John D. Swain

“ He was a dear, patient little lad, with the most beautiful head, and great, intelligent eyes; but his wrecked little body was enough to wring your heart. Twisted, warped, shriveled—and far beyond the skill of Watts-Bedloe himself, who had been Sir William's last resort. When he sadly confessed that there was nothing he could do, that science and skillful nursing might add a few years to the mere existence of the little martyr, you will understand that his father came to that pass which you, Bliven, have illustrated in citing the case of the pharmacist. ”

“ Candles are in cathedrals, and coffee-houses. They are lighted in joy and sorrow. They grace austere old houses where are much worn silver and old books and solid furniture polished by generations of hands, and frowning portraits on faded walls. They burn in thieves' cellars. They are gay, arrogant, furtive. Seen in this isolated house, and long past midnight, they could indicate but one occasion: death!
Heritage, forgetting his first impulse to ask for food, was moved to pause here to pay his respects to the dead. ”

“ There were five of us in the room at the time appointed, besides the little patient, who was sleeping peacefully. Fact is, Watts-Bedloe had taken the precaution of administering a sleeping draught, in order that the quack might not in any possible way work upon his nervous system. Watts-Bedloe was standing by the cot, his sandy hair rumpled, his stiff moustache bristling, for all the world like an Airdale terrier on guard. The father was there, of course; and the head nurse, and a powerful and taciturn orderly. ”

“ Miss Hetty refused to be turned aside.
“I said to-night when I fried this nice steak, 'now I'm going to do this just as well as I know how, as if it really was the last meal I'd ever cook for Elmer.' And I put on a clean napkin, though the one he had this noon was hardly rumpled.”
“Well, you needn't worry about this being my last meal!” Elmer grunted, not quite enjoying the topic.
“One never knows,” Hetty solemnly averred. “But Dr. Knapp says a sick man never stands still; either he gets better, or he grows worse and dies.” ”

“ With the urbanity of famine, he would salute the still one, old man, woman, child, with a hail and farewell.
He entered in; and as he thrust open the unlocked door, a venerable man rose and bowed. "I have been waiting," he said simply. "I knew you would come."
"How could you know, when I only took this road, a strange one to me, by chance?"
The old man smiled. "There is no such thing as chance. ”

“ For a little while they sat about the big kerosene lamp, and after Nancy had clumped up-stairs to bed—it had been her weekly ironing day—the sisters lingered a few minutes longer. Letty dampened another cambric handkerchief—her third that day—and sniffed genteelly.
“I—I'm afraid its impious! We're wicked old women, Hetty!” ”

“ He can fake the thing cleverly, you understand; but he cannot fathom the unknown forces back of it all. It is dangerous ground. It is sometimes blasphemy! It is blundering in where angels fear to tread. ”

“ When he had finished, he unfastened the pantry window and threw it wide. He scattered some crumbs upon the sill, dropped half a doughnut and a boiled potato outside. It might be that they would not believe some tramp had ravaged their stores—but at least he'd fix it so they never could disprove it! He blew out his candle, and, bundle in hand, began his return trip.
There was no trouble crossing the kitchen. There was even less in going up the stairs in the dark than in coming down. But Elmer had been away from home for years. ”

“ Abruptly, the voice of the old man ceased. After a moment he said: "There is no mummy case. That I could not afford to buy. So I have prepared a simple cedar box, lined with soft silk, outside in the grave I have digged for her. And now I must lift her in my arms and take her out; but this is sacrilege, and so, according to the immutable law of old Egypt, you my acolyte must curse me, and make pretense of stoning me."
Heritage bowed. It seemed to him very fitting that he should do these things; and he carefully set down the candles, and took the stone that was handed him. ”

“ And how he seemed to relish his last meal! Do you remember what pains I took to have that steak done just as he always liked it?”
“And how nicely I browned the potatoes?”
“Poor Elmer! He was a great sufferer at the last. Do you think, Hetty, that he was resigned? That his soul has gone to—that it is—”
“I don't have to decide that. God is just, and will make allowances. You know mother, when she took to her bed for the last time, told us always to be tender to Elmer. 'He ain't quite all there!' were her very words. He won't be judged like other men who have all their faculties.” ”

