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A PSYCHICAL INVASION
Written by: Blackwood, Algernon, 1869-1951
Part 2
II
A few days later the humorist and hia wife, with
minds greatly relieved, moved into a small furnished
house placed at their free disposal in another part of
London ; and John Silence, intent upon his approach^
ing experiment, made ready to spend a night in the
empty house on the top of Putney Hill. Only two
rooms were prepared for occupation : the study on
the ground floor and the bedroom immediately above
it ; all other doors were to be locked, and no servant
was to be left in the house. The motor had orders
to call for him at nine o'clock the following morning.
And, meanwhile, his secretary had instructions to
look up the past history and associations of the place,
and learn everything he could concerning the char-
acter of former occupants, recent or remote.
The animals, by whose sensitiveness he intended
to test any unusual conditions in the atmosphere of
the building. Dr. Silence selected with care and
judgment He believed (and had already made
curious experiments to prove it) that animals were
more often, and more truly, clairvoyant than human
beings. Many of them, he felt convinced, possessed
powers of perception far superior to that mere keen-
ness of the senses common to all dwellers in the
wilds where the senses grow specially alert; they had
what he termed " animal clairvoyance," and from his
experiments with horses, dogs, cats, and even birds,
he had drawn certain deductions, which, however,
need not be referred to in detail here.
Cats, in particular, he believed, were almost con-
tinuously conscious of a larger field of vision, too
detailed even for a phot(^[raphic camera, and quite
beyond the reach of normal human organs. He had,
further, observed that while dogs were usually terri-
fied in the presence of such phenomena, cats on the
other hand were soothed and satisfied. They
welcomed manifestations as something belonging
peculiarly to their own region.
He selected his animals, therefore, with wisdom
so that they might afford a differing test, each in its
own way, and that one should not merely communi-
cate its own excitement to the other. He took a
dog and a cat
The cat he chose, now full grown, had lived with
him since kittenhood, a kittenhood of perplexing
sweetness and audacious mischief. Wayward it
was and fanciful, ever playing its own mysterious
games in the comers of the room, jumping at in-
visible nothings, leaping sideways into the air and
falling with tiny mocassined feet on to another part
of the carpet, yet with an air of dignified earnestness
which showed that the performance was necessary to
its own well-being, and not done merely to impress a
stupid human audience. In the middle of elaborate
washing it would Jook up, startled, as though to stare
at the approach of some Invisible, cocking its little
head sideways and putting out a velvet pad to inspect
cautiously. Then it would get absent-minded, and
stare with equal intentness in another direction (just
to confuse the onlookers), and suddenly go on
furiously washing its body again, but in quite a new
place. Except for a white patch on its breast it was
coal black. And its name was — Smoke.
'' Smoke " described its temperament as well as its
appearance. , Its movements, its individuality, its
posing as a little furry mass of concealed mysteries,
its elfin-like elusiveness, all combined to justify its
name ; and a subtle painter might have pictured it as
a wisp of floating smoke, the fire below betraying
itself at two points only — the glowing eyes.
All its forces ran to intelligence — secret intelligence,
the wordless, incalculable intuition of the Cat It
was, indeed, the cat for the business in hand.
The selection of the dog was not so simple, for the
doctor owned many ; but after much deliberation he
chose a collie, called Flame from his yellow coat.
True, it was a trifle old, and stiff in the joints, and
even beginning to grow deaf, but, on the other hand,
it was a very particular friend of Smoke's, and had
fethered it from kittenhood upwards so that a subtle
understanding existed between them. It was this
that turned the balance in its favour, this and its
courage. Moreover, though good-tempered, it was a
terrible fighter, and its anger when provoked by a
righteous cause was a fury of fire, and irresistible.
It had come to him quite young, straight from the
shepherd, with the air of the hills yet in its nostrils,
and was then little more than skin and bones and
teeth. For a collie it was sturdily built, its nose
blunter than most, its yellow hair stiff rather than
silky, and it had full eyes, unlike the slit eyes of its
breed. Only its master could touch it, for it ignored
strangers,and despised their pattings — when any dared
to pat it. There was something patriarchal about
the old beast He was in earnest, and went through
life with tremendous energy and big things in view,
as though he had the reputation of his whole race to
uphold. And to watch him fighting against odds
was to understand why he was terrible.
In his relations with Smoke he was always absurdly
gentle ; also he was fatherly ; and at the same time
betrayed a certain diffidence or shyness. He recog-
nised that Smoke called for strong yet respectful
management The cat's circuitous methods puzzled
him, and his elaborate pretences perhaps shocked
the dog's liking for direct, undisguised action. Yet,
while he failed to comprehend these tortuous feline
mysteries, he was never contemptuous or condescend-
ing; and he presided over the safety of his furry
black friend somewhat as a father, loving but
intuitive, might superintend the vagaries of a
wayward and talented child. And, in return. Smoke
rewarded him with exhibitions of fascinating and
audacious mischief.
And these brief- descriptions of their characters
are necessary for the proper understanding of what
subsequently took place.
With Smoke sleeping in the folds of his fur coat,
and the collie lying watchful on the seat opposite,
John Silence went down in his motor after dinner on
the night of November isth.
And the fog was so dense that they were obliged
to travel at quarter speed the entire way.
It was after ten o'clock when he dismissed the
motor and entered the dingy little house with the
latchkey provided by Pender. He found the hall
gas turned low, and a fire in the study. Books and
food had also been placed ready by the servant
according to instructions. Coils of fog rushed in
after him through the opened door and filled the hall
and passage with its cold discomfort.
The first thing Dr. Silence did was to lock up
Smoke in the study with a saucer of milk before the
fire, and then make a search of the house with Flame.
