with vanity but if they desire perception strength and intelligence they come back with the psychological equipment to be vital effective people in the world and thus have power over

Their environment what they do with it is their own repeat their own responsibility we live in a universe where Free Will is a condition of human existence we choose to be as gods and not beautific idiots CF Adam and Eve if this human Free Will is used for evil

Ends the extinction of the race by mass Warfare or the the judicial murder of the godhead himself when he appeared unto man then so be it the destiny of man is to build the Heavenly Jerusalem on Earth in other words to civilize a planet it is the aim of the occultist in

Consort with all men of Good Will to bring about this heavenly fact into Earthly reality and the only way it will come about is by every man doing the right thing at the right time for 24 hours a day occultism does not conflict with religion it is part of it all the

Mysteries of religion and they are called Mysteries because they are above the reach of the Mind are Amplified by esoteric teaching the Judgment hell and Purgatory have been mentioned above another is the fall the fall to an occultist means man’s deviation from the will of God by his misuse of Free Will

Thus bringing about the end result in which we all live be set about by crime disease Folly War famine and ignorance it has been said there must be evil so that we can appreciate good from this one must gather that a man who has never

Had a headache in his life must bang his head against a wall periodically in order to appreciate the fact surely the divine plan was to evolve from Perfection to Perfection as a great artist work evolves the god the artist chose to work with human colors that

Have Wills of their own in his deviation man set about the forces of karma karma is popularly believed to be divine punishment meted out for transgressions if you kill a man in one life he will kill you in another this is a naive interpretation based on an eye

For an eye a tooth for a tooth ethics which does not stand up to close analysis karma is more a behavior pattern based on false motive and leading to Compulsive Behavior often in a vicious circle a soul that in promeal days denied God the Father might for instance in every Incarnation be

Fatherless or at conflict with the father in The is brought about by his own desires as explained before because he never accepted the Divine archetype of the father in dealing with a situation like this say of conflict with the father and all its psychological repercussions aian or ad lyan analyst

Would be dealing with effects and not causes a yarian might feire better because the yarian process is one of integration and not analysis resp responsible Scientology processing and that it deals with psychic Dynamics rather than Concepts might also achieve something the only real cure lies in a religious Quest though and whether the

Church provides means for this is a question which they can best answer in religious Quest a search for the Holy Grail the Golden Fleece is what the esoteric order provides though the esoteric order ERS do not cater for man in the mass the church is or should be

The spiritual leader of the people a cult fraternities cater for Specialists for as with the church all are not called to the priesthood in a cult fraternity like an order of the church demands strength from its members it is there to do a psychic job and is not interested in carrying passengers it

Does not train its members specific specifically to help them but to help them that they may help others Dr Taver is meant to represent a senior occultist he is of course heavily fictionalized and an occultist life is not all cops and robbers glamour has its

Hold on the human heart and just as it is one thing to dream about the romance of being an airline pilot a brain surgeon a heroic Soldier it is a different thing to be firmly saddled with the responsibilities and chores of the actual job the same applies to occultism occultism attracts many Walter

Mides but they seldom last the pace black magic is a particular lur for the sensation mongers and it figures much in popular occult fiction for dramatic reasons most ult writers have little experience of magic though white or black in most books fictional or otherwise can be traced back to One

Source the knowledge papers of the Society of the Golden Dawn these knowledge papers present rituals which are now worthless because publicized and also it must be said a large percentage of archaic junk white magic being basically psychic Diagnostic and surgery like its physical counterparts can only be learned by direct teaching never from

Books black magic being basically the control of another against his will for selfish ends can best be learned at a school for advertising a state propaganda Ministry or from a dope trafficker its in results are at Mass morons political prisoners and the mentally sick there’s nothing romantic

About these magic tends to attract the dilatant also because of its mystery it it is high time the mystery was taken out of magic but the secrecy must be maintained by occult schools in order to build up a group mind this much can be said in general though if particulars

Must be avoided a student goes through a series of ritual dramas in which he is the main protagonist these rituals are a portrayal in color form and speech of an integration symbol to use the yarian terminology he is thus LED onward in the course of several years through a carefully graded

Pathway of the Soul until if he be found worthy he is sufficiently integrated and skilled in mental and emotional control to go on to psychical pioneering work and the help of others as he progresses through the grades the more teaching and symbolism is given him which is withheld

From those below thus he goes through the experience of successive carefully built up group Minds where the psychic stresses maintained act upon his subconscious mind causing certain factors to rise into Consciousness which he has to realize and equilibrate within himself it is obvious why secrecy is necessary because should the formula of

A grade be given out it would cause a breach in the sphere of carefully contrived psychic stresses and render the p pattern useless or contaminated a group mind is distinctive from a group soul in that it is artificially built in its lowest aspect the group mind is Mob

Elemental built up by a demagogue which overshadows the individuals of the crowd to perform atrocities which no individual would do single-handed a group soul is a natural life form which determines the characteristics of one nation or race from another at the deepest level there is an allum group Soul covering the

Planet the scientific basis of which has been tentatively broached by Pierre tar de Sharden in the phenomenon of man as the new sphere independently from the psychological approach of s g Young Who terms it the collective unconscious the overlapping and diversity of terms is an unfortunate fact in the new reaches of Paras

Psychology but no doubt inevitable in a sphere of research which is new and cannot be physically examined in concrete laboratory conditions the proofs of occult teaching come from living the life they cannot be scientifically demonstrated as with facts of the physical world when a student contacts an esoteric order it

May be the right one for him or the wrong one he or she is driven by an inner irrational impulse to find something which probably cannot Define or explain or even justifi the existence of it is just a calling towards something thus the person may Drift from

Group to group often on The Lunatic Fringe of occultism ever unsatisfied until the right group is found which suits him thus is this stage of development known as the Seeker the Seeker appears to be unstable foolish even neurotic to his more sensible and stolid friends and relations but it is the necessary step

Forward from the contented acceptance of the norms and unquestioned standards of everyday life having found his group The Seeker then becomes a server to that group indeed he becomes a server for the rest of his life for the basic ethic of all Ault and religious orders being

Service no matter how high a grade he attains his role is still that of service to begin with the only service he can give is physical Service as with any organization there is much domestic and clerical work to be done and money needed all contributions whether of time

Labor or money are voluntary however he is trained by the group whatever payment he makes in labor or money is left to his own discretion it depends on his circumstance ances as to what he can contribute and the judgment is his alone it is one of the tests of Integrity self

Reliance and good character without which virtues it would be foolish and dangerous for anyone to seek esoteric development during his progress through the early grades he should be trained in emotional and mental control this is not done by means of any arbitrary rules of unquestioning obedience as is commonly

Thought for regimentation does little to develop a soul the tests come through the reactions of his conscious and unconscious mind to the forces of the group mind of each grade any difficulties usually arising from either identification with or running from one of the levels of his being whether physical instinctual emotional or mental

Identification with the physical body is comparatively rare with the cult students the running away away from it is all too common this produces the Airy fairy false Mystic who is useless for practical work this type also tends to flee from instincts and emotions preferring what is pretty and nice to

What is beautiful and good identification with instincts and emotions gives Moody self-centeredness and often the power hungry fanatic identification with the mind is also common the person being a slave to all the opinions and theories which have appealed to his mind thus causing blockages against anything which cannot

Be rationally explained or which does not conform to his logically ordered preconceptions any of these pathologies and all of them have to be rooted out this should occur naturally and relatively painlessly through the gradual process of the grades but if a person cannot change he will either stay

In the same grade for a long time or else he will project his own shortcomings onto the group judge the group by his own distorted standards find the group wanting and leave it thus everyone is satisfied because he thinks he has escaped from a crowd of Fools and

The group because it has no wish to retain anyone who is persistently disruptive to the mind of the group it should be said in fairness though that occasionally a student while Advanced might find that over the course of time his own development has been at a tangent to the development of the group

For it also develops if it is a vital entity and thus it is as well for him to go his separate way either individually or with another group this occurrence however is relatively rare eventually there may come a time when the student wishes to dedicate himself to the work

Of the group actually most students want to do this from the outset but they cannot only the dedication of trained and disciplined men and women can be accepted for this kind of work this is because the dedication is no thing to be lightly undertaken it is equivalent to

Taking monastic vows except that the initiates life is lived nowadays very much in the world before making the unreserved dedication he is free to give as much work as he thinks fit after it the work has to come first before everything you realize the implications of this the

Many are Keen to do it it is a way for the very few it is an essential step however before the advanced work can be undertaken because the fact of making real dedication channels the whole being into the direction Chosen and thus releases much power within should the

Dedication later be revoked it can well disorganize the whole life it is not a matter on which much can be said in the present context and is a bridge best left to be crossed at the time one may be called to come to it generally speaking the function of the advanced

Initiate is to act as a Pioneer in the march of human evolution by this is not meant the evolution of civilizations but the evolution of man the involution of man was his descent from the sphere of the spirit developing bodies of a mental emotional then physical nature until he

Manifested upon this planet his evolution is to civilize this planet and to develop Mastery of physical emotional and mental Plains and relink himself in unity with God once more thus completing the cycle he came from God as an inexperienced spark of divine fire and returns to him with all the experience

Of manifestation as a lord of humanity these are pretentious titles with which a cold writing unfortunately abounds but the ideas behind them do have great forent so much so that concretion into words and concrete mental images is well nigh impossible task what is a lord of

Humanity one could say it is a real man or woman or from a higher Viewpoint the complete androgyny having the experience of the full functioning of manhood and woman Womanhood through the course of the ages of history and prehistory obviously no one can express all that is latent within him W an

Incarnation because the real Divine self is beyond sex color race or Nation but each can function as a type and the types or archetypes are held in patterns in the collective unconscious showing forth as myths and the god forms and heroes project by the group soul of the

Race for myths correspond to the needs of the Soul hence the value of the yangian philosophy which uses preval mythical matter as a therapy in a way of integration it could be said in a way that an occult group if genuinely functioning and not merely a school

Giving lessons on esoteric theory is a practical working out of yarian techniques on a group basis but it is really much more than that this it is a religious way of life LED for the general good and not merely an investigation of the unconscious depths for personal benefit any genuine occult group Works

Under the Masters though the term innerplan adep is perhaps a better one for it avoids the connotation of Master and servant master in the sense of Master and pupil is what is intended the in plain adep are men who have have achieved their human Destiny to the point where to Incarnate in physical

Bodies would be a needless limitation and not a means of training in Cosmic citizenship there are many who have achieved and gone on to other spheres but a few have remained making contact with the physical plane via the various occult fraternities they are highly evolved beings not to be confused with

Spiritualist guides though they make cont in a similar Manner and not to be confused with the wise old man archetypes of the yarian psychology much foolishness has been written about them by inexperienced psychics unable to differentiate between the astral and physical Plains their existence was first widely pregated by the theosophical society but

Unfortunately in such a manner as to revolt many intelligent men and women of good will through General superstitious credulity and personalities jostling for Prestige unfortunately the psychic types who can more easily contact the inner ples are not the best of public relations officers the inpl ad depy work

Only through their own groups or with isolated specially chosen individuals and is continued contact and working with them is the only concrete proof their existence must remain a matter of faith for anyone who is not prepared to enter one of the groups they are not interested in tipping tables or doing

Similar po tricks with or without laboratory conditions as they consider there are more urgent and pressing tasks on hand for them to do one of which is the training of skilled workers to help them however faith is a very good way for as with the masters of the Masters

The Lord Jesus it is necessary only to open the heart in Good Will and faith and the contact is made even though no words may be heard or ectoplasmic fireworks take place a change will be felt in the heart and possibly an Intuition or mental impression of some

Idea suited to what one needs not necessarily to what one wants it might be said by them as was said by our Lord to St Thomas because thou Hast seen me thou Hast believed blessed are they who have not seen and yet have believed the soul of real

Authority within a group stems from the inner plane Adept in charge and his task is to train the members of the group to be skilled workers the initial stages of training is done mainly by group methods but the training is of a more individual nature with the higher grades after the

Individual has achieved the optimum mental emotional and physical control over himself which means control in function not inhibition it is his task to face the dweller on the threshold this corresponds to the shadow figure of yarian psychology it is all the repressed averse parts of himself that have been

Built up not merely over one life but over his whole evolutionary experience in esoteric terms it is a deliberate working out of his karma the confronting and redeeming of all the past errors he has made his amassed burden of sin through deviation from the divine plan for evolution which

Originated from the fall the Fall From Grace not the descent into matter this confrontation and Redemption is no easy task it requires absolute self honesty and the Good Will and effort to change for the better however drastic this may be to the personality it is a personal Agony in the garden trial crucifixion

Descent into hell and eventual Ascension the Lord Jesus is the way shower in this process though he being perfect redeemed not his own sins but a great mass of the general Corruption of humanity as a whole once this process has been gone through the individual is in a position

To look everything in the face without Distortion or delusion and to accept full responsibility for all that he does or has done this is a high mystical realization rarely achieved yet all must come to it eventually before their term on Earth is done if not in this life

Then in one or the near or far distant future once it is achieved the work of Destiny can be commenced which is the functioning as a part of God’s evolving Universe which he as a spirit undertook to carry out in the first place and since deviated from with all

The too familiar horrible results and how does he work out his Destiny by being himself literally by acting from within the center of his being his essential self not by acting according to the dictates of his mind his emotions or his instincts but by using them according to his needs and their needs

And the great Criterion of his success success in this is ease of function Harmony a word so often used to mean ineffectual good natur but which really is the perfect balancing of the contending forces within the human soul and the environment no easy task until the contact and knowledge of his own

Individual reality is an established fact within him no well-meaning sentimentality but expression is a vital controlled Dynamic human being although not losing in any way his unique individuality he expresses through himself the aspects of imminent Divinity the power of God the Father the love of

God the son the wisdom of God the Holy Spirit the power of his spiritual will works through his love which is no wishy-washy emotion but a way of seeing which sees the needs of all things and of others without Distortion and he acts intelligently in wisdom in working out

The requirements of this love under his own will he might be called a man of Ruthless Compassion or of selfless self-centeredness for the closer one approaches spiritual truth the more one is driven to expression and seeming Paradox needless to say such men or women are very very few though the goal

Of human life or rather lives is that all must eventually achieve it thus is the initiate said to be a forerunner of evolution but it is not all those raising the banner of esoteric knowledge crying Lord Lord who are to be considered genuine by their fruits they will reveal themselves and even the

Genuine initiate in pursuit of his toil some way to self- knowledge understanding wisdom and inner Union may cut a poorer figure than his well adjusted good brothers and sisters in the world who have not yet begun to move there is more apparent safety and Harmony in standing still but it is a

Dangerous attitude for it is against the laws of life and not only does the initiated Adept act as an Exemplar to his own kind the human race but to the other lesser lives inhabiting the planet as well the consciousnesses inhabiting all the units of the natural world for everything is a projection of

Consciousness certain of these facets of Consciousness have gone to be personalized into the well-known fairies gnomes sils salamanders and undines Etc of folklore these are not entirely a projection of superstitious peasant mentality one has only to go to a deserted Woodland Glade stream or Mountaintop and be still and their

Presence will be felt most people are more psychic than they allow themselves to realize one of the stories in this book a daughter of pan gives an adequate picture of their impingement on human consciousness it has already been said in this introduction that the purpose of mankind is to civilize this planet this

Implies more than building cities and systems of communication and production the aim is to make the laws of Sociology civilized groupm mindedness as invaluable as the laws of physics chemistry and biology which themselves were worked out and stereotyped in the vast ages of evolutionary past before

Man came to this globe the great beings who formed the planetary sphere have for the most part gone on but their Creations the life cells in the body of the whole planet stay behind to keep the physical shell in existence to their presence we owe our presence here on Earth

For without them we could maintain no physical existence there would be no physical existence yet these beings the creations of the created look to humanity who are sparks of divine fire to mediate to them the contact or imprint of that Divine fire it can be interpreted that our Lord took a Divine

Imprint to them on his descent to hell to preach to the spirits in prison yet our Lord is primarily a way shower to us what have we done to help these forms of Consciousness which not being Sparks of divine Fire have no real existence in the spiritual sense who are doomed to

Extinction at the end of the physical Evolution unless they can achieve a spiritual vibration from the higher beings who use the forms they indwell look around at the ugliness the sorted the chaos of much of human living a fine example truly we have fallen far the aggregate of these

Consciousnesses that make up the physical planet has been called the planetary Spirit the planetary being is perhaps a better term for it as yet knows little of spirit because of human default its prototype in the divine plan has been held within human consciousness as the Garden of Eden its Destiny should

Be the Heavenly Jerusalem the kingdom brought to Earth this is a factor of occult knowledge which has been little stressed the need of this great overs Soul The Matrix of earthy form is now urgent it may be asked what can an ordinary person do to help un psychic

And untrained it is quite simple be conscious of it be aware of this great promeal form Sorrowing that its children for in our physical relationship to it we are so should turn away from it in ignorance and even contempt the actions of the unbalanced aesthetic sex of the

Past flagala the body and setting up the physical as the antithesis of the Divine has already done great damage to these Elementary lives be aware of their great overs Soul the planetary being try to contact it in love and understanding and when you say our Lord’s Prayer think of

It especially during the words thy kingdom come thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven it is very simple but in performing the small Act of Mercy you will not only be helping your younger Cosmic Brethren but also aligning yourself with all who seek to serve the

Cause of evolution you will be performing a simple but nonetheless highly effective operation in white magic just as all do when they they pray there are no great awesome mysteries about magic in spite of the glamour that hangs about the word in a cultism it is not about feverous speculation about

Past incarnations which is important nor the vague dreams about future Destiny on other stars though both are true enough but the whole Crooks of the matter to every human being alike so-called initiate or not is what am I doing now it is a matter of the right thing at the

Right time always that is the Supreme and only goal of the servers of God and man and planetary being the occult fraternities end of section one section two of the secrets of Dr Taver this is a LibriVox recording all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to

Volunteer please visit librivox.org the secrets of Dr Taver by Deon Fortune chapter 1 blood lust I have never been able to make up my mind whether Dr tavener should be the hero or the villain of these histories that he was a man of the most selfless ideals cannot

Be questioned but in his methods of putting these ideals under practice he was absolutely unscrupulous he did not aade the law he merely ignored it and though the Exquisite tenderness with which he handled his cases was an education in itself yet he would use that wonderful psychological method of his to break a

Soul to Pieces going to work as quietly and methodically and benevolently as if bent upon the Cure of his patient the manner of my meeting with this strange man was quite simple after being gazetted out of the RC I went to a medical agency and inquired what posts were available I

Said I have come out of the army with my nerves shattered I want some quiet place till I can pull myself together so does everybody else said the clerk he looked at me thoughtfully I wonder whether you would care to try a place we have had on her books for some time

We have sent several men down to it but none of them would stop he sent me around to one of the tributaries of Harley Street and there I made the acquaintance of the man who whether he was good or bad I have always regarded as the greatest mine I’ve ever met tall

And thin with a parchment likee countenance he might have been any age from 35 to 65 I have seen him looking both ages within the the hour he lost no time in coming to the point I want a medical superintendent from my nursing home he told me I understand that you have

Specialized as far as the Army permitted you to in mental cases I’m afraid you will find my methods very different from the Orthodox ones however as I sometimes succeed where others fail I consider I am justified in continuing my experiment which I think Dr rhs is all any of my

Colleagues can claim to do the man’s cynical manner annoyed me though I could not deny that mental treatment is not an exact science at the present moment as if an answer to my thought he continued my chief interest lies in those regions of psychology which Orthodox science has

Not yet ventured to explore if you work with me you will see some queer things but all I ask of you is that you should keep an open mind and a shut mouth this I undertook to do for although I shrank instinctively from the man yet there was something about him

Such a curious attraction such a sense of power and adventurous research that I determined to at least give him the benefit of the doubt and see what it might lead to his extraordinarily stimulating personality which seemed to key my brain to concert pitch made me

Feel that he might might be a good tonic for a man who had lost his grip on life for the time being unless you have elaborate packing to do he said I can motor you down to my place if you will walk over with me to the garage I will

Drive you around to your lodgings pick up your things and we shall get in before dark we drove at a pretty high speed down Portsmith Road till we came to thursley and then to my surprise my companion turned off to the right and took the big car by a cart track over

The Heather this is Thor’s lay or field he said as the blighted country unrolled before us the old worship is still kept up about here the Catholic faith I inquired the Catholic faith my dear sir is an innovation I was referring to the Pagan worship The Peasants about here

Still retain bits of the old ritual they think that it brings them luck or some such Superstition they have no knowledge of its inner meaning he paused a moment then turned to me and said with extraordinary emphasis have you ever thought what it would mean if a man who had the

Knowledge could piece that ritual together I admitted I had not I was frankly out of my depth but he had certainly brought me to the most unchristian spot I had ever been in my life his nursing home however was in delightful contrast to the Wild and Barren country that surrounded it the

Garden was a mass of color and the house old and rambling and covered with creepers as Charming within as without it reminded me of the East it reminded me of the Renaissance and yet it had no style save that warm Rich coloring and comfort I soon settled down to my job

Which I found exceedingly interesting as I have already said tavener’s work began where ordinary medicine ended and I had under my care cases such as the ordinary doctor would have referred to the safekeeping of an asylum as being nothing else but mad yet tavener by his peculiar methods of work

Laid bare causes operating both within the soul and in the shadowy realm where the soul Soul has its dwelling that threw an entirely new light upon the problem and often enabled him to rescue a man from the dark influences that were closing in on him the affair of the

Sheep killing was an interesting example of his methods one showery afternoon at the nursing home we had a call from a neighbor not a very common occurrence for tavener and his ways were regarded somewhat asant our visitors shed her dripping Macintosh but declined to loosen the

Scarf which warm as the day was she had Twisted tightly around her neck I believe you specialize in mental cases she said to my colleague I should very much like to talk over with you a matter that is troubling me tavender nodded his Keen eyes watching her for symptoms it

Concerns a friend of mine in fact I think I may call him my fiance say for although he has asked me to release him from engagement I have refused to do so not because I should wish to hold a man who no longer loved me but I am

Convinced that he still cares for me and there is something which has come between us that he will not tell me of I have begged him to be frank with me and let us share the trouble together for the thing that seems an unseparable obstacle to him may not appear in the

Light to me but you know what men are when they consider their honors and question she looked from one to the other of us smiling no woman ever believes that her men folk are grown up perhaps she is right then she leaned forward and clasped her hands eagerly I

Believe I have found the key to the mystery I want you to tell me whether it is possible or not will you give me particulars said Taver clearly and concise icely she gave us what was required we got engaged while Donald was stationed here for his training that

Would be nearly 5 years ago now and there was always the most perfect harmony between us until he came out of the army when we all began to notice a change in him he came to the house as often as ever but he always seemed to

Want to avoid being alone with me we used to take long walks over the Moors together but he has absolutely refused to do this recently then without any warning he wrote and told me he could not marry me and did not wish to see me

Again and he put a curious thing in his letter he said even if I should come to you and ask you to see me I beg you not to do it my people thought he’d gotten in Tangled with some other girl and were furious with him for chiling me but I

Believe there’s something something more in it than that I wrote to him but could get no answer and I had come to the conclusion that I must try and put the whole thing out of my life when suddenly he turned up again now this is where the

Queer part comes in we heard the fowls shrieking one night and thought a fox was after them my brothers turned out armed with golf clubs and I went too when we got to the hen house we found several fouls with their throats torn as

If a rat had been at them but the boys discovered that the hen housee door had been forced open a thing no rat could do they said a gypsy must have been trying to steal the birds and told me to go back to the house I was returning by way

Of the shrubberies when someone suddenly stepped out in front of me it was quite light for the moon was nearly full and I recognized Donald he held out his arms and I went to him but instead of kissing me he suddenly bent his head and look

She Drew her scarf from her neck and showed us a semicircle of little blue marks on the skin just under the ear the unmistakable print of human teeth he was after the juggler said Taver lucky for you he did not break the skin I said to

Him Donald what are you doing my voice seemed to bring him to himself for he let me go and tore off through the bushes the boys chased him but did not catch him and we have never seen him since you have informed the police I suppose said Taver father told them

Someone tried to rob the hen house but they do not know who it was you see I did not tell them i’ had seen Donald and you walk about the Moors by yourself knowing that he may be lurking in the neighborhood she nodded I should advise

You not to miss winter the man is probably exceedingly dangerous especially to you we will send you back in the car do you think he’s gone mad that’s exactly what I think I believe he knew he was going mad and that was why he broke off our engagement Dr Taver is

There nothing that can be done for him it seems to me that Donald is not mad in the ordinary way we had a housemaid once who went off her head and the whole of her seemed to be insane if you can understand with Donald it seems as if

Only a little bit of him were crazy as if his Insanity were outside himself can you grasp what I mean it seems to me you’ve given a very clear description of a case of psychic interference what was known in scriptural days as being possessed by a devil said tavner can you do anything

For him the girl inquired eagerly I may be able to do a good deal if you can get him to come to me on our next day at Harley Street Consulting room we found that the Butler had booked an appointment for a Captain Donald craigy we discovered him to be a personality of

Singular charm one of those High Strung imaginative men who have the makings of an artist in them in his normal State he must have been a delightful companion but as he vased us across the consult in room desk he was a man under a cloud I

May as well as make a clean breast of the matter he said I suppose barl told you about the chickens she told us she tried to bite her did she tell you I bit the chickens no well I did Silence fell for a moment then Taver broke when did

This trouble first start after I got shell shock I was blown right out of a trench and it shook me up pretty badly I thought I had got off lightly for I was only in the hospital about 10 days but I suppose this is the aftermath are you

One of those people who have a horror of blood not especially so I didn’t like it but I could put up with it we had to get used to it in the trenches someone was always getting wounded even in the quietest times and killed put in Taver

Yes and killed said our patient so you developed a blood hunger that’s about it underdone meat and all the rest of it I suppose no that’s no use to me it seems a horrible thing to say but it is the fresh blood that attracts me blood as it

Comes from the veins of my Victim ah said Taver that puts a different complexion on the case I shouldn’t have thought it could have been much blacker on the contrary what you have just told me renders the Outlook much more more hopeful you have not so much blood lust

Which might well be an effect of the subconscious mind as a Vitality hunger which is quite a different matter craigy looked up quickly that’s exactly it I’ve never been able to put it into words before but you have hid the nail on the head I saw that my colleague’s percu had

Given him great confidence I should like you to come down to my nursing home for a Time and be under my personal observation said Taver I should like to very much but I think there’s something further you ought to know before I do so this thing has begun to affect my character at

First it seemed something outside myself but now I’m responding to it almost helping trying to find out ways of gratifying it without getting myself in trouble that’s why I went for the henss when I came down to the Winter’s house I was AF afraid I should lose my self-control and go for

Barrel I did in the end as it happened so it was not much use in fact I think I did more harm than good for I seemed to get into much closer touch with it after I had yielded to the impulse I know that

The best thing I could do would be to do away with myself but I Daren I feel that after I am dead I should have to meet whatever it is face to face you need not be afid to come down to the nursing home said Taver we will look after you after

He had gone Taver said have you ever heard of vampires roads yes rather I said I used to read myself to sleep with Dracula once when I had a spell of insomnia that nodding his head in the direction of the departing man is a singularly good specimen do you mean to

Say you’re going to take a revolting case like that down to H head not revolting roads a soul in a dungeon the soul may not be very Savory but it is a fellow creature let it out and it will soon clean itself I often used to Marvel at the

Wonderful tolerance and compassion Taver had for airing Humanity the more you see of human nature he said to me once the less you feel inclined to condemn it for you realize how hard it is struggled no one does wrong because he likes it but because it is the lesser of two evils a

Couple of days later I was called out of the nursing home office to receive a new patient it was craigy he had got as far as the doormat and there he had stuck he seemed so thoroughly ashamed of himself that I had not the heart to administer the judicious bullying which is usual

Under such circumstances I feel as if I were driving a bulking horse he said I want to come in but I can’t I called Taver and the sight of him seemed to relieve our patient ah he said you give me confidence I feel that I can defy it and

He squared his shoulders and crossed the threshold once inside a weight seemed to lift from his mind and he settled down quite happily to the routine of the place barl winter used to walk over almost every afternoon unknown to her family and cheer him up in fact he

Seemed to be on the high road to recovery one more morning I was strolling around the grounds with the head Gardener planning certain small improvements when he made a remark to me which I had reason to remember later you would think all the German prisoners should have returned by now wouldn’t you

Sir but they haven’t I passed one the other night in the lane outside the back door I never thought that I should see their filthy field gray again I sympathized with his antipathy he had been a prisoner at their hands and the memory was not one to fade I thought no

More of his remark but a few days later I was reminded of it when one of our patients came to me and said Dr rhs I think you are exceedingly unpatriotic to employ German prisoners in the garden when so many discharged soldiers cannot get work I assured her that we did not

Do so no German being likely to survive a day’s work under the superintendence of our ex prisoner head gardener but I distinctly saw the man going around the greenhouse as it shutting up time last night she declared I recognized him by the flat cap and G uniform I mentioned this to

Taver tell craigy he is on no account to go out after Sundown he said and tell Miss Winter that she had better keep away for the present a night or two later I was strolling around the grounds smoking in after dinner’s cigarette I met craigy hurrying through the

Shrubbery you will have Dr T having her on your Trail I called after him I missed the post bag he replied and I’m going down to the pillar box next evening I again found craigy on the grounds after dark I bored down on him look here craigy I said if you come to

This place you must keep the rules and Dr Taver wants you to stay indoors after Sundown craigy barred his teeth and snarled at me like a dog I took him by the arm and marched him into the house and reported the incident to Taver the creature has reestablished its

Influence over him he said we cannot evidently starve it out of existence by keeping it away from him we shall have to use other methods where is craigy at the present moment playing piano in the drawing room I replied then we will go up to his room and unseal it as I follow

Of Taver upstairs he said to me did it ever occur to you to wonder why craigy jipped on on the doorstep I paid no attention I said such a thing is common enough with mental cases there’s a sphere of influence a kind of psychic Bell jar over this house to keep out

Evil entities what might be in popular language called a spell K’s familiar could not come inside and did not like being left behind I thought we might be able to Tire It Out by keeping craigy away from its influences but it has got too strong a hold over him and he

Deliberately cooperates with it evil Communications corrupt good manners and you can’t keep company with a thing like that and not be tainted especially if you’re a sensitive kelt like craigy when we reached the room tavener went over to the window and passed his hand across the sill as if sweeping something

Aside there he said it can come in now and fetch him out and we will see what it does and at the doorway he paused again and made a sign on the lentil I don’t think it will pass that he said when I returned to the office I found a

Village policeman waiting to see me I should be glad if you would keep an eye on your dog sir he said we’ve been having complaints about sheep killing lately and whatever animal is doing it is working in a 3M radius with this as the center our dog is an aidel I said I

Should not think is likely to be guilty it is usually Collies that take to sheep killing at 11:00 we turned out the lights and hearded our patients off to bed at tavener’s request I changed into an old suit and Rubber Soul tennis shoes and joined him in the smoking room which

Was under Craig’s bedroom we sat in the darkness awaiting events I don’t want you to do anything said Taver but just follow and see what happens we had not long to wait in about a quarter of an hour we heard a wrestling in the creepers and down came

Craigy hand over fist swinging himself Along by the great ropes of Wisteria that clothed the wall as he disappeared into the shrey I slipped after him keeping in the shadow of the house he moved at a stealthy dog Trot over the Heather paths toward frencham at first I ran and ducked

Taking advantage of every patch of shadow but presently I saw that this caution was unnecessary KY was absorbed in his own Affairs thereupon I drew up closer to him following at a distance of some 60 yards he moved at a swinging Pace kind of loping Trot that put me in mind of a

Blood Hound the wide empty levels that forsaken country stretched out on either side of us belts of a Mist filled the hollows and the heights of hind head stood out against the Stars I felt no nervousness man for man I reckoned I was a match for craigy and in addition I was

Armed with what is technically known as a Soother 2 feet of lead gas piping inserted in a length of rubber hose pipe it’s not included in the official equipment of the best asylums but can frequently be found in a Keeper’s trous her leg if I had known what I had to

Deal with I should not have put so much Reliance on my Soother ignorance is sometimes an excellent substitute for courage suddenly out of the Heather ahead of us a sheep got up and then the chase began away went craigy in Pursuit and Away went the terrified weather a

Sheep can move remarkably fast for a short distance but the poor wool encumbered Beast could not keep the pace and craigy ran it down working in gradually lessening circles it stumbled went onto its knees and he was on it he pulled its head back and whether he used

A knife or not I could not see for a cloud passed over the moon but dimly luminous in the shadow I saw something that was semi-transparent passed between me and the dark struggling Mass among the Heather as the moon cleared the clouds I made out the flat topped cap and the