“ That is why, when I feel tired, and like sort of scraping something together most anyhow, I always say to myself: 'this may be the last meal I shall ever get!' And how sorry I should be if I hadn't taken pains with it.”
“You wouldn't know,” commented the practical Elmer between two mouthfuls of fried potato. “Not if I understand what you're driving at.”
Letty sighed.
“How wise a provision it is that we don't even know! We should be miserable all the time; for of course there'd be a last time for everything else, too ”

“ It is believed that they number hundreds of thousands, and flourish in every quarter of the world; and it is presumed that they employ grips and passwords. But amid so much that is conjecture, this fact stands clear; the cult of Lucifer does exist, and has from time immemorial.
"I never had the least idea who suggested them to Sir William. May have been some friend who was a secret devotee, and wished to make a proselyte. May have been an idle word overheard in a club—or a penny bus. ”

“ Heritage was left alone with many candles, and the incense smoke from a cracked saucer upon which smoldered strange gums and spices.
Presently, since the old man did not return, he opened the front door and passed through the weed-choked garden and resumed his way down the turnpike, now lighted faintly by the first hint of dawn. By it he perceived that he was come to a covered toll-bridge spanning a river. Men had recently been at work restoring its planking ”

“ They argue that Lucifer, Star of the Morning, was cast out of Heaven after a great battle, in which he was defeated to be sure, but not destroyed, nor even crippled. Today, after centuries of missionary zeal, Christianity has gathered only a tithe of the people into its fold; the great majority is, and always has been, outside. The wicked flourish, often the righteous stumble ”

“ The subconscious mind explains it all; and we have only skirted the edge of our subject. When we have mastered it, we shall do things right in the laboratory that will put every astrologer and palmist and tea-ground prophet out of business. ”

“ Instead of thinking of them, his mind ran back to Elmer, the brother who had returned to the old Pritchett place the previous fall, after years of wandering. It would not be strictly accurate to call him the black sheep of the family; white elephant is much the better term. A husky man of fifty, Jack of all trades, he could readily get a job in any town or city ”

“ I was born there, attended its University, practiced for a couple of years in Whitechapel, and migrated to the fashionable Westminster district; but I visit the city as a stranger.
"So, if anything mysterious were to happen anywhere, it might well be in London; although, as I have said, one. would hardly look for it in one of our solid, dull, intensely prosaic hospitals.
"Watts-Bedloe was the big man in my day. You will find his works in your medical libraries, Bliven; though I dare say he has been thrust aside by the on-march of science. Osteopathy owes a deal to him, I think ”

“ There may have been a few more; it was hard to count them accurately next day.
All things must have an end. He found himself in the hall a few years later, as it seemed, and still later, in his own bed.
Letty crept chattering into Hetty's room, and spent the remainder of the night with her. From Nancy's room not another sound came. The incident was closed, in her opinion. She went to sleep again. No one else did, save for brief cat naps.
Very early next morning Letty rose and peered out of the window. The east was aflame, turning the snow a faint rose color. ”

“ I knew an intelligent pharmacist who was dying of a malignant disease. Operated on three times. Specialists had given him up. Then he began to take the nostrums and cure-alls on his own shelves, although he knew perfectly well what they contained—or could easily enough have found out. Consulted a lot of herb doctors, and longhaired Indian healers, and advertising specialists. ”

“ Next to it was Nancy Hines's. Nearest the stairs, an empty one, facing another across the hall, the other two being used by Hetty and Letty.
A journey in the dark always seems longer than in the light. To Elmer, inching along the hall in pitch blackness, it seemed that he must have gone even farther than his door ”

“ He believed in powerful and devastating drugs when medicine was indicated—loved to see results; but his experience had enriched him with a fund of practical psychology based on a profound. if circumscribed knowledge of human nature—in and around Pepperill. With characteristic energy, no sooner did the great idea come into being than he proceeded to put it in operation. ”

“ The middle-aged man who sat between the two sisters in the front parlor, knew all there was knowable about their family connections, physiques, religious views, dispositions, financial condition, ability as housekeepers, and what they read. ”