"Twice, for the Master, I have been checked and reduced in merit. For
that bias I was myself encircled. I was in an agony of spirit when I
knew that the thing was beginning to advance, but my very will to aid
was at the time environed."

His voice descended.

He sat motionless, as though the whole bulk of him were devitalized, and
maintained its outline only by the inclosing frame of the chair.

"It began, Excellency, on an August night. There is a chill in these
mountains at sunset. I had put wood into the fireplace, and lighted it,
and was about the house. The Master, as I have said, had worked out
his formulae. He was at leisure. I could not see him, for the door was
closed, but the odor of his cigar escaped from the room. It was very
silent. I was placing the Master's bed-candle on the table in the
hall, when I heard his voice.... You have read it, Excellency, as the
scriveners wrote it down before the judge."

He paused.

"It was an exclamation of surprise, of astonishment. Then I heard
the Master get up softly and go over to the fireplace... Presently he
returned. He got a new cigar, Excellency, clipped it and lighted it. I
could hear the blade of the knife on the fiber of the tobacco, and of
course, clearly the rasp of the match. A moment later I knew that he was
in the chair again. The odor of ignited tobacco returned. It was some
time before there was another sound in the room; then suddenly I
heard the Master swear. His voice was sharp and astonished. This time,
Excellency, he got up swiftly and crossed the room to the fireplace... I
could hear him distinctly. There was the sound of one tapping on metal,
thumping it, as