The dog ran cheerfully behind him all the way while
he tried the doors of the other rooms to make sure
they were locked. He nosed about into comers and
made little excursions on his own account His
manner was expectant. He knew there must be
something unusual about the proceedings because it
was contrary to the habits of his whole life not to be
asleep at this hour on the mat in front of the fire.
He kept looking up into his master's face, as door after
door was tried, with an expression of intelligent
sympathy, but at the same time a certain air of
disapproval. Yet everything his master did was good
in his eyes, and he betrayed as little impatience as
possible with all this unnecessary journeying to and
fro. If the doctor was pleased to play this sort of
game at such an hour of the night, it was surely not
for him to object So he played it too ; and was
very busy and earnest about it into the bargain.
After an uneventful search they came down again
to the study, and here Dr. Silence discovered Smoke
washing his face calmly in front of the fire. The
saucer of milk was licked dry and clean ; the pre-
liminary examination that cats always make in
new surroundings had evidently been satisfactorily
concluded. He drew an arm-chair up to the fire,
stirred the coals into a blaze, arranged the table and
lamp to his satisfaction for reading, and then prepared
surreptitiously to watch the animals. He wished to
observe them carefully without their being aware of it
Now, in spite of tiieir respective ages, it was the
regular custom of these two to play together every
night before sleep. Smoke always made the advances,
beginning with grave impudence to pat the dog's
tail, and Flame played cumbrously,with condescension.
It was his duty, rather than pleasure; he was glad
when it was over, and sometimes he was very
determined and refused to play at all.
And this night was one of the occasions on which
he was firm.
The doctor, looking cautiously over the top of his
book, watched the cat begin the performance. It
started by gazing with an innocent expression at the
d(^ where he lay with nose on paws and eyes wide
open in the middle of the floor. Then it got up and
made as though it meant to walk to the door, going
deliberately and very softly. Flame's eyes followed
it until it was bejrond the range of sight, and then
the cat turned sharply and began patting his tail
tentatively with one paw. The tail moved slightly
in reply, and Smoke changed paws and tapped it
again. The dog, however, did not rise to play as was
his wont, and the cat fell to patting it briskly with
both paws. Flame stUl lay motionless.
This puzzled and bored the cat, and it went round
and stared hard into its friend's face to see what
was the matter. Perhaps some inarticulate message
flashed from the dog's eyes into its own little brain>
making it understand that the prc^^mme for the
night had better not b^n with play. Perhaps it
only realised that its friend was immovable. But,
whatever the reason, its usual persistence thence-
forward deserted it, and it made no further attempts
at persuasion. Smoke yielded at once to the dog's
mood ; it sat down where it was and began to wash.
But the washing, the doctor noted, was by no
means its real purpose; it only used it to mask
something else; it stopped at the most busy and
furious moments and began to stare about the room.
Its thoughts wandered absurdly. It peered intently
at the curtains; at the shadowy corners; at empty
space above ; leaving its body in curiously awkward
positions for whole minutes tc^ether. Then it turned
sharply and stared with a sudden signal of intelligence
at the dog, and Flame at once rose somewhat stifily
to his feet and began to wander aimlessly and rest-
lessly to and fro about the floor. Smoke followed him,
padding quietly at his heels. Between them diey made
what seemed to be a deliberate search of the room.
And, here, as he watched them, noting carefully
every detail of the performance over the top of his
book, yet making no effort to interfere, it seemed to
the doctor that the first b^nnings of a faint distress
betrayed themselves in the collie, and in the cat the
stirrings of a vague excitement.
He observed them closely. The fog was thick in
the air, and the tobacco smoke from his pipe added
to its density; the furniture at the far end stood
mistily, and where the shadows congregated in hanging
clouds under the ceiling, it was difHcult to see clearly
at all ; the lamplight only reached to a level of five
feet from the floor, above which came layers of com-
parative darkness, so that the room appeared twice as
lofty as it actually was. By means of the lamp and the
fire, however, the carpet was everywhere clearly visible.
The animals made their silent tour of the floor,
sometimes the dog leading, sometimes the cat;
occasionally they looked at one another as though
exchanging signals ; and once or twice, in spite of the
limited space, he lost sight of one or other among
the fog and the shadows. Their curiosity, it appeared
to him, was something more than the excitement
lurking in the unknown territory of a strange room ;
yet, so far, it was impossible to test this, and he
purposely kept his mind quietly receptive lest the
smallest mental excitement on his part should com-
municate itself to the animals and thus destroy the
value of their independent behaviour.
They made a very thorough journey, leaving no
piece of furniture un^camined, or unsmelt Flame
led the way, "walking slowly with lowered head, and
Smoke followed demurely at his heels, making a
transparent pretence of not being interested, yet
missing nothing. And, at length, they returned, the
old collie first, and came to rest on the mat before
the fire. Flame rested his muzzle on his master's
knee, smiling beatifically while he patted the yellow
head and spoke his name; and Smoke, coming a
little later, pretending he came by chance, looked
from the empty saucer to his face, lapped up the milk
when it was given him to the last drop, and then
sprang upon his knees and curled round for the sleep
it had fully earned and Intended to enjoy.
Silence descended upon the room. Only the
breathing of the dog upon the mat came through
the deep stillness, like the pulse of time marking the
minutes ; and the steady drip, drip of the fog outside
upon the window-ledges dismally testified to the
inclemency of the night beyond. And the soft
crashings of the coals as the fire settled down into
the grate became less and less audible as the fire sank
and the flames resigned their fierceness.