Gray field uniform of the German Army I cannot possibly convey the sickening horror of that sight the creature that was not a man assisting the man who for the moment was not human gradually the Sheep’s struggles weakened and ceased craigy straightened his back and stood

Up and then he set off at his steady lope toward the East his graay familiar at his heels how I made the home word journey I do not know I dared not look behind lest I should find a presence at my elbow Every Breath of wind that blew

Across the Heather seemed to be cold fingers on my throat fur trees reached out long arms to clutch me as I passed under them and Heather bushes rose up and assumed human shapes I moved like a runner in a nightmare making prodigious efforts after a receding goal At Last I

Tore across the moonlit Lawns of the house regardless who might be looking from the windows burst into the smoking room and flung myself face downwards on the sofat tut Tut said Taver has it been as bad as all that I could not tell him what I had seen but he seemed to know

Which way did craigy go after he left you he asked toward the moonrise I told him and you were on the way to freshen he is headed for the Winter’s house this is very serious roads we must go after him it may be too late as it is do you

Feel equal to coming with me he gave me a stiff glass of Brandy and we went to get the car out of the garage in tavener’s company I felt secure I could understand the confidence he inspired in his patience whatever that gray Shadow might be I

Felt he could deal with it and that I should be safe in his hands we were not long in approaching our destination I think we’ll leave the car here said Taver turning into a grass grown Lane we do not want to Rouse them if we can help

It we moved cautiously over the Dew soaked grass into the paddock that bounded one side of the Winter’s Garden it was separated from the lawn by a sunk fence and we could command the whole front of the house and easily gain the Terrace if we so desired in the shadow of a rose

Prola we paused the great trusses of blooms colorless in the Moonlight seemed a ghastly mockery of our business for some time we waited and then a movement caught my eye out in the meow behind us something was moving at a slow lope it followed a wide Arc of which the house

Formed the focus and disappeared into a little capie on the left it might have been imagination but I thought I saw a wisp of mist at its heels we remained where we were and presently he came round once more this time moving in a smaller Circle evidently closing in upon

The house the third time he reappeared more quickly and this time he was between us and the Terrace quick head him off whispered Taver he’ll be up the creepers next we scrambled up the sunk fence and dashed across the lawn as we did so a girl’s figure appeared at one

Of the windows it was Barrel winter Taver plainly visible in the Moonlight laid his finger on his lips and beckoned her to come down I’m going to do a very risky thing he whispered but she is a girl of courage and if her nerve does not fail

We shall be able to pull this off in a few seconds she slipped out of the side door and joined us a cloak over her night dress are you prepared to undertake an exceedingly unpleasant task Taver asked her I can guarantee you will be perfectly safe so long as you keep

Your head but if you lose your nerve you will be in grave danger is it to do with Donald she inquired it is s caver I hope to be able to rid him of the thing that is overshadowing him and trying to obsess him I have seen it she said it’s

Like a wisp of gray Vapor that floats just behind him it has the most awful face you ever saw it came up to the window last night just the face only while Donald was going round and around the house what did you do asked Havener I didn’t do anything I was afraid that

If someone found him he might be put in an asylum and then we should have no chance of getting him well Taver nodded perfect love casteth out fear he said you can do the thing that is required of you he placed Miss sender on the Terrace in full Moonlight

As soon as craigy sees you he said Retreat round the corner of the house into the yard rhs and I will wait for you there a narrow doorway LED From the Terrace to the back premises and just inside its Arch Taver B me to take my stand pinion him as he comes

Past and hang on for your life he said only mind he doesn’t get his teeth into you these things are infectious we had hardly taken up our positions when we heard the loping Trot come round once more this time on the Terrace itself evidently he caught sight of Miss Winter

For the stealthy padding changed to a wild Scurry over the ground travel and the girl slipped quickly through the archway and sought Refuge behind tavener right on her heels came craigy another yard and he would have had her for a moment we swayed and struggled across the do drenched flagstones but I locked

Him in an old wrestling grip and held him now said tavener if you will keep hold of craigy I will deal with the other but first of all we must get it away from him otherwise it will Retreat onto him and he may die of shock now

Miss winter are you prepared to play your part I am prepared to do whatever is necessary she replied tavener took a scalpel out of his pocket case and made a small incision in the skin of her neck just under the ear a drop of blood slowly gathered showing black in the

Moonlight that is the bait he said now go close up to craigy and entice the creature away get it to follow you and draw it out into the open as she approached us craigy plunged and struggled in my arms like a wild beast and then something gray and shadowy Drew

Out of the Gloom of the wall and hovered for a moment at my elbow miss winter came near walking almost into it don’t go too close cried Taver and she paused then the gray shape seemed to make up its mind it drew clear of krgy and advanced toward her she retreated toward

Taver and the thing came out into the Moonlight we could see it quite clearly from its flat topped cap to its knee boots its high cheekbones and slit eyes pointed to its origin to that of the Southeastern corner of Europe where strange tribes still defy civilization and keep up their still stranger beliefs

The shadowy form drifted onwards following the girl across the yard and when it was some 20 ft away from kgy Taver stepped out quickly behind it cutting off its Retreat round it came in a moment instantly conscious of his presence and then began a game of Puss

In the corner Taver was trying to drive it into a kind of psychic killing pen he had made for its reception invisible to me the lines of psychic Force which bounded it were evidently plainly perceptible to the creature we were hunting this way and that way it slid in

Its efforts to escape but tavener all the time hurted it toward the apex of the invisible triangle where he could give it its craw then the end came tavner leapt forward there was a sign then a sound the gray form commenced to spin like a top faster and faster it went its

Outlines merging into a whirling spiral of Mist then it broke out into space went the particles that had composed its form and with the almost soundless shriek of supreme speed the soul went to its appointed place then something seemed to lift from a cold hell of Limitless horror the

Flagged space became a normal backyard the trees ceased to be tentacled menaces the Gloom of the wall was no longer an ambuscade and I knew that never again would agre gray Shadow drift out of the darkness upon its horrible hunting I released Greggy who collapsed

In a heap at my feet miss winter went to Rouse her father while Taver and I got the insensible man into the house what masterly lies T her told to the family I have never known but a couple of months later we received instead of the conventional fragment of

Wedding cake a really substantial chunk with a note from the bride to say it was to go in the office cupboard where she knew he kept Provisions for those nocturnal meals that tavener’s peculiar habits imposed upon us it was during one of these midnight repasts that I questioned Taver about the Strange

Matter of craigy and his familiar for a long time I had not been able to refer to it the memory of that horrible sheep killing was a thing that would not bear recalling you have heard of vampire said Taver that was a typical case for close on a hundred years they have been

Practically unknown in Europe Western Europe that is but the war has caused a renewed outbreak and quite a number of cases have been reported when they were first observed that is to say when some wretched lad was caught attacking the wounded they took him behind the lines

And shot him which is not a satisfactory way of dealing with the Vampire unless you also go to the trouble of burning his body according to the good old-fashioned way of dealing with practitioners of black magic then our enlightened generation came to the conclusion that they were not dealing

With the crime but with the disease and put the unfortunate individual Afflicted with this horrible Obsession into an asylum where he usually did not live very long the supply of his peculiar nourishment being cut off but had never struck anybody that they might be dealing with more than one factor that

What they were really contending with was a gruesome partnership between the dead and the living what in the world do you mean I asked we have two physical bodies you know said tavener the dense material one with which we are all familiar and the subtle etheric one which inhabits it and

Acts as the medium of the life forces whose functionings would explain a very great deal if science would only condescend to investigate it when a man dies the etheric body with his soul in it draws out of the physical form and drifts about in the neighborhood for

About 3 days or until decomposition sets in and then the Soul draws out the etheric body also which in turn dies and the man enters upon the first phase of his postmortem existence the purgatorial one now it is possible to keep the etheric body together almost indefinitely if a supply of Vitality is

Available but having no stomach which can digest food and turn it into energy the thing has to Batten onto someone who has and develops into a spirit parasite which we call a vampire there’s a pretty good working knowledge of black magic in Eastern Europe now supposing some man

Who has this knowledge gets shot he knows that in 3 days time at the death of the etheric body he will have to face his Reckoning and with his record he naturally does not want to do it so he establishes a connection with the subconscious mind of some other soul

That still has a body provided he can find one suitable for his purposes a very positive type of character is useless for he has to find one of a negative type such as the lower class of medium affords hence one of the many dangers of mediumship to the untrained such a

Negative condition may be temporarily induced by say shell shock and then it’s possible for a soul as we are considering to obtain an influence over a being of much higher type craigy for instance and use him as a means of obtaining its gratification but why did not the creature confine its attentions to

Craigy instead of causing him to attack others because craigy would have been dead in a week if he had done so and then it would have found itself minus its human feeding bottle instead of that it worked through craigy getting him to draw extra vitality ity from others and

Pass it on to itself hence it was that craigy had a Vitality hunger rather than a blood hunger though the fresh blood of a victim was the means of absorbing the Vitality then that German we all saw was merely a corpse who was insufficiently dead end of chapter 1

Section three of the secrets of Dr Taver this is a LibriVox recording all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit librivox.org the secrets of Dr Taver by Deion Fortune chapter 2 The Return of the ritual it was tavener’s custom at

Certain times and Seasons to do what I should call hypnotize himself he however called it going subconscious and declared that by means of concentration he shifted the focus of his attention from the external world to the world of thought of the different states of Consciousness to which he thus

Obtained access and the work that could be performed in each one he would talk by the hour and I soon leared to recognize phases he passed through during this extraordinary process night after night I have watched beside the unconscious body of my colleague as it lay twitching on the sofa while thoughts

That were not derived from his mind influenced his passive nerves many people can communicate with each other by means of thought but I had never realized the extent to which this power was employed until I heard tavener use his body as the receiving instrument of such messages one night while he was drinking

Some hot coffee I had given him for he was always chilled to the Bone after these performances he said to me roads there’s a very curious Affair of foot I inquired what he meant I’m not sure he replied there’s something going on which I do not understand and I want you to

Help me investigate it I promised my assistance and asked the nature of the problem I told you when you joined me he said that I was a member of an occult Brotherhood but I did not tell you anything about it because I am pledged

Not to do so but for the purpose of our work together I’m going to use my discretion and explain certain things to you you know I dare say that we make use of ritual in our work this is not the nonsense you may think it to be but

Ritual has a profound effect on the Mind anyone who is sufficiently sensitive can feel the the vibrations radiating whenever an occult ceremonial is being performed for instance I have only got to listen mentally for a moment to tell whether one of the Lal lodes is working its terrific ritual when I was

Subconscious just now I heard one of the rituals of my own order being worked but worked as no Lodge I have ever sat in would perform it it was like a rendering of chowski picked out on the piano with one finger by a child and unless I’m very much mistaken some unauthorized

Person has gotten a hold of that ritual and is experimenting with it someone has broken his oath and given away your secrets I said evidently said Taver it has not often been done but instances have occurred and if any of the black lodges Who would know how to make use of

It should get hold of the ritual the results might be serious for there is great power in these old ceremonies and while that power is safe in the hands of the carefully picked students whom we initiate it would be a very different matter in those of unscrupulous men

Shall you try to trace it I inquired yes said tavener but it is easier said than done I have absolutely nothing to guide me all I can do is is to send round word among The Lodges to see whether a copy is missing from their archives that will

Narrow our zone of search somewhat whether tavner made use of the post or of his own peculiar methods of communication I do not know but in a few days time he had the information he required none of the carefully guarded rituals was missing from any of The

Lodges but when the search was made among the records at headquarters it was discovered that a ritual had been stolen from the Florentine Lodge during the Middle Ages by the custodian of the archives and sold it was believed to the mediche at any rate it was known to have

Been worked in Florence during the latter half of the 15th century what became of it after the median manuscripts were dispersed at the plundering of Florence by the French was never known it was lost sight of and was always believed to have been destroyed now however after the lapse of so many

Centuries someone was waking its amazing power as we were passing down Harley Street a few days later tner asked me if I would mind turning aside with him into the meril bone Lane where he wished to call at a secondhand Bookshop I was surprised that a man of the type of my

Colleague should patronize such a place where it appeared to be stocked chiefly with tattered paper covered weedas an out-of-date piousness and the alacrity with which the shop boy went to fetch the owner showed that my companion was a regular and esteemed customer the owner when he appeared was an even greater

Surprise than his shop unbelievably Dusty his frock coat beard and face all appeared to be of a uniform gray green yet when he spoke his voice was that of a cultured man and though my companion addressed him as an equal he answered as to a superior have you received any

Reply to the advertisement I asked you to insert for me asked Havener of the snuff colored individual who confronted us I have not but I have got some information for you you are not the only purchaser in the market for the manuscript my competitor being a man

Named Williams that does not tell us very much the post marked was Chelsea said the old book seller with a significant look ah said my employer if that manuscript should come into the market I will not limit you as to the price I think we are likely to have a

Little excitement observed Havener as we left the shop its dust covered occupant bowing behind us the Chelsea black lodges have evidently heard what I heard and are also making a bid for the ritual you do not suppose it is one of the Chelsea lodges that has got it at the

Present moment I inquired I do not said Taver for they would have made a better job of it whatever may be said against their morals they are not fools and know what they are about no some person or group of persons who dabbles in the occult without any real knowledge has

Got hold of that manuscript the now enough to recognize a ritual when they see it and they are playing about with it to see what will happen probably no one would be more astonished than they if anything did happen were the ritual confined to such hands as those I should

Not be worried about it but it make it into the possession of people who will know how to use it and abuse its powers and then the consequences will be much more serious than you can realize I will even go so far as to say that the course

Of civilization would be affected if such a thing occurred I saw that tavener was profoundly moved regardless of traffic he plunged into the roadway making a beine for his rooms I would give any price for that manuscript if I could lay my hands on it and if it were

Not for sale I would not hesitate to steal it but how In The Name Of Heaven am I to trace the thing we had regained to the Consulting room and Taver was pacing up and down the floor with long strides presently he took up the telephone and rang up his hind head

Nursing home and told the matron that we should be spending the night in town as there was no sleeping accommodation at the house in Harley Street where he had his London headquarters I guess that a night of vigil was in contemplation I was fairely used to these watch nights

Now I knew that my duty would be to guard tavener’s vacated body while his soul ranged through outer Darkness or on some strange quest of its own and talked to its peers men who were also able to leave their bodies at will and walk the starry ways with him or others who had

Died centuries ago but were still concerned with the welfare of their fellow men whom they had lived to serve we died at a little restaurant in a back street off Soho where the head waiter argued metaphysics in Italian with Taver between Cor es and returned to our

Harley Street quarters to wait until the great City about us should have gone to sleep and left the night quiet for the work we were about to embark on it was not till well after midnight that Taver judged the time was suitable and then he settled himself upon the broad

Consulting room couch with myself at his feet and a few minutes he was asleep but as I watched him I saw his breathing alter and sleep gave way way to trance a few muttered words stray memories of his previous Earthly lives came from his lips then a deep and cilent breath

Marked a second change of level and I saw that he was in a state of consciousness that a cultist use when they communicate with each other by means of telepathy it was exactly like listening in with a wireless telephone Lodge called to Lodge across the deeps of the

Night and the passive brain picked up the vi vibrations and passed them on to the voice and Taver spoke the jingle of messages however was cut off in the middle of a sentence this was not the level on which Taver meant to work tonight another cilent hiss announced

That he had gone yet deeper into the hypnotic condition there was a dead Stillness in the room and then a voice that was not tavers broke the silence the level of the records it said and I guess what Taver meant to do no brain but his could have hit upon the

Extraordinary scheme of tracing the manuscript by examining the subconscious mind of the human race Taver in common with his fellow psychologists held that every thought and Every Act have their images stored in the person’s subconscious mind but he also held that records of them are

Stored in the mind of Nature and it was these records that he was seeking to read broken fragments of sentences figures and names fell from the lips of the unconscious man and then he got his focus and studied to his work El squinto fenzi Italia Pierro Del Costa came a

Deep level voice Then followed a long drawn out vibrating sound halfway between a telephone Bell and the note of a cello and the voice changed 245 November the 14th 1898 London England for a time there was a silence but almost immediately tavener’s voice cut across it I want

Pier deosta who was reborn November the 14th 1898 at 2:45 a.m. silence then tavenner’s voice again calling as if over a telephone hello hello hello apparently he received an answer answer for his tone changed yes it is the senior of seven who is speaking then his voice took on an

Extraordinary majesty and command brother where is the ritual that was entrusted to thy care what answer was given I could not Divine but after a pause tavener’s voice came again bre redeem thy crime and return the ritual whence it was taken then he rolled over on his side and the transition passed

Into natural sleep and so to an Awakening dazed and shivering he recovered Consciousness and I gave him hot coffee from a thermos flask such as we always kept handy for these midnight meals I recounted to him what had passed and he nodded his satisfaction between sips of the steaming liquid I wonder how

Pier DeCosta will affect his task he said the present day personality will probably not have the faintest idea as to what is required of it and will be blindly urged forward by the subconscious how will it locate the manuscript I inquired why should he succeed where you

Failed I failed because I could not at any point establish contact with the manuscript I was not on Earth at the time it was stolen and I could not trace it in the racial memories for the same reason one must have a jumping off place

You know a cold work is not performed by merely waving a wand how will the present day Piero go to work I inquired the present day Pi won’t do anything said tavener because he does not know how but his subconscious mind is that of the trained cultist and under the stimulus I have

Given it will perform its work it will probably go back to the time when the manuscript was handed over to the meducci then Trace its subsequent history by means of racial Memories the subconscious memory of Nature and how will he go to work to recover it as soon

As the subconscious has located its Quarry it will send an Impulse through the conscious mind bidding it to take the body upon the quest and a very puzzled modern young man may find himself in a difficult situation how will he know what to do with the manuscript once he has found it

Once an initial iate always an initiate in all moments of difficulty and danger the initiate turns to his master something in that boy’s soul will reach out to make contact and he will be brought back to his own fraternity sooner or later he will come across one

Of the Brethren who will know what to do with him I was thankful enough to lie down on the sofa and get a couple hours sleep until such time as the charwoman should disturb me but Taver upon whom going subconscious always seemed to have the effect of a tonic announced his

Intention of seeing the sunrise from London Bridge and left me to my own devices he returned in time to take me out to breakfast and I discovered that he had given instructions for every morning paper and each successive addition of the evening ones to be sent

To us all day long the stream of Printed Matter poured in and had to be gone over for Taver was on the lookout for Pierre decosta’s effort to recover the ritual his first attempt upon it is certain to be some blind lunatic Outburst said tavener and will probably land him in

The hands of the police whence it will be our duty as good Brethren to rescue him but it will have served its purpose for he will as it were have pointed to the manuscript after the fashion of a Sporting Dog next morning our vigilance was rewarded Ed an unusual case of

Attempted burglary was reported from St John’s Wood a young Bank Clerk of hitherto exemplary character had affected an entry into the house of a Mr Jose of coats by the simple expedient of climbing onto the dining room window seal from the area steps and in full view of the entire Street kicking the

Glass out of the window Mr coats aroused by the den came came down armed with a stick which however was not required and the would be burglar who could give no explanation of his conduct meekly waiting to be taken to the police station by the policeman whom the

Commotion he made had also attracted to the spot Taver immediately telephoned to find out what time the case would be coming on at the police court and we forth with set out upon our Quest we sat in the enclosure reserved for the general public while various cases of wife beaters and disorderly drunkards

Were disposed of and I watched my neighbors not far from us a girl of a different type from the rest of the sorted audience was seated her pale oval face seemed to belong to another race from The Irregular coochy features about her she looked like some medieval Saint

From an Italian Fresco and it only needed the stiff brocaded robes to complete the resemblance look for the woman said tavener’s voice in my ear now we know why Pier deosta fell to a bribe the usual Ri Ra having been dealt with a prisoner of a different type was placed

In the dock a young fellow refined highly strong looked around him in bewilderment at his unaccustomed surroundings and then catching sight of the olive cheeked Madonna in the gallery took heart of Grace he answered the magistrates questions collectedly enough giving his name as Peter Robson in his profession as clerk he listened

Attentively to the evidence of the policeman who had arrested him and to Mr Joseph coats and when asked for his explanation said he had none to give in answer to questions he declared that he had never been in that part of London before had no motive for going there and

He did not know why he had attempted to enter the window the Magistrate who at first had seemed disposed to deal leniently with the case appeared to think that this persistent refusal of all explanation must conceal some motive and proceeded to press the prisoner somewhat sharply it looked as if matters

Were going hard with him when tavener who had been scribbling on the back of a visiting card beckoned an usher and sent the message up to the magistrate I saw him read it and turn the card over t ‘s degrees in the Harley Street address were enough for him I understand he said

To the prisoner that you have a friend here who can offer an explanation for your Affair and is prepared to go shity for you the prisoner’s face was a study he looked around seeking some familiar face and when tavener well-dressed and imposing of appearance entered the witness box his perplexity was comical

And then through all his bewilderment a flash of light suddenly shot into the boy’s eyes some gleam from the subconscious reached him and he shut his mouth and awaited events my colleague giving his name is John Richard Taver doctor of medicine philosophy and science master of arts and Bachelor at

Law said that he was a distant relation of the prisoner who was subject that peculiar malady known as double personality he was satisfied that this condition was quite sufficient to account for the attempt at burglary some freak of boy’s Other Self having led to the crime yes Taver was quite prepared

To go shity for the boy and the magistrate evidently relieved at the turn Affairs had taken forth with bound The Prisoner over to come up for judgment have called upon and within 10 minutes of tavener’s Entry upon the scene we were standing on the steps of the Court where the floor quarantine

Madonna joined us I don’t know who you are sir the boy was saying nor why you should help me but I’m very grateful to you may I introduce my fiance Miss fer she would like to thank you too Taver shook hands with the girl I don’t suppose you two have eaten much

Breakfast with this affair hanging over your heads he said they admitted they had not then said he you must be my guest for an early lunch we all packed into a TX tax and drove to the restaurant where the metaphysical head waiter held sway here Peter Robson immediately

Tackle Taver look sir he said I’m exceedingly grateful for what you have done for me but I should very much like to know why you did it do you ever weave Daydreams inquired Taver irrevelant Robson stared at him in perplexity but the girl at his side suddenly exclaimed

I do know what you mean do you remember Peter the stories we used to make up when we were children how we belonged to a secret society that had its headquarters in the Woodshed and had only to make a certain sign and people would know we were members and be afraid

Of us I remember once when we had been locked in the schullery because we were naughty you said that if we made this sign the policeman would come in and tell your father he had got to let us out because we belong to a powerful Brotherhood that did not allow its

Members to be locked in and skolar that is exactly what has happened it is your Daydream come true but what is the meaning of it all oh what indeed said tavener then turning to the boy do you dream much he asked not as a rule he

Replied but I had the most curious dream the night before last which I can only regard as prophetic in the light of subsequent events I dreamt that someone was accusing me of a crime and I woke up in a dreadful way about it dreams are curious ious things said tavener both

Day Dreams and night dreams I don’t know which are the stranger do you believe in the immortality of the Soul Mr Robson of course I do as it ever struck you the eternal life must stretch both ways you mean said Robson under his breath that it wasn’t all imagination it

Might be Memory other people have had the same dreams said taviner myself among them then he leaned across the narrow table and stared into the lad’s eyes supposing I told you that just such an organization as you imagined exists that if as a boy even you had gone out

Into the Main Street and made that sign someone would have been almost certain to answer it supposing I told you that the impulse which made you break that window was not blind Instinct but an attempt to carry out an order from your fraternity which you believe me I think

I should said the L opposite him at any rate if it isn’t true I wish it were for it appeals to me more than anything I have ever heard if you care to go deeper into the matter said tavener will you come this evening to my place in Harley

Street and then we can talk the matter over Robson accepted with eagerness what man would refuse to follow his Daydreams when they began to materialize after we had parted from our new acquaintance we took a tax to St John’s Wood and stopped at a house whose front ground floor window was in process

Of being reglazed tavener sent in his card and we were ushered into a room decorated with large bronze Buddhas statuettes from Egyptian tombs and pictures by watts in a few minutes Mr coats appeared ah Dr Taver he said I presume you have come about the extraordinary matter of your

Young relative who broke into my house last evening that is so Mr coat replied my companion I have come to offer you my sincere apologies on behalf of the family don’t mention it said our host the poor lad was suffering from mental trouble I take it a passing Mania said

Taver brushing it away with the wave of his hand he glanced around the room I see by your books that you are interested in a hobby of my own the ancient mystery religions I think I may claim to be something of an egyptologist Coats rose to the bait at

Once I came across a most extraordinary document the other day said our new acquaintance I should like to show it to you I think he would be interested he drew from his pocket a bunch of keys and inserted one in the lock of a drawer in a bureau to his astonishment the key

Pushed Loosely through the hole and he pulled the drawer open only to find that the lock had been forced off he ran his hand to the back of the drawer and withdrew it empty coats looked from tavener to myself and back again in astonishment that manuscript was there

When I went to the police court this morning he said what is the meaning of this extraordinary business first of all a man breaks into my house and makes no attempt to steal anything and then someone else breaks in and neglecting many objects of value takes a thing that

Can be of no interest to anyone but myself then the manuscript which has been stolen is of no particular value said Taver I gave half a crown for it replied coats then you should be thankful to have gotten off so lightly said Taver this is the devil roads he

Went on as we re-entered The Waiting taxi someone from a Chelsea Black Lodge knowing coats would be at the police court this morning has taken that manuscript what is to be the next move I inquired get hold of Robson we can only work through him I asked how he intended to

Deal with the situation that had Arisen are you going to send Robson after the manuscript again I inquired I shall have to said tavener I do not think there is the makings of a successful Buccaneer in Robson neither do I great heaver we shall have to fall back on Pi deac Casta

Robson met us at Harley Street and Taver took him out to dinner after dinner we returned to the Consulting room where tavener handed around cigars and set himself to be an agreeable host a task in which he succeeded to Perfection for he was one of the most interesting

Talkers I’ve ever met presently the talk LED around to Italy during Renaissance and the great days of Florence and the medi and then he began to tell the story of one Pier de la Casta who had been a student of the occult arts in those days and had brewed love filteries for the

Ladies of the Florentine Court he told the story with considerable vividness and in great detail and I was surprised to see that the attention of the lad was wandering and that he was apparently pursuing a train of thought of his own oblivious of his surroundings then I

Realized that he was sliding off into that trans condition with which my experience of my colleague had made me familiar still Taver talked on telling of the history of the old Florentine to the unconscious boy how he rose to be custodian of the archives was offered a

Bribe and betrayed his trust in order that he might buy the favor of the woman he loved then as he came to the end of the story his voice changed and he addressed the unconscious lad by name Pier deosta he said why did you do it because I was tempted came the answer

But not in the voice which the boy had talked to us it was a man’s voice calm deep and dignified vibrating with emotion do you regret it asked havenor I do return the voice that was not the boy’s voice I have asked the great ones that I may be permitted to restore that

Which I stole thy request is granted said Taver do that which thou Hast to do and the blessings of the great ones be upon thee slowly the boy rolled over and sat up but I saw at a glance that it was not the same individual who confronted us a

Man mature of strong character and determined purpose looked out of the boy’s blue eyes I go he said to restore that which I took give me the means we went round he and Taver and I to the garage and got out the car which way do

You want to go asked my colleague the lad pointed to the southwest and Taver turned the car in the direction of the Marble Arch piloted by the man who was not Robson we went South down Park Lane and finally came out in the tangle of Mean Streets behind Victoria Station

Then we turned East we pulled up behind the Tate Gallery and the boy got out from here he said I go on alone and he disappeared down a side street although we waited for a matter of half an hour Taver did not stop the engine we may

Want to get out of here quick he said then just as I was beginning to wonder if we were going to spend the night in the open we heard footsteps coming down the street and Robeson leapt in the car that tavener’s precaution and not stopping the engine was justified was

Proved by the fact that close upon robson’s heels other footsteps sounded quick roads cried tavener hang the rug over the back I did as I was bid and succeeded in obscuring the number plate and as the first of our pursuers red the corner the big car leapt into its stride

And we drew clear no one spoke on the journey down to hind head we entered the sleeping house as quietly as might be and Taver turned on the office lights I saw that robon carried a curious looking volume Bound in Vellum we did not t in the office however for Taver led us

Through the sleeping house to a door which I knew LED down to The Cellar stairs come too Road said tavener you have seen the beginning of this matter and you shall see the end for you have shared in the risk although you are not

One of us I know that I can rely on your discretion we passed down the spiral Stone stairs and along a flagged Passage Taver unlocked a door and admitted us to a wine seller he crossed this and unlocked a further door a dim point of flame illuminated the darkness ahead of

Us swaying uneasily in the drought Taver turned on a light and to my tense surprise I found myself in a Chapel high carved stalls were built into the walls on three sides and on the fourth was an altar the flickering light that I had seen in the darkness came

From the floating Wick of a lamp hung above our heads as the center point of a great symbol tavener lit the incense in a bronze thoral and set it swinging he handed Robson the black robe of an Inquisitor and he himself assumed another one then these two cowed figures

Faced one another across the floor of the empty Chapel tavener began what was evidently a prayer I could not gather its substance for I am unable to follow spoken Latin then came a Litany of questions and response Robson the London clerk answering in deep resonant voice of a man accustomed

In tone across great buildings then he rose to his feet and with the stately steps of a processional Advanced to The Altar and laid thereon the Ragged and mildewed manuscript he held in in his hands he knelt and what Absolution the somber figure that stood over him

Pronounced I cannot tell but he rose to his feet like a man from whose shoulders a great burden has been rolled then for the first time Taver spoke in his native tongue in all moments of difficulty and danger the booming of his deep voice filled the room with Echoes make this

Sign and I knew that the man who had betrayed his Trust had made good and been received back into his old fraternity we returned to the upper world and the man who is not Robson B us farewell it is necessary that I should go he said it is indeed said tavener

You’d better be out of England till this matter is blown over roads will you undertake to drive him to Southampton I’ve other work to do as we dropped down the long slope that leads to lip hook I studied the man by myself side died by some strange Alchemy tavener had woken

The long dead soul of Pierre dasta and imposed it upon the present day personality of Peter Robson power radiated from him as light from a lamp even the features seemed change deep lines about the corners of his mouth lent a firmness to the hitherto indefinite chin and the light

Blue eyes now sunken in the head had taken on the glitter of Steel and were as steady as those of a swordsman it was just after 6:00 in the morning when we crossed The Floating Bridge into Southampton the place was already a stir where dock Town never

Sleeps and we inquired our way to the little known Inn where Taver had directed us to go for breakfast we discovered it to be an unpretentious Public House near the dock Gates and the pot man was just drawing the bright curtains of Turkey twill as we entered

It was evident that strangers were not very welcome in the little Tavern and no one offered to take our order as we stood there irresolute heavy footsteps thundered down the creaking wood stairs and a strongly built man wearing the four lines of gold braid denoting the rank of Captain entered the barar he

Glanced at us as he came in and indeed we were sufficiently in congruous to be notable in such place his eyes attracted my attention he had the Keen outward looking gaze so characteristic of a seaman but in addition to this he had a curious trick of looking at one without

Appearing to see one and the focus of the eye met about a yard behind one’s back it was a thing I had often seen tavener do when he wished to see the colors of an AA that curious emanation which for those who can see it radiates

From every every living thing and is so clear an indication of the condition within gray eyes looked into blue as the newcomer took in my companion and then an almost imperceptible sign passed between them and the Sailor joined us I believe you know my mother he remarked by way of

Introduction Robson admitted the acquaintanceship although I’m prepared to swear he had never seen the man before and we all adjourned to an inner room for breakfast which appear Ed in response to the bellowed orders of our new acquaintance without any Preamble he inquired our business and Robeson was

Equally ready to communicate it I want to get out of the country as quietly as possible he said our new friend seems to think that it was quite in the ordinary course of events that a man without luggage should be departing in this manner I’m sailing at 9:00 this morning

Going down the Gold Coast as far as Lono we aren’t exactly the conard but if if you care to come you will be welcome you can’t wear that rig however it would only draw a crowd which I take is what you don’t want to do he put his head

Through the half door which separated the PO from the back premises and in response to his vociferations a little fat man with white chin whiskers appeared a consultation took place between the two the newcomer being equally ready to lend his assistance very shortly a suit of cheap surge

Reachme downs and a peaked cap were forthcoming these being the Sailor assured us the correct costume for a steward in which capacity it was designed that Peter Robson should go to seea leaving the in that the mysterious Fellowship had made so hospitable to us we took our way to the docks and passing

