Sitting down on the bed, I touched Auber on the shoulder. He did not
move. An intuition, growing till it all but became an idea, and then
remaining short of expressibility, unable to perceive even its own
indefiniteness--a film for impressions where there is no light--such
was the vagueness of my guess concerning the metamorphosis that was
taking place. Yet I began to understand that Auber Hurn, the real man,
was not there, not on the bed, not in my house at all. It was as if the
Person were being gradually deducted, leaving only the prime flesh to
vouch for the man's existence. Even as I sat in wonder, with my eyes
upon him, the life tinge faded utterly from his skin. There was a
fleeting shadow as if of pain. His breast sank in a long outbreathing,
and then, after seconds and minutes, it did not rise again. I listened.
The room seemed to be listening with me. The silence became stricken
with awe, with the interminable and unanswering awe--the muteness of
death.

We believed in the thing. Ezekiel and Judson came down in response to my
telegrams, and we sat here talking it all over, hours through the night.
It was inevitable to believe in it. We took his body up in the darkness,
and buried it in the scree on my hill; then we came back to Auber's
room, and faced each other by the empty bed.

"This is not for the practical world, or for the law," I said. "No
coroner on earth could return a verdict here."

"We could never see the thing clearly again if the practical world got
hold of it," said Judson. "Look; you have to believe so much!" He had
picked up Auber's purse from the table, where it had lain beside his
watch. He opened it over the bed. A roll of bills fell out--and one
silver dollar.

"That belongs to William, before the law," said Ezekiel.

In Tenebras

A Parable

BY HOWARD PYLE

_One morning, after I had dressed myself and had left my room, I came
upon an entry which I had never before noticed, even in this my own
house. At the further end a door stood ajar, and wondering what was in
the room beyond, I traversed the long passageway and looked within.
There I saw a man sitting, with an open book lying upon his knees, who,
as I laid one hand upon the door and opened it a little wider, beckoned
to me to come and read what was written therein._

_A secret fear stirred and rustled in my heart, but I did not dare to
disobey. So, coming forward (gathering away my clothes lest they should
touch h