It was now well after eleven o'clock, and Dr. Silence
devoted himself again to his book. He read the
words on the printed page and took in their mean-
ing superficially, yet without starting into life die
correlations of thought and suggestion that should
accompany interesting reading. Underneath, all the
while, his mental energies were absorbed in watching,
listening, waiting for what might come. He was not
over sanguine himself, yet he did not wish to be
taken by surprise. Moreover, the animals, his sensitive
barometers, had incontinently gone to sleep.
After reading a dozen pages, however, he realised
that his mind was really occupied in reviewing the
features of Pender's extraordinary story, and that it
was no longer necessary to steady his imagination by
studying the dull paragraphs detailed in the pages
before him. He laid down his book accordingly, and
allowed his thoughts to dwell upon the features of
the Case. Speculations as to the meaning, however,
he rigorously suppressed, knowing that such thoughts
would act upon his imagination like wind upon the
glowing embers of a fire.
As the night wore on the silence grew deeper and
deeper, and only at rare intervals he heard the sound
of wheels on the main road a hundred yards away,
where the horses went at a walking pace owing to
the density of the fog. The echo of pedestrian foot-
steps no longer reached him, the clamour of occasional
voices no longer came down the side street The
night, muffled by fog^ shrouded by veils of ultimate
mystery, hung about the haunted villa like a doom.
Nothing in the house stirred. Stillness, in a thick
blanket, lay over the upper storeys. Only the mist
in the room grew more dense, he thought, and the
damp cold more penetrating. Certainly, from time
to time, he shivered.
The collie, now deep in slumber, moved occasion-
ally, — grunted, sighed, or twitched his legs in dreams.
Smoke lay on his knees, a pool of warm, black fur,
only the closest observation detecting the movement
of his sleek sides. It was difficult to distinguish
exactly where his head and body joined in that
circle of glistening hair ; only a black satin nose and
a tiny tip of pink tongue betrayed the secret
Dr. Silence watched him, and felt comfortable.
The collie's breathing was soothing. The fire was
well built, and would bum for another two hours
without attention. He was not conscious of the
least nervousness. He particularly wished to remain
in his ordinary and normal state of mind, and to
force nothing. If sleep came naturally, he would let
it come — and even welcome it. The coldness of the
room, when the fire died down later, would be sure
to wake him again; and it would then be time
enough to carry these sleeping barometers up to bed.
From various psychic premonitions he knew quite
well that the night would not pass without adventure ;
but he did not wish to force its arrival; and he
wished to remain normal, and let the animals remain
normal, so that, when it came, it would be unattended
by excitement or by any straining of the attention.
Many experiments had made him wise. And, for
the rest, he had no fear.
Accordingly, after a time, he did fall asleep as he
had expected, and the last thing he remembered,
before oblivion slipped up over his eyes like soft
wool, was the picture of Flame stretching all four
legs at once, and sighing noisily as he sought a more
comfortable position for his paws and muzzle upon
the mat
It was a good deal later when he became aware
that a weight lay upon his chest, and that something
was pencilling over his face and mouth. A soft touch
on the cheek woke him. Something was patting
him.
He sat up with a jerk, and found himself staring
straight into a pair of brilliant eyes, half green, half
black. Smoke's face lay level witli his own ; and the
cat had climbed up with its front paws upon his
chest.
The lamp had burned low and the fire was nearly
out, yet Dr. Silence saw in a moment that the cat
was in an excited state. It kneaded with its front
paws into his chest, shifting from one to the other.
He felt them prodding against him. It lifted a leg
very carefully and patted his cheek gingerly. Its
fur, he saw, was standing ridgewise upon its back ;
the ears were flattened back some^at ; the tail was
switching sharply. The cat, of course, had wakened
him with a purpose, and the instant he realised this,
he set it upon the arm of the chair and sprang up
with a quick turn to face the empty room behind
him. By some curious instinct, his arms of their
own accord assumed an attitude of defence in front
of him, as though to ward off something that threat*
ened his safety. Yet nothing was visiUe. Only
shapes of fog hung about rather heavily in the air,
moving slightly to and ifro.
His mind was now fully alert, and the last vestiges
of sleep gone. He turned the lamp higher and peered
about him. Two things he became aware of at once :
one, that Smoke, while excited, was pkasurably ex-
cited ; the other, that the collie was no longer, visible
upon the mat at his feet He had crept away to
the comer of the wall farthest from tiie window,
and lay watching the room with wide*^pen eyes, in
which lurked plainly something of alarm.
Something in the dog's behaviour instantly struck
Dr. Silence as unusual, and, calling him by name, he
moved across to pat him. Flame got up, wagged his
tail, and came over slowly to the rug, uttering a low
sound that was half growl, half whine. He was
evidently perturbed about something, and his masier
was proceeding to administer comfort when his atten-
tion was suddenly drawn to the antics of his other
four-footed companion, the cat.
And what he saw filled him with something like
amazement
Smoke had jumped down from the back of the
armrchair and now occupied the middle of the carpet,
where, with tail erect and legs stiff as ramrods, it was
steadily pacing backwards and forwards in a narrow
space, uttering, as it did so, those curious little
guttural sounds of pleasure that only an animal of
the feline species knows how to make expressive of
supreme happiness. Its stiffened legs and arched
back made it appear latter than usual, and the
black visage wore a smile of beatific joy. Its eyes
blazed magnificently ; it was in an ecstasy.
At the end of every few paces it turned sharply
and stalked back again along the same line, padding
softly, and purring like a roll of little muffled drums.
It behaved precisely as though it were rubbing
against the ankles of some one who remained invisible.