Through the Wilderness of railway lines cranes and yawning Gulfs that constitute their scenery we arrived at our companion’s ship a rusty sighted her upper Works painted a dirty white we accompanied her Captain to his cabin striking contrast to the raffle outside a solid desk bearing a student shaded

Lamp a copy of Albert durr’s study of the praying hands a considerable shelf of books imp perceptible beneath the all pervading odor of strong tobacco the faint spicy smell that clings to a place where incense is regularly burnt I studi the titles of the books for they tell

One more of a man than anything else Isis unveiled stood cheek to gel with Creative Evolution and two fat tombs of elius Levy’s History of Magic on the drive back to hind head I thought much of the strange side of life with which I had come in contact yet another example was afforded

To me of the widespread ramifications of the society at tavener’s request I looked up the sea captain on his return from the voyage and asked him for news of Robson this he was unable to give me however he had put the lad ashore at some mud hole on the west coast standing

On the Quay stewing in the sunshine he had made the sign a halfcast Portuguese had touched him on the shoulder and the two had vanished in the crowd I expressed some anxiety as to the fate of an inexperienced lad in a Strange Land you needn’t worry said the Sailor that

Sign would take him right across Africa and back again while I was talking the matter over with Taver I said to him what made you and the captain claim relationship with Robson it seemed to me a perfectly gratuitous lie it was no lie but the truth said Taver who is my

Mother and who are my brethren but the lodge and the initiates thereof end of chapter 2 section four of the secrets of Dr tavener this is a LibriVox recording all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit librivox.org the secrets of Dr tavener by Dion Fortune

Chapter 3 The Man Who sought one of tavener’s cases will always stand at in my mind the case of black the Airman the ordinary doctor would have promoted black into an asylum but Taver stake to the sanity of two people upon a theory and saved them both early in May I was

Sitting with him in his Harley Street Consulting room taking down case notes while he examined his patients we had dispatched various hysterics and neurotics to other Specialists for treatment when a man of an entirely different type was ushered in by the butler he looked absolutely healthy his

Face was tanned with the open air and had no sign of nervous tension but when I met his eyes I noticed something unusual about them the expression was peculiar that did not hold the haunting fear one so often and seized in the eyes of the mentally sick he reminded me of

Nothing in the world but a running Hound that has sided its prey I think I’m going off my head announced her visitor what form does your trouble take inquired Taver can’t do my work can’t sit still can’t do a thing except tear all over the country in my car as hard

As ever I can lick look at my endorsements he held out a driving license filled with writing next time they’ll quad me and that will finish me off alog together if they shut me up inside four walls I’ll buzz around like a chafer in a bottle till I

Knock myself to pieces i’ go clean mad if I couldn’t move about the only relief I get is speed to feel that I’m going somewhere I drive and drive and drive till I’m clean tuckered out and then I roll into the nearest Wayside Pub and sleep but it doesn’t do me any good

Because I only dream and that seems to make things more real and I wake up madder than ever and go on driving again what’s your work said Taver motor racing and flying are you Arnold Black by any chance asked Taver that’s me said our patient praise the Lord I haven’t lost

My nerve yet you had a crash a little while ago did you not inquired my colleague that was what started the trouble said black I was all right till then banged my head I suppose I was unconscious 3 days and when I came round I was seedy and have been so ever since

I thought Taver would refuse the case for an ordinary head injury could have little interest for him but instead he asked what made you come to me I was on my beam end said black I’d been to two or three old Ducks but could get no

Sense out of them in fact I’ve just come on from the blankest Geer of the lot he named a name of imminence told me to stop in bed a month and feed up I wandered down the road and liked the look of your brass plate so I came in

Why aren’t I in your line what do you go in for babies or scile Decay if a chance like that brought you to me you probably are in my line said Taver now tell me the physical side of your case what do you feel like in yourself our patient

Wriggled uneasily in his chair I don’t know he said I feel more of a fool than anything else that said Taver is often the beginning of wisdom black half turned away from us his painfully assumed jauntiness fell from him there was a long pause then he blurted out I

Feel as if I were in love and you’ve been hard hit suggested Taver no I’ve not said the patient I’m not in love I only feel as if I were there isn’t a girl in the case not that I know of anyway and yet I’m in love horribly in

Love with a woman who doesn’t exist and it’s not the Tom Cat side of me but the biggest and best that there is in me if I can’t get someone to love me back and in the same way I’m loving then I’ll go off my head all the time I feel like

There must be someone somewhere and that she’ll suddenly turn up she must turn up up his jaw set in a Savage line that’s why I drive so much because I feel that round the next Bend I’ll find her the man’s face was quivering and I saw that

His hands were wet with sweat have you any mental picture of the woman you’re seeking asked Taver nothing definite said black I only get the feel of her but I shall know her when I see her I’m certain of that do you think that such a woman exists do you think it was

Possible I shall ever meet her he appealed to us with a child’s pathetic eagerness whether she is in the flesh or not I cannot say at the present moment said Taver but of her existence I have no doubt now tell me when did you first notice this

Sensation the very first twinge I had of it explained black was as we got into the nose dive that put me to bed we went down down down faster and faster and just as we were going to crash I felt something I can’t say I saw anything but

I got the feel of a pair of eyes can you realize what I mean and when I came round from my three days down and out I was in love what do you dream about asked Taver all sorts of things nothing especially nightmary do you notice any

Kind of family likeness in your dreams now that you come to mention it I do they all take place in brilliant Sunshine they aren’t exactly Oriental but that way inclined Taver laid before him a book of Egyptian travel Illustrated watercolors anything like that he inquired my hat exclaimed the man that’s

The very thing he gazed eagerly at the pictures then suddenly thrust the book Away From Him can’t look at them he said it makes me feel he laid his hand on his solar plexus hunting for a simile as if my tummy had dropped out Taver asked her patient a

Few more questions and then dismissed him with instructions to report himself if any further developments took place saying that it was impossible to treat his trouble in its present phase from my knowledge of tavener’s ways I knew this meant that he required time to carry out a psychic examination of the case which

Was his peculiar art for he used his trained intuition to explore the minds of his patients as another man might use a microscope to examine the tissues of their bodies as it was a Friday afternoon and black was our last patient I found myself free after his departure and was

Walking down Harley Street wondering how I should dispose of my weekend for an invitation I had counted upon had unexpectedly failed me as I took a short cut through a muse lying behind the house I saw black maneuvering a car out of a garage he saw me too and hailed me

As a friend he wouldn’t care for a joy ride I suppose I’m off on the trail again like to join me in running down the fair unknown he spoke lightly but I had a glimpse of his soul and knew what lay beneath I accepted his offer to his

Evident pleasure he filled the Gap left by the defection of my friends and moreover I should learn more by accompanying him on one of his journeys than a dozen Consulting room examinations would tell me never shall I forget that drive he behaved normally till we got clear of the outlying

Suburbs and then as dusk began to fall a change came over the man at a secluded spot in the road he halted the car and stopped the engine in the perfect Stillness of that spring evening we listened to the side silence then black rose up in the driving seat and uttered

A peculiar cry it was upon three minor notes like a bird call what did you do that for I asked him I don’t know he said it might attract her attention you never know it’s not worth missing a chance anyway he restarted the car and I realized the quest had begun in good

Earnest I watched the needle of the speedometer creeping around the dial as we hurdled into the Gathering dusk the hedges fell away on either side of us in a gray blur towns and Villages passed us with a roar their inhabitants luckily keeping out of our path gradients we

Took in our stride and dropped into valleys Like a Stone from a sling presently from the top of a Crest we felt the channel wind in her faces black hurled the car down a hill like the side of a house and pulled up dead the Bonnet nosing against prominade railings ahead lay the

Sea nothing else I’m convinced could have stopped our career black stared at the surf for a few moments then he shook his head I’ve missed her again he said and backed the car off the pavement I’ve got nearer to her tonight than I have ever done though we put up for the night

At a hotel and the next day black drove me back again I still stipulated that we should get in before dusk I had no wish to accompany him in pursuit of his dream again on my return I reported my experience to tavner it’s an interesting

Case he said I think it will furnish a remarkably good instance of my reincarnation Theory I knew tavener’s belief that the soul has lived many lives before the present one and that the experiences of those lives go to make up the character of today when confronted by a mental state for which

He could find no adequate cause in the present it was his custom to investigate the past getting the records of previous lives of his patient by those secret means of which he was Master during the early days of my association with Taver I considered these records imaginary but

When I saw how Taver working upon this idea was able to foretell not only what a person would do but in what circumstances he would find himself I began to see that in this curious old theory of the East we might find the key to much of the baffling mystery of human

Life do you think that black is feeling the effect of some experience of a past life I asked something like that said tavener I think that the spinning nose dive had the effect of hypnotizing him and he got into that particular part of his memory where the pictures of

Previous lives are stored I suppose he’s living over again some vivid past experience I remarked I don’t think it’s quite that said Taver if two people feel a strong emotion either of Love or hate for each other it tends to link them together if this link is renewed Life

After Life it becomes very strong black has evidently formed some such link and is feeling the drag of it usually these memories like Wyatt and are only roused by the appearance of the second person then we see those extraordinary loves and hates which disturb the ordered state of things black has recovered his

Memories owing to being hypnotized by the nose dive it now remains to see how he will work out his problem supposing the woman is not upon the Earth then we we shall have a singularly nasty mess said tavener and supposing she is upon the Earth we may have an equally nasty

Mess these attractions that come through from the past know no barriers black would drive that car of his through the Ten Commandments and the British constitution to get at her he will go till he drops our night drive only ended at the seaw wall I said precisely in one night

It won’t in there the trouble is that black while he was able to feel the presence of this woman in his abnormal state was not able to locate her to him she seemed to come from all points of the compass at once we shall have to move with caution roads first we must

Find out whether this woman is on Earth or not and then we must find out what her status is she may be a skullery maid or princess old enough to be his grandmother or not yet short coated it won’t make any difference to Black more

However she may not be free and we can hardly launch him into the bosom of a respectable family next morning tavener informed me that his occult methods had enabled him to locate the woman and that she was on Earth in about 23 years of age now we

Must wait he said sooner or later that tremendous desire of blacks will bring them together I wonder whether she is conscious yet of the attraction a few weeks later a Miss Tindle brought her daughter Elaine to consult my colleague it seemed that the girl was developing delusions several

Times she had aroused the household with the announcement that there was a man in her room she imagined that she heard someone calling her and used to wander about at night taking long walks after dark and often finding herself tired out and miles from home reduced to finding

Whatever confiance she could for her return you do not have lapses of memory asked heaver never said the girl I know exactly where I am and what I’m doing I feel as if I’d lost something and couldn’t rest until I’d found it I go

Out to look for I don’t know what I know it’s ridiculous to behave in the way I do but the impulse is so strong I yield to it in spite of myself do you feel any fear of the presence you are conscious of in your room I did at first it seemed

So strange and uncanny but now I feel more tantalized than anything else it’s like trying to remember a name that has slipped your memory do you know that feeling I should like to have your daughter under observation in my nursing home said Taver to the mother and I saw

By this that he did not regard the case as the commonplace type of insanity it appeared to be Miss tendel was shortly installed at hindhead nurs nursing home which was tavener’s headquarters although he used his Harley Street room for Consulting purposes I liked the girl she had no

Pretensions to striking Beauty but she had character for some time our patient led the life of a normal girl then one evening she came to me Dr RH she said I want to take one of my night walks will you mind very much if I do I shall come

To no harm I know what I’m doing but I’m so Restless that I feel I must move about and get out into Open Spaces I spoke to Taver I knew of his policy of allowing his patience to follow their whims as far as possible let her go by

All means he said go with her and see what she does we cannot let the girl wander about these Moors by herself though I don’t suppose she would come to the slightest harm Miss tendle and I went out into the warm darkness of the spring night she set the pace at her

Swinging effortless stride that carried us rapidly over the Heather paths we were climbing toward the heights of hind head and the ascent was trying at the pace we were making under a Lee of a little pine wood we paused listen said the girl how still it

Is do you know anything about birds we have an owl near us at home that Hoots on three notes I’ve never been able to find out where he is I often hear him shortly after dusk we had passed the point where the Old Coach Road crossed the modern metal

Highway below us was the monument to the memory of the murdered sailor and above stood the great Celtic cross that gives rest to The Souls of hanged men far away in the still night a car with a throttle was coming up from thursley we watched

As it tore past us a shadow behind the glare of its headlights I thought of that wild night ride to the coast and wondered whether there was another soul in torment who sought to escape by speed from the hell within the girl at my side

Suddenly clutched my arm I feel as if my soul would be torn out of my body she gasped I’m being drawn into a Whirlpool what’s happening what does it mean I soothed her the best I could and we set out upon the walk home miss tendale was now thoroughly overwrought startling at

Every bush suddenly she paused listening here it comes she said neither She nor I saw anything but I was a certain as she was that we were not alone gypsies are numerous in this part I said it is not gypsies she answered it is the presence I know it quite well

There’s no need to be alarmed it never does any harm but isn’t it a curious feeling she paused and looked at me her face tense in the UN un certain light that precedes moonrise there is something I want Dr rhs I don’t know what it is but I shall

Go on wanting it till I die and never want anything else if I do not find it then I shall know that I have lived out my life in vain when we returned we found that Taver was out an accident had occurred at the hind head Crossroads the

Local doctors were not available and Taver although he took no part in the general practice of the neighborhood had been telephoned to give first aid Miss tendel wished me good night and went to her room and I was debating whether I would go to bed when the telephone rang

That’s you rhs said tener’s voice I’m bringing a man back here will you have a bed made up for a surgical case it was not long before I heard the car outside and helped to unload the improvised stretcher another curious coincidence said Taver with a one-sided smile he

Reserved for skepticism and I saw the man we were lifting was Arnold black then it was his car we heard on Port Smith Road I cried very likely said Taver he was driving at his usual gate failed to negotiate the crossroads and rolled down the bank into the bushes the

Steering gear must have gone wrong I said or the man’s mind said Taver we got our patient to bed and were settling him down for the night when a nurse came along long to say that Miss tendale was in a very excited state we left the

Woman in charge of black and went along to the girl’s bedroom we found her sitting up in bed excited as the nurse had said but still Mistress of herself it is the presence she said it is so strong that I feel as if at any moment I might see something Taver lowered the

Light let’s see if we can get a look at it he observed it is a peculiarity of a Mystic that his present stimulates the psychic facilities of those he is with and Taver was a Mystic of No Ordinary type I have nothing of the Mystic in my makeup but when astral entities are

About I am conscious of a sensation such as we consider in childhood to be due to a goose walking over one’s grave Taver would often describe to me the appearance of the thing that gave rise to these Sensations as it presented itself to his trained sight and after

After a little practice I found that although I was seldom able to see anything I could locate the direction whence vibrations came as we waited in the darkened room I became conscious of this sensation and then tavener exclaimed look rhs even you must see this for it is the etheric double coming

Out of the physical body beside the girl on the bed a coffin shaped drift of gray Mist was spreading itself as we watch watched it I saw it take form and I could trace the distinct outline of a human figure slowly the features grew clear and I recognized the lean Indian

Countenance of Arnold black the girl rose on her elbow and stared in astonishment at the form beside her then with the cry she sought to gather the gray drift into her arms it has come it has come she cried look I can see it it’s real but the Imp palpable stuff Ed

Her her hands passed through it as through a fog wreath and with a cry of distress she hung over the form she could not hold what does it all mean I asked Taver it means death if we can’t get it back he said that is Black’s etheric double what you would call his

Ghost the subtle body that carries the life forces it is inspired by emotions and being freed for the time has come to the object of its desires the reborn soul of the woman he loved in the past the astral body has often been here before it was that of which she was

Conscious when she felt what she calls the presence but it has never previously been able to come in such definite form as this it means that black is on the point of death we must see if we can induce this gray shape to re-enter its

House of fles Taver laid his hand on the girl’s shoulder compelling her attention come with me he said I cannot leave it she replied again seeking to gather up the shadowy form on the bed it will follow you said Taver meekly the girl arose I put her dressing gown over her

Shoulders and Taver held open the door for her she preceded us into the passage the gray Mist wreath drifting after her its outlines merged into a shapeless fog it was no longer hor horizontal but upright looking like a sheet held up by the corner the girl moved ahead of us

Down the passage with her hand on the door of the room where black lay she paused then she entered and started back in confusion as the light of a nightlight revealed the form of a man in the bed I I beg your pardon she faltered and sought your a treat but Taver pushed

Her ahead of him and closed the door he led her gently the Bed Have you ever seen this man before he asked never she replied staring with curious Fascination at the set face on the pillow look straight into yourself face your naked soul and tell me what he is to you

Tavener’s will compelled her and the veneer of today fell away from her and the greater self that had come down Through the Ages stirred awoke and for the moment took control of the luster person personality the man’s life and the fate of Two Souls hung in the balance and

Taver forced the girl to face the issue look down into your Deeper Self and tell me what this man is to you everything the girl faced him breathing as if she had run a race what will you do for him everything think well before you pledge

Yourself for if you bring that soul back into the body and then fail it you will have committed a very Grievous sin I could not fail it if I tried replied the girl something stronger than myself compels me then bid the soul reenter the body and live again is he dead not yet

But his life hangs by a thread look you can see it we looked and saw that a silvery strand of mist connected the gray wrath with the body on the bed how can I make him reenter his body focus your mind on the body and he will be attracted back into it slowly

Hesitatingly she bent over the unconscious man and gathered the bruised and broken body into her arms then as we watched the gray drifting Mist Drew nearer and was gradually absorbed into the physical form black and Elaine tendale were married from the nursing home 6 weeks later and left for their

Honeymoon in the racing car that had been salved from the bushes there was nothing wrong with the steering gear as we returned to the house after watching their departure I said to Taver most men would say you had made it a couple of lunatics whose delusions happened to

Match and most men would have certified the pair of them for an asylum replied Taver all I have done was been to recognize the working of two great natural laws and you see the result how did you piece this story together I inquired it was fairly simple said

Tavener as simple as human nature ever is you know my method I believe that we live many lives and can influence others by our thoughts and I find that my belief will often throw light where ordinary ideas fail now take the case of black the ordinary doctor would have

Said it was his subconscious mind that was playing him tricks well it might have been so I took the trouble to read the history of the past lives in what we call the akashic records where all thoughts are recorded I found that in several previous lives he had been

Associated with an individual of the opposite sex and that in his last life he had had the presumption to bid for her favor when she was a princess of the royal house and he was a soldier of fortune as a reward for his daring he was flung from the roof of the palace

And dashed to death on the stones of the courtyard now you can understand why it was that the spinning nose dive awakened old memories he had plunged to his death before you can also see why he felt as if his tummy had dropped out when he saw

The pictures of Egypt for it was in an Egyptian existence that all this took place there are great many people alive at the present time who have had an Egyptian past we seem to be running a cycle of them you can also see the reason for Black’s

Love of speed it waked dim memories of his last contact with the soul he was seeking if he could retrace his steps to the point where he swooped into space he would be able to pick up the trail of the woman of his desire he was prompted

To reproduce as nearly as possible the conditions in which he had last known her as I’ve already told you the memories woke and black set forth on his quest for the woman he had been mated with Life After Life and having seen in the occult records their repeated Union

I knew it was only a matter of time till they came together and I sincerely hoped that she too would remember the past and be free to marry him if she had not we should have had as I warned you a very nasty mess these spiritual ties are the

Devil now I expect you wonder what chance it was that brought aain tend fa to me I knew as I told you that sooner or later their paths would meet well I placed myself mentally at the point of their meeting consequently As Time Drew near they converged upon me and it was

My privilege to steer them to Harbor but what about Miss tendale and her delusions I inquired it looked to you like a commonplace case of old maids Insanity didn’t it said Taver but the girl’s self-possession and absence of fear led me to suspect something more she was so very definite and so

Impersonal in her attitude toward her delusions so I arranged for her to come down to hind head and let me try whether or not I could see what she saw what we saw you yourself know it was black shaken out of his body by the shock of

The accident and Drawn to her by the intensity of his longing not at all an uncommon phenomenon I have often seen it how did you managed to get black to re-enter his body provided he had ever been out of it when aaine touched his body the soul of black realized that it

Could meet her in the flesh and so sought to re-enter its own body but the Vitality was so low it could not manage it if the girl had not held him in her arms as she did he would have died but he lived on her Vitality till he was

Able to build up his own I can see the psychological of it I said but how do you account for the chances that brought them together why should Miss tendale have become restless and made for the Portsmouth Road timing her arrival to fit in with blacks passing Taver looked

Up at the stars that were just beginning to show in the darkening Sky ask them he said the Ancients knew what they were about when they cast horoscopes end of chapter 3 section five of the secrets of Dr tavener this is a LibriVox recording all LibriVox recordings are in the public

Domain for more information or to volunteer please visit librivox.org the secrets of Dr tavener by Dion Fortune chapter 4 the soul that would not be born contrary to his usual custo Taver did not insist on seeing his patient alone for the sufficient reason that no information could be extracted

From her it was to the mother of Miss cie that we turned for the case history and she poor anxious woman gave us such scanty details as an onlooker might observe but of the Viewpoint and feelings of the patient we learned nothing for there was nothing to learn

She sat before us in the big leather armchair her body was a tenent for the soul of a princess but it was alas untenanted the fine dark eyes utterly expressionless looked into space while we discussed her as if she had been an inanimate object which she practically

Was she was never like ordinary children said the mother when they put her in my arms after she was born she looked up at me with the most extraordinary EX expression in her eyes they were not a baby’s eyes at all doctor they were the eyes of a woman and an experienced woman

Too she didn’t cry she never made a sound but she looked as if she had All the Troubles of the world upon her shoulders that baby’s face was a tragedy perhaps she knew what was coming perhaps she did said Taver in a few hours however continued the mother she looked

Quite like an ordinary baby but from that time to this she has never changed except in her body we looked at the girl in the chair and she gazed back at us with the unblinking solidity of a very young infant we have taken her to everybody we could hear of but they all

Say the same that it’s a hopeless case of mental deficiency but when we heard of you we thought you might say something different we knew that your methods were not like those of most doctors it does seem strange that it should be be impossible to do anything

For her we passed some children playing in the street as we came here in the car Bonnie bright things but in such rags and dirt why is it that those whose mothers can do so little for them should be so Splendid and Mona for whom we

Would do anything should be as she is the poor woman’s eyes filled with tears and neither taverner nor I could reply I will take her down to my nursing home and keep her under observation for a time if you wish said Taver if the brain

Is at fault I can do nothing but if it is the Mind itself that has failed to develop I might attempt The Cure these deficiency cases are so inaccessible it is like ringing up on the telephone when the subscriber will not answer if one could attract her attention something

Might be done the Crux of the matter lies in the establishment of communications when they had gone I turned to Taver and said what hope have you in dealing with a case like that I cannot tell you just yet he replied I shall have to find out what her previous

Incarnations have been I invariably find that congenital troubles originate in a former life then I shall have to work out her horoscope and see whether the conditions are right for the paying off of what whatever debt she may have incurred in a previous life do you still think I am a queer

Sort of charlatan or are you beginning to get used to my ways I have long ceased to be astonished at anything I replied I should accept the devil horns Hooves and tail if you undertook to prescribe for him Taver chuckled with regard to our present case I am of the

Opinion that we will find the law of reincarnation is the one we shall have to look to now tell me this roads supposing reincarnation is not a fact supposing this life is the beginning and end of our existence and at its conclusion we proceed to flames your

Harps according to the use we have made of it how do you account for Mona’s condition what did she do in the few hours between her birth in the onset of her disease to bring down such a judgment on herself and at the end of

Her life can she justly be said to have deserved hell or earned Heaven I don’t know said I but supposing my theory is right then if we can recover the record of her past we shall be able to find the cause of her present condition and

Having found the cause we may be able to remedy it at any rate let us try would you like to see how I recover the records I use various methods sometimes I get them by hypnotizing the patients or by Crystal gazing and sometimes I read them from the

Subconscious mind of nature you know we believe that every thought and impulse in the world is recorded in the acostic records it is like Consulting a reference library I’m going to use the latter method in the present case in a few moments by methods known to himself tavener has shut out all outward

Impressions from his mind and was concentrated upon the inner Vision confused mental pictures evidently danced before his eyes then he got the focus and began to describe what he saw while I took down notes Egyptian and Grecian lives were dismissed with a few words these were not what he s he was

Merely working his way down Through the Ages but I gathered that we were dealing with the soul of ancient lineage and great opportunities Life After Life we heard the tale of Royal birth or initiation into the priesthood and yet in its present life the girl’s Soul was cut off

From all communication with its physical vessel I wondered what abuse of opportunity had led to such a sentence of solitary confinement in the cell of its body then we came to the level we saw it Italy in the 15th century as it turned out daughter of the reigning Duke

I could not catch the name his principality her younger sister was beloved by Giovani Sigmund she contrived to win the affections of her sister’s lover and then a rich Suitor offering for her own hand she betrayed Sig Mundi to his enemies in order to be free of his imp

Unities a true daughter of the Renaissance said tavener when he had returned to normal Consciousness and read my notes for He seldom retained any memory of what transpired during his subconscious States now I think you can guess the cause of the trouble I wonder whether you are aware of the mental

Processes that precede birth just before birth the soul sees a cinematograph film as it were of its future life not all the details but the broad outlines which are determined by its fate and these things it cannot alter but according to its reaction to them so will its future

Lives be planned thus it is that although we cannot alter Our Fate in this life our future lies entirely in our own hands now we know the record we can guess what manner of Fate lies upon this girl she owes a life debt to a man and a

Woman the suffering she caused recoils upon her there is no need for a specialized hell each Soul builds its own but she is not suffering I said she is merely in a passive condition the only one who suffers is the mother ah said tavener therein Li the Crux of the

Whole matter when she had that brief glimpse of what lay before her she rebelled against her fate and tried to repudiate her debt her soul refused to take up the heavy burden it was this momentary flash of knowledge which gave her eyes their strange unchildlike look which so startled her mother do people

Always have this forn knowledge I asked they always have that Glimpse but its memory usually lies dormant some people have vague premonitions however and and occult training tends to recover those lost memories together with those belonging to previous Lives having found the cause of Miss kayle’s trouble what can you do

To cure her very little said tavener I can only wait and watch her when the time is right for the settlement of the balance the other actors in The Old tragedy will come along and unconsciously claim the payment of their debt she will be given the opportunity

Of making restitution and going on her way fate free if she is unable to fulfill it then she will be taken out of life and rapidly forced back in it again for another attempt but I think since she has been brought to me her soul is to be given another chance of entering

Its body we will see often used to watch Mona kayy after she was installed at the hind head nurs in home in spite of its mask-like expressionless her face had character the clearly cut features firm mouth and fine Eyes Were A fitting Abode for a soul of No Ordinary

Caliber only that Soul was not present it was tavener’s expectation that other actors in the drama would appear upon the scene before long brought to the girl’s vicinity by those strange currents that are Forever on the Move beneath the surface of life as each new patient arrived at the nursing home I

Used to watch Mona narrowly wondering whether the newcomer would demand of her the payment of the ancient debt that held her bound spring passed Into Summer and nothing happened other cases distracted my attention and I had almost forgotten the girl and her problems when Taver reminded me of them

It’s time we begin to watch Miss Kaye he said I’ve been working out her horoscope and a conjunction of planets is taking place toward the end of the month which would provide an opportunity for the working out of her fate if we can get her to take it supposing she does not

Take it then she will not be long in going out for she will have failed to achieve the purpose of this Incarnation and supposing she takes f it then she will suffer but she will be free and she will soon rise again to the heights she had previously

Gained she is hardly likely to belong to a royal house in this life I said she was more than Royal she was an initiate replied Taver and from the way he said the word I knew he spoke for royalty that is not of this Earth our words were

Suddenly interrupted by a cry from one of the the upper rooms it was a shriek of utter Terror such as a soul might give that had looked into a chaos and seen forbidden Horrors it was the Cry of a child in Nightmare only and this added to its ghastliness it came from the

Throat of a man we rushed upstairs we had no need to ask whence that cry came there was only one case that could have uttered it a poor fellow suffering from Shell Shock whom we were keeping in bed for rest we found him standing in the

Middle of the floor shaking from head to foot at the side of us he rushed across and flung himself into tavener’s arms it was the pathetic action of a frightened child but carried out by the tall figure in Striped Pajamas it was extraordinarily distressing to witness

Taver soothed him as gently as a mother and got him back to bed sitting by him until he quieted down I do not think we will keep him in bed any longer said my colleague after we had left the room the inactivity is making him brood and he is

Living over again the scenes of The Trenches accordingly hon appeared among the patients next day for the first time since his arrival and seemed to benefit by the change the benefit was not of long duration however when Once the novelty had worn off he commenced his brooding again going over mentally the

Horrors he had lived through and ending each recall with an attack of panic Terror rushing to the nearest human being for protection it proved somewhat distressing to our other patients to have six feet of Burly Humanity hurled unexpectedly into their arms so we segregated Housen in the portion of the

Garden we kept for cases that we could not mix with the rest the only other occupant of this part of the garden was Mona KY but we hardly counted her for she sat Motionless in the deck chair we placed for her never stirring until she was fetched in to

Meals as I was walking one evening with tavener in that part of the grounds we heard the now familiar sound of poor Hon’s nightmare shriek he shot out of the summerh house and stood irresolutely on the lawn the only people in sight were ourselves and Mona passive in her

Chair he was about halfway between the two when a man’s nerve is broken he reverts either to the Savage or the child according to his temperament and for the time being hon was about four years old Taver hurried towards him over the intervening grass but when a man

Reverts to the child it is to the mother he turns and ignoring the approaching man hon ran across the lawn to Mona and buried his face in her lap the impact of the heavy man flung upon her with utter abandonment nearly sent the girl chairing all over backwards and startled

Even her dim brain into some measure of response I was about to run forward and extricate her from her embarrassing position when tavener caught my arm and stopped me no watch he said see what she does this may be the working out of her fate there was nothing offensive in

Hon’s behavior for he was so obviously a child and not a man he always used to remind me of a mastiff that has been nursed as a puppy and cannot realize when it has ceased to be a lap dog for several endless minutes we watched the

Dim brain trying to work and then a hand white and beautifully formed but limp as only the hands of the mentally Afflicted her limp was laid on the man’s heaing shoulder it was the first thought out action that Mona haly had ever performed I thought tavener would have danced upon

The lawn in his Delight look he said watch her mind trying to work I watched it was like nothing so much as Rusty Machinery being reluctantly turned over by hand the girl’s unlined forehead was contracted with effort as the thought currents forced their way through the unopened channels what dim mother instincts awoke

I do not know but she had evidently taken the big child at her feet under her protection in a few minutes hson recovered his self-control and made his embarrassed apologies to the victim of his Onslaught the fine dark eyes gazed steadily back into his without a trace of expression then realizing the State

Of Affairs he stopped his apologies in the middle of a sentence and stared back at her oh well he said as much to himself as her if you don’t mind I’m sure I’m thankful and sitting at her feet he lit a cigarette with shaking hands from that time onward the pair

Were inseparable during their waking hours to house the passive presence seemed to afford just the companionship he needed she gave him a sense of human protection and yet he did not feel that in her eyes he was making a fool of himself this curious comradeship between the Mindless

Girl and the alert intelligent man was a source of great Amusement to other inmates of the home and I myself was inclined to regard it as one of those strange friendships that sprang up between the most in congruous cases in such a house as ours until my colleague

Put his hand on my shoulder one evening as the two were crossing the lawn toward the house who is that with Mona he asked houseon of course I replied surprised at the obviousness of such a question so we call him now said tavener watching the pair closely but I think there was a

Time when he answered to the name Giovani Sigmund you mean I exclaimed exactly said tavener the wheel has come round full circle when he was dying by torture in the hands of those to whom she betrayed him he called for her in agony needless to say she did not come

Now that he is in agony again some strange law of mental habit carried the call for help along the old channels and she has answered it she has begun to repay her debt if all goes well we may see that Soul come right back into its

Body and it will not be a small soul that comes into the flesh if that happens I had thought that we were going to witness a romance of reunited lovers but I was soon made aware that it was more likely to be a tragedy at least for

One of them the next day House’s fiance arrived to visit him I took her out to the secluded part of the garden where he spent his time and there saw enacted a most pathetic little traged comedy as usual hson was at mono’s side smoking his interminable cigarettes at sight of his fiance he

Sprang to his feet Mona also Rose in the eyes of the newcomer there were fear and distrust perhaps occasioned by her unfamiliarity with mental cases which are always distressing at First Sight but in the eyes of our defective there was a look which I could can only

Describe as contempt there was one flash of the astute ruthlessness of the 15th century Italian and I guessed who the newcomer was hon forgetful of the other girls presence Advanced eagerly to meet his fiance and kissed her and I thought for a moment we were going to be treated

