e
to play a trick on him was absurd.

He had no lack of enemies--he knew that. Had one of them chosen this
fantastic method of declaring war on him? In that case he could
certainly afford to ignore the letter as coming from a source unworthy
of serious consideration. A worth-while enemy does not give a warning;
he strikes. The cheapest thing about a rattlesnake is its rattle.
Varr started to run over a list of recognized foemen who might have
done this ill-natured deed, but presently desisted; their name was
legion.

He did not overlook a third, quite reasonable theory. The whole
business might have sprung from the unbalanced mind of a lunatic--some
person who believed himself appointed to right the wrongs of the
world--the victim of religious mania. That would account for the
choice of a monastic costume in which to masquerade--and it would also
account for the queer language of the letter, savoring as it did of the
Bible. Again, the type of person most likely to suffer from that form
of mental affliction would be a poorly educated person--and Simon
entertained grave doubts as to the orthography of some of the words in
the letter.

He reached into a pigeonhole of the desk and took out a small
dictionary that he always kept at hand. He selected the dubious
spellings that had caught his attention and ran them down one by one.
"Oppresor" was wrong. "Defensless" was fearful. "Neighbor" started
out brilliantly but came a cropper at the end. And that curious
phrase, "Who hast"; what about that? Simon was a trifle hazy over
this, so he gave the writer the benefit of the doubt. It sounded
queer, though. Anyway, he had established to his satisfaction that the
fellow was illiterate--naively passing by the fact that he had himself
resorted to a dictionary to confirm his belief.

He congratulated himself frankly on one score--he had laid the ghost!
He could admit now--though with a blush of shame--that he had been
badly shaken for just a few minutes, what with his own nerves and
Ocky's confounded chattering! A man without a face! A "familiar" from
the Spanish Inquisition! What rot a man's imagination can trick him
into crediting. But that was over and done with now; he was back on
solid ground, self-confident, secure--

He jumped quite half a foot in his chair at a muffled tap on the
door--and swore at Bates for announcing dinner.

_IV: The Legend of the Monk_

Four people sat down to dinner that