A thrill ran down the doctor's spine as he stood and
stared. His experiment was growing interesting at
last
He called the. collie's attention to his friend's
performance to see whether he too was aware of
an3^tfaing standing there upon the carpet; and the
dog's behaviour was significant and corroborative.
He came as far as his master's knees and then
stopped dead, refusing to investigate closely. In
vain Dr. Silence urged him; he wagged his tail,
whined a little, and stood in a half-crouching attitude,
staring alternately at the cat and at his master's face.
He was, apparently, both puzzled and alarmed, and
the whine went deeper and deeper down into his
throat till it changed into an ugly snarl of awaken-
ing anger.
Then the doctor called to him in a tone of com-
mand he had never known to be disregarded; but
still the dog, though springing up in response,
declined to move nearer. He made tentative motions,
pranced a little like a dog about to take to water,
pretended to bark, and ran to and fro on the carpet.
So far there was no actual fear in his manner, but
he was uneasy and anxious, and nothing would
induce him to go within touching distance of the
walking cat. Once he made a complete circuit, but
always carefully out of reach ; and in the end he
returned to his master's legs and rubbed vigorously
against him. Flame did not like the performance
at all : that much was quite clear.
For several minutes John Silence watched the per-
formance of the cat with profound attention and
without interfering. Then he called to the animal
by name.
" Smoke, you m3rsterious beastie, what in the world
are you about ? " he said, in a coaxing tone.
The cat looked up at him for a moment, smiling
in its ecstasy, blinking its eyes, but too happy to
pause. He spoke to it again. He called to it several
times, and each time it turned upon him its blazing
eyes, drunk with inner delight, opening and shutting
its lips, its body lai^e and rigid with excitement.
Yet it never for one instant paused in its short
journeys to and fro.
He noted exactly what it did : it walked, he saw,
the same number of paces each time, some six or
seven steps, and then it turned sharply and retraced
them. By the pattern of the great roses in the
carpet he measuied it It kept to the same direction
and the same line. It behaved precisely as though
it were rubbing against something solid. Un-
doubtedly, there was something standing there on
that strip of carpet, something invisible to the doctor,
something that alarmed the dog, yet caused the cat
unspeakable pleasure.
" Smokie 1 " he called again, '' Smokie, you black
mystery, what is it excites you so ? "
Again the cat looked up at him for a brief second,
and then continued its sentry-walk, blissfully happy,
intensely preoccupied. And, for an instant, as he
watched it, the doctor was aware that a faint uneasi-
ness stirred in the depths of his own being, focusing
itself for the moment upon this curious behaviour of
the uncanny creature before him.
There rose in him quite a new realisation of the
mystery connected with the whole feline tribe, but es-
pecially with that common member of it, the domestic
cat — ^their hidden lives, their strange aloofness, their
incalculable subtlety. How utterly remofp from any*
thing that human beings understood lay the sources
of their elusive activities. As he watched the inde-
scribable bearing of the little creature mincing along
the strip of carpet under his eyes^ coquetting with
the powers of darkness, welcoming, maybe, some
fearsome visitor, there stirred in his heart a feeling
strangely akin to awe. Its indifference to human
kind, its serene superiority to the obvious, struck
him forcibly with fresh meaning; so remote, so
inaccessible seemed the secret purposes of its real
life, so alien to the blundering honesty of other
4 animals. Its absolute poise of bearing brought into
his mind the opium-eater's words that ''no dignity
is perfect which does not at some point ally itself
with the mysterious"; and he became suddenly
aware that the presence of the dog in this foggy,
haunted room on the top of Putney Hill was un-
commonly welcome to him. He was glad to feel
that Flame's dependable personality was with him.
The savage growling at his heels was a pleasant
sound. He was glad to hear it. That marching cat
made him uneasy.
Finding that Smoke paid no further attention to
his words, the doctor decided upon action. Would
it rub against his leg, too? He would take it by
surprise and see.
He stepped quickly forward and placed himself
upon the exact strip of carpet where it walked.
But no cat is ever taken by surprise 1 The moment
he occupied the space of the Intruder, setting his
feet on the woven roses midway in the line of travel,
Smoke suddenly stopped purring and sat down. It
lifted up its face with the most innocent stare
imaginable of its green eyes. He could have sworn
it laughed. It was a perfect child again. In a single
second it had resumed its simple, domestic manner ;
and it gazed at him in such a way that he almost
felt Smoke was the normal being, and his was the
eccentric behaviour that was being watched. It was
consummate, the manner in which it brought about
this change so easily and so quickly.
" Superb little actor ! " he laughed in spite of him-
self, and stooped to stroke the shining black back.
But, in a flash, as he touched its fur, the cat turned
and spat at him viciously, striking at his hand with one
paw. Then, with a hurried scatter of feet, it shot like
a shadow across the floor and a moment later was
calmly sitting over by the window-curtains washing
its face as though nothing interested it in the
whole world but the cleanness of its cheeks and
whiskers.
John Silence straightened himself up and drew a
long breath. He realised that the performance was
temporarily at an end. The collie, meanwhile, who
had watched the whole proceeding with marked dis-
approval, had now lain down again upon the mat by
the fire, no longer growling. It seemed to the doctor
just as though something that had entered the room
while he slept, alarming the dog, yet bringing happi-
ness to the cat, had now gone out again, leaving all
as it was before. Whatever it was that excited its
blissful attentions had retreated for the moment.