To one of those nasty outbursts of spitefulness of which defectives are capable when a sudden change came over Mona and I saw that marvelous thing a soul enter and take possession of its body intelligence slowly dawned in the misty eyes as she watched the scene being enacted before her for a moment

The issue hung in the balance would she Rush forward and tear them apart or would she stand aside behind the oblivious lovers I poised myself ready for a spring ready to catch her if necessary for ages we waited thus while the unpracticed brain moved reluctantly in its unaccustomed effort then the girl

Turned away slowly over the grass she moved silently unnoticed by the other two seeking the shelter of the shrubberies as a wounded animal seeks cover but her movements were no longer those of unguided Limbs she moved as a woman moves who hased walked before Kings but as a woman stricken to the

Heart I followed her as she passed under the trees and put my hand on her arm instinctively speaking words of comfort although I expected no response she turned on me dark eyes full of unshed tears and luminous with terrible knowledge it has to be she said distinctly perfectly the first words she

Had ever uttered then she with Drew her arm from my hand and went on alone during the days that followed we watched the soul swing in and out of the body sometimes we had the Mindless imbecile and sometimes we had one of those women who have made history save that her

Means of communication developed slowly she was often in full possession of her faculties and what faculties they were I had read of the wonderful women of the Renaissance now I saw one then sometimes when the pain of her position became too great to be born the soul would slip out

For a while and rest in some strange alesan fields we know not of leaving to us again the care of the Mindless body but each time it came back refreshed whom it had talked with what help had been given we never knew but each time it faced the agony of reincarnation and

Took up its burden with renewed courage and knowledge the dim newly awakened mind understood hawen through and through each Twist and Turn of him conscious and subconscious she could follow and of course she was the most perfect nurse he could have had the Panic stricken mind was never allowed to thrash about an

Outer darkness and the horror of death instinctively she sensed the approach of nightmare forms and putting out her hand pulled the wandering soul back into safety thus protected from the wear and tear of his terrible storms Hon’s mind began to heal day by day the time grew

Nearer when he would be fit to leave the nursing home and marry the woman he was engaged to and day by day by her instinctive skill and watchful care Mona quickened the approach of that time I have said that he would leave and marry the woman he was engaged to not the

Woman he loved for at that time had Mona KY chosen to lift one finger she could have brought the old memories into Consciousness and drawn hen to herself and that she was fully aware of this I who watched her am convinced an ignorant woman could not have steered round the

Pitfalls as skillfully as she did the night before he was to leave she had a bad relapse into her old condition hour after hour Taver and I sat beside her while she scarcely seemed to breathe so completely was the soul withdrawn from the body she has shut up in her own

Subconsciousness moving among the memories of the past Taver whispered to me as slight twitchings ran through the motionless form on the bed then a change took place ah s tavener she’s out now slowly the long white hand was raised the hand that I had watched changed from

A limp thing of disgust to firmness and strength and a sequence of knocks was given upon the wall of the bedside that would have skinned the knuckles of an ordinary hand she is claiming entrance to her Lodge whispered Taver she will give the word as soon as the knocks are

Acknowledged from somewhere up near the ceiling the sequence of knocks was repeated and then Taver placed his hand across the girl’s mouth through the guarding fingers came some muffled sound I could not make out she will get what she has gone to seek said tavener it is

A high degree to which she is claiming admission what transpired during the workings of that strange Lodge which meets out of the body I had no means of knowing I could see that Taver however with his telepathic faculties was able to follow the ritual for he joined in

The responses and salutes as The Uncanny ceremony Drew to its close we saw the soul that was known to us as Mona withdraw from the company of its Brethren and plain by plain return to normal Consciousness on her face was that look of Peace which I had never

Seen in the living and only on the faces of such of the dead as went straight out into the light she has gathered strength for her Oreal said tavener and it will indeed be an ordeal per house since fiance is fetching him in her car will

It be wise to let Miss Kayley be present I asked she must go through with it said Taver it is better to break than miss an opportunity he was a man who never spared his patience when there was question of Fate to be worked out he thought less of death than most people

Think of immigration in fact he seemed to regard it in exactly that light once you have had some memory glimpses however D of your own past you are certain of your future therefore you cease to fear life supposing I make a mess of an experiment today I clean up

The mess I go to bed sleep and then in the morning when I am rested I start again you do the same with your lives once you are sure of reincarnation it is only the man who does not realize as a personal fact the immortality of the Soul who talks of a

Ruined life and opportunities gone never to return Mona KY Taver and myself were on the doorstep to bid goodbye to houseon when his fiance called to take him away he thanked us both with evident feeling for what we had done for him but tavener waved a disclaiming hand toward the girl

At his elbow you have had nothing from me but bored and lodging he said there is your psychologist hson took Mona’s hand in both of his she stood absolutely passive but not with her usual limp inertia it was the motionlessness of extreme tension poor little Mona he said you’re a lot better

Than you used to be go on getting better and one of these days you may be a real girl and have a good time and he kissed her lightly as one would kiss a child what memories that kiss awakened I cannot say but I saw him change color

And look at her sharply had one glimmer of response lightened those dark eyes the old love would have returned but there was no change in the mask-like countenance of the woman who was paying her debt he shivered perhaps some cold breath from the torturous dungeon touched him he got into the car beside

The woman he was to marry and she drove away how will that marriage turn out I asked as the sounds of car died in the distance like a good many others where only the emotions are mated they will be in love for a year then will come disillusionment and after they have

Bumped through the crisis held together by the pressure of social opinion they will settle down to the mutual Toleration which passes for a successful marriage but when he comes to die he will remember this Mona and the call for her as he crosses the threshold she will

Claim him for they have made restitution and the way is clear end of chapter 4 section six of the secrets of Dr Taver by Dion Fortune This LibriVox recording is in the public domain chapter 5 the scented poppies Mr Gregory pson said Taver reading the card

That had been brought to him evidently a junior member of the firm Lincoln’s in is where they have their Abode so they are probably solicitors let us have a look at him a man’s work generally puts its mark on him and our visitor although a comparatively young man already showed

The stamp of the legal profession I want to consult you he began about a very curious matter I cannot call it a Cas it seems to me however that you are the only man who can deal with it and therefore although it may not be strictly in your line I

Should be exceedingly grateful to you if you would look into it tavender nodded his acquiescence and her visitor took up the burden of his story I dare say you have heard of old Benjamin Burmeister who made such an enormous Fortune during the war we that is my father’s firm are

His solicitors and also personal Friends of the family or to be exact his brother’s families for old Mr Burmeister is unmarried my sister and I have grown up the two sets of Burmeister cousins as if we were all one big household in fact my sister is at present engaged to one of

David burm boys an awfully nice chap my particular friend in fact we were very pleased about the engagement for the bur meisters are nice people although the other two brothers were not wealthy well to make a long story short after Edith and Tim had been engaged about 6 months

My people were a lot more pleased about the engagement but I can’t say that I am however for old Benjamin Burmeister made a new will leaving his money to Tim why should you regard this as a disadvantage because the people he has left his money to have an unfortunate

Knack of committing suicide indeed yes said our visitor it has happened upon no fewer than three occasions the will I have just completed in favor of Tim is his fourth Murray Tim’s eldest brother who was the last one Mr Burmeister had chosen to be his Heir jumped off a cliff

Near Brighton about a month ago you say that each time Mr Burmeister makes a will the principal beneficiary commits suicide said tavener can you tell me the conditions of the will they are rather unfair in my opinion said Gregory pson instead of dividing the money among his

Nephews and nieces who are none too well off he insists on leaving the bulk of it to one nephew his idea seems to be that he will found a kind of Dynasty he has already purchased the country seat and that he will make one Burmeister an influential man instead of making about

A dozen of them comfortable I see said tavner and as soon as the will is made principal beneficiary commits suicide that’s it said pson they’ve had three suicides in two years Tut Tut said Taver as many as that it certainly does not look like chance now who has benefited by these

Deaths only the next Heir who speedily commits suicide himself what determines your client in his choice of an heir he picks the nephew whom he thinks is most likely to do him credit he does not follow any rule of birth none whatever he chooses according to his estimate of

Their character picking the more forceful Natures first Tim is a much quieter more retiring kind of fellow than his cousins I was rather surprised to see old burmeister’s selection fall on him but there is not much choice now there are only three boys left after these ghastly tragedies then it is one

Of these three men who will ultimately benefit if another suicide takes place that is so but one can hardly conceive a criminal coldblooded enough to kill off an entire family on the off chance that the final Choice might fall upon himself what manner of men are these three remaining cousins

Henry is an engineer doing quite well and engaged to be married he will never set themes on fire but he’s a decent chap he is Tim’s younger brother Bob Tim’s cousin is a bit of a nearo well we have had to extricate him from a breach of promise and one or two other

Unpleasantness but I should say he was a good-hearted irresponsible lad His Own Worst Enemy the last of the family is Irving Bob’s brother a harmless enough chap but not fond of honest work Joseph burmeister’s boys never did as well as David’s they inclin to the artistic rather than the Practical and that type

Never makes money Joseph’s wife however had a fair amount and each of her children has about 150 a year of his own not affluence but it keeps them out of the workhouse Bob does odds and ends to supplement his means he is secretary of a golf club at present but Irving is the

Family genius and has set out to be an artist though I don’t think he has ever produced anything his sole occupation as far as I know is to write monthly art criticism for a paper that thinks publicity is sufficient payment heun not get very fat at that rate said tavener

How does he manage to exist on his 150 he lives in a single room studio and eats out of frying pan it’s not so unattractive as it sounds however he has an extraordinarily good taste and has got his little place quite Charming so these are the people who might possibly

Benefit under the will a steady-going engineer a good-natured scatterbrain and an artistic Bohemian there were originally seven possible beneficiaries providing old Benjamin adhered to his policy three are dead by their own hand one is at present under sentence of death what do you mean by that interrupted Taver quickly ah

Said pulson that is the thing that gave me a nasty turn and made me come to you the three men who are dead all committed suicide in the same way by flinging themselves from a height Tim was in my office yesterday our Chambers are at the top of the building a considerable

Height up he leaned out the window for quite a while and when I asked him what he was looking at he said I wonder what it would feel like to take a header onto the pavement I told him to come in and not play the fool but it gave me a nasty

Shock coming on top of the other suicides so I came to you why me asked Taver I’ve read something of occultism and something of psychology and heard how you work the two systems in combination said pson and it seemed to me that this was a case for you

There is more in this than you have told me said Taver what is it that you suspect I have no evidence whatever in fact it is the lack of evidence that has made me seek an explanation outside the normal why should these men perfectly healthy average individuals take their

Own lives for no reason whatsoever one cannot account for it on any of the accepted theories but if one admits the feasibility of thought transference and pretty nearly everybody does nowadays then it seems to me that it would be possible to give mental suggestion to these men to commit

Suicide it is not only possible said Taver but in less extreme forms this exercise of secret pressure is exceedingly common I could tell you some Curious stories in connection with the Great War in this line not all the men who were got at were reached through their pockets many were approached by

The channel of their subconscious minds but continue there is someone whom you are watching subconsciously if not consciously I have given you all the facts that could possibly be admitted as evidence I haven’t got a clue that would hang a cat but I suspect Irving on what

Grounds on none whatever chiefly on the principle of I do do not like you Dr fell give me your uniz impressions of him he’s not straight sir I have never once caught him out but I should never trust him then he is in with a set that

I don’t like the look of they play about with hashish and cocaine and each other’s wives they’re not wholesome I prefer Bob’s wild cat company promoters to Irving’s long-haired soulmates thirdly Irving is the last one old Benjamin would be likely to leave his money to I think he would leave it

To Irving before he left it outside of the family for he is terribly proud of the Burmeister name but he is not at all fond of the fellow they never got on together Benjamin is a rough downright old chap and Irving is a bit of an old

Maid fourthly if you knew Bob and Henry you would know that it was out of the question that they should do such a thing but Irving might when a man fools with drugs he may do anything besides he has read along the same lines as I have

In fact it was he who first put me on to them have you any reason to believe that Irving is a trained cultist he is interested in occultism but I should not imagine that he would ever train in anything he is nothing but a dabbler then he is not very likely to be

Able to perform a mental assassination thought transference require re Ires more effort than swinging a sledgehammer if you are ever offered your choice between being an occultist and a blacksmith choose the lighter job and enter the forge rather than the lodge well you suspect Irving as you say

There is no evidence to hang a cat but we will put him through the SI and see what he yields did he become very intimate with old Mr burmeister’s heirs after the wills became known no more so than usual they are a United Family and

Always saw a lot of each other the only thing that Irving ever did that was out of the ordinary was to decorate their rooms for them his wonderful taste and coloring but then he did that for a good many of us and designed the girls dresses too he’s an extraordinary chap

He makes a hobby of that sort of thing he knows all the out of the way shops where you can get weird brands of coffee and cigarettes and restaurants where you can get weird food it has always seemed to me the sort of thing for a woman rather than a man to

Be interested in ah said Taver he designed their rooms now that is a particularly intimate thing to do the man who designs the place you live can exercise a great influence over your life if he knows how to make use of his opportunities but before we go any

Further a field try and think if there was anything of any sort that the dead men had had in common and the living ones have not got any mode of Life possession peculiarity anything in fact that differentiated them pulson racked his brain for several minutes the only

Thing I can possibly think of he said at length is a particular kind of scent that Irving manages to get hold of and gives to his particular friends he makes a great mystery of it but then he loves making Mysteries about nothing in particular it makes him feel important

Come now said Taver we have struck a warm Trail at last the psychological effect of sense is very great what has our friend been playing at with his mysterious smells I don’t know said pson he probably gets it at the stores he had some wonderful tea once that was

Supposed to come direct from Lassa and we found a lion label around it he’s that sort of chap but what about the scent did he give it to each of the dead men and to none other he used to give it to his particular Pals as a special

Favor his great whe was to get those Big Poppy heads the chemist cell for making puses and paint them all sorts of futurist colors stuff them with popery and fix them on the end of strips of pliable cane they look very well in a vase like great gy flowers he gave me a

Bunch once but I wasn’t honored with the sacred perfume that he has in his own quarters but Percy one of the boys who is dead had some and he has given Tim a bunch I’m not sure whether they are scented or not then the best thing you

Can do is go around to your cousin get hold of those poppy heads and bring them to me to have a look at pson sullied forth on his mission and as the door closed behind him T her turned to me you see he said the advantage of institution

Pson had nothing whatever to go on but he instinctively distrusted Irving when he begins to suspect Foul Play he proceeds to countercheck his intuitions by observation which is a peculiarly effective method of work for you will see how the use of the institution is able to point out a profitable line of

Observation by means of the subtlest and most elusive of subjective Clues lead us to what promises to be solid ground we must see what evidence the poppy heads yield however before we begin to theorize there’s nothing so misleading as a preconceived opinion one is very

Apt to twist the facts to fit it we went on to other cases and had got to the end of our appointments when the butler informed us that Mr pulson had returned and would like to see us again he was ushered in bearing a long parcel in his

Hand his eyes bright with excitement Tim has been given the special scent he cried as soon as he was inside the door how did you manage to obtain possession of the poppy heads did you tell him why you wanted them I told him I wanted to

Show them to a friend there no use worrying him until we have something definite to go on or he might commit suicide by sheer Autos suggestion wise man said Taver you have read to some purpose pson unrolled his parcel and laid half a dozen gorgeous colored poppy heads on the desk they

Looked like wonderful tropical fruit and certainly formed an acceptable present Taver examined them one by one five of them yielded nothing to his probing save a shower of fine black seeds but the six exhaled a curiously heavy perfume and rattled when shaken this poppy head said

Taver is going to meet with an accident and he crashed a paper weight down on it out on the blot rolled three or four objects that looked like dried raisins and most curious of all fair-sized Moonstone at the sight of this we exclaimed as one man why should anyone

Place a gem worth several pounds in the inside of a poppy head where it was never likely to be seen Taver turned over the black objects with his pencil scented seeds of some sort he remarked and handed them to me smell them rhs I took them in my hand and sniffed them

Gingerly what do you make of them inquired my partner not bad I said they’re slightly irritating to the mucus membrane they make me feel as if I were going to sneeze only instead of the sneeze coming to anything irritation seems to run up into my head and cause a

Peculiar sensation as if a fraud of cold air was blowing on my forehead so they stir up the penal gland do they said Taver I think I can see some method in the gentleman’s Madness now take the moonstone in your other hand go on sniffing the seeds look at

The Moonstone and tell me the thoughts that come into your head just as if you were being psychoanalyzed I did as I was instructed I think of soapy water I began I think my hands would be improved by a wash I think of a necklace of my mother’s I

Think the stone would be very hard to find if I dropped it on the carpet it’d be harder still to find if I dropped it out of the window I wonder what it would be like to be thrown out of the window I wonder what it would feel like to be

Thrown from a height does one that will do said Taver and took the Moonstone away from me I looked up in surprised and saw that pulson had buried his face in his hands my God he said and I used to play with that boy I looked from one

To the other of my companions in Surprise what does it all mean I asked it means this said Taver someone has Hit Upon A singularly ingenious way of botling psychism a man who is incapable by reason of his lack of development of doing mental work on his own account has

Found a way of buying occultism by the ounce there must be a factory where they are turning out this precious product and where an unscrupulous scoundrel like Irving could go and buy two penworth and bring it away in a paper bag I had always understood that the occult

Work could only be done by men of unusual natural gifts who had devoted long years to their development and the idea of this taking your turn at the counter and buying the hidden powers like acid drops tickled my fancy it was only the expression on Pen’s face that

Prevented me from bursting out laughing but I saw what deadly possibilities were latent in the plan that tavener outlined so grotesquely there’s nothing original in the scheme said Taver it is simply the commercial application of certain natural laws that are known to occultists I’ve always told you that there is nothing Supernatural

About occult science it is merely a bunch of knowledge that has not been generally taken up and which has this peculiarity that its professors do not hasten to publish their results this exceedingly clever trick of the Moonstone and the scented seeds is simply an application of certain occult

Knowledge for the purpose of crime do you mean said pson that there’s some sort of mental poison inside that Poppy head I can understand that the smell of those seeds might affect the brain but what part does the Moonstone play the moonstone is tuned to a keynote and that

Keynote is suicide s Taver someone not Irving he hasn’t got the brains has made a very clear mental picture of committing suicide by flinging oneself from a height and has impressed that picture I won’t tell you how on the Moonstone so that anyone who is in close

Contact with it finds the same image rise into his mind just as a depressed person can infect others with depression without speaking one single word to them but how can an inanimate object be capable of feeling emotion I inquired it couldn’t said Tavern but is there such a thing as an

Inanimate object ult science teaches that there is not it is one of our maximums that mind is entranced in the mineral sleeps in the plant dreams in the animal and wakes in the man you have only to watch a sweet pea tendril reach out for a support to realize that the

Movements of plants are anything but purposeless and the work connected with fatigue of Metals is well known ask your Barber if his razors ever get tired and he will tell you that he rests them regularly because fatigue steel will not take a fine Edge granted I said but do

You mean to tell me that there is sufficient Consciousness in that bit of stone to be capable of taking an idea and transmitting it to someone’s subconscious mind I do said tavener a crystal is the highest develop ment in the mineral Kingdom and there is quite

Enough mind in that stone on the table to take on a certain amount of character if sufficiently strong influence be brought up to Bear upon it remember the history of the Hope Diamond and the various other well-known gems whose records are known to collectors it is this mental development of crystals

Which is taken advantage of in the making of talismans and amulet for which precious stones and next to them the precious medals have been used from time IM Memorial this moonstone is simply an amulet of evil Taver I said you don’t mean to tell me that you believe in

Charms certainly don’t you good Heavens no not in this enlightened age my dear boy if you find a belief universally held throughout all ages by races that have had no communication with each other then you may well be sure there is something in it then to put it crudely said pson who had

Hitherto stared at tavener in silence you believe that someone has taught this Moonstone how to give hypnotic suggestion crudely yes replied Taver just as Middle Sea struck on a piano will cause the sea string of another piano to vibrate in sympathy how does the Moonstone manage the hypnosis I

Inquired not without malice I’m afraid ah it has to have help with that said tavener that is where those scented seeds come in and more diabolically ingenious device it would be hard to find everybody is not psychic so some means had to be devised of inducing at least temporary sensitiveness in the

Stolid matter of fact Burmeister against whom this device was directed as even you admid roads there certain drugs that are capable of changing the condition and State of Consciousness alcohol for one chloroform for another in the East where they know a great deal more about these things

Than we do a careful study has been made of the drugs that will induce the change and they are acquainted with many substances which the British phopa knows nothing about there’s a considerable number of drugs which are capable of producing at least temporarily a state of Clairvoyance those black seeds are among

The number I don’t know what they are they are unfamiliar to me but I shall try and find out as they cannot be common and we may then be able to trace their origin and get this devil’s workshop shut down then said pson you think someone

Has imprinted an idea on the sole of that Moonstone so that anyone who was sensitive would be influenced by it and then added the seeds to his fish puery so as to drug an ordinary person into abnormal sensitiveness and make him susceptible to the influences of the Moonstone exactly and some devil manufactures

These things and then sells them to dangerous fools like Irving that is my opinion then he ought to be hanged I disagree with you you would let such a coldblooded brute Ro go unpunished no I would not but I would make the punishment fit the crime occult

Offenses are always dealt with by Ault means there are more ways of killing a cat than drowning it in cream it has not taken you long to dispose of that case I remarked to Taver as pollon withdrew profuse in his thanks if you think that is the end said my colleague you are

Very much mistaken Irving will certainly have another try and equally certainly I shall not let the matter rest but you will only get abused if you go to the police station I told him if you think that 12 British grocers in a jury box would hang Irving you are very much

Mistaken they would probably ask the court missionary to visit you and see if he couldn’t get your family to do something for you I know all that said tavener it is quite useless to go to law in a case of ult attack but there is such a thing as the psychic police you

Know the members of all regularly organized lodges are bound by their oath either to take up themselves or report to their fraternity any case of mental malpractice that comes within their knowledge and we have our own way of doing Justice do you intend to give Irving a dose of counter

Suggestion no I won’t do that we are not absolutely certain that he is guilty though it looks suspiciously like it I shall deal with him by another method which if he is innocent will leave him scatheless and if he is guilty will be singularly appropriate to his crime the

First thing however is to get in touch with our man without rousing his suspicions how would you go to work rhs get pulson to introduce me I said pulson and Irving are not on any too good terms morever I have The Misfortune to have a certain amount of Fame and Irving will

Smell a rat the minute I appear in the case try again I hazarded several suggestions from giving him a commission to paint poppy heads to falling in a fit at his feet as he issued from his studio all of these Taver vetoed as leaving too much to chance and likely to Rouse his

Suspicions and prevent the possibility of a second attempt to Corner him if the first failed you must work along the lines of his interests and then he will fall into your hand like a right paay what is the use of reading psychology if you never use it I will bet you that

Before a week is out I shall have Irving begging me as an enormous favor to execute Justice on him how do you propose to go to work I asked Taver rolled the seeds over thoughtfully with the pencil these things cannot be too common I will find out first what they are and

Where he got them come along with me to Bond Street there’s a man in a perfumer there who will probably be able to tell me what I want to know we were not too long in arriving at our destination and then I saw that curious little byplay that I had often witnessed

When tavener was in need of assistance a man in a dirty white laboratory coat who obviously did not know Taver from Adam was summoned from the back of the shop my companion made a sign with his left hand that would have passed unobserved if one had not known what to look for

And immediately the attitude of our new acquaintance changed we were LED behind the counter to a room that was half laboratory half store room and there amid a litter of chemical appliances gudy wrappers hampers of herbs smelling up to High Heavens and the remains of a meal the mysterious seeds were spread

Out for investigation it is one of the dip turs said the man in the white coat the same family as the tonin bean dter sertin is its name it is sometimes used for adulterating the true tonquin Bean when imported in powder form of course a small amount cannot be detected by any

Chemical tests but you would not care to have a sachche of it among your handkerchiefs it would give you a form of hay fever and affect your eyesight is it imported into this country much never save as an adulterant and then only in powder form it has no commercial value

You could not buy it here if you tried in fact you could not buy it in Madagascar where it comes from because no scent Merchant would own to having it on his premises you would have to collect it yourself from the wild vines what trade paper do you scent

Makers AFF we have not got one of our own but you could get the scent trade through the drug journals Taver thanked him for his information and we returned to Harley Street where Taver busied himself and drawing up an advertisement to the effect that a Mr Trotter had a

Parcel of TX irritans to dispose of and solicited offers about a week later we received via the journal office a letter to say that a Mr Minsky of Chelsea was prepared to do business with us if we would furnish him with the sample and state our lowest price Taver chuckled

When he received this epistle the fish bites roads he said we will proceed to call upon Mr Minsky forth with I nodded my acquiescence and reached for my hat not in these closed roads said my colleague Mr would put up the shutters if he saw a top hat approaching let me

See what I can find in my vanity bag his vanity bag was the name by which tavener designated an old suitcase that held certain disreputable garments that served him as disguised when he did not wish to obtrude his Harley Street personality upon an unappreciative World

In a few minutes I was denuded of my usual penopoly and was invested in a brown suit pseudo smart cut black boots that had once been Brown and a trilby hat completed my discomfort and Taver resplendant in a greenish frog coat and a moth eaten Top Hat informed me that if

It were not for my Ruby tie pin which came out of a cracker he would not altogether care to be seen out with me we took a bus to Victoria Station and then via the King’s Road to our destination in an obscure side street Mr Minsky’s shop proved to be something of

A surprise we had thought to interview a man of the old CL dealer type but we found the shop we sought had some pretensions a collection of rusin pottery and futurist draperies graced the window Studio made jewelry of the semi-precious persuasion hung in a case by the door

And Mr Minsky in a brown velvet coat and tie like a miniature sash made Taver look as if he’d called for the washing my colleague placed a forefinger carefully begrimed at the Consulting room grate upon the velvetine coat of the owner of the shop you are the

Gentleman who wants to buy the tonin beans he inquired I don’t want any tonin beans my good man said that worthy impatiently I understood your advertisement to say that you had a parcel of dip turx irtin to dispose of The tonin Bean belongs to a different

Genice dipur AA I can get that anywhere but if you were able to obtain theen Bean for me we may be able to do business tavner closed one eye in a revolting wink you know what you’re talking about young fellow he informed the velvetine individual now you buying

These beans for yourself for on kamish what has that got to do with you demanded Mr Minsky hly oh nothing said Taver looking more Rag and bony than ever only I prefer to do business with principles and I always give 10% for an introduction Minsky opened his eyes at

This and I saw that what tavener had guessed was probably true Minsky was buying on behalf of someone else who might or might not be Irving I also saw that he would not be above accepting a commission from both parties to the transaction he had evidently been bidden

To conceal the identity of his client however and was wondering how far he dared exceed his instructions finally he said since you refuse to deal with me I will communicate with my customer and see whether he is prepared to buy from you direct come back on Wednesday at the

Same time and I will let you know we returned to civilization and put off the garments of our humiliation until the appointed time came round when dressed once more in the uniform of the shabby Chinle we returned to the shop of Mr Minsky as we entered

We saw a man Seated on a kind of Divan in the corner smoking a scented cigarette he was I should say 31 or 2 years of age salow and unho of complexion with the pupils of his eyes unnaturally dilated the way in which which he lay back among the cushions

Showed that his Vitality was low and the slight Tremor of the nicotine stained fingers pointed to the cause tavener even in his shabby garments was an imposing figure and the man on the Divan stared at him in astonishment you wish to purchase the irtin variety of The tonin Bean said my

Companion the man nodded without removing the cigarette from his lips continuing to St at tavener who was adopting quite a different tone towards him from that which he had used toward Minsky the raton’s bean is not generally used in Commerce Taver went on May inquire for what purpose you require it

That is no concern of yours replied the man with the cigarette I ask your pardon said tavener but this Bean possesses certain properties not generally known outside the East where it is rated at its true value and I wondered where whether you wish to Avail yourself to

These properties for some of the beings which I hold were prepared with that end in view I should very much like to the unnaturally Bright Eyes became even brighter with the speaker’s eagerness are you by chance one of us tavner dropped his voice in a conspirator whisper the bright eyes glowed like

Lamps I exceedingly interested in these matters there are subjects worthy of Interest said tavener but this is a child’s way of development and he carelessly opened his hand showing the black seeds which had come from the poppy which served him as his pretended sample the cigarette came out of the

Languid mouth now do you mean that you know something about Kundalini the sacred serpent fire s tavener of course I’m acquainted with its properties but I do not make use of it personally I regard its action is too drastic it is apt to unhinge the mind

That is not prepared for it I always use the ritual method myself do you are undertake the training of students cried our new acquaintance nearly beside himself with eagerness I do occasionally if I find a suitable type said tavener absentmindedly playing catch with the black seeds I’m exceedingly interested

In this matter said the man on the Divan would you consider me a suitable type I certain that I am psychic I often see the most peculiar things tavener considered him for a long moment while he hung upon the verdict it would be a small matter to put you in possession of

Astral Vision our new acquaintance sprang to his feet come round to my studio he cried we can talk things over quietly there you have I presume a fee I’m not a rich man but the laborer is worthy of his hire and I would be quite willing to enumerate you for your

Trouble my fee is 5 guine said tavener with an expression worthy of urah Heap the man with the scented cigarette gave a little gasp of relief I’m sure that if tavener had added on a not he would have paid it we adjourned his Studio a large well-lit room decorated with the most

Bizarre mixture of colors a couch which probably served as a bed by Night stood at an angle in front of the fireplace from the far corner of the room issued that Indescribable odor which cannot be avoided where food is stored a blend of bacon rind and coffee floated toward us

And the drip of some hidden tap proclaimed our host’s washing accommodation tavener bade him lie down on the couch and producing a packet of dark powder from his pocket shook some grains into a brass incense burner which stood on the mantle piece the heavy fumes drifted across the studio overwhelming the domestic odors

From the corner and made me think of Jos houses and the strange rituals That propitiated Hideous Gods except for the incense tavener was proceeding as an ordinary hypnotic treatment a process with which my medical experience had rendered me familiar and I watched the man on the couch pass rapidly into a

State of Deep hypnos nois and then into a relaxed condition with almost complete cessation of the vital functions a level to which very few hypnotists either can or Dare reduce the subject then tavener set to work upon one of the great centers of the body where a network of nerves

Converge what his method was I could not clearly see for his back was toward me but it did not take many minutes and then with the series of Swift hypnotic passes he drew his victim back to normal Consciousness half days the man sat up on the couch blinking stupidly at the

Light the whole process had occupied some 20 minutes and he showed pretty plainly that he did not consider he had his money’s worth counting out the notes to tavener without any too good a Grace Taver however showed no disposition to go lingering in to talk and as noticed

Watching his man closely the ladder seemed fidgety and as we made no move he finally said excuse me I believe there’s someone at the door and crossing the studio quickly opened it and looked outside nothing but an empty passage rewarded his gaze he returned and renewed his conversation with Taver but

With divided attention from time to time glancing over his shoulder uneasily then suddenly interrupting my colleague in the middle of a sentence he said I’m certain there is someone in the room I have a most peculiar feeling as if I were being watched and he whipped aside a heavy curtain that hung across

An alove but there is nothing but brooms and brushes behind it across he went to the other corner and opened a cupboard then looked under the bed and proceeded to a systematic search of the whole studio looking into hiding places that could barely have concealed a child

Finally he returned to us whose presence he seemed to have forgotten so absorbed was he in his search it is most peculiar he said but I can’t get away from the feeling that I’m being watched as if some evil presence were lurking in the room waiting for my back to be turned

Suddenly he looked upward what are those extraordinary balls of light moving about the ceiling he exclaimed Taver plucked me by the sleeve come along he said said it’s time for us to be going Irving’s Little Friends won’t be pleasant company we left him stock still in the center of the room following with

His eyes the invisible object that was slowly working its way down the wall what would happen when it reached the floor I did not inquire out in the street I heaved a sigh of relief there was something about that studio which was directly unpleasant what in the world have you

Done to the man I asked my companion what I agreed to do give him Clairvoyance replied Taver how is that going to punish him for the atrocities he has committed we don’t know that he has committed any atrocities said Taver blandly then what are you driving at

Just this when a man gets the sight one of the first things he sees is his naked soul and if that man was the one we think he is it will probably be the last for the soul that perpetrated ated those coldblooded murders will not bear

Looking at if on the other hand he is just an ordinary individual neither strikingly good nor bad then he will be the Richer for an interesting experience suddenly from somewhere over our heads a blood curdling yell rang out into the Gathering dusk it had the quality of Terror which infects with