He realised this intuitively. Smoke evidently
realised it, too, for presently he deigned to march
back to the fireplace and jump upon his master's
knees. Dr. Silence, patient and determined, settled
down once more to his book. The animals soon
slept; the fire blazed cheerfully; and the cold fog
from outside poured into the room through every
available chink and crannie. *
' For a long time silence and peace reigned in the
room and Dr. Silence availed himself of the quietness
to make careful notes of what had happened. He
entered for future use in other cases an exhaustive
analysis of what he had observed, especially with
regard to the effect upon the two animals. It is
impossible here, nor would it be intelligible to the
reader unversed in the knowledge of the region
known to a scientifically trained psychic like Dr.
Silence, to detail these observations. But to him it
was clear, up to a certain point — and for the rest hie
must still wait and watch. So far, at least, he real-
ised that while he slept in the chair — that is, while
his will was dormant — ^the room had suffered intrusion
from what he recognised as an intensely active Force,
and might later be forced to acknowledge as some-
thing more than merely a blind force, namely, a
distinct personality.
So far it had affected himself scarcely at all, but
had acted directly upon the simpler organisms of the
animals. It stimulated keenly the centres of the
cat's psychic being, inducing a state of instant happi-
ness (intensifying its consciousness probably in the
same way ^ drug or stimulant intensifies that of a
human being) ; whereas It alarmed the less sensitive
dog, causing it to feel a vague apprehension and
distress.
His own sudden action and exhibition of energy
had served to disperse it temporarily, yet he felt
convinced — ^the indications were not lacking even
while he sat there making notes — ^that it still re-
mained near to him, conditionally if not spatially,
and was, as it were, gathering force for a second
attack.
And, further, he intuitively understood that the
relations between the two animals had undergone a
subtle change: that the cat had become immeasurably superior, confident, sure of itself in its own peculiar region, whereas Flame had been weakened by
an attack he could not comprehend and knew not
how to reply to. Though not yet afraid, he was
defiant — ready to act against a fear that he felt to be
approaching. He was no longer fatherly and protective towards the cat. Smoke held the key to the
situation; and both he and the cat knew it
Thus, as the minutes passed, John Silence sat and
waited, keenly on the alert, wondering how soon the
attack would be renewed, and at what point it would
be diverted from the animals and directed upon
himself.
The book lay on the floor beside him, his notes
were complete. With one hand on the cat's fur, arid
the dog's front paws resting against his feet, the
three of them dozed comfortably before the hot fire
while the night wore on and the silence deepened
towards midnight
It was well after one o'clock in the morning when
Dr. Silence turned the lamp out and lighted the
candle preparatory to going up to bed. Then
Smoke suddenly woke with a loud sharp purr and
sat up. It neither stretched, washed nor turned : it
listened. And the doctor, watching it, realised that a
certain indefinable change had come about that very
moment in the room. A swift readjustment of the
forces within the four walls had taken place— a new
disposition of their personal equations. The balance
was destroyed, the former harmony gone. Smoke,
most sensitive of barometers, had been the first to
feel it, but the dog was not slow to follow suit, for
on looking down he noted that Flame was no longer
asleep. He was lying with eyes wide open, and that
same instant he sat up on his great haunches and
began to growl.
Dr. Silence was in the act of taking the matches
to re-light the lamp when an audible movement in
the room behind made him pause. Smoke leaped
down from his knee and moved forward a few paces
across the carpet Then it stopped and stared
fixedly; and the doctor stood up on the rug to
watch.
As he rose the sound was repeated, and he dis-
covered that it was not in the room as he first thought,
but outside, and that it came from more directions
than one. There was a rushing, sweeping noise
against the window-panes, and simultaneously a
sound of something brushing against the door— out
in the hall. Smoke advanced sedately across the
carpet, twitching his tail, and sat down within a foot
of the doon The influence that had destroyed the
harmonious conditions of the room had apparently
moved in advance of its cause. Clearly, something
was about to happen.
For the first time that night John Silence hesitated ;
the thought of that dark narrow halh-way, choked
with fog, and destitute of human comfort, was un-
pleasant. He became aware of a faint creeping of
his flesh. He knew, of course, that the actual open-
ing of the door was not necessary to the invasion of
the room that was about to take place, since neither
doors nor windows, nor any other solid barriers could
interpose an obstacle to what was seeking entrance.
Yet the opening of the door would be significant and
symbolic, and he distinctly shrank from it
But for a moment only. Smoke, turning with a
show of impatience, recalled him to his purpose, and
he moved past the sitting, watching creature, and
deliberately opened the door to its full width.
What subsequently happened, happened in the
feeble and flickering light of the solitary candle on
the mantelpiece.
Through the opened door he saw the hall, dimly
lit and thick with fog. Nothing, of course, was
visible — ^nothing but the hat-stand, the African spears
in dark lines upon the wall and the high-backed
wooden chair standing grotesquely underneath on
the oilcloth floor. For one instant the fog seemed
to move and thicken oddly ; but he set that down to
the score of the imagination. The door had opened
upon nothing.
Yet Smoke apparently thought otherwise, and the
deep growling of the collie from the mat at the back
of the room seemed to confirm his judgment.
For, proud and self-possessed, the cat had again
risen to his feet, and having advanced to the door,
was now ushering some one slowly into the room.
Nothing could have been more evident He paced
from side to side, bowing his little head with great
empressement and holding his stiffened tail aloft like
a flagstaff. He turned this way and that, mincing
to and fro, and showing signs of supreme satisfaction.
He was in his element He welcomed the intrusion,
and apparently reckoned that his companions, the
doctor and the dog, would welcome it likewise.
The Intruder liad returned for a second attack.
Dr. Silence moved slowly backwards and took up
his position on the hearthn^, keying himself up to
a condition of concentrated attention.
He noted that Flame stood beside him, facing
the room, with body motionless, and head moving
swifUy from side to side with a curious swaying
movement. His eyes were wide open, his back
rigid, his neck and jaws thrust forward, his legs tense
and ready to leap. Savage, ready for attack or
defence, yet dreadfully puzzled and perhaps already
a little cowed, he stood and stared, the hair on his
spine and sides positively bristling outwards as though
a wind played through them. In the dim firelight
he looked like a great yellow-haired wolf, silent, eyes
shooting dark fire, exceedingly formidable. It was
Flame, the terrible.
Smoke, meanwhile, advanced from the door
towards the middle of the room, adopting the very
slow pace of an invisible companion. A few feet
away it stopped and began to smile and blink its
eyes. There was something deliberately coaxing in
its attitude as it stood there undecided on the carpet,
clearly wishing to effect some sort of introduction
between the Intruder and its canine friend and ally.
It assumed its most winning manners, purring,
smiling, looking persuasivly from one to the other,
and making quick tentative steps first in one direction
and then in the other. There had always existed
such perfect understanding between them in every-
thing. Surely Flame would appreciate Smoke's
intentions now, and acquiesce.
But the old collie made no advances. He bared his
teeth, lifting his lips till the gums showed, and stood
stockstill with fixed eyes and heaving sides. The
doctor moved a little farther back, watching intently
the smallest movement, and it was just then he divined
suddenly from the cat's behaviour and attitude that
it was not only a single companion it had ushered
into the room, but several. It kept crossing over
from one to the other, looking up at each in turn.
It sought to win over the dog to friendliness with
them all. The original Intruder had come back
with reinforcements. And at the same time he
further realised that the Intruder was something
more than a blindly acting force, impersonal though
destructive. It was a Personality, and moreover a
great personality. And it was accompanied for the
purposes of assistance by a host of other personalities,
minor in degree, but similar in kind.
He braced himself in the corner against the mantel-
piece and waited, his whole being roused to defence,
for he was now fully aware that the attack had
spread to include himself as well as the animals, and
he must be on the alert He strained his eyes
through the foggy atmosphere, trying in vain to see
what the cat and dog saw; but the candlelight
threw an uncertain and flickering light across the
room and his eyes discerned nothing. On the floor
Smoke moved softly in front of him like a black
shadow, hb eyes gleaming as he turned his head,
still trying with many insinuating gestures and
much purring to bring about the introductions he
desired.
But it was all in vain. Flame stood riveted to
one spot, motionless as a figure carved in stone.
Some minutes passed, during which only the cat
moved, and then there came a sharp change. Flame
began to back towards the wall. He moved his head
from side to side as he went, sometimes turning to
snap at something almost behind him. They were
advancing upon him, trying to surround him. His
distress became very marked from now onwards,
and it seemed to the doctor that his anger merged into
genuine terror and became overwhelmed by it. The
savage growl sounded perilously like a whine, and
more than once he tried to dive past his master's legs,
as though hunting for a way of escape. He was
trying to avoid something that ever}rwhere blocked
the way.
This terror of the indomitable fighter impressed
the doctor enormously; yet also painfully; stirring
his impatience ; for he had never before seen the dog
show signs of giving in, and it distressed him to
witness it. He knew, however, that he was not
giving in easily, and understood that it was really
impossible for him to gauge the animal's sensations
properly at all. What Flame felt, and saw, must be
terrible indeed to turn him all at once into a coward.
He faced something that made him afraid of more
than his life merely. The doctor spoke a few quick
words of encouragement to him, and stroked the
bristling hair. But without much success. The
collie seemed already beyond the reach of comfort
such as that, and the collapse of the old dog followed
indeed very speedily after this.
And Smoke, meanwhile, remained behind, watching
the advance, but not joining in it ; sitting, pleased
and expectant, considering that all was going well
and as it wished. It was kneading on the carpet
with its front paws — slowly, laboriously, as though
its feet were dipped in treacle. The sound its claws
made as they caught in the threads was distinctly
audible. It was still smiling, blinking, purring.
Suddenly the collie uttered a poignant short bark
and leaped heavily to one side. His bared teeth
traced a line of whiteness through the gloom. The
next instant he dashed past his master's legs, almost
upsetting his balance, and shot out into the room,
where he went blundering wildly against walls and fur-
niture. But that bark was signiiScant ; the doctor had
heard it before and knew what it meant : for it was
the cry of the fighter against odds and it meant that
the old beast had found his cours^e again. Possibly
it was only the courage of despair, but at any rate the
fighting would be terrific. And Dr. Silence under-
stood, too, that he dared not interfere. Flame must
fight his own enemies in his own way.
But the cat, too, had heard that dreadful bark ; and
it, too, had understood. This was more than it had
bargained for. Across the dim shadows of that
haunted room there must have passed some seolet
signal of distress between the animals. Smoke stood
up and looked swiftly about him. He uttered a
piteous meow and trotted smartly away into the
greater darkness by the windows. What his object
was only those endowed with the spirit-like intelligence
of cats might know. But, at any rate, he had at last
ranged himself on the side of his friend. And the
little beast meant business.
At the same moment the collie managed to gain
the door. The doctor saw him rush through into
the hall like a flash of yellow light. He shot across
the oilcloth, and tore up the stairs, but in another
second he appeared again, flying down the steps and
landing at the bottom in a tumbling heap, whining,
cringing, terrified. The doctor saw him slink back
into the room again and crawl round by the wall
towards the cat Was, then, even the staircase
occupied ? Did They stand also in the hall ? Was
the whole house crowded from floor to ceiling ?
The thought came to add to the keen distress he
felt at the sight of the collie's discomfiture. And,
indeed, his own personal distress had increased
in a marked degree during the past minutes, and
continued to increase steadily to the climax. He
recognised that the drain on his own vitality grew
steadily, and that the attack was now directed against
himself even more than against the defeated dog, and
the too much deceived cat.