Panic all those who hear it for the passer buers as well as ourselves stopped dead at the sound a door slammed somewhere in the great echoing building we had just vacated and then running footsteps passed rapidly down the road in the direction of the river good Lord

I said he will go over the embankment and was startled into Pursuit when tavner laid a restraining hand on my arm that is his affair not ours he said and anyway I doubt he will face death when it comes to the point death can be singularly nasty you know he was right

For the running footsteps returned down the street and the man we had just left past us flying blindly toward the flaring lights and human herd of the Roaring Fulham Road what is it he saw I demanded of tavener cold shivers chasing each other down my spine I am not easily

Scared by anything I can see but I frankly admit I fear the thing I cannot he has met the guardian of the threshold said tavener and his mouth snapped shut but I had no wish to press the inquiry further I had seen Irving’s face as he

Passed us and it told me all I needed to know of the nature of that strange dweller in outer Darkness Taver paused to push the W of notes in his hand into the collecting box of the cancer hospital Rose he said would you prefer to die and be done with

It or to spend all your life in fear of death I would sooner die 10 times over I replied so would I said tavner a life sentence is worse than a death sentence end of chapter 5 Section seven of the secrets of Dr Taver by Deon Fortune This LibriVox

Recording is in the public domain chapter 6 The death Hound well said my patient when I had finished stethoscop him have I got to go softly all the days of my life your heart is not all it might be I replied but with care it

Ought to last as long as you want it you must avoid all undue exertion however the man made a curious Grimace supposing exertion seeks me out he asked you must so regulate your life as to reduce the possibility to a minimum tavener’s voice came from the other side

Of the room if you finished with his body roads I’ll make a start on his mind I have a notion said our patient that the two are rather intimately connected you say I must keep my body quiet he looked at me but what am I to do if my

Mind deliberately gives it shocks and he turned to my colleague that’s where I come in said Taver my friend has told you what to do now I will show you you how to do it come and tell me your symptoms delusions said the stranger as he buttoned his shirt a black dog of

Ferocious aspect who pops out of dark corners and Shives me or tries to I haven’t done the honor to run away from him yet I Daren my heart’s too Dicky but one of these days I’m afraid I may and then I shall probably drop dead Taver

Raised his eyes to me in a silent question question I nodded it quite a likely thing to happen if the man ran far or fast what sort of a beast is your dog inquired my colleague no particular breed at all just plain dog with four

Legs and a tail about the size of a mastiff but not of the Mastiff build how does he make his appearance difficult to say he does not seem to follow any fixed rule but usually after dusk if I’m out after sun down I may look over my shoulder and see

Him padding along behind me or if I’m sitting in my room between daylight fading and lamp lighting I may see him crouching behind the furniture watching his opportunity his opportunity for what to Spring at my throat why does he not take you unawares this is what I cannot make out

He seems to miss so many chances for he always waits to attack until I’m aware of his presence what does he do then as soon as I turn and face him he begins to close in on me if I am out walking he quickens his pace so to overtake me and

If I’m indoors he sets to work to stalk me around the furniture I tell you he may only be a product of my imagination but he is an uncanny sight to watch the speaker paused and wiped away the sweat that had gathered on his forehead during this

Recital such a haunting is not a pleasant form of obsession for any man to be of conflicted with but for one with a heart like our patience it was peculiarly dangerous what defense do you offer to this creature asked havner I keep on saying to it you’re not real you know

You’re only a beastly Nightmare and I’m not going to let myself be taken in by you as good a defense as any said tavener but I noticed you talk to it as if it were real by J so I do said our visitor thoughtfully that is something

New never used to do that I took it for granted the Beast wasn’t real was only a phantom of my own brain but recently a doubt has begun to creep in supposing the thing is real after all supposing it really has the power to attack me I have

An underlying suspicion that my Hound may not be altogether harmless after all he will certainly be exceedingly dangerous to you if you lose your nerve and run away from him so long as you to keep your head I do not think he will do you any harm precisely but there is a

Point Beyond which one may not keep one’s head supposing night after night just as you were going off to sleep you wake up knowing the creature is in the room you see a snout coming around the corner of the curtain and you pull yourself together and get rid of him and

Settle down again then just as you are getting drowsy you take a last look around to make sure that all is safe and you see something dark moving between you and the dying glow of the fire you Daren go to sleep and you can’t keep awake you may know perfectly well that

It’s all imagination but that sort of thing wears you down if it’s kept up night after night you get it regularly every night pretty nearly its habits are not absolutely regular however except now you come to mention it it always gives me Friday night off if it weren’t

For that I should have gone under long ago when Friday comes I say to it now you brute this is your beastly Sabbath and go to bed at 8 and sleep the clock round if you care to come down to my nursing home at hind head we can

Probably keep the creature out of your room and ensure you a decent night’s sleep said Taver but what we really want to know is he paused almost imperceptibly why your imagination should haunt you with dogs and not shall we say with Scarlet snakes in the time

Honored fashion I wish it would said our patient if it was snakes I could put more water with it and drown them but this slinking black beast he Shrugged his shoulders and followed the butler out of the room well rhs what do you make of it asked my colleague after the

Door closed on the face of it I said it looks like an ordinary example of delusions but I have seen enough of your queer cases not to limit myself to the internal mechanism of Mind alone do you consider it possible that we have another case of thought transference you’re coming along said

Taver nodding his head at me approvingly when you first joined me you would unhesitatingly have recommended bromide for all the ills the mind is aired to now you recognize that there are more things in Heaven and Earth than were taught you in the medical schools see do

You think we have a case of thought transference I’m inclined to think so too when a patient tells you his delusions he stands up for them and often explains to you that they are psychic phenomena but when a patient recounts psychic phenomena he generally apologizes for them and explains that they are

Delusions but why doesn’t the creature attack and be done with it and why does it take a regular half holiday as if it were under the shop hours Act Friday Friday he remated what is there peculiar about Friday he suddenly slapped his hand down on the desk Friday

Is the day the black lodges meet we must be on their Trail again they will get to know me before we have finished someone who got his occult training in a Black Lodge is responsible for that ghost Hound the reason that Martin gets to sleep in peace on Friday night is that

His wouldbe murderer sits in Lodge that evening and cannot attend to his Private Affairs is a would be murderer I questioned precisely anyone who sends a haunting like that to a man with a heart like Martin’s knows that it means his death sooner or later supposing Martin

Got into a panic and took to his heels when he found the dog behind him in a lonely place he might last for half a mile I said but I doubt if he would get any further this is a clear case of mental assassination someone who is a

Trained occultist has created a thought form of a black hound and he’s sufficiently in touch with Martin to be able to convey it to his mind by means of thought transference and Martin sees or thinks he sees the image that the other man is visualizing the actual thought form

Itself is harmless except for the fear it inspires but should Martin lose his head and resort to vigorous physical means of Defense the effort would would precipitate a heart attack and he would drop dead without the slightest evidence to show who caused his death one of these days we will raid those black

Lodges roads they know too much ring up Martin at the hotel Cecil and tell him we will drive him back with us tonight how do you propose to handle the case I asked the house is covered by a psychic Bell jar so the thing can’t get at him

While he is under its protection we will then find out who is the Cent and see if we can deal with him and stop it once and for all it is no good disintegrating the creature its Master would only manufacture another it is The Man Behind the dog that we must get at

We shall have to be careful however not to let Martin think we suspect he is in any danger or he will lose his one defense against the creature a belief and its unreality that adds to our difficulties because we Daren question him too much lest we Rouse his

Suspicions we shall have to get the facts of the case obliquely on the drive down to hind head tavener did a thing I had never heard him do before talk to a patient about his occult theories sometimes at the conclusion of a case he would explain the laws

Underlying the phenomena in order to rid the unknown of its Terrors and enable his patient to cope with them but at the outset Never I listened in astonishment and then I saw what tavener was fishing for he wanted to find out whether Martin had any knowledge of occultism himself

And used his own interest to waken the others if he had one my colleague’s diplomacy bore instant fruit Martin was also interested in these subjects though his actual knowledge was nil even I could see that I wish you in Mortimer could meet he said he is an awfully

Interesting chap we used to sit up half the night talking of these things at one time I should be delighted to meet your friend said tavener do you think he could be persuaded to run down one Sunday and see us I am always on the lookout for anyone I can learn something

From I I’m afraid I cannot get a hold of him now said our companion and lapsed into a preoccupied Silence from which tavener’s conversational efforts failed to Rouse him we had evidently struck some painful subject and I saw my colleague leue make a mental note of the

Fact as soon as we got in Taver went straight to his study opened the safe and took out a card index file mafio montue Mortimer he muttered as he turned the cards over Anthony William Mortimer initiated into the order of the cow Brethren October 1912 took office as armed guard May

1915 arrested on suspicion of espion n March 1916 prosecuted for exerting undue influence in the making of his mother’s will everybody seems to go for him and no one seems to be able to catch him became Grandmaster of the lodge of set the Destroyer KNX 2 3 2 password Jackal

So much for Mr morer a good man to steer clear of I should imagine now I wonder what Martin has done to upset him as we dared not question Martin we observed him and I very soon noticed that he watched the incoming posts with the greatest anxiety he was always

Hanging about the hall when they arrived and seized his scanty mail with eagerness only to lapse immediately into despondency whatever letter it was that he was looking for never came he did not express any surprise at this however and I concluded that he was rather hoping against against hope than expecting

Something that might happen then one day he could stand it no longer and as for the 20th time I unlocked the mailbag and informed him that there was nothing for him he blurted out do you believe that absence makes the heart grow fonder Dr rhs it depends on the nature I said but

I have usually observed if you have fallen out with someone you are more ready to overlook his shortcomings when you have been away from him for some time but if you’re fond of someone he continued half anxiously half shamefacedly it is my belief that love

Cools if it is not fed I said the human mind has great powers of adaptation and one gets used sooner or later to being without one’s nearest and dearest I think so too said Martin and I saw him go off to seek consolation from his pipe in a lonely

Corner so there is a woman in the cave face said Taver when I reported the incident I should rather like to have a look at her I think I shall set up as rival to morer if he sends Black Thought forms let me see what I can do with the

White one I guess that tavener meant to make use of the method of Silent suggestion of which he was a past Master apparently tavener’s magic was not long in working for a couple of days later I handed Martin a letter which caused his face to light up with pleasure and sent

Him off to his room to read it in private half an hour later he came in the office and said Dr rhs would it be convenient if I had a couple of guests to lunch tomorrow I assured him this would be the case and noted the change

Rough in his appearance by the arrival of the long wished for letter he would have faced a pack of black dogs at that moment next day I caught sight of Mart showing two ladies around the grounds and when they came into the dining room he introduced them as Mrs and Miss holl

There seemed to be something wrong with the girl I thought she was so curiously distraught and absent minded Martin however was in seventh heaven the man’s transparent pleasure was almost amusing to witness I was watching this little comedy with a covert smile when suddenly it changed to a tragedy as the girl

Stripped her gloves off she revealed a ring upon the third finger her left hand it was undoubtedly an engagement ring I raised my eyes to Martin’s face and saw that his were fixed upon it in the space of a few seconds the man crumbled the happy little luncheon party was over he

Strove to play his part as host but the effort was pitiful to watch and I was thankful when the close of the meal permitted me to withdraw I was not allowed to escape however taner caught my arm as I was leaving the room and Drew me out onto

The Terrace come along he said said I want to make friends with the hlem family they may be able to throw some light on our problem we found that Martin had paired off with the mother so we had no difficulty in Strolling around the garden with the girl between us she

Seemed to welcome the arrangement and we had not been together many minutes before the reason was made evident Dr tavener she said may I talk to you about myself I shall be delighted Mrs hlem he replied what is it you want to ask me about I’m very very puzzled about

Something is it possible to be in love with a person you don’t like quite possible said Taver but not likely to be very satisfactory I’m engaged to a man she said sliding her engagement ring on and off her finger whom I am madly desperately in love with when he’s not

There and as soon as he is present I feel a sense of horror and repulsion for him when I’m away I long to be with him and when I am with him I feel as if everything were wrong and horrible I cannot make myself clear but do you

Grasp what I mean how did you come to get engaged to him asked Havener in the ordinary way I’ve known him nearly as long as I have Billy indicating Martin who’s just ahead of us walking with the mother no undue influence was used said tavener no I don’t think so he just

Asked me to marry him and I said I would how long before that had you known that you would have accepted him if he proposed to you I don’t know I hadn’t thought of it in fact the engagement was as much surprise to me as to everyone

Else I had never thought of him in that way until about 3 weeks ago and then suddenly realized he was the man I wanted to marry it was sudden impulse but so strong and clear that I knew it was the thing for me to do and you do

Not regret it I did not regret it till today but as I’m sitting in the dining room I suddenly felt how thankful I should be if I had not got to go back to towy Taver looked at me the psychic isolation of this house has its uses he

Said then he turned to the girl again you don’t suppose that it was Mr mortimer’s forceful personality that influenced your decision I was secretly amused at tavener’s shot in the dark and the way the girl walked blissfully into his trap oh no she said I often get

Those impulses it was on just such a one that I came down here then said tavener it may well be on just such another that you got engaged to Mortimer so I may as well tell you that it was I who was responsible for that impulse the girl

Stared at him in amazement as soon as I knew of your existence I wanted to see you there’s a soul over there that is in my Care at present and I think you play a part in his welfare I know I do said the girl gazing at the broad shoulders

Of the unconscious Martin with so much wistfulness and yearning that she clearly betrayed where her real feelings lay some people send telegrams when they wish to communicate but I don’t I send thoughts because I am certain they will be obeyed a person may disregard a telegram but he will act on a thought

Because he believes it to be his own though of course it is necessary that he should not suspect he’s receiving suggestion or he would probably turn around and do the exact opposite Miss hallem stared at him in astonishment is such a thing possible she exclaimed I can hardly believe it

You see that face of scarlet geraniums to the left of the path I will make your mother turn aside and pick one now watch we both gazed at the unconscious woman as Taver concentrated his attention upon her and sure enough as they drew breast of the vase she turned aside and picked

A Scarlet Blossom what are you doing to our geraniums Taver called to her I am so sorry she called back I’m afraid I yielded a sudden impulse all thoughts are not generated within the mind that thinks them said Taver we are constantly giving each other unconscious suggestion and

Influencing Minds without knowing it and if a man who understands the power of thought deliberately trains his mind to use it there are a few things he cannot do we had regained the Terrace in the course of our walk and tavener took his Farewell and retired to the office I

Followed him and found him with a safe open and his card index upon the table well rhs what do you make of it all he greeted me Martin and Mortimer are after the same girl said I and Mortimer uses his private ends for the same methods you use on your

Patience precisely said Taver an excellent object lesson in in the way of black and white occultism we both study the human mind we both study the hidden forces of nature I use my knowledge for healing and Mortimer uses his for Destruction tavener I said facing him

What is to prevent you also from using your great knowledge for personal ends several things my friend he replied in the first place those who are taught as I am taught are though I say it who shouldn’t picked men carefully tested secondly I am a member of an organization which would assuredly

Exact retribution for the abuse of its training and thirdly knowing what I do I dare not abuse the powers that have been entrusted to me there is no such thing as a straight line in the universe everything works and curves therefore it is only a matter of time before that

Which you send out from your mind returns to it sooner or later Martin’s dog will come home to its Master Martin was absent from the evening meal and Taver immediately inquired his whereabouts he walked over with his friends to the crossroads to put them on the bus for hazel Meir someone

Volunteered and tavener who did not seem too well satisfied looked at his watch it will be light for a couple of hours yet he said if he is not in by dusk rhs let me know it was a gray evening threatening storm and darkness set in early soon after

Eight I sought Taver in his study and said Martin isn’t in yet doctor then we’d better go and look for him said my colleague we went out by the window to avoid observation on the part of our other patients and making our way through the shies were soon out upon the

Moore I wish I knew which way he would come said Taver there is a profusion of past to choose from we’d better get on to High ground and watch for him with their field glasses we made our way to a bluff topped with wind torn Scotch Furs

And Taver swept the Heather paths with his binoculars a mile away he picked out a figure moving in our Direction but it was too far off for identification probably Martin said my companion but we can’t be sure yet we better stop up here and wait events if

We drop down into the hollow we shall lose sight of him you you take the glasses your eyes are better than mine how infernally early it is getting dark tonight we ought to have had another half hour of daylight the cold winds had sprung up making a shiver in our thin

Clothes for we were both in evening dress and hatless heavy gray clouds were banking up in the west and the trees moaned uneasily the man out on the Moore was moving at a good Pace looking neither to right nor left except for a solitary figure the great

Gray waste was empty all of a sudden The Swinging stride was interrupted he looked over his shoulder paused and then quickened his Pace then he looked over his shoulder again and broke into a half Trot after a few yards of this he dropped to a walk again and held

Steadily on his way refusing to turn his head I handed the glasses to Taver it’s Martin right enough he said and he has seen the dog we could make out now the path he was following and descending from the hill set out at a rapid Pace to

Meet him we had gone about a quarter of a mile when a sound arose in the darkness ahead of us the piercing inarticulate shriek of a creature being hunted to death tavener let out such a Halo as I did not think human lungs were capable of we tore along the path to the

Crest of arise and as we raced down the opposite slope we made out a figure struggling across the Heather our white shirt fronts showed up plainly in the Gathering Dusk and he headed towards us it was Martin running for his life from the death Hound I rapidly out distan

Taver and caught the hunted man in my arms as we literally Canyon into each other in the Narrow Path I could feel the pled out heart knocking like a badly running engine against his side I laid him flat on the ground and tavener coming up with his pocket medicine case

We did what we could we were only just in time a few more yards and the man would have dropped as I straightened my back and looked around into the darkness I thanked God that I had not that horrible power of vision which would have enabled me to see what it was that

Had slunk off over the Heather at our approach that something went I had no doubt for half a dozen sheep Jeep grazing a few hundred yards away scattered to give it passage we got Martin back to the house and sat up with him it was touch and go with that

Ill-used heart and we had to drug the racked nerves into Oblivion shortly after midnight Taver went to the window and looked out come here roads he said do you see anything I declared I did not it’ be a very good thing for you if you did declared Taver you are much too fond

Of Trea the thought forms that a sick mind breeds as if because they have no objective existence they were innocuous now come along and see things from the Viewpoint of the patient he commenced to beat a tattoo upon my forehead using a peculiar syncopated rhythm in a few

Moments I became conscious of a feeling as if a suppressed sneeze were working its way from my nose up into my skull then I noticed a faint Luminosity appear in the darkness without and I saw that a grayish white film extend outside the window beyond that I saw the death Hound

A shadowy form gathered itself out in the darkness took a run toward the window and leapt up only to drive its head against the gray film and fall back again it gathered itself together and again it leapt only to fall back baffled a soundless Bing seemed to come from its

Open jaws and the eyes gleamed a light that was not of this world it was not the green Luminosity of an animal but a purplish gray reflected from some cold Planet beyond the range of our senses that is what Martin sees nightly s tavner only in his case the thing is

Actually in the room shall I open a away through the psychic Bell jar it is hitting its nose against and let it in I shook my head and turned away from that nightmare Vision Taver passed his hand rapidly across my forehead with the peculiar snatching movement you are

Spared a good deal he said but never forget that the delusions of a lunatic are just as real to him as that Hound was to you we were working in the office next afternoon when I was summoned to interview a lady who was waiting in the

Hall it was Miss hallem and I wondered what had brought her back so quickly the butler tells me that Mr Martin is ill and I cannot see him but I wonder if Dr tavener could spare me a few minutes I took her back into the office where my

Colleague expressed no surprise at her appearance say you’ve sent back the ring he observed yes she said how do you know what magic are you working this time no magic My Dear Miss ham only Common Sense something has frightened you people are not often frightened to any great extent

Extent in ordinary civilized society so I concluded that something extraordinary must have happened I know you to be connected with the dangerous man so I look in his Direction what are you likely to have done that could have roused his enemity you have been down here away from his

Influence and in the company of a man you used to care for possibly you have undergone a revulsion of feeling I want to find out so I express my guess as a statement you you thinking I know everything make no attempt at denial and therefore furnish me with the

Information I want but Dr tavener said the bewildered girl why do you trouble to do all this when I would have answered your question if you had asked me because I want you to see for yourself the way in which it is possible to handle an unsuspecting person said he

Now tell me what brought you here when I got back last night I knew I could not marry Tommy morm she said and in the morning I wrote to him and told him so he came straight around to the house and asked to see me I refused for I knew

That if I saw him I should be right back in his power again he then sent up a message to say that he would not leave until he had spoken to me and I got in a panic I was afraid he would force his way upstairs so I slipped out of the

Back door and took the train down here for somehow I felt that you would understand what was being done to me me and would be able to help of course I know that he cannot put a pistol to my head and force me to marry him but he

Has so much influence over me that I’m afraid he may make me do it in spite of myself I think said Taver that we shall have to deal drastically with Master Anthony Mortimer tavener took her upstairs and allowed her and Martin to look at each other for exactly one minute without

Speaking and then handed her over to the care of the ma Pon towards the end of dinner that evening I was told that a gentleman desired to see the secretary and went out to the hall to discover who our visitor might be a tall dark man with very peculiar eyes greeted me I

Have called for Miss hollam he said Miss hollam I repeated as if mystified why yes he said somewhat taken aback isn’t she here I will inquire of the matron I answered I slipped back into the dining room and whispered to Taver Mortimer is here he raised his eyebrows I will see

Him in the office he said thither we repaired but before admitting our visitor tavener arranged the reading lamp on his desk in such a way that his own features were in deep Shadow and practically invisible then Mortimer was shown in he assumed an authorative manner I’ve come on behalf of her mother

To fetch myth’s hem home he said I should be glad if you would would inform her I am here miss Holland will not be returning tonight and has wired her mother to that effect I did not ask you what Miss Holland’s plans were I asked

You to let her know that I was here and wished to see her I presumed you were not going to offer any objection but I am said tavener I object strongly has Miss holl refused to see me I have not inquired then by what right do you have to take up this outrageous

Position by this right said Taver and made a peculiar sign with his left hand on the four finger was a ring of most unusual workmanship that I had never seen before Mortimer jumped as if tavener had put a pistol to his head he luned across the desk and tried to

Distinguish the shadowed features then his gaze fell upon the ring the senior of seven he gasped and dropped back a pace then he turned and slunk toward the door flinging over his his shoulder such a glance of hate and fear as I had never seen before I swear he barred his teeth

And snarled brother Mortimer said Taver the dog returns to its kennel tonight let us go to one of the upstairs windows and see that he really takes himself off went on Taver from our vantage point we could see our late visitor making his way along the Sandy road that led to

Thursley to my surprise however instead of keeping straight on he turned and looked back is he going to return I said in surprise I don’t think so said Taver now watch something is going to happen again Mortimer stopped and looked around as if in Surprise then

He began to fight whatever it was that attacked him evidently left up for he beat it away from his chest then it circled around him Bri turned slowly so as to face it yard by yard he worked his way down the the road and was swallowed

Up in the Gathering D the Hound is following its Master home said tavener we heard the next morning that the body of a strange man had been found near bramshot it was thought he died of heart failure for there were no marks of violence upon his body Six Miles said tavener he ran

Well end of chapter six section eight of the secrets of Dr Taver by Deon Fortune This LibriVox recording is in the public domain chapter seven a daughter of pan Taver looked at a card that had been brought to him roads he said if the county take to calling I shall put up

The shutters and Rite kabad upon them for I shall know that the glory is departed now what in the name of be elub as modius and a few other of my friends to whom you have not been introduced does this woman want with me Taver and his methods in his nursing home were

Looked upon asant by the local Gentry and as he for his part did not careed prescribe for measles and influenza we seldom came into contact with our neighbors that my colleague was a man of profound learning in Cosmopolitan Posh would have availed him nothing at the

Local tea parties which judge a man by his capacity to avoid giving offense a narrow hipped thin Li woman was ushered into the room the orderly waves of her golden hair and the Perfection of her porcelain complexion bore evidence to the Excellence of her maid and the care that was devoted to her

Toilet her clothes had that upholstered effect which is only obtained when the woman is made to fit the Garment not the garment to the woman I want to consult you she said about my youngest daughter she’s a great source of anxiety to us we fear her mind is not developing properly

What are her symptoms asked Havener with his most professional manner she was always a difficult child said The Mother We had a great deal of trouble with her so different to the others finally we stopped trying to bring her up with them and got her special governesses and put her under medical

Supervision which I supposed include strict discipline said Taver of course said our visitor she has been most carefully looked after we have left nothing undone though it has been a great expense and I must say the measures we have took have been successful up to a point her terrible

Outbreaks of wildness and temper have practically ceased we have seen nothing of them for a year but her her development seems to have been arrested I must see your daughter before I can give an opinion said Taver she’s out in the car said her mother I will

Have her brought in she appeared in the care of her governess who looked the excellent disciplinarian she was reported to be as a Prussian drill sergeant of the old regime she would have found her miter the girl herself was a most curious study she was extraordinarily like her mother there

Was the same thin figure though in the case of the mother the angularities had been patted out by Art whereas in the daughter they came glaringly through her garments which looked as if she had slept in them lank mouse-colored hair was wound around her head in heavy greasy coils a muddy complexion

Fish-like eyes and a general air of awkwardness and sprawling limbs completed the unpleasing picture huddled up on the sofa between the two women who seemed to belong to another species and who discussed her before her face as if she had been an inanimate object the girl looked a typical low-grade

Defective now defectives fill me with nothing but disgust my pity I reserve for their families the girl before me did not inspire me with disgust only pity she reminded me of a caged Lark in some wretched animal dealer shop its feathers dull with dirt and frayed with the bars apathetic unhealthy miserable

Which will not sing because it cannot fly what nature had intended her to be was impossible to say for she had been so thoroughly worked over by the two Ardent disciplinarians who flanked her that nothing of the original material remained her personality displeased them and they had effectually repressed it

But alow as there was nothing they could put in its place and they were left with an un insoled automaton which they dragged off to alienist after alienist in the Hopeless attempt to get the damage repaired while maintaining the conditions that had done the damage I awoke from my abstraction to hear the

Mother who evidently had a taste for economy where the ugly duckling was concerned bargaining shrewdly with tavener with regard to fees and he who was always more interested in the human than the commercial aspect of his work was meeting her more than halfway Taver I said as soon as the door

Closed behind them what they are paying won’t cover her board and keep let alone treatment they’re not poppers look at the car hang it all why don’t you make them fund up my dear boy said Taver mly I have got to undercut the governance or

I shouldn’t get the job do you think the job is worth having at that price I growled for I hated to see a man like Taver imposed upon hard to say he replied they have driven a square peg into a round hole with such determination they have split the peg

But to what extent we cannot tell until we have got it out of the hole but what are your impressions of our new patient first impressions are generally the truest what reaction does she awaken you those are the best indications in a psychological case she seems to have

Given life up as a bad job I replied she’s an unlovely object yet she is not repellent I don’t so much pity her I sympathize with her there’s a difference you know I can’t put it any clearer than that you have put it very clearly indeed said tavener the distinction between

Pity and sympathy is the Touchstone in this case we pity that which we are ourselves are not but we sympathize when but for the grace of God there goes you or I you feel kinship for that Soul because whatever the husk of her may have been reduced to she is one of us

Mored in the making and marred with a heavy hand I added I should think it would have been a case of the spcc if they had been poor people you are wrong said Taver it is a case for the SPCA with with cryptic remark he left me

The next day the new patient who answered to the inappropriate name of Diana appeared she looked about 15 but as a matter of fact was near 18 gaunt slovenly ungainly and morose she had all the furtive ineptitude of a dog that has been ruined by harsh treatment she was

Certainly not an addition to the social amenities of the place and I should not have been surprised if Taver had segregated her her but he did not seem disposed to neither did he Place her under any supervision but gave her complete freedom unaccustomed to this lack of restraint she did not seem to

Know how to employ herself and slunk about as if at any moment outraged Powers might exact retribution for some misdeed there is a good deal of comment upon the way our new patient was neglected and she was certainly not a credit to the establishment but I began

To see what Taver was driving at left entirely to her own devices the girl was beginning to find her level if she wanted food she had to prow into the dining room somewhere about the time it was being served when her hands became uncomfortably sticky she washed them as

The towels wor evidence for we could not always observe any difference in the hands and in addition to all this she was thinking and watching all that went on about her she will wake up presently said Taver and then we shall see how the Primitive wild animal will adapt itself

To civilized society we were summoned One Day by the outraged matron and went along to Diana’s Den one could hardly call it a room after she had occupied it for 24 hours as we went down the corridor a strong smell of burning assailed our nostrils and when we

Arrived we found the young lady in question sitting cross-legged on the Hearth rug wrapped in the bed spread a bonfire of the whole of her personal belongings smoldering in the fireplace why have you burned your clothes inquired Taver as if this interesting and harmless eccentricity were a daily occurrence I don’t like

Them what’s wrong with them they’re not me come along to the recreation room and dig among the theatrical costumes and see if you can find something you like we set off for the recreation room Diana swathed in her bed spread pattering behind tavener’s tall form and the

Disgusted matron bringing up the rear of the ridiculous procession I had no mind to play Nursery ma to Miss Diana so I left them to their own devices and went along the corridor to see a man we had there of the name of tenant he was a dreary existence for although a Charming

Man when in his normal State he had made several attempts at suicide and had been placed with us by his family as a voluntary patient as an alternative to certification and an asylum he could not be called mad in the ordinary sense of the word but was one of those curious

Cases of tum vate the desire for Life had failed him what tragedy lay hidden we did not know foraver unlike the psychoanalysts never asked questions he had his own way of finding out what he wanted to know know and despised all such clumsy Machinery to my surprise I

Found tenant turning over a pile of music I elicited by my questioning that he not only had a great love of music but had studied seriously with the view to making a profession of it this was news to us for his family had given no hint of this when they placed him with

Us merely leading us to believe that his means were sufficient for existence but not for any fullness of life and that he had passively resigned himself to his lot sinking into a Melancholy in consequence I told Taver of this when we were having our usual after dinner chat

In the office half gossip half report which took place nightly while we smoked our cigars so he said and Rose forth with and went to tenant’s room fetching him down set him at a piano and B him to play tenant who started off with a push went on like an automaton until the

Impulse died down playing fluently but without the slightest feeling I have little sense of music but his hearty gery rendering distressed even me several of the other patients present in the drawing room made their escape at the end of the piece he made no attempt to start another but sat motionless for

A while tavener likewise sat silent watching him to see what he would do next as custom was with his patience tenant slowly twisted around the revolving stool till he sat with his back to the keyboard and his face to us his hands hanging limply between his

Knees gazing intently at the toes of his shoes he was a prematurely aged man of 35 or 36 his hair iron gray his face deeply lined the brow was low but Broad and the mouth full and curving the eyes set well apart were very bright right on the few

Occasions when the lids were raised sufficiently to let one see them but the ears were the thing that attracted my attention I had not noticed them before for when he came to us his hair was rather long but matron had fallen upon him with a pair of automatic hair

Clippers and given him such a shearing that everything now stood revealed and I saw that the convolutions of the ear were so arranged that they formed a Peak at the Apex that put me in the mind of Hawthorne’s story of the marble Fawn and his little tufted ears while I was

Making this inventory tenant had slowly raised his eyes to ours and I saw that they were strangely luminous an animal gleaming Green in the Shaded lamp as a dogs will at night I’ve got a violin in my room he said in a toneless voice it was the first sign of initiative he had

Shown and I went off forth with to fetch his instrument down tavener gave him the note on the piano but he brushed it aside and tuned his fiddle according to his own liking to play some Pitch known only to himself when he first began to play it sounded horribly flat but after

A few moments we became accustomed to the strange intervals and for me at any rate they begin to exercise an extraordinary Fascination they exercised a Fascination for someone else also so for out of a dark corner where she had tucked herself away unobserved by us Diana came creeping for a moment I

Hardly realized who it was for a profound change had been wrought in her since the morning out of the garments available for her in our little theatrical wardrobe she had chosen a little green tunic we had for Puck when we did Midsummer’s Night Dream someone I found out afterwards it was Taver had

Bobbed her hair long green stockings showed under the tagged edge of the tunic and revealed the lean and angular lines of her limbs some freak of imagination carried my mind back to my school days and as I sat listening to the strange wailing of the violin in

Which the voices of seagulls and mo birds and All Creatures of barren windy spaces seemed to be crying and calling to each other I seemed to see myself coming in from hair and Hounds glowing with the beat of wind and rain to tub and change in the Steam and babble of

The dressing rooms for a moment under the magic of that music the sense of power and Prestige was mine again for I had been a great man in my school though of the rank and file in my profession once again I was captain of the games