It all seemed so rapid and uncalculated after that
— the events that took place in this little modem
room at the top of Putney Hill between midnight
and sunrise — ^that Dr. Silence was hardly able to
follow and remember it all. It came about with such
uncanny swiftness and terror; the light was so
uncertain ; the movements of the black cat so difficult
to follow on the dark carpet, and the doctor himself
so weary and taken by surprise — ^that he found it
almost impossible to observe accurately, or to recall
afterwards precisely what it was he had seen or in
what order the incidents had taken place. He never
could understand what defect of vision on his part
made it seem as though the cat had duplicated itself
at first, and then increased indefinitely, so that there
were at least a dozen of them darting silently about
the floor, leaping softly on to chairs and tables,
passing like shadows from the open door to the end
of the room, all black as sin, with brilliant green eyes
flashing fire in all directions. It was like the reflec-
tions from a score of mirrors placed round the
walls at diflerent angles. Nor could he make out at
the time why the size of the room seemed to have
altered, grown much larger, and why it extended
away behind him where ordinarily the wall should
have been. The snarling of the enraged and terrified
collie sounded sometimes so far away; the ceiling
seemed to have raised itself so much higher than
before, and much of the furniture had changed in
appearance and shifted marvellously.
It was all so confused and confusing, as though the
little room he knew had become merged and trans-
fcMtned into the dimensions of quite another chamber,
that came to him, with its host of cats and its strange
distances, in a sort of vision.
But these changes came about a little later, and at
a time when his attention was so concentrated upon
the proceedings of Smoke and the collie, that he only
observed them, as it were, subconsciously. And the
excitement, the flickering candlelight, the distress he
felt for the collie, and the distorting atmosphere of
f(^ were the poorest possible allies to careful
observation.
At first he was only aware that the dog was
repeating his short dangerous bark from time to time,
snapping viciously at the empty air, a foot or so from
the ground. Once, indeed, he sprang upwards and
forwards, working furiously with teeth and paws,
and with a noise like wolves fighting, but only to
dash back the next minute against the wall behind
him. Then, after lying still for a bit, he rose to a
crouching position as though to spring again, snarling
horribly and making short half-circles with lowered
head. And Smoke all the while meowed piteously
by the window as though trying to draw the attack
upon himself.
Then it was that the rush of the whole dreadful
business seemed to turn aside from the dog and
direct itself upon his own person. The collie had
made another spring and fallen back with a crash
into the comer, where he made noise enough in his
savage rage to waken the dead before he fell to
whining and then finally lay still And directly
afterwards the doctor's own distress became intoler-
ably acute. He had made a half movement forward
to come to the rescue when a veil that was denser
than mere fog seemed to drop down over the scene,
draping room, walls, animals and fire in a mist of
darkness and folding also about his own mind.
Other forms moved silently across the field of vision,
forms that he recognised from previous experiments,
and welcomed not. Unholy thoughts b^^n to
crowd into his brain, sinister suggestions of evil pre-
sented themselves seductively. Ice seemed to settle
about his heart, and his mind trembled. He b^an
to lose memory — ^memory of his identity, of where
he was, of what he ought to do. The very founda-
tions of his strength were shaken. His will seemed
paralysed.
And it was then that the room filled with this
horde of cats, all dark as the night, all silent, all with
lamping eyes of green fire. The dimensions of the
place altered and shifted. He was in a much larger
space. The whining of the dog sounded far away,
and all about him the cats flew busily to and fro,
silently playing their tearing, rushing game of evil,
weaving the pattern of their dark purpose upon the
floor. He strove hard to collect himself and re-
member the words of power he had made use of
before in similar dread positions where his dangerous
practice had sometimes led ; but he could recall
nothing consecutively ; a mist lay over his mind and
memory; he felt dazed and his forces scattered.
The deeps within were too troubled for healing power
to come out of them.
It was glamour, of course, he realised afterwards,
the strong glamour thrown upon his imagination by
some powerful personality behind the veil ; but at the
time he was not sufficiently aware of this and, as with
all true glamour, was unable to grasp where the true
ended and the false b^^n. He was caught moment-
arily in the same vortex that had sought to lure the
cat to destruction through its delight, and threatened
utterly to overwhelm the dog through its terror.
There came a sound in the chimney behind him
like wind booming and tearing its way down. The
windows rattled. The candle flickered and went out
The glacial atmosphere closed round him with the
cold of death, and a great rushing sound swept by
overhead as though the ceiling had lifted to a great
height. He heard the door shut. Far away it
sounded. He felt lost, shelterless in the depths of
his soul. Yet still he held out and resisted while
the climax of the fight came nearer and nearer. . . .
He had stepped into the stream of forces awakened
by Pender and he knew that he must withstand them
to the end or come to a conclusion that it was not
good for a man to come to. Something from the
region of utter cold was upon him.
And then quite suddenly, through the confused
mists about him, there slowly rose up the Personality
that had been all the time directing the battle. Some
force entered his being that shook him as the tem-
pest shakes a leaf, and close against his eyes — clean
level with his face — ^he found himself staring into the
wreck of a vast dark Countenance, a countenance that
was terrible even in its ruin.
For ruined it was, and terrible it was, and the
mark of spiritual evil was branded everywhere upon
its broken features. Eyes, face and hair rose level
with his own, and for a space of time he never could
properly measure, or determine, these two, a man
and a woman, looked straight into each other's
visages and down into each other's hearts.
And John Silence, the soul with the good, unselfish
motive, held his own against the dark discarnate
woman whose motive was pure evil, and whose soul
was on the side of the Dark Powers.
It was the climax that touched the depth of power
within him and b^an to restore him slowly to his
own. He was conscious, of course, of effort, and yet
it seemed no superhuman one, for he had recognised
the character of his opponent's power, and he called
upon the good within him to meet and overcome it.
The inner forces stirred and trembled in response to
his call. They did not at first come readily as was
their habit, for under the spell of glamour they had
already been diabolically lulled into inactivity, but
come they eventually did, rising out of the inner
spiritual nature he had learned with so much time
and pain to awaken to life. And power and con*
fidence came with them. He began to breathe
deeply and regularly, and at the same time to ab-
sorb into himself the forces opposed to him, and to
turn them to his awn account. By ceasing to resist,
and allowing the deadly stream to pour into him
unopposed, he used the very power supplied by his
adversary and thus enormously increased his own.
For this spiritual alchemy he had learned. He
understood that force ultimately is everywhere one
and the same; it is the motive behind that makes it
good or evil ; and his motive was entirely unselfish.
He knew — ^provided he was not first robbed of self-
control — how vicariously to absorb these evil
radiations into himself and change them magically
into his own good purposes. And, since his motive
was pure and his soul fearless, they could not work
him harm.
Thus he stood in the main stream of evil unwit-
tingly attracted by Pender, deflecting its course upon
himself; and after passing through the purifying
filter of his own unselfishness these enei^es could
only add to his store of experience, of knowledge,
and therefore of power. And, as his self-control
returned to him, he gradually accomplished this
purpose, even though trembling while he did so.
Yet the struggle was severe, and in spite of the
freezing chill of the air, the perspiration poured down
his face. Then, by slow degrees, the dark and
dreadful countenance faded, the glamour passed
from his soul, the normal proportions returned to
walls and ceiling, the forms melted back into the
fog, and the whirl of rushing shadow-cats disappeared
whence they came.
And with the return of the consciousness of his
own identity John Silence was restored to the full
control of his own will-power. In a deep, modulated
voice he b^an to utter certain rh}rthmical sounds
that slowly rolled through the air like a rising sea,
filling the room with powerful vibratory activities
that whelmed all irregularities of lesser vibrations in
its own swelling tone. He made certain sigils,
gestures and movements at the same time. For
several minutes he continued to utter these words,
until at length the growing volume dominated the
whole room and mastered the manifestation of all
that opposed it For just as be understood the
spiritual alchemy that can transmute evil forces by
raising them into higher channels, so he knew from
long study the occult use of sound, and its direct
effect upon the plastic region wherein the powers
of spiritual evil work their fell purposes. Harmony
5 was restored first of all to his own soul, and thence
to the room and all its occupants.
And, after himself, the first to recognise it was the
old dog lying in his comer. Flame began suddenly
uttering sounds of pleasure, that '' something " between
a growl and a grunt that dogs make upon being
restored to their master's confidence. Dr. Silence
heard the thumping of the collie's tail against the
ground. And tbe grunt and the thumping touched
the depth of affection in the man's heart, and gave
him some inkling of what agonies the dumb creature
had suffered.
Next, from the shadows by the window, a somewhat
shrill purring announced the restoration of the cat
to its normal state. Smoke was advancing across
the carpet. He seemed very pleased with himself,
and smiled with an expression of supreme innocence.
He was no shadow-cat, but real and full of his usual
and perfect self-possession. He marched along,
picking his way delicately, but with a stately dignity
that suggested his ancestry with the majesty of
Egypt His eyes no longer glared; they shone
steadily before him; they radiated, not excitement,
but knowledge. Clearly he was anxious to make
amends for the mischief to which he had unwittingly
lent himself owing to his subtle and electric con-
stitution.
Still uttering his sharp high purrings he marched up to his master and rubbed vigorously against his legs. Then he stood on his hind feet and pawed his knees and stared beseechingly up into his face.
He turned his head towards the comer where the collie still lay, thumping his tail feebly and pathetically.
John Silence understood. He bent down and
stroked the creature's living fur, noting the line of
bright blue sparks that followed the motion of his
hand down its back. And then they advanced
together towards the comer where the dog was.
Smoke went first and put his nose gently against
his friend's muzzle, purring while he rubbed, and
uttering little soft sounds of affection in his throat
The doctor lit the candle and brought it over. He
saw the collie lying on its side against the wall ; it
was utterly exhausted, and foam still hung about
its jaws. Its tail and eyes responded to the sound
of its name, but it was evidently very weak and
overcome. Smoke continued to rub against its cheek
and nose and eyes, sometimes even standing on its
body and kneading into the thick yellow hair. Flame
replied from time to time by little licks of the tongue,
most of them curiously misdirected.
But Dr. Silence felt intuitively that something
disastrous had happened, and his heart was wrung.
He stroked the dear body, feeling it over for bruises
or broken bones, but finding none. He fed it with
what remained of the sandwiches and milk, but the
creature clumsily upset the saucer and lost the
sandwiches between its paws, so that the doctor had
to feed it with his own hand. And all the while
Smoke tneowed piteously.
Then John Silence began to understand. He went
across to the farther side of the room and called
aloud to it.
" Flame, old man ! come 1 "
At any other time the dog would have been upon
him in an instant, barking and leaping to the shoulder.
And even now he got up, though heavily and
awkwardly, to his feet He started to run, wagging
his tail more briskly. He collided first with a chair,
and then ran straight into a table. Smoke trotted
close at his side, trying his very best to guide him.
But it was useless. Dr. Silence had to lift him up
into his own arms and carry him like a baby. For he
was blind.
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