Running my eye over the new boys in the hope of finding something prom promising then in a Flash I found the linking idea that had taken my mind back to those Dead and Gone days the sprawling limbs in those long green stockings were those of a runner the Layon of the muscles the

Length of the bones all denoted speed and spring she might not be a hopeful sight for a matchmaking Mama but she would have rejoiced the heart of a captain of the games matron appeared at the doorway like an avenging Nemesis the hour for lights out was long overpassed

But in our absorption of the music we had forgotten it she looked me reproachfully we were usually allies in upholding discipline but tonight I felt like a rebellious urchin and wanted to join tenant and Diana and the other unmanageable in some outrageous Escapade against Law and Order the interruption

Broke the spell for a moment Diana’s eyes flashed and I thought we were going to be treated to one of the exhibitions of temper we had heard about but not yet seen they faded however to their usual fish-like neutrality and the gawky female hob Hoy shambled off at the

Bidding of authority tenant however turned at Bay for a minute recalled from some Upland pasture of the spirit where he had found freedom and much inclined to resent the disturbance my hand on his arm and a word of authority in his ear however soon restored him to normal and he too

Trudged off in the wake of the matron damn that woman said tavener as he secured the windows she is no use for this work I stepped outside to fasten the shutters but paused arrested on the threshold my Jo Taver I exclaimed smell this he joined me on the Terrace and

Together we inhaled the odor of a Garden in Blossom Frost lay White upon the grass and The Bleak March wind cut keenly but the air was full of the odor of flowers with an undercurrent of sunw wararmed Pine Woods something stirred in the shadow of the creepers and a huge

Hair shot past us with the Scurry of gravel and gained the shelter of the Shrubbery good gracious I exclaimed whatever brought him here oh what indeed said tavener we should know some rather important things if we knew that I’d hardly reached my room when I was

Summoned by a loud knocking at the door I opened it to find one of our patients clad only in his pajamas there’s something wrong in tenants room he said I think he’s trying to hang himself he was right tenant suspended by the cord of his dressing

Gown swung from the cornis pole we cut him down and after some hard work at artificial respiration got him Round And even Taver would was convinced that constant supervision was the only way of dealing with him next day he let me send for a male nurse but the train that

Brought him also took away the matron a much injured woman not altogether soothed by the generous check and excellent testimonial Taver had bestowed on her when he dismissed her without either cause nor notice such incidents do not cause a three-day Wonder in a mental home and we settle down to our

Routine next morning nevertheless I could not get out of my mind the gike wailing of the violin and the strange odor of flowers they seemed to go together and in some subtle way they had unsettled and Disturbed me though spring had not shown itself a spring restlessness was upon me unable to

Endure the closeness of the office I set wide open the French Windows letting the bitter wind blow over me as I wrestled with the correspondence that had to be got off by the afternoon post it was thus Taver found me and he surveyed me curiously so you heard it too he asked

Heard what I answered impatiently for my temper was on edge for some unknown reason the call of pan said my colleague as he shut out the Whirlwind I’m going out I announced Gathering up the last of the mail tavender nodded without comment for which I was grateful what what freak

Possessed me I do not know but finding Diana curled up on a sofa in the lounge I called to her as I would a dog come on Diana come for a run and like a dog she Rose and followed me forgetting that though a child in mine she had reached

The years of Womanhood forgetting that she had neither coat hat nor boots and for the matter of that neither had I I took her with me through the dripping shrey to the garden gate the the Sandy Road in which the pillar box stood ended in the Heather of the Moore Diana

Advanced tentatively to the edge of the turf and then stood looking back at me it was so exactly like a dog asking to be taken for a run that I gave myself up to the illusion come on Diana I shouted let’s have a Scamper I raced down the

Path towards her and with the bound she was off and Away over the Heather away we went as hard as we could go over the soaked black ground into the rolling Mists I was only just able to keep the figure ahead in sight for she ran like a

Deer leaping what I had to plow through we went straight across the level plane that had once been the bed of a lake heading for the devil’s jumps long after I was struggling for my second wind the bounding figure ahead held its pace and I did not catch up with her until Rising

Ground gave me the advantage in the little pine wood on its crest she slipped on at the Twisted roots and came down rolling over and over like a puppy I tripped over the waving green legs and came down too so heavily however that I winded myself we sat up gasping and

Looking at each other and then with one Accord burst out laughing it was the first time I had ever heard Diana laugh her eyes were as green as a cats and she showed a double row of very sharp white teeth and a pretty pink tongue it was

Not human but it was very fascinating we picked ourselves up and trotted home over the Heather and sneaked in at the skullery door while the maids were at tea I felt rather uncomfortable about the whole business and sincerely hoped no one had seen my Escapade and that

Diana would not speak of it speech was not a habit of hers however but she was rich in the language of unconscious gesture and speedily announced to the petty world of the nursing home that there was an understanding between us her eyes gleamed green on my appearance

And she showed her sharp white teeth and little pink tongue if she had had a tail she would have wagged it I found all this rather disconcerting next day when Taver and I went down to the post together for a breath of fresh air we found Diana at

Our heels your little pet dog I see said Taver and I mumbled something about transference of libido and fixations Taver laughed my dear boy he said she’s not so sufficiently human to fall in love with you so don’t worry at the end of the road Diana repeated the tactics

Of the previous day what does she want demanded Taver I felt myself going an uncomfortable scarlet and Taver looked at me curiously she wants me to run with her I said thinking that the truth was the only possible explanation and that tavener would understand it he did but

His reply was more disconcerting than his question well why not he said go on run with her very good for both of you I hesitated but he would take no denial and compelled by his will I lumbered off but Diana saw the difference deep had called into deep the previous day but

Now I was one of the Philistines and she would not run with me instead she trotted in a circle and looked at me with troubled eyes her pink tongue hidden behind drooping lips my heart was filled f with the Furious hatred of Taver and myself and all created things

And vaulting the fence I bolted down the shrey and took refuge in my own room from which I did not descend till dinner time at that meal Diana gazed at me with her odd grein eyes that almost seemed to say now you know what I have felt like

All these years and I telepath back I do damn everybody tavener tactfully refrained from referring to the matter for which I was devoutly thankful a week went by and I thought it was forgotten when suddenly he broke silence I cannot get Diana to run by herself he said I

Squirmed but wouldn’t answer he went to the window and Drew up the blind a full moon Shone into the room clashing horribly with the electric light it’s the night of the vernal equinox said Taver aose of nothing rhs he said I’m going to try a very dangerous experiment

If I fail there will be trouble and if I succeed there will be a row so put your coat on and come with me in the drawing room we found Diana oblivious of the good ladies knitting jumpers around the fire curled up on a window seat with her

Nose pressed to the pain Taver opened the window and she slipped out as noiselessly as a cat we threw our legs over the sill and followed her she waited in the shadow of the house as if afraid to advance the years of discipline had left their Mark upon her

And like a Cage bird when the door is left open she desired freedom but had forgotten how to fly Taver wrapped around her a heavy Tweed Cape he was carrying and putting her between us we set out for the Moors we went by the same route that our wild flight had

Followed to the pine wood that rose on its low Crest out of the level of the ancient seabed the scotch furs with their sparse tufted crests were too scanty to make a Darkness but threw grotesque Goblin Shadows on the needle carpeted ground in a hollow of the mo a stream made water

Noises away out of sight Taver took the cloak from Diana’s shoulders and pushed her out into the Moonlight she hesitated then fled timidly back to us but Taver glancing at his watch pushed her out again I was reminded of that wonderful story of jungle life in which the Cubs

Are brought to the Council Rock so that the Wolves of the pack may know and recognize them Diana was being handed over to her own people we waited while the full moon sailed across the heavens in a Halo of golden Cloud Taver glancing at his watch from time to time the wind

Had dropped and in the Stillness the stream sounded very loud but though I neither saw nor heard anything I knew that something was coming towards us through the shadow of the wood I found myself trembling in every limb not from fear but excitement something was passing us something big and massive and

In its train many lesser things of the same nature every nerve in my body began to sing and without my volition my foot took a step forward but tavener’s hand on my arm restrained me this is not for you rhs he said you have too much mentality to find find your mating here

Reluctantly I let him check me the Mad fit passed and as my eyes cleared again I saw the girl in the Moonlight and knew that she too had felt their coming she turned towards them half in fear half in Fascination they lured her but she dared

Not respond then I felt that they had surrounded her and she could not escape and then I saw her surrender she stretched out her hands toward them and I was sure that invisible hands clasped hers then she raised them towards the sky and the moon seemed to shine

Straight between the CED Palms onto her breast and she lowered them towards the Earth and dropping on her knee pressed them to the ground and sinking lower pressed her whole body to the Earth till her form hollowed the light soil to receive it for a while she lay quiet and

Then suddenly she sprang up and flinging out her hands like one diving was off like an arrow in the wind quick after her cried Taver starting me off with the blow on the shoulder and like a flash I too was speeding down the Heather paths but oh the difference from our last run

The Diana still ran like a deer my limbs were of lead life seemed without Savor as if there would never again be any zest in it only my sense of Duty kept my laboring limbs at work and presently even that proved ineffective I dropped further and further behind no second

Wind came to ease my laboring lungs and the figure ahead bounding on feet of the wind was lost among the Heather I dropped to the ground gasping run off my feet in the first burst As I Lay helpless in the Heather my heart pounding in my throat I seemed to see a

Great streaming procession like an undisciplined AR Army passing across the sky ragged banners flapped and waved wild discordant but maddening music broke here and there from the mly root furry snouts on human faces clawed paws on human limbs green Vine likee hair falling over flashing eyes that gleamed

As green and here and there half frightened but half fascinated human faces some hanging back though lured along others giving themselves up to the flight in Wild abandonment of Glamour I woke to find tavener bending over me thank God he said your eyes are still human no Diana appeared next day and

Whether tavener was anxious or not he would not reveal she will come back to be fed was all he would vouch safe the following day there was still no sign of her and I was becoming very uneasy for the nights were bitter though the days

Were warm when then as we sat by the office fire after lights out a faint scratching was heard at the window Taver immediately Rose and opened it and in slipped Diana and sank into a heap on the Hearth at my feet but it was not to

Me she turned to as in my embarrassment I had expected but the fire Taver and I meant nothing to her Taver returned to his chair and in silence we watched her Puck’s tunic soaked and tagged and stained out of all recognition seemed the only possible clothing for the

Strange wild unhuman figure at our feet presently she sat up and ran her hands through the matted hair now steaming in the Heat and seeing me through the thatch showed white teeth and a pink tongue in her strange elfant smile and with a quick birdlike movement rubbed

Her head against my knee after which token of recognition she returned to her enjoyment of the fire Taver Rose and quietly left the room I hardly dared to breathe lest I should break the spell that kept our visitor quiet and she should do something embarrassing or

Uncanny but I need not have troubled I meant no more to her than the rest of the furniture Tava returned with the laden tray and Diana’s eyes gleamed she looked much more human eating with the knife and fork I had expected her to tear her food with her teeth but

Ingrained habit remained Diana said Taver after the completion of her meal she smiled aren’t you going to say thank you she smiled again and with her quick birdlike movement wrapped her head against his knee as she had done against mine but she did not speak he stretched

Out his hand and began to smooth and stroke the Tangled mask of her hair she snuggled down at his feet enjoying the caress and the warmth and presently there arose a low croning of contentment very like the purr of a cat we have done it this time said Taver after a while

However Diana seemed to wake up her animal needs being satisfied the human part of her began to reassert itself she Twisted round and resting her elbow on tavener’s knee looked up into his face I came back because I was hungry she said Taver smiled and continued to smooth her

Hairir but I shall go away again she added with a touch of defiance you shall come and go as you please said tavener there will be food when you want it and the door will never be locked this seemed to please her and she became more communicative evidently wishing to share

With us the experience through which she had passed and to receive our wonder and sympathy that was the human side of her I saw them she said we felt them said Taver but we did not see them no replied Diana you would not but then you see

They are my people I have always belonged to them but I did not know it and now they have found me I shall go back she repeated again with conviction were you cold asked Taver no only hungry she replied tavener had her belongings removed to a room on the ground floor

Whose window opening onto the shrey permitted her to come and go freely and unobserved she never slept there however but came each night after lights out to the office window we admitted her fed her and after basking for a while in the warmth of the Hearth she slipped out

Again into the night weather made no difference to her out into the wildest Gale she went unflinchingly and returned unharmed sometimes she would talk to us in her clipped childish sentences trying to convey to us something of what she saw but for the most part she kept

Silence at the next full moon however she returned bursting with information they had had a wonderful dance in which she had been allowed to take part we knew now why the kitchen made returning from her evening out had a ster all the way up the drive and wound up with

Something very like a fit in the servants Hall they had been so wonderful that she simply had to tell us all about it and in speaking of them in her limited vocabulary she used a phrase that other Seer of vision had used they were the lordly ones more she could not tell us

Words failed her and she made strange play with her hands as if molding a figure in invisible clay with quick intuition Taver gave her pencil and paper and with lightning rapidity there appeared before us the nude figure of a winged being drawn with amazing figure in perfect

Accuracy no attempt had ever been made to teach Diana to draw in all the course of her arduous upbringing it was considered sufficient if she achieved the decencies without aspiring to accomplishments neither had she the opportunity of studying Anatomy yet here was a figure rendered with marvelous draftsmanship and the minute accuracy of

Detail that is only possible in a study from Life Diana’s interest and Delight was as great as ours here indeed was a discovery a way of expression for her cramped and stifled soul in half an hour the office was strewn with drawings a whirling snow Spirit who seemed to be

Treading Water a tree Soul like a gnarled human torso emerging from the trunk of a tree and blending with its branches fairies demons and quaint and engaging animal studies followed each other in bewildering succession finally quite worn out with the tension and excitement of it Diana consented to go

To bed for the first time since that strange night of the vernal equinox her need of a supply of paper kept Diana at the house and her need of an audience made her seek Human Relationships the artist creates not only for the pleasure of creation but also for the pleasure of admiration and

Diana though she might go to the woods must needs return to her kind to display her spoils with her Newfound Harmony had come to the correlation of Mind and Body the long limbs no longer sprawled but had the grace of a deers she was as friendly as a puppy where before she had

Been morose but alas her Readiness of response exposed her to some painful knocks in the world of warped lives which is a mental home for a moment she was crushed and we feared that she might become again that which she had been but she discovered that a means of

Retaliation as well as expression lay in her pencil and the discovery saved her she Drew portraits of her persecutors Stark naked for she never drew clothes with the anatomical detail and accuracy of all her studies with their usual expression on their faces but with the expression of their secret souls and

Every line of their bodies these portraits appeared in conspicuous places as if by Magic and their effect can more easily Be Imagined than described Diana had found her place in the march of life she was no longer the outcast UNC and unfriendly her spontaneous Elfin gayety which she had brought back from the

Woods was a charm in itself the mouse colored hair had taken on a gloss and gleam of gold the salow complexion was nut brown and rose red but her springing swaying movement her amazing Vitality were her Chief distinctions for she was extraordinarily vital she Drew her life

From the Sun and the wind and the Earth and as long as she was allowed to keep in touch with them she glowed with an inner light an incandescence of the spirit that blazed but did not consume she was the most vital thing I have ever

Seen the hair of her head was so charged with electricity that it stood out in a light cloudlike oril the blood glowed under her skin and if her hand touched you sharp magnetic tingling ran ran through the bare flesh and the strange Vitality was not limited to herself but

Infected everybody in her immediate neighborhood and they reacted to it according to temperament some would go and sit near her as by a fire others went nearly demented to me she was lyrical the wine of life she went into my head like some intoxicating drug I

Got drunk on her and saw the visions of an opium dream without a word spoken she lured me from my work from my duties from all that was human and civilized to follow her out on the mo and commune with the beings whose orbit she seemed

To have entered upon that fatal night of the Equinox I saw that Taver was worried he said no word of reproach but silently picked up the threads I dropped I also knew that he had canceled certain engagements and remained at home I was untrustworthy and he dared not leave

Things to me me I loathed myself but I could no more pull myself together than the drug taker of fargon and morphia a form of Clairvoyance was growing fast upon me not the piercing psychic perceptions of tavener who saw straight into the inner soul of men and things

But a power to perceive the subtler aspects of matter I could distinctly see the magnetic field which surrounds every living thing and could watch the changes in its State presently I began to be aware of the coming and going of those unseen presences which were the gods

That Diana worshiped a strong wind Hot Sun or the bare uncultivated Earth seemed to bring them very near to me and I felt the great life of the trees these things fed my soul and strengthened me as the touch of Earth always strengthens any child of the Earth Mother the days

Were lengthening toward the longest day it would soon be 3 months since Diana returned to her own place and I began to wonder how much longer tavner would keep are now entirely cured patient but he gave no sign I began to feel however that Diana was now no longer a patient

But that I had become one and that I was being closely watched in anticipation of a crisis that was imminent some abscess of the Soul had to come to a head before it could be lanced and Taver was awaiting the process the idea was slowly growing in my mind that I might marry

Diana marriage did not express the relationship I wish to establish but I could see no other course open to me I did not wish to possess her I only wanted our present relationship to continue and that I should be free to come and go with her without running the

Gauntlets of sensuous eyes Taver I felt knew this and fought it and I could not see why I could understand his objection to my compromising Diana but I did not see why he should oppose my marriage to her my brain however was an abian these days my thoughts were a series of

Pictures fading into each other like a fantasmagoria and they told me afterward that my speech had reverted to the simplicities of early childhood but still Taver waited biting his time the crisis came suddenly as the sun was setting upon the even of The Longest Day Diana appeared upon the steps the office

Window and beckoned me out she appeared extraordinarily beautiful with the burning sky behind her bright fluffed hair caught in the level light and Shone like an Oriel as she stood with her strangely eloquent hands beckoning me out into the Gathering dusk I knew that there was in Prospect such a Race Across

The Heather as had never yet been and at the end of it I should meet the powers she worshiped face to face and that from that meeting my body might return to the house but my soul would never enter the habitations of men again it would remain

Out there in the open with Diana and her people I knew all this and with the inner Vision I could see the Gathering of the Clans that even now was taking place Diana’s hands called to me and as if drawn by a spell I Rose slowly from

My desk Diana thing of air was calling me out to run with her but I was not a thing of air I was a man of Flesh and Blood and in a flash of Revelation I saw Diana as a beautiful woman and I knew that she was not the woman for me to

Part of my nature she called but she did not call to the whole of me and I knew that the best in me would remain UNM and uncompany if I were to join Diana it did Diana no harm to return to Nature because she was not capable of greater

Things but there was more in me than the instincts and I might not so return without loss to my higher self the room was lined with books the door leading into the laboratory stood open and the characteristic smell of the Blended drugs came to me smells are sure than

Sights or sounds to make your heartstrings crack had the wind been the other way had the smell of the Pines blown in at the open window I think I should have gone with Diana but it was the odor of the laboratory that came to

Me and with it the memory of all that I had hoped to make of my life and I dropped back into my chair and buried my face in my arms when I raised my head again the last Light of the sunset had gone and so had Diana that night my

Sleep was heavy and dreamless which was a great relief for as of late it had been troubled by strange almost physical Impressions the fantasies of the day becoming the realities of the darkness but with my rejection of Diana a spell seemed to break and when I awoke in the

Morning it was to a normality to which I had been a stranger for many a day my grip on the organization of the home had come back to me and I felt as one who had been in Exile in a foreign country and has at length returned to his native

Land Diana I did not see for several days for she had again taken to the Heather and rumors of raids upon Gardens and foul houses by a particularly ingenious and Elusive Gypsy explained why she did not even return to be fed my conscience pricking me from my recent

Lapse I took upon myself the somewhat arduous task of taking tenant out for walks and since his attempt at suicide we had not dared to let him go about alone it was a jewy business foret tenant never spoke unless he was addressed and then only employed the unavoidable minimum of speech he had

Certainly made no progress during the months he had been at the nursing home and I was surprised that tavener had kept him so long for he usually declined to keep any case which he considered hopeless I therefore concluded that he had hopes of tenant though in what

Direction they lay he did not confide to me we swung over the Heather paths in the direction of frencham and I suddenly realized to my annoyance that we were following Diana’s favorite trail to the little furwood of magic and Ill Omen I would willingly have avoided it if I

Could for I did not wish to be reminded of certain incidents which I felt it was better for my peace of mind that I should forget but there was no alternative unless we waited for a mile or two through kneed deep Heather in the light shadow of the trees we paused

Tenant gazing up the long shafts of the trunks into the dark tufted crests that looked like islands in the sky Wendy’s house in the Treetops I heard him say to himself oblivious of my presence and I guessed that his weary Soul would love to sleep forever in the rocking cradle

Of the branches the sun Drew all the incense from the Furs and the sky had that intense Italian blue that is often seen over these great wastes a warm wind blew softly over the Heather bringing the sound of innumerable bees and Far Away sheep we flung ourselves down upon

The sun wararmed earth and even tenant for once seemed happy as for me every breath that I drew of that warm radiant air brought peace and healing to my spirit tenant propped against a tree hat off shirt open and head thrown back against the rough red bark sat gazing

Into the Blue distance and whistling softly between his teeth I lay flat on my back among the pine needles and I think I went to sleep at any rate I never heard the approach of Diana nor was aware of her presence until I raised my head she lay at tenant’s feet gazing

Into his face with the unblinking steadiness of an animal and he was whistling as Softly As before but with an Exquisite flute-like tone those strange cadences of his that had been the origin of all my trouble I thought of the older Greek world of the centaurs and Titans who ranged and ruled before

Zeus and his court made heaven human tenant was not even primitive he was pre-adamic as for Diana she was no daughter of Eve but of the dark Lilith who preceded her and I realized that those two were of the same world and belonged to each other a twinge of the

Old wound shot through me this realization and also a twinge of Envy for theirs was a happier lot than our civilized bondage but I lay quiet watching their Idol the Shadows Of The Furs lay far out over the Heather before I roused ten it for a return to Earth

And as we came back through the golden evening light Diana came with us when I told Taver of this incident over our usual after dinner smoking half report half gossip I saw that it was no surprise to him I hoped that would happen he said it is the only possible

Solution to the case that I can think of but what will her family say I think they will say praise the Lord and economize over her tro I replied and my prophecy proved correct it was the queerest wedding I ever saw The Parson thoroughly uncomfortable but afraid to

Refuse to perform the ceremony the upholstered mother and her friends trying hard to do the thing properly the bridegroom’s relatives whose attempt to get him certified at the 11th Hour had been bulked by tavener furiously watching 10,000 pounds of trust monies passing out of their keeping a bride who

Looked like a newly caught Wild Thing and who would have bolted out of the Church of Tav had not shown her very clearly that he was prepared for such a maneuver and would not permit it and a bridegroom who was far away in some Heaven of his own and upon whose face

Was a glory that never Shone on land or sea the departure of the happy couple upon their honeymoon was a sight for the gods whom I’m convinced were present all the wedding guests and their wedding garments were drawn up about the front door when out came Diana in her Puck’s

Tunic and bolted like a rabbit down the drive at a more sober Pace followed her spouse leading a donkey upon whose back was packed a tent and from whose flanks dangled cooking pots surrounded by the broad cloth of the men and the silks of the women and against the background of

The clipped Laurels of the shrey they looked in congruous daed degenerate everything their relatives said they were but the minute they passed the gate and set foot upon the black soil of the Moore there was a change great presences came to meet them and whether they perceived them or not a silence fell

Upon the wedding party in 10 seconds the mo took them man girl and Donkey Fading Into its gray Browns in the most amazing fashion as if they had simply ceased to exist they had gone to their own place and their own place had made them welcome a civilization with which they

Had nothing to do would never again have the power to torture and imprison them for being different in Dead Silence the wedding party went in to eat its wedding breakfast and no one remembered to give any toasts we heard no more of the way fairs until the following spring when

There came a tap upon the office window after lights out which instantly Put Me In Mind of Diana it was not she however but her husband tavener was absent but in response resp to a brief request I accompanied my seminer we had not far to go the little brown tent was pitched

Almost under the Lee of our wood and I saw in an instant why I had been summoned though there was little need to summon me for the nature Gods can look after their own it is only we Superior beings who have to be dragged into the

World by the Scruff of our necks the gates of Life swung upon easy hinges and in a few minutes a little Grand granddaughter of pan lay in my hands a little new made Perfection save for the tufted ears I wondered what new breed of Mortals been introduced into our

Troubled old world to disturb its civilization oh Taver I thought what will the future hold you responsible for will it rank you with the man who introduced rabbits into Australia or with Prometheus end of chapter 7 section nine of the secrets of Dr tavener by Deion Fortune This LibriVox

Recording is in the public domain chapter 8 the subletting of the Mansion build thou more stately Mansions oh my soul the post bag of the nursing home was always sent to the Village when The garders Departed at 6 so if any belated letter writer desired to communicate with the outer world at a

Later hour he had to walk to the pillar box at the crossroads with his own missives as I had little time for my private letter writing during the day the dusk usually saw me with a cigar and a handful of letters taking my after dinner stroll in that direction it was

Not my custom to encourage the patients to accompany me on these strolls for I felt that I did my duty towards them during working hours and was so entitled to my leisure but Winnington was not quite in the position of an ordinary patient for he was a personal friend of

Tavers and also I gathered a member of one of the luster degrees of that great fraternity of whose work I had some curious glimpses and so the fascination which this fraternity always had for me although I have never aspired to its membership together with the amusing and

Bizarre personality of the man made me meet halfway his attempt to turn our professional relationship into a personal one therefore it was that he fell into step with me down the long path that ran through the shrey to the little gate at the far end of the

Nursing home Garden which gave upon the crossroads where the pillar box stood having posted our letters we were lounging back across the road when the sound of a motor horn made us start aside for a car swung Round the Corner almost on top of us within it I caught a

Glimpse of a man and a woman and on top was a considerable quantity of luggage the car turned in at the Gate of a large house whose front drive ran out at the crossroads and I remarked to my companion that I suppose Mr Hershman the owner of the house had got over his

Internment and come back to live there again for the house had stood empty though furnished since a trustful country had decided its confidence might be abused and that the Wy Tuton would bear watching meeting Taver on the Terrace as we returned to the house I told him that

Hershman was back again but he shook his head that was not the hermans you saw he said but the people that have let the house to Bellamy I think their name is they have taken the place furnished either one or the other of them is an

Invalid I believe a week later I was again strolling down to the pillar box when Taver joined me and smoking vigorously to discourage the midges we wandered down to the crossroads together as we reached the pillar box a faint Creek attracted our attention and looking around we saw that the large

Iron gates barring the entrance to hersman’s drive had been pushed a jar and a woman was slipping softly through the narrow opening they afforded she was obviously coming to the post but seeing us hesitated we stood back making way for her and she slipped across the intervening gravel on tiptoe posted her

Letter half bowed to us in acknowledgement of her courtesy and vanished silently as she had come there’s tragedy being worked out in that house remarked Taver I was all interest as I always am at any manifestation of my Chief’s psychic powers but he merely laughed not Clairvoyance this time rhs

But merely common sense if a woman’s face is younger than her figure then she is happily married if the reverse then she is working out a tragedy I did not see her face I said but her figure was that of a young woman I saw her face

Said tavener and it was that of an old one his strictures upon her were not entirely Justified however for a few nights later Winnington and I saw her go to the post again and although her face was heavily lined and colorless it was a very striking one and the mask mass of

Auburn hair that surrounded it seemed all the Richer for its poor I am afraid I stared at her somewhat hard trying to see the signs from which tavener had deduced her history she slipped out through the scarcely opened gate moving swiftly but stealthily as one accustomed to need concealment gave us a sidelong

Glance under long dark lashes and retreated as she had come it was the complete immobility of the man at my side which Drew my attention to him he stood rooted to the ground staring up the shadowed Drive where she had disappeared as if he would send his very

Soul to illuminate the darkness I touched his arm he turned to speak but caught his breath and the words were lost in the bubbling cough that means Hemorrhage he threw one arm around my shoulders to support himself for he was a taller man than I and I held him while

He coughed up the Scarlet arterial blood which told its own story I got him back to the house and put him to bed for he was very shaky after his attack and reported what had happened to tavener I don’t think he’s going to last long I said my colleague looked

Surprised there’s a lot of life in him he said there’s not much left of his lungs I answered and you cannot run a car without an engine Winnington was not laid up long however and the first day we let him out of bed he proposed to go

To the Post with me I demed for it was some distance there and back but he took me by the arm and said look here roads I’ve got to go I asked the reason for so much urgency he hesitated and then he burst out I want to see that woman again

That’s Mrs Bellamy I said you better let her alone she’s not good for you there plenty of nice girls on the premises you can flirt with if you want to let the married women alone the husbands only come round and kick up a row and it’s bad for the nursing homes reputation but

Winnington was not to be headed off I don’t care whose wife she is she’s the woman I I never thought I should see he finished lamely hang it all man I’m not going to speak to her or make an ass of myself I only want to have a look at her

Anyway I don’t count I’ve pretty nearly finished with this sinful flesh what’s left of it he swayed before me in the desk tall gaunt as a skeleton with a color in his cheeks which should have rejoiced to see in any other patients but which was a danger signal and his I

Knew he would go whether I consented or not so I judged it best we should go together and thereafter it became an established thing that we should walk to the crossroads at Post Time whether there were letters or not sometimes we saw Mrs Bellamy slip silently out to the

Post and sometimes we did not if we missed her for more than 2 days Winnington was in a fever and went for five consecutive days she did not appear he excited himself into another Hemorrhage and we put him to bed too week to protest it was while telling

Tavener of this latest development that the telephone bell rang I being nearest the instrument picked it up and took the message is that Dr Taver said a woman’s voice this is Dr tavener’s nursing home I replied it is Mrs Bellamy of headington house who is speaking I

Should be very grateful if Dr Tav would come and see my husband he has been taken suddenly ill I turned to give the message to Taver but he had left the room a sudden impulse seized me Dr tavener is not here at the moment I said

But I will come over if you like I his assistant my name is rhs Dr rhs I should be very grateful replied the voice can you come soon I am anxious I picked up my cap and went down the path I had so often followed with Winnington poor ch

App he would not stroll with me again for some time if ever at the crossroads I paused for a moment marveling that the invisible barrier of convention was at last lowered and that I was free to go up the drive and speak with the woman I had so often watched in winton’s company

I pushed the heavy Gates a jar just as she had done walked up the deeply shaded Avenue and rang the bell I was shown into a sort of mourning room where Mrs Bellamy came to me almost immediately I want to explain matters to you before you see my husband she said the

Housekeeper is helping me with him and I do not want her to know you see the trouble I’m afraid is drugs so Taver had been right as usual she was working out a tragedy he has been in a stuber all day and I’m afraid he has taken an

Overdose he has done so before and I know the symptoms I feel that I could not get through the night without sending for someone she took me to see the patient and I examined him his pulse was feeble breathing difficult and color bad but a man who is as inured to the

Drug as he seemed to be is very hard to kill more as the pity I told her what measures to take said I did not anticipate any danger but she could phone me again if a change took place as she wished me goodbye she smiled and

Said I know you quite well by sight Dr rhs I’ve often seen you at the pillar box it is my usual evening walk I replied I always take the letters that have missed the post bag I was in two minds about telling Winnington of my interview wondering whether the

Excitement into which it would throw him or his continued suspense would be the lesser of the two evils and finally decided in favor of the former I went up to his room when I got back and plunged into the matter without Preamble Winnington I said I’ve seen senior

Divinity he was all a Gog in a minute and I told him of my interview suppressing only the nature of the illness which I was in honor bound not to reveal this however was the point he particularly wished to know although he knew that I naturally could not tell him

Finding me abdur it he suddenly raised himself in bed seized my hand and laid it to his forehead no you don’t I cried snatching it away for I had by now seen enough of tavener’s methods to know how thought reading was done but I had not been quick enough and Winnington sank

Back on pess bed chuckling drugs he said breathless from his effort could say no more but the Triumph in his eyes told me that he had leared something which he considered of vital importance I went around next morning to see Bellamy again he was conscious regarded me with sulky

Suspicion and would have none of me and I saw that my acquaintance with his household was likely to end as it had begun at the pillar box an evening or two later Mrs Bellamy and I met again at the crossroads she answered my greeting with a smile evidently well enough

Pleased to have someone to speak to besides her borish husband for they seem to know no one in the district she commented on my solitary State what has become of the tall man who used to come with you to the post she inquired I told her of poor winton’s condition then she

Said a curious thing for one who was a comparative stranger to me and a complete stranger to Winnington is he likely to die she asked looking me straight in the face with a peculiar expression in her eyes surprised by her question I blurted out the truth I thought so she said I am

Scotch and we have the second side in our family and last night I saw his wraith you saw his Wraith I exclaimed mystified she nodded her Auburn head just as clearly as I see you she replied in fact he was so distinct that I thought he must have been another doctor

From the nursing home whom you had sent over in your stad to see how my husband was getting on I was sitting beside the bed with the lamp turned low when a movement caught my notice and I looked up to see your friend standing between

Me and the light I was about to speak to him when I noticed the extraordinary expression of his face so extraordinary that I stared at him and could find no word to say for he seemed to be absolutely gloating over me or my husband I could not tell which he was

Standing up straight not his usual stoop so you’ve been watching him too I thought and his face wore a look of absolute Triumph as if he had at last won something for which he had waited and worked for a very long time and he said to me me quite slowly and

Distinctly it will be my turn next I was just about to answer him and ask what he meant by his extraordinary behavior when suddenly I found that I could see the lamp through him and before I had recovered from my surprise he had vanished I took it to mean that my

Husband would live but that he himself was dying I told her that from my knowledge of the two cases her interpretation was likely to prove a true one and we stood for some minutes telling ghost stories before she returned through the iron gates Winnington was slowly pulling round from

His attack though as yet unable to leave his bed his attitude concerning Mrs Bellamy had undergone a curious change he still asked me each day if I had seen her at the pillar box and what she had to say for herself but he showed no regret that he was not well enough to

Accompany me thither and make her acquaintance instead his attitude seemed to convey that he and she were Partners in some Secret in which I had no share although he was over the worst his last attack had so pulled him down that his disease had got the upper hand and I saw that it

Was unlikely he would ever get out of bed again so I indulged his boble in the regard to Mrs Bellamy feeling sure that no harm could come of it her visits to the pillar box what she said and what I said were duly reported for the benefit

Of the sick man whose eyes twinkled with some secret Amusement while I talked as far as I could make out for he did not give me his confidence he was biting his time till Bellamy took another overdose and I should have felt considerable anxiety as to what he intended to do

Then had I not known that he was physically incapable of crossing the room without assistance little harm could come therefore from letting him Daydream so I did not seek to fling cold water on his fantasies one night I was roused by a tap at my door and found the

Night Nurse standing there she asked me to come with her to winton’s room for she had found him unconscious and his condition gave her anxiety I went with her and as she had said he was in a state of coma pulse and perceptible breathing almost non-existent for a

Moment I was puzzled at the turn his illness had taken but as I stood looking down at him I heard the faint click in the throat followed by the long cllit sigh that I had heard so often when Taver was leaving his body for one of those

Strange psychic Expeditions of his and I guessed that Winnington was at the same game for I knew that he had belonged to tavener’s fraternity and had doubtless leared many of its Arts I sent the nurse away and settled myself to wait beside our patient as I often waited beside

Taver not a little anxious for my colleague was away on his holiday and I had the responsibility of the nursing home on my shoulders not that that would have troubled me in the ordinary way but ult matters are beyond my keen and I knew that Taver always considered that

These psychic Expeditions were not altogether unaccompanied by risk I had not a long vigil however after about 20 minutes I saw the trans condition pass into natural sleep and having made sure that the heart had taken up its bead again and that all was well I left my

Patient without rousing him and went back to bed next morning as Winnington did not refer to the incident I did not either but his ill concealed Elation showed that something had transpired upon that midnight Journey which had pleased him mightily that evening when I went to the pillar box I found Mrs

Bellamy waiting there for me she began without pream Dr rhs did your tall friend die during the night no I said looking at her sharply in fact he is much better this morning I am glad of that she said for I saw his wraith again last night and

Wondered if anything had happened to him what time did you see him I inquired a sudden suspicion coming into my mind I don’t know she replied I did not look at the clock but it was sometime after midnight I was wakened by something touching my cheek very softly and

Thought the cat must have got into the room and jumped on the bed I roused myself intending to put it out of the room when I saw something shadowy between me and the window it moved to the foot of the bed and I felt a slight

Weight on my feet more than that of a cat about what one would expect from a good-sized terrier and then I distinctly saw your friend sitting on the foot of the bed watching me as I looked at him he faded and disappeared and I could not

Be sure that I had not imagined him out of the folds of The Ether down which was thrown back over the footboard so I thought I would ask you whether there was anything to account for what I saw Winnington is not dead I said and not wishing to be questioned any further in

The matter wished her good night somewhat abruptly and was turning away when she called me back Dr Rose she said my husband has been in that heavy stuper all day do you think that anything ought to be done I will come and have a look at him if

You like I answered she thanked me but said she did not want to call me in unless it were essential for her husband so bitterly resented any interference have you got a butler or valet in the house or is your husband alone with you and the women’s servants

I inquired for it seemed to me that a man who took drugs to the extent that Bellamy did was not the safest let alone the pleasantest company for three or four women Mrs bellany divined my thought and smiled sadly I used to it she said I’ve always coped with him

Single-handed how long has he been taking drugs I asked ever since our marriage she replied but how long before that I cannot tell you I did not like to press any further for her face told me of the tragedy of that existence so I contented myself with saying I hope you

Will let me know if you need help at any time Dr Taver and I do not practice in this District but we would gladly do what we could in an emergency as I went down the shrey path I thought over what she had told me taking into consideration that

Winnington had been in trans condition between 2 and 2:30 I felt certain that what she had seen was no fantasy of her imagination I was much puzzled how to act it seemed to me that Winnington was playing a dangerous game dangerous to himself and and to the unsuspecting

Woman on whom he was practicing yet if I spoke to him on the matter he would either laugh at me or tell me to mind my own business and if I warned her she would regard me as a lunatic by refusing to admit their existence the world gives

A very long start to those who practice the occult Arts I decided to leave matters alone until Taver came back and therefore avoided deep Waters when I paid my evening visit to when inton as usual he inquired for news of Mrs Bellamy and I told him that I had seen

Her and casually mentioned that her husband was bad again in an instant I saw that I had made a mistake in giving Winnington information that he ought not to have had but I could not unsay my words and took my leave of him with an uneasy feeling that he was up to

Something that I could not fathom very greatly did I wish for tavener’s experience to take the respons possbility off my shoulders but he was away in Scotland and I had no reasonable grounds for disturbing his well-earned holiday about an hour later as I finished my rounds and was thinking of

Bed the telephone rang I answered and heard Mrs Bam’s voice at the end of the line I wish you would come round Dr Road she said I’m very uneasy in a few minutes I was with her and we stood together looking at the unconscious man on the bed he was a powerfully built

Fellow of some 35 years of age and before the drug had undermined him he must have been a fine looking man his condition appeared to be the same as before and I asked Mrs Bellamy what it was that had rendered her so anxious for I gathered from the tone of her voice

Over the phone that she was frightened she beat about the bush for a minute or two then the truth came out I’m afraid my nerve is going she said but there seems to be something or somebody in the room and and it was more than I could

Stand alone I simply had to send for you will you forgive me for being so foolish and troubling you at this hour of the night I quite understood her feelings for the strain of coping with the drug Maniac in that lonely place with no friends to help her a strain which I

Gathered had gone on for years was enough to wear down anyone’s courage don’t think about that I said I’m only too glad to be able to give you any help I can I quite understand understand your difficulties so although her husband’s condition gave no cause for anxiety I

Settled down to watch with her for a little while and do what I could to ease the strain of that intolerable burden we had not been sitting in the dim light for very long before I was aware of a curious feeling just as she had said we

Were not alone in the room she saw my glance questing into the corners and smiled you feel it too she said do you see anything no no I answered I am not psychic I wish I were but I tell you who will see it if there’s anything to be

Seen and that is my dog he followed me here and is curled up in the porch if he has not gone home with your permission I will fetch him up and see what he makes of it I ran downstairs and found the big aale whose task it was to guard the

Nursing home patiently waiting on the mat taking him into the bedroom I introduced him to Mrs Bellamy whom he received with great favor and then leaving him to his own devices sat quietly watching what he would do first he went over to the bed and sniffed at the unconscious man then he wandered

Around the room as a dog will in a strange place and finally he settled down at our feet in front of the fire whatever it was that had Disturbed her Equanimity he regarded as Unworthy of notice he slept peacefully till Mrs Bellamy who had brewed tea produced a

Box of bis biscuits and then he woke up and demanded his share first he came to me and received a contribution and then he walked quietly up to an empty armchair and stood gazing at it in anxious expectancy we stared at him in amazement the dog serenely confident of

His reception pawed at the chair to attract its attention Mrs Bellamy and I looked at each other I had always heard she said that it was only cats who liked ghosts and dogs were afraid of them so had I I answered but Jack seems to be on

Friendly terms with this one and then the explanation flashed into my mind if the Invisible Presence were Winnington who Mrs Bellamy had already seen twice in that very room then the dog’s Behavior was accounted for for Winnington and he were close friends and the presence which to us was so uncanny

Would to him be friendly and familiar I Rose to my feet if you don’t mind I said I will just go around to the nursing home and attend to one or two things and then we will see this aair through together I raced back through the strawberries to the nursing home mounted

The stairs three at a time and burst into winton’s bedroom as I expected he was deep in trance oh you devil I said to the unconscious form on the bed what games are you up to now I wish to Heaven that Taver were back to deal with you I

Hastened back to Mrs Bellamy and to my surprise as I re-entered her room I heard voices and there was Bellamy fully conscious sitting up in bed and drinking tea he looked dazed and was shivering with cold but had apparently thrown off all effects of his drug I was nonplused

For I had counted on slipping away before he had recovered Consciousness for I had in mind his last reception of me which had been anything but cordial but it was impossible to draw back I’m glad to see you better Mr Bellamy I said we have been rather anxious about you

Don’t you worry about me RH was the reply go back to bed old chap I’ll be right as a trivet as soon as I get warm I withdrew there is no further excuse for my presence and back I went to the nursing home again to have another look

At Winnington he was still in a state of coma so I settled down to watch beside him but hour after hour went by while I dozed in my chair and finally the gray light of dawn came and I found his condition still unchanged I had never

Known Taver to be out of his body for such a length of time and winton’s condition worried me considerably he might be all right on the other hand he might not I did not know enough about these transes to be sure and I could not fetch Taver back from his holiday on a

Wild goose chase the day wore itself away and when I found Winnington still in the same state I decided that the time had come for some action to be taken and went to the dispensary to get the strick nine intending to give him an injection of that and see if it would do

Any good the minute I opened the dispensary door I knew there was someone there but when I switched on the light the room stood empty before me all the same the presence positively jostled my elbow as I searched among the shelves for what I required and I felt its

Breath on my neck as I bent over the instrument drawer for the hypmic syringe oh Lord I said out loud I wish Taver would come back and look after his own Spooks here you are whoever you are go on clear out go home we don’t want you here and hastily Gathering up my

Impedimenta I beat a retreat and left it in possession of the dispensary my Evil Genius prompted me to look over my shoulder as I went down the passage and there behind me was a spindle shaped drift of gray Mist some 7t high I’m ashamed to admit it but I ran I’m not

Easily scared by anything I can see but these half-seen things that drift to us out of another existence whose presence one can detect but not locate fill me with cold horror I slammed and locked winton’s door behind me and paused to recover my breath but even as I did so I

Saw a pool of mist gathering on the floor and there was the creature oozing through the crack under the door and reforming itself in the shadow of the Wardrobe what I would not have given for tavener’s presence as I stood there helplessly watching it syringe in hand sweating like a frightened horse then

Illumination suddenly burst upon me what a fool I was of course it was Winnington come back to his body oh Lord I said what a fright you gave me for goodness sake get back in your your body and stop there and we’ll let bygones be bygones

But it did not heed my adjuration it seemed as if it were the hypodermic syringe that attracted it and instead of returning to its physical vehicle it hung around me oh I said so it’s the strick none you’re after well then get back into your body and you shall have

Some look I’m going to give your body an injection get back inside it if you want any strick nine the gray wraith hung for a moment over the unconscious form on the bed and then to my unspeakable relief slowly merged into it I felt the heart take up its beat and breathing

Recommence I went to my room dead beat for I had had no sleep and much anxiety during the past 48 hours so I left a note on my mat to say that I was not to be disturbed in the morning I felt I had Fairly earned my rest I had pulled two

Tricky cases through and put my small knowledge of occultism to a satisfactory test but in spite of my instructions I was not left undisturbed at 7:00 the matron routed me out I wish you would come and look at Mr Winnington doctor I think he’s gone out of his mind I

Wearily put on my clothes and dipped my heavy head in the Basin and went to inspect Winnington instead of his usual cheery smile he greeted me with the malign scowl I should be very glad he said if you would kindly tell me where I am

You are in your own room old chap I said you have had a bad turn but you’re all right again now indeed he said this is the first I have heard of it and who may you be I am rhs I replied don’t you know

Me I know you right enough you were Dr tavener’s underst strapper at that nursing home place I suppose my kind friends have put me here to get me out of the way well I can tell you this they can’t make me stop here where are my

Clothes I want to get up your clothes are wherever you put them I replied we have not taken them away but as for getting up you are not fit to do so we have no wish to keep you here against your will and if you want to be moved we

Will arrange it for you but you will have to have an ambulance youve been pretty bad you know it was my intention to play for time till the sick mood should have passed but he saw through my maneuver ambulance be damned he said said I will go on my own feet and forth

With he sat up in bed and swung his legs over the edge but even this effort was too much for him and he would have slid to the floor if I had not caught him I called the nurse and we put him to bed and capable of giving any further

Trouble for the moment I was rather surprised at this abolition coming from Winnington who had always shown himself a very sweet tempered gentle personality though liable to fits of depression which however were hardly to be wondered at in his condition he had not much to make him cheerful poor Chap and but for

Tavener’s intervention he would probably have ended his days in an infirmary when I went down to the pillar box that evening there was Mrs Bellamy and to my surprise her husband was with her she greeted me with some constraint watching her husband to see how he would take it

But his greeting lacked nothing in the way of cordiality one would thought that I was an old friend of the family he thanked me for my care of him and for my kindness to his wife whom he said he was afraid had been going through a rather

Bad time lately I’m going to take her away for a change however a second honeymoon you know but when we get back I want to see something of you and also of Dr Taver I’m very anxious to keep in touch with Taver I thanked him marveling

At his change of mood and only hoping for his wife’s sake that it would last but drug takers are broken reads to lean upon and I feared she would have to drain her cup to the drugs when I got back to the nursing home I was amazed to find Taver

Here why what in the world has brought you back from your holiday I demanded you did he replied you kept on telepathic SOS messages so I thought I’d better come see what was the matter I am most awfully sorry I said we had a little difficulty but got over it all

Right right what happened he inquired watching me closely and I felt myself getting R like a guilty school boy Bri did not particularly want to tell him of Mrs Bellamy and winton’s infatuation for her I fancy that Winnington tried your stunt of going subconscious I said at

Length he went very deep and was away a long time and I got rather worried you see I don’t understand these things properly and then as he was coming back I saw him and took him for a ghost and got the wind up you saw him exclaimed

Taver how did you manage that you’re not Clairvoyant I saw a gray spindle-shaped drift of mist the same as we saw the time black the Airman nearly died you saw that said Taver in Surprise do you mean to say that Winnington took the theoric double out how long was he

Subconscious about 24 hours good God cried Taver the man’s probably dead he’s nothing of the sort I replied He’s Alive and Kicking kicking vigorously in fact I added remembering the scene of the morning I cannot conceive said taviner how the etheric double the vehicle of the life forces could be withdrawn for

So long a time without disintegration of the physical form commencing where was he and what was he up to perhaps however he was immediately over the bed and merely withdrew from the physical body to escape its discomfort he was in the dispensary when I first saw him I answered devoutly hoping that

Tavener would not need any further information as to winton’s whereabouts he followed me back to his room and I coaxed him into his body tavener gave me a queer look I suppose you took the preliminary precaution of making sure that it was Winnington you had got hold

Of good Lord Taver is there a possibility come upstairs and let us have a look at him I can soon tell you Winnington was lying in a room lit only by a nightlight and though he turned his head at our entrance did not speak Taver

Went over to the bed and switched on the reading lamp standing on the bedside table Winnington flinched at the sudden brightness and growled something but tavener threw the light full into his eyes watching them closely and to my surprise the pupils did not contract I was afraid so said Taver as anything

Wrong I inquired anxiously he seems all right everything is wrong my dear boy answered Taver I’m sure you did the best you knew but you did not know enough unless you thoroughly understand these things it’s best to leave them to nature but but he’s alive I exclaimed bewildered it is alive corrected Taver

That is not Winnington you know then who in the world is it it looks like it to me that we must try and find out who are you he continued raising his voice and addressing the man on the bed you know damn well came the Husky whisper I’m

Afraid I don’t answered Taver I must ask you to tell me why what I began but Taver clapped his hand over my mouth be quiet you fool you’ve done enough damage never let it know the real name then turning back to the sick man again he repeated his question John Bellamy came

The sulky answer tavender nodded and Drew me out of the room Bellamy he asked that is the name of the man who took the hershman’s house has Winnington had anything to do with them look here Taver I said I will tell you something that I had not meant to let you know Winnington

Has got a fixation on Bellamy’s wife and apparently he has brooded over it fantasized over it till his unconscious imagination he has substituted himself for Bellamy that may quite well be it may be an ordinary case of mental trouble we will investigate that end of the stick by and

By but for the present why has Bellamy substituted himself for Winnington a wish fulfillment I replied Winnington is in love with Bellamy’s wife he wishes he were Bellamy in order to possess her therefore his delirium expresses the subconscious wish as an actuality the usual for fian mechanism you know the

Dream as the wish fulfillment I dare say answered Taver the fans explain a lot of things that they don’t understand but what about bellany is he in a trans condition he is apparently quite all right or he was about half an hour ago I saw him when he

Came down to the post with his wife he was quite all right and uncommon civil in fact I dare say said Taver dryly you and WI inton were always Chums now look here rhs you’re not being frank with me I must get to the bottom of this

Business now tell me all about it so I told him narrated In Cold Blood it sounded the flimsiest fantasy when I had finished Taver laughed you’ve done it this time roads he said and you who are so straight laced of all people and he laughed again what is your explanation

Of the matter I inquired somewhat nettled by his laughter I can quite understand Winnington Soul or whatever may be the technical name for it getting out of its body and turning up in Mrs Bellamy’s room we’ve had several cases of that sort of thing and I can understand winton’s Freudian wish

Fulfillment it is the most understandable thing of the whole business the only thing that is not clear to me is the change and character of the two men Bellamy is certainly improved for the moment at any rate and Winnington is in a very bad temper and slightly

Delirious and therein lies the Crux of the whole problem what do you suppose has happened to those two men I haven’t a notion I answered but I have said tavener narcotics if you take enough of them have the effect of putting you out of your body but the margin is a narrow

One between enough and too much and if you take the ladder you go out and don’t come back Winnington found out through you Bellamy’s weakness and being able to leave his body at will as a trained initiate can watched his chance when Bellamy was out of his body in a pipe

Dream and then slipped in obsessed him in fact leaving Bellamy to wander houseless Bellamy craving for his drug and cut off from the physical means of gratification sense from afar the stock we have in the dispensary and goes there and when he sees you with the hypmic

Syringe for an insold etheric can see quite well he instinctively follows you and you meddling in matters of which you know nothing put him into winton’s body as Taver was speaking I realized that we had the true explanation of the phenomena Point by point it fitted in

With all that I had witnessed is there anything that can be done to put matters right I asked now thoroughly chastised there are several things that can be done but it is a question as to what you would consider to be right surely there can be no doubt upon that point get the

Men sorted back into their proper bodies you think that would be right said Taver I am not so certain in that case you would have three unhappy people in the present case you have two who are very happy and one who is angry the world on the whole being richer but how about

Miss bellamia said she is living with the man she is not married to the law would consider her to be married to him answered tavener our marriage laws only separate for sins of the body they do not recognize adultery of the Soul so long as the body has been faithful they

Would think no evil a change of disposition for the worse whether under the influence of drugs drink or Insanity does not constitute grounds for divorce under our exalted C therefore a change of Personality for the better under a psychic influence does not constitute either one the mandrin cannot have it both

Ways anyway I replied it does not seem to me moral how do you define morality said tavener the law of the land I began in that case a man’s admission to Heaven would be decided by Act of parliament if you go through a form of marriage with a

Woman a day before a new marriage law takes effect you will go to prison and subsequently to hell for bigamy whereas if you go through the same ceremony with the same woman the day after you will live in the odor of the sanctuary and finally go to heaven no roads we will

Have to seek deeper than that for our standards then said I how would you define immorality as that said Taver which retards the evolution of the group soul of the society to which one belongs there are times when law breaking is the highest ethical act we can all think of

Such occasions in history the many acts of Conformity both Catholic and Protestant for example Martyrs are law Breakers and most of them were legally convicted at the time of their execution it has remained for subsequent ages to canonize them but to return to practical politics Taver what are you going to do with

Winnington certify him said Taver and ship him off to the County Asylum as soon as we can get the ambulance you must do as you see fit I replied but I am damned if I will put my name on that certificate you lack the courage of your

Convictions but may I take it that you will not protest how the hell can I I should only get certified myself you must Su your good to be evil spoken of in the Wicked World rejoined my partner and the discussion was likely to have developed into the first quarrel we had ever had

When the door suddenly opened and the nurse stood there doctor she said Mr Winnington passed away thank God I said good lord said tavener we went upstairs and Stood Beside that which lay upon the bed never before had I so clearly realized that the physical form is not

The man here was a house that had been tenanted by two distinct entities that had stood vacant for 36 hours and that now was permanently empty soon the walls would crumble and the roof fall in how could I ever have thought this was my friend a quarter of a mile away the soul

That had built this habitation was laughing up its sleeve and somewhere probably in the dispensary a furious entity that had recently been in prison behind its own bars was raging impotently nosing at the stoppers of the poison bottles for the stimulant it no longer had the stomach to hold my knees

Gave under me and I dropped into a chair nearer fainting than I have ever been since my first operation well that is settled anyway I said in a voice that sounded strange in my own ears you think so now I consider the trouble is just beginning said Taver

Has it struck you that so long as Bellamy was imprisoned in a body we knew where he was and could keep him under control but now he is loose in the Unseen World and will take a considerable amount of catching then you think he will try to interfere with his

Wife and and her husband what would you do if you were in his shoes said tavener and yet you don’t consider the transaction is immoral I do not it has done no harm to the group’s Spirit or the social morale if you prefer the term on the other hand Winnington is running

An enormous risk can he keep Bellamy at Bay now he is out of the body and if he cannot what will happen remember Bellamy’s time to die had not come and therefore he will hang about an Earthbound ghost like that of a suicide and if tuberculosis is a disease of the

Vital forces I believe it to be how long will it be before the infected life that now and souls it will cause the old trouble to break out in Bellamy’s body and when Bellamy the second is out on the Asal plane dead as you call it what

Will Bellamy the first have to say to him and what will they do to Mrs Bellamy between them making her neighborhood of their Battleground no rhs there is no special hell for those who dabble and forbidden things it would be Superfluous end of chapter 8

Section 10 of the secrets of Dr Taver by Dion Fortune This LibriVox recording is in the public domain chapter 9 recalled be off with the old love are you’re on with the new how many people are there in the waiting room Bates inquired Taver of the butler

At the end of a long day in the Harley Street Consulting room too sir answered that functionary a lady and a Gentleman ah said Taver we’ll show the lady in I think they came together sir then show the gentleman in a man never brings his wife on these Expeditions he added to me

She comes with a friend but a man will let his wife bring him he being the weaker sex and in need of protection where his nerves are concerned they arrived together however in spite of tavener’s instructions and and the butler announced them as Colonel and Mrs

Eustace he was a tall fine looking man much bronzed by the tropical sons and she was one of those women who make one proud of one’s race slender graceful with the controlled fire of a thorough bread the fruit of many generations of refining shelter and worthy Pride they

Made a fine pair such as the society papers loved picture and they both looked perfectly healthy it was the wife who opened the ball we that is my husband wants to consult you doct Taver about a matter which has disturbed us lately a reoccurring nightmare Taver bowed the

Husband never spoke I gathered that he had been dragged here against his will I always know when it’s commencing Mrs eustus continued because he begins to mutter in his sleep then he speaks louder and louder and finally he leaps up rushes across the room and crashes into the furniture before I can do

Anything to stop him and then wakes up in a dreadful State don’t you Tony she demanded turning to the silent man at her side meeting with no response from him she again took up the burden of her story as soon as I realized that the nightmare was reoccurring regularly I

Took to rousing him at the first sign of disturbance and this proved fairly effective for it prevented the rush across the room but we neither of us dared go to sleep again until daylight in fact to be frank with you doctor I seem to be catching it you also have the

Nightmare asked Havener no not the actual nightmare but an indefinable sense of dread as if some dangerous enemy were threatening what does your husband say when he talks in his sleep ah that I cannot tell you for he speaks in one of the Native dialects I suppose I ought to

Learn it ought I not Tony for we shall be going out to India next tring season it will not be necessary replied her husband for we shall not be returning to that District his Pleasant cultured voice was in keeping with his appearance he was a type of administrator of Empire

Who was fast dying out such men will not submit themselves to a native democracy Taver a question at him suddenly what do you dream about he demanded looking him straight in the eyes one felt the barriers go up in an instant but he answered with the control that breeding

Teaches the usual sort of thing boogies you know W to run and can’t I ought to have left all such things behind in the nursery I am no psychic but I knew that he was lying and that he had no intention of confiding anything to

Anybody he had come to Tav in order to quiet his wife not because he desired help he had probably got his own ideas as to the nature of his Affliction and they were such that he did not care to voice them tavener turned to the wife again you say that the nightmare

Communicates itself to you may I ask you to detail the nature of your Sensations Mrs Eustace looked at her husband and hesitated my husband thinks I’m very imaginative she said never mind said Taver tell me your imaginations I’m wide awake of course after the disturbance and sometimes I

Imagine that I have seen a native woman in dark blue dra Brees with gold sequence dangling on her forehead and many bracelets on her arms and she seems very excited and distressed and to be trying to talk to my husband and then when I interfere and Rouse him she tries

To push me away it is after I Rouse him that I have the sense of malignancy as if someone were trying to injure me if only they could manage it I’m afraid said Colonel Eustace that I have thoroughly alarmed my wife we turned and looked at him in involuntary surprise

His voice had entirely changed its Timber the self-control of his breed could hold the muscles of the face steady but could not prevent that tensing of the whole frame under stress which sent the pitch of his voice up half an octave and gave a metallic Edge

To its tones I suppose he continued as if anxious to distract our attention that you will prescribe open air and exercise in fact that is just my own idea and we have been thinking of going to the Kent Coast for golf so I dare say that the sooner we get off the better

There’s no use in hanging about in London with no reason you forget dear said his wife that I have to open the exhibit of native art on Saturday oh yes yes of course he answered hastily must stop over Saturday go down on Monday there was a pause the interview seemed to have

Come to a dead end Miss Eustace looked appealingly from her husband to tavener and back again but the one could not and the other would not assist her I felt that she had hoped great things the visit of Taver and that disappointed she had no other carard to play against the

Fate that was enveloping her I also thought that her eyes had in them a look of apprehension Taver broke the silence at last if Colonel Eustace ever cares to consult me he said I shall be very glad to assist him because I think I could be of service to him our unwilling patient

Sat up at this home thrust and opened his mouth as if to speak but tavener turning to the wife continued and if Miss Eustace should ever be in need of my assistance it is equally at her disposal I trust there is little likelihood of that said her husband

Rising she is in excellent health and Bates opening the door in response to tavenner’s ring we bowed them out an unsatisfactory blighter I remarked as the door closed behind them not ready yet said tavener he has a few things to learn in the course of his Evolution and

Unless I’m much mistaken he will be learning them very shortly then we may hear from him again never make the mistake of confusing unripe fruit with bad fruit we heard of them again and sooner than even Taver expected when a couple of days later I threw across to him an

Evening paper which contained the announcement that Mrs Eustace owing to her sudden indisposition would not be opening the exhibition of Indian art at the Aston galleries as announced but that the task would be performed by some other social luminary of course it may be the flu I

Said or the cic said Taver or even housemid knee he added for he was not communicative to Skeptics the next move did not come as soon as I expected who was looking for Colonel Eustace every time the bell rang but in the end he appeared and it was obvious to the most

Casual glance that he had been through a good deal in the interval the way he lay back in the chair showed that he was at the end of his tether mental and physical and Taver relieved him of the effort of opening the conversation how did you come to hear of

Me he asked I always thought my light was adequately bushel from all except those of the same way of thinking as myself my wife heard of you was the reply she’s interested in in your line of work ah she’s a student of the occult I shouldn’t call her a student of it

Said Eustace wriggling at the word occult she dabbles in it and goes to lectures on Eastern mysticism that are no more like the real thing than then the cat like a tiger he added with a sudden Rush of emotion pointing to the housekeeper’s Tabby that happened to be

Patronizing a hearth drug I wish to God she’d leave it alone he added wearily I take it said Taver quietly that you are not a believer in the subject if you had asked me that question a week ago said Eustace I should have answered no but

Today I don’t know what to say but I can tell you one thing he cried the banked fire is blazing forth again if occultism isn’t true if you haven’t got the powers you’re credited with then it’s all up with Evelyn I take it said Taver quietly Gathering up the control of the

Interview with voice and manner that something is affecting your wife which you guess to be of a cult origin that you do not understand its method of working I understand its method of working all right said our visitor grimly though I had never believed believed such Tales will you give me the

Particulars said tavener and then I shall be able to form an opinion I may as well tell you the whole story said Colonel Eustace for I don’t suppose as a man of the world you will attach the importance to it that my wife might if

She got to hear of it not that there is not perfect confidence between us but women don’t understand these matters and it’s no use trying to make them you may remember that my wife at our last interview spoke of dreaming about a native woman and hearing an

Indian dialect spoken I think from her description that what she saw was a vision of a woman I kept for some time when I was stationed on the border and who made a good deal of fuss when I sent her away as they sometimes do I’ve often heard that if a man enters

Into relations with a native woman they have an uncanny Knack of laying hold of your soul by Heathen jiggery spooker I never believed it laughed at it in fact when I saw another fellow bothered in the same way but my God it’s true that woman has haunted my dreams ever since

She died and since I married Evelyn she is turned into an avenging devil what condition is your wife in at the present moment inquired tavener a stuper the doctors talk about sleepy sickness but with a grim laugh I know better I saw her go into the condition and I know

What it is I tell you I heard those two women talking together hanfa in the broken English I taught her as plainly as I hear you and from that time 10 days ago Evelyn has never recovered full Consciousness and her strength is slowly ebbing away they told me today that they

Did not expect her to last through the night he added his voice breaking and putting up his hand to hide his twitching lips would you care for me to see your wife said tavner it is difficult for me to advise unless I do so I have the car at the door to take

You to or if you’ll be good enough to come there is one thing I must ask of you however before I undertake the case said Taver and that is if when you have heard my advice you decide to follow it you will go through to the end there’s

Nothing more disastrous than to start upon an occult undertaking and then back out of it unless you can do something there’s nothing that can be done said Eustace brokenly and we followed him out to the car I had thought Mrs Eustace a beautiful woman when I had seen her in

The formal cloth of our civilization but lying relaxed in her white draperies on her white bed she was more like my Boyhood idea of an Angel than anything I have ever seen in picture or statuary I could understand why her husband adored her it did not need the stethoscope to tell

Me that life was at a low E no pulse was perceptible in the rest and it was only an occasional faint Stir of the laces on her bosom that showed she still breathed there was little doubt she would not last the night in fact she might go at

Any moment Taver sent the nurse out of the room and placed Eustace in myself at the far end then he seated himself beside the bed and gazed intently into the face of the conscious woman and I Knew by his concentration that his mind was seeking to make contact with her

Soul wherever it may be I saw him lay his hand on her breast and I guessed that he was calling her back into her body and as I watched I Saw The Inspirations deepen and become regular and the wax and passivity passed from her face then she spoke and at the sound

Of her voice it was all I could do to keep her husband from rushing across to her then and there I asked to tell you came the slow faltering words that the money was returned even if it never reached you Eustace gave a groan and dropped his

Head in his hands I am also asked to tell you went on the faltering voice that it would have been a son tavener lifted his hand from her breast and the breathing slowed down again and the face resumed its deathly fixation can you make anything of that

He asked Eustace yes replied the man raising his face from his hands it exactly confirms what I thought it is that devil Hana this is her revenge Taver led us from the room I want full particulars he said I cannot deal with the case unless I have them Eustace

Looked uncomfortable I will tell you anything I can he said at length what is it you want to know the whole story would make a long story what was the origin of your affair with this Indian girl was she a professional cortison or did you buy her from her

Parents neither she did a bolt and I looked after her A Love Affair you can call it that if you like though I don’t care to remember it since since I’ve learned What Love Can Be what was the cause of your parting well uh you see

There was a child coming and I couldn’t stand that Hana was well enough in her way but your erasion brat was more than I could endure I suppose those Affairs usually in that way so you sent her back to her people I couldn’t very well do that they would probably have killed her

But I gave her a good sum of money enough to set her up for life they don’t need much to make them happy life is pretty simple out there so you gave her sufficient Capital to set up on her own as a corisan well yes I expect that’s

What she would have done with it there’s not much else she could do with it I should imagine they don’t think much of that out there some casts do said Taver quietly but she sent the money back to you he continued after a pause what became of her after that I

Believe the servants said something about suicide so she did not accept the alternative you offered no she did not it’s an unpleasant incident and best forgotten I don’t suppose I came out of it all other blameless muttered Eustace getting up and walking about the room at

Any rate he continued with the air of a man who has pulled himself together what are we going to do about it hanfa apparently knew more of or occultism than accredited her with and you too from all accounts have also got a knowledge of the matter it’s East

Against West who’s going to win I think said tavener in that quiet voice of his that Hana is is going to win because she has right on her side but hang it all a native girl they don’t think anything of that out there apparently she did some

Of the casts are a bit straight laced in their way but she would have got on all right I gave her plenty to keep going till after the child was done with he continued squaring his shoulders why doesn’t she go for me and let Evelyn alone Evelyn never did her any harm I

Could stand it as long as she only pestered me but this this is a different matter the appearance of the nurse interrupted aroly Miss Eustace has recovered Consciousness she said I think you better come we went to the sick room and my professional eye told me that this

Was the last flicker of a Dying flame Mrs Eustace recognized her husband as he knelled beside her but I do not think that tavner and I meant anything to her she looked at him with a strange expression in her face as if she’d never seen him before I did not think you were

Like that she said he seemed perplexed by her words and not to know what answer to make to them and then she broke the silence again oh Tony she said she was only 15 then we grasped the reference never mind dearest whispered the man at her

Side forget all that what you will have to do now is get well and strong and then we will talk it all over when you get better I’m not going to get better came the quiet voice from the bed oh yes dear you are isn’t she doctor appealing

To Taver Taver weighed his words before answering it is just possible he said at length I do not wish to get better said the voice from the bed everything is so so different to what I expected I did not think you were like that Tony but I

Suppose all men are the same you mustn’t take it so to Heart dear said the man at her side cried brokenly everybody does it out there they have to it’s the climate nobody thinks anything of it I do said the voice that came from so far

Off and so would all the other women if they knew men are wise not to tell women wouldn’t stand it but it wasn’t one of our women dear but it was a woman and I am a woman and it seems to hurt me because it hurts Womanhood I can’t put

Plainly but I feel it I feel it as a hurt to all that is best in me what are you to do with men out on Frontiers said the man desperately it’s the penalty of the Empire it’s the curse of the Empire came the far away voice no

Wonder they hate us I always wondered why it is we can never never make friends of them it’s because we outrage their womankind there’s some things that are never forgotten oh don’t don’t say that Evelyn said the man brokenly I’m not saying it to you Tony she answered I love you just

As I’ve always loved you but you do not understand this thing that is the trouble I do not blame you for taking her but I Blame You and bitterly for throwing her aside good lord said Eustace appealingly to the supporting males what is one to

Do with the woman and she does not blame you continued the voice for taking her or for throwing her aside she loved you and she understood in fact she never expected anything else she tells me it is herself that she blames and she has not been angry with you but has been

Imploring you to help her out undo the wrong that has been done what is it she wants I’ll do anything on Earth if she will let you alone she says the voice seemed very long way off like a trunk call on a telephone that the soul that

Was to have come into life through you and her was a very lofty Soul indeed a Mahatma she called him what is the Mahatma one of those people who stirs up trouble never mind about him go on what does she want me to do she says that

Because of her attainments in the past she was chosen to give him birth and because he had to reconcile east and west east and west had to be reconciled in him also he had to come through a great love I am glad it was great love Tony that

Seems to sanctify it and make it better somehow eustus turned appalled Eyes Upon Us and because it was a great privilege it had to be bought by a great sacrifice she had to give up the love before she brought him to birth I suppose that is always the way she says

They offered her the choice she might have the love of a man of her own people a home and happiness or she might have the love of a western man for a short time in order that the great reconciler might come into life she chose the

Latter she knew what it would mean when she entered on it she said but she found it harder than she thought it was because you sent her so much money that she killed herself for she knew your conscience would be at ease after that and she did not wish you to be at

Ease God knows I’m not groaned theand she is having her revenge all right what more does she want that little devil it is the Mahatma Soul she is troubled about came the answer and because of it she cannot rest what does she want me to do asked

The man she wants us to take it but good Lord what does she mean a halfcast you Evelyn a oh heavens no nothing doing I would sooner have you dead than that let her take her twice damned madama go to whatever hell they belong to no she

Doesn’t mean that Tony she means that she wishes us you and I to take him oh well if we can find the kid yes anything if only you’ll get well I’ll send them to eaten and Oxford or Lassa or Mecca or wherever else they have a

Fancy for if they will only let you alone I don’t want to get well came the voice from the depth of the pillows but dear for my sake you said you still loved me I don’t want to get well but I suppose I must just as she ought to have

Gone on living although she did not want to because of him whom the soul that was to have come the soul who will come now the re reconciler there was a pause then she spoke again and her voice seemed to gain strength with each sentence it will be

Very difficult Tony we’ll manage somehow dear as long as we have each other it will be more difficult than you think Miss Eustace recovered rapidly and her husband’s Joy knew no bounds he attributed it all to Taver although as a matter of fact tavener had been nothing

But an onlooker AS the strange drama of life and death worked itself out as such a man will who lives upon the surface of things and Prides himself upon his matter of actess Eustace soon forgot the inner aspect of the whole Affair his wife had had sleepy sickness and thank

God was over it therefore he rejoiced and had much to rejoice in for firstly promotion had come his way and from the command of a regiment he had passed to one of the most important administrative posts over the heads of many seniors likewise by the Unexpected death of a

Cousin he had become air presumptive to a great name and thirdly to Crown his Joy it was apparent that the name would not end with him we went to dinner with them on the eve of their sailing Eustace was in seventh heaven the telegrams of congratulations arriving through all the meal

The face of his wife had never lost its look of remoteness and Stillness which she had brought back from her sojourn on other ples but there was no joy in her eyes save pleasure at his pleasure and a rather sad Smile as of one who watched a

Beloved child set its heart upon a bobble we heard no more of them till chance gossip gave us news have you heard about the eustus said a man at my club General as he is now their child it’s as black as Cole everybody wonders what he’s going to do about it it would

Probably have meant his resignation if he had not such a terrific influence with all that seditionist crowd that no one else can manage can’t understand as being such a success with them not much tact and less understanding still they seem to hit it off pity about her isn’t

It an awfully nice woman sort of stained glass window Saint can’t understand it at all some years later the Eustace appeared on the scene again he was now a baronet having succeeded to his cousin’s title and he was likewise something very lofty in the government of India but he

Was also a changed man his hair was white as snow and his face preternaturally aged with deep lines and sunken eyes strangely enough lady Eustace as she was now had changed least of all save that she was a etherealized until she no longer seemed to be of this

Earth I gathered that she led a very retired life taking no part in the social activities that usually fall to the lot of a woman in her position with them was a child of five with jet black hair dark olive skin slender Limbs and a

Pair of eyes as blue as the sea they were the strangest eyes I have ever seen in the face of a child for they had the depth of the sea as well as bless those eyes of the West and the face of the East I wondered what the soul would see

That looked at its native East through Western eyes eustus drew me aside he seemed to need to unbosom his soul to someone who knew the story pointing to the child with its mother he said you can guess what that meant to us our position eh I wouldn’t mind for myself

He continued but it’s so hard for her a crucifixion here added I heard the mother’s voice speaking to Taver you see it too she was saying softly isn’t it wonderful what have I I of all women done to deserve such a thing then turning to the child she said do you

Know who this gentleman is darling yes said the child he is also one of us as I told you queer little cuss said the father patting his son’s head have you found another of your your friends end of chapter n chapter 10 the seure do you know

Anything about Stigmata said my v it was a very unexpected question to have shot at one under the circumstances I had been unable to evade an invitation to spend the evening with an old fellow student who since the war had held the uninspiring post of medical officer at a

Poor law institution a post for which I should say he was admirably fitted and now I found myself facing him across a not very elegant supper table in his quarters in a great Fortress of dingy red brick which looked out for miles over the gray wastes of sordidness which

Are South London I was so taken by surprised that he had to repeat his question before I answered it do you know anything about stigmata hysterical Stigmata he said again I’ve seen simulated tumors I said they are fairly common but I have never seen actual Flesh Wounds such as the saints

Were supposed to have had what do you attribute them to asked my companion Autos suggestion I replied imagination so vivid that it actually affects the tissues of the body I have got a case in one of my wards that I should like to show you he said a most curious case I

Think it is hysterical Stigmata I cannot account for it any other way a girl was brought in here a couple of days ago suffering from a gunshot wound in the shoulder she came here to have the bullet removed but would give no account as to how she came by the injury we

Admitted her and couldn’t see any bullet which was rather puzzling she was in a condition of semi stuper which we naturally attributed to the loss of blood and so we kept her here of course there’s nothing odd in all that save our failure to locate the bullet but then

Such things happen even with the best apparatus and ours is a long way from being that but here’s the queer part of the case I was sitting quietly up here last night between 11: and 12 when I heard a shriek of course there’s nothing odd about that either in this District

But in a minute or two they rang up on the house telephone to say I was wanted in the ws and I went down to find this girl with another bullet wound no one had heard a shot fired all the windows were intact there was a nurse not 10 ft

From her when we x-rayed her again failed to find the bullet yet there was a clean hole drilled in her shoulder and oddest of all it never bled a drop do you make of it if you are certain there’s no external agency at work then the one hypothesis is an internal one is

She an hysterical type distinctly looks as if she came out of one of the Bernie Jones pictures morever she has been in a sort of steeper each night for an hour or more at a time it was while in this state that she developed the second

Wound would you care to come down and have a look at her I should like to have your opinion I know you have gone in for psychoanalysis and all sorts of things that are beyond my Keen I accompanied him to the wards and there we found in

One of the rough infirmary beds a girl who lying on the coarse pillow with closed eyes and parted lips looked exactly like Bea Beatrix of Rosetti’s Vision save that honey colored hair flowed over the pillow like seaweed when she opened her eyes at her presence they

Were green as seawat seen from a rock all was quiet in the ward for infirmary patients are settled for the night at an early hour and my friends signed the nurse to put screens around the bed that we might examine our case without disturbing them it was as he had said

Two obvious bullet wounds one more recent than the other and from their position and proximity I judged that they had been inflicted with intention to disable but not to kill in fact she had been very neatly winged by an expert Marksman it was only the circumstances

Of the second shot that gave the case any interest except a criminal one I sat down on a chair at the bedside and began to talk to her seeking to win her confidence she gazed back at me dreamily with her strange seag green eyes and answered my questions readily enough she

Seemed curiously detached curiously indifferent to our opinion of her as if she lived in a far away world of her own about which she was quite willing to talk to anyone who was interested Ed do you dream much I said making the usual opening this seemed to touch a subject

Of Interest oh yes she replied I dream a tremendous lot I have always dreamt ever since I can remember I think my dreams are the realest part of my life and the best part she added with a smile so why shouldn’t I your dreams seem to have led

You into danger recently I answered drawing a bow at Adventure she looked at me sharply as if to see how much I knew and then said thoughtfully yes I mustn’t go there again but I expect I shall all the same she added with an elfish smile can you

Go where you choose in your dreams I asked sometimes she replied and was about to say more when she caught the sight of my companion’s bewildered face and the words died on her lips I saw that she was what Taver would have called one of us and my interest was

Roused I pied the refined artistic looking girl in these sorted surroundings her great shining eyes looking out like those of a caged creature Behind Bars and I said what is your work shop girl she replied A Smile curling the corners of her lips drapery to be precise her words and manner were

So ADV variance with her description of herself that I was still further intrigued where are you going when you come out of here I inquired she looked wearily out into distance the little smile still hovering about her mouth back into my dreams I expect she replied I don’t suppose I shall find anywhere

Else to go I knew well tor’s generosity with the necessitous cases especially if they were of his own kind and I felt sure that he would be interested both in the personality of the girl and in her peculiar injuries and I said how would you like to go down to a convalescent

Home at hin head when you leave here she gazed at me in silence for a moment with her strange gleaming eyes hind head she asked what sort of place is that it is Morland I replied Heather and pine you know very bracing oh if it could only be

The sea she exclaimed wistfully a rocky Coast miles from anywhere where the Atlantic rollers come in and the seabirds are flying and calling if it could only be the sea I should get right the Moors are not my place it is the sea I need it is life to me she paused

Abruptly as if she feared to have said too much and then she added please don’t think that I am ungrateful a rest and change would be a great help yes I should be very thankful for a letter for the nursing home her voice trailed into silence in her eyes looking more like

Deep seawat than ever gazed unseeing into a distance where I have no doubt the goals were flying and calling and the Atlantic rollers coming in from the West she’s gone off again said my host it is apparently her regular time for going into a state of coma as we watched

Her she took a deep inspiration and then all breathing ceased it ceased for so long although the pulse continued vigorously that I was just on the point of suggesting artificial respiration when with a profound exhalation lungs took up their work with deep rhythmical gasps now if You observe a person’s

Respiration closely you will invariably find that you yourself begin to breathe with the same Rhythm it was a very peculiar Rhythm which I found myself assuming and yet it was not unfamiliar I had breathed with that Rhythm before and I searched my subconscious mind for a

Clue suddenly I found it it was the respiration of a swimmer in rough water no doubt the cessation of breathing represented the dive the girl was dreaming of her sea so absorbed was I in the problem that I would have sat up all night in the hopes of finding some

Evidence of the mysterious as salant but my host touched my sleeve we had better be moving he said matron you know and I followed him out of the darkened Ward what do you make make of it he inquired eagerly as soon as we were out in the

Corridor I think as you do I answered that we are dealing with the case of stigmata but it will require more Plumbing than I could give it this evening and I should like to keep in touch with her if you are willing he was only too willing seeing himself in print

In the Lancet and possessed of that dubious type of Glory which comes to the owners of curios it was a blessed break in the monotony of his routine and he naturally welcomed it now that which is to follow will doubtless be set down as the grossest kind of coincidence and as several such

Coincidences have been reported in these Chronicles I do not suppose I have much reputation for veracity anyway but Taver always held that some coincidences especially those which might be conceived to serve the purpose of an intelligent Providence were not as fortuitous as they appeared to be but were due to causes which operated

Invisibly upon subtler Plains of existence and whose effects alone were seen in our material world and that those of us who are in touch with the Unseen as he was and as I to a lesser degree on account of my association with him and his work had also come to be

Might get ourselves into the hidden currents of that realm and thereby be brought in touch with those engaged in similar Pursuits I had too often watched Havener picking up people apparently at random and arriving at the psychological moment apparently by chance to doubt the operation of some such laws as you

Describ though I neither understood their workings nor recognized them at the time it is only in the perspective that one sees the Unseen hand therefore it was that when on my return to hin head to having requested me to undertake a certain task I concluded that my plans

With regard to the study of stigmata case must be set aside and banished the matter from my mind rhs he said I want you to undertake a piece of work for me I would go myself but it’s extremely difficult for me to get away and you know enough of my methods by now

Combined with your native common sense in which I have much more faith than in many people’s psychism to be able to report the matter and possibly deal with it under my instruction he handed me a letter it was inscrib care GH frer and began without any further Preamble that of which you

Warned me has occurred I have indeed got out of my debts and unless you can pull me out I shall be a drowned man literally as well as metaphorically I cannot get away from here and come to you can can you possibly come to me and a quotation from

Virgil which seemed to have little bearing on the subject closed the appeal cting Adventure I readily acceded to taber’s request it was a long journey I had to undertake and when the train came to rest at its Terminus in the gray Twilight of a winter afternoon I could

Smell the Keen salt Tang of the wind that drove straight in from the West to me there is always something thrilling in arriving at a Seaside place and getting the first glimpse of the sea and my mind reverted to that other solitary Soul who had loved Blue Water the girl

With the Rosetti face who lay in the rough infirmary bed in the dreary desert of South London she was vividly present in my mind as I entered the musty four-wheeler which was all that the station could produce in the off seon and drove through deserted and wind

Swept streets onto the seafront the line of Breakers showed gray through the Gathering Darkness as we left the asphalt and boarding houses behind us and followed the Coast Road out into the uial flats beyond the town presently the road began to wind upwards toward the cliffs and I could hear the horse

Wheezing with the ascent till a hail from the darkness put a stop to our progress a figure clad in an inous Cape appeared in the light of the carriage lamps and a voice which had that indefinable something which Oxford always gives a man greeted me by name

And invited me to a light although I could see no sign of habitation I did as I was bidden and the cabman maneuvering his vehicle departed into the windy darkness and left me alone with my invisible host he possessed himself of my bag and we set off straight for the

Edge of the cliff so far as I could make out leaning up against the force of the Gale an invisible surf crashed and roared below us and it seemed to me that drowning was the order of the day for both of us presently however I felt a

Path under my feet keep close to the Rock shouted my guide next day I knew why and we dipped over the edge of the cliff and began to descend its base we continued in this way for what seemed to me an immense distance I learned later it was about a quarter

Of a mile and then to my amazement I heard the click of a latch it was too dark to see anything but warm air smoked my face and I knew that I was undercover I heard my host fumbling with the box of matches and as the light flared I saw

That I was in a good sized room apparently hun out of the Cliff face in a most comfortable apartment book lined warm L curtained Persian rugs on the smooth Stone of the floor and a fire of Driftwood burning on the Open Hearth which the toe of my companion’s boot

Soon stirred to a blaze the amazing contrast to my gloomy and perilous arrival took my breath away my host smiled I’m afraid he said that you were making up your mind to be murdered I ought to have explained to you the nature of my habitation I’m so used to

It myself that it does not seem to me that it may appear strange to others it is an old Smuggler layer that I have adapted to my use and being made of the living rock it has peculiar advantages for the work on which I am engaged we

Sat down to the meal that was already upon the table and I had an opportunity to study the appearance of my host whether he was an elderly man who’ preserved his youth or a young man prematurely aged I could not tell but the maturity of his mind was such that I

Inclined to the former hypothesis for a wide experience of men and things must have gone to the ripening of such a nature as his his face had something of the lawyer about it but his hands were those of an artist it was a combination I had often seen before in tavener’s

Friends for the intellectual who has a touch of the Mystic generally ends in occultism his hair was nearly white in strange contrast to his wind tanned face and sparkling dark eyes his figure was spare and athletic and well above middle height but his movements had not the

Ease of Youth but rather the measured Dignity of a man who was accustomed to public appearances it was an interesting and impressive personality but he showed me none of the signs of distress that his letter had led me to expect after din pipes soon led to confidences and

After after sitting for a while in the warm fire lit silence my host seemed to gather his resolution together and after Crossing and uncrossing his legs several times uneasily finally said well doctor this visit is on business not pleasure so we may as well cut the cackle and

Come to the OES I suppose I appear to you to be sane enough at the present moment I bowed my Ascent at 11:00 you will have the pleasure of seeing me go off my head will you tell me what you are experiencing I said you not one of

Us he replied I probably failed to acknowledge some sign but you must be in tavener’s confidence or he would not have sent you I’m going to speak freely to you you are willing to admit I presume that there’s more in Heaven and Earth than you are taught in the medical

Schools no one can look at life honestly in the face without admitting that I replied I have respect for for the Unseen though I don’t pretend to understand it good man was the reply you will be more used to me than a brother a cultist who might encourage me in my

Delusions I want facts not fantasies once I am certain that I am deluded I can pull myself together it is uncertainty that is baffling me he looked at his watch paused and then with an effort plunged in media re I’ve been studying the elemental forces I suppose you know what that means the

Semi-intelligent entities Beyond potencies of nature we divide them into four classes earth air fire and water now I am of the earth earthy I raised my eyebrows and query for his appearance belii the description that he gave of himself he smiled I did not say of the

Flesh fleshy that is quite a different matter but in my horoscope I have five planets in Earth signs and consequently my nature is bound up with the formal side of things now in order to counteract this state of affairs I set myself to get in touch with the fluidic

Side of nature Elemental water I’ve succeeded in doing so he paused and packed the tobacco in his pipe with a nervous gesture but not only have I got in touch with the water Elementals but they’ve got in touch with me one in particular the pipe again required attention it was the most extraordinary

Exhilarating experience everything I lacked seemed to be added to me I was complete vital in circuit with the cosmic forces in fact I got everything I’d sought in marriage and failed to find but and here’s the rub the creature that called me was in the water and it

Was in the water that I had to meet her round this Headland the tides run like Fury no swimmer could hold his own against them even in calm weather but by night and in a storm which is the time she generally comes it would be certain

Death but she calls me and she Wills me to go to her and one of these nights I shall do so that is my trouble he stopped but I could see by the working of his face that there was more to come so I kept silence he bent down and took

From the side of the Hearth an object which he handed to me it was a small Crucible and had evidently been used to melt down silver you will laugh when I tell you what I use that for to make silver bullets silver bullets to shoot

With he HIIT his face in his hands oh my God I tried to murder her the flood gates of emotion were opened and I could see his shoulder shoulders Heath to the tide of it I could see her as she swam in the Moonlight and as her shoulder

Rose to the stroke I shot her in the round white curve of it white as foam against the black water and she vanished then I thought I had killed the thing I loved I would have given Heaven and Earth to bring her back and to swim out

There to her in the tide race and drown with her I was like a mad man I wandered on the shore for days I could neither eat nor sleep and then she came again and I knew that it was my life or hers and I being of the earth clung to

The life of formor and I shot her again and now I’m in torment I love her I long for her I call to her in the Unseen and when she comes to me I wait for her with the rifle he came to an abrupt stop and remained rigid gazing Into the Heart of

Of the dying fire his empty pipe in hand I glanced surreptitiously at my watch and saw that the hands were pointing to 11 his hour was upon him he rose and crossing the room Drew back the draperies at the far end and revealed a casement window flinging it open he

Seated himself on the still and gazed fixedly into the darkness without moving softly I took my place behind him where I could see what was Happ happening outside and be ready to seize hold of him if necessary for a while we waited the clouds hurried over the moon

Sometimes letting its Radiance pour out in a silver flood but more often hiding its face and leaping Us in the Roaring crashing darkness of that surf beaten Coast it was indeed a magic casement opening on the foam of that perilous seas and fairy lands forlorn I shall never forget that vigil nothing but

Heaving Waters as far as the eye could see all flecked with foam in the Moonlight where the reefs were hidden by the flood tide which swirled below us like a Mill Race my companion’s fine cut features had the boldness and immobility of the Statue of a Roman Emperor silhouetted against the silver

Background of the water he never stirred he might have been carving in stone till I saw a quiver run through through him knew that he had found that for which he waited I strained my eyes to see what it was that had caught his attention and

Sure enough right out in the tract of the Moonlight something was swimming coming steadily towards us through the reefs the white shoulder lifting to the stroke just as he had described it nearer nearer where no living Soul could have swam in that wild tide race till

Not 30 yards from the base of the cliff I could descri a woman’s form with the hair streaming out like seaweed the man at the window LED right out stretching forth his arms to the swimmer and I fearing that he would overbalance put mine gently around him and Drew him back

Into the room he seemed oblivious of my presence and yielded to the pressure as if asleep and I lowered him gently to the floor where he lay Motionless in a trance a stooped to feel his pulse and as I counted the slow beats I heard a

Sound that made me hold my breath and listen it seemed as if the sea had risen and filled the room and yet not the material sea but its ghost shadowy imp palpable seawater flowed in waves to the very ceiling and the sea creatures looked in from without then I saw the

Form of a woman at the window shining with its own luminosity it was clearly visible in the green Gloom that was like the bottom of the sea the hair floated out like seaweed the shoulders gleamed like marble and the face was that of Aida betrix awakened from her dream and

The eyes were like seawat seen from a rock and there sure enough were the marks where the Silver Bullets had wounded her we looked into each other’s eyes and I am convinced she saw me as clearly as I saw her and that she knew me for the same faint smile that I had

Seen before hovered on her lips I spoke as one addressing a sentient creature do not try to take him this way I said or you will kill him trust me I will make things right I will explain everything she looked at me with those strange seag

Green eyes of hers as if piercing my very Soul apparently satisfied she smiled again and turning slowly as one swim swimming she withdrew and the shadowy sea water flowed after till the room was emptied I came myself to find the quizzical eyes of my host fixed upon me

As he sat in his chair smoking his pipe physician heal thyself he said I Rose stiffly from my seat and subsided into a chair lighting a cigarette with numbed fingers a few whiffs of the soothing smoke steadied my nerves and enabled me to think well doctor came the voice of my

Host in gentle what is your diagnosis I paused for I realized the critical nature of that which I was about to do if I were to tell you that last night I was at the bedside of that girl we saw swimming out there and that she had two bullet wounds in her

Shoulder what would you say he lent forward his lips parted but no sound came from them if I told you that the bullet wounds arose spontaneously without any external agency and that the doctor considered them to be hysterical Stigmata how would you explain it by Jo

He exclaimed it sounds like a case of repercussion I came across several instances of it when I was studying the Scottish State papers relating to the witch trials in the 16th century it was a thing often related of the witches that they could project the astral

Double out of the physical body and so appear at a distance I had something of that kind at the back of my mind when I made the Silver Bullets Old Country folk believe that it is only with silver bullets that you can shoot a witch lead has no effect on them

But you mean to tell me that you have actually seen seen in the flesh the woman whose astral body it was we saw out there in the water good Lord doctor I am indeed out of my depth I don’t believe I ever thought in my heart that

The things I was studying were real I thought they were just States Of Consciousness but aren’t States Of Consciousness real yes of course they are on their own plane that is the whole teaching of the occult science but I always thought they were entirely subjective experiences of the

Imagination it never occurred to me that anyone else could share them you we both seem to have shared in this girl’s dreams for she escapes from her dreary reality by imagining herself swimming in the sea tell me about her what is she like where did you meet her before I

Answer that question will you first tell me your motive for asking it do you want to be rid of her because if so I can probably persuade her to leave you alone I want to make her acquaintance came The Reluctant reply I was pretty badly bitten once and I haven’t spoken to a

Woman for years this seems to be different yes I would like to make her acquaintance tell me who is she what is she what is her name what are her people like she is as you have seen a very unusual appearance many people would not consider her beautiful others would Rave

About her she’s somewhere in the 20s intelligent refined her voice is that of an educated woman her name I do not know for she was lying in an infirmary bed and was therefore were just a number Nord I know what her people are I don’t fancy she has any for I gathered that

She was entirely destitute she’s a shop Girl by trade drapery to be precise during this recital my host’s face had changed in an indefinable way the cheeks had fallen in the eyes had lost their brilliancy and become sunken in a network of lines sprung up all over his

Skin he had suddenly become worn and old the burnt out Cinder of a man I was at loss to account for this appalling change till his words gave me the clue I think he said in a voice that had lost all resonance that better let the matter

Drop a shop girl you say no it would be most unsuitable most unwise it never does to marry outside one’s own class I no we will say no more about the matter I must pull myself together now that I understand the condition I am sure I

Will have the willpower to return to the normal in fact I feel that you have cured me already I’m sure that I shall never have a return of my dream its power over me is broken if you will just give me your companionship for a few

More days till I feel that my health is quite reestablished I shall be all right but we will not refer to the matter again I beg of you Doctor not to refer to it for I wish to banish the whole experience from my mind looking at him

As he crouched in his chair the broken devitalized wreck of the man whose fine presence I had admired it seemed to me that the remedy was worse than the disease he had by an effort of his trained will broken the subtle magnetic Rapport that bound him to the girl and

With the breaking of it the source of his Vitality had gone but look here I protested are you quite sure that you’re doing the right thing the girl may be quite all right in herself even if she has to work for a living if she means

All this to you surely you were throwing away something big for answer he rose and going silently out of the room closed the door behind him and I knew that argument was useless he was bound within his limitations and unable to escape out of them into the freedom

Which is life of the earth earthy I wrote a full account of these transactions to tavener and then settled down to await his instructions as to Future procedure the situation was somewhat strained my host looked like a man whose life had fallen about his ears

Day by day almost hour by hour he seemed to age he sat in his Rock Hune room refusing to move and it was with the greatest difficulty that I succeeded in coasting him out daily for a walk on the smooth hard Sands that stretched for Miles When the tide receded when the

Water was up he would not go near it for he seemed to have a horror of the sea two days passed in this way with no word from Taver till Anna returned from her morning walk we found that a slip of paper had been pushed under the door of

Our Cavern it was the ordinary post office intimation to say that a telegram had been brought in her absence and now awaited me at the post office not sorry for a break in our rou though a little uneasy about my patient I immediately set off on the 3M walk to the town to

Get my telegram I went up the perilous path cut out of the face of the Rock and then along the Cliff Road for though it was possible to walk into town on the Sands the tide was coming in and it was doubtful I would be able to round the

Headland before the Undercliff was a wash at any rate my host thought it too risky for a stranger to attempt it as I went up over the tur of the Headland a thrill ran through me like wine to a starving man the air was full of dancing

Golden Mo the turf The Rock The Sea were alive with last life and I could feel their slow breathing and I thought of the man that had left in the dwelling in the cliff base the man who had come so far in his quest of the larger life but

Who dared not take the final step at the post office of that desolate and forsaken Watering Place I duly received my telegram I’m sending stigmatic case she arrives 4:15 arrange lodgings and meet her Taver I gave a whistle that brought the postmaster and his entire staff to the

Front counter and taking counsel with them I obtained certain addresses whether I repaired and finally succeeded in arranging suitable accommodation what the upshot would be I could not imagine but at any rate it was out of my hands now at the appointed time I presented myself at the station

And soon picked out my protege from the scanty handful of arrivals she looked very tired with the journey frail forlorn and shabby what with the fume of the engine and the frost of the cab there was no smell of the sea to revive her and I could hardly get a word out of

Her during the drive to the lodgings but as she disembarked from the crazy vehicle A Rush of salt ladden wind struck her in the face and below us in the dusk we heard the crash Rush of the waves on the Pebbles the effect was magical the girl flung up her head like

A startled horse and vitality seemed to flow into her and when I presented her to the land lady there was little to indicate the convalescent I had represented her to be when I returned to the Rock he area of my host his courtesy forbade him to question me as to the

Cause of my long absence and indeed I doubt he felt any interest for he seemed to have sunk into himself so completely that his grip on life was gone I could hardly Rouse him sufficiently to make him take the evening paper I had brought from the town it lay on his knee unread

While he gazed into the Driftwood fire with unseeing eyes following day the tide had not receded sufficiently for a morning walk so it was not till the afternoon that we went for our constitutional we had left it rather late and on our way back in the early

Winter Twilight we had to Ford several Gathering pools we swung along over the sand Barefoot boots slung over our shoulders and trousers rolled to the knee for it was one of those mild days that often come in January when out on the edge of the incoming surf we saw a

Figure good lord said my companion who in the world is the fool out there he will be cut off by the tide and won’t be able to get out of the Bay by now he will have to come up by the cliff path I’d better warn him and he let out Alo

But the wind was blowing towards us and the figure out there in the noise of the surf did not hear my companion went striding over the sand toward the solitary waiter but I who had somewhat better eyes than he had did not elect to accompany him for I had seen long hair

Blown out like seaweed and the flying folds of his skirt I saw him walk into the ankle deep water that creamed over the flat Sands Forerunner of the advancing line of Breakers he called again to the waiter who turned but did not come towards him but instead held

Out her hand with a strange welcoming gesture slowly as if fascinated by that summoning hand he Advanced into the water till he was within Touch of her the first of the advancing waves smote her knees and ran past her in yeasty foam the next smote her hip the tide was

Rising fast with the wind behind it the shower of over carried spray hit him in the face still the girl would not move and the waves were mounting up perilously behind her it was not until he caught the outstretched hand that she yielded and let him draw her ashore they

Came towards me over the sand still hand in hand for they had forgotten to loosen their fingers and I saw that the life had come back to his face and that his eyes sparkled with a brilliancy of fire I drew back into the shadow of a rock

And oblivious of me they passed up the Steep path to the cliff dwelling a glow of Fire Light Shone out as he opened the door to admit her and I saw her wet hair streaming over her shoulders like seaweed and his profile was like the rock cut statue of a Roman

Emperor end of chapter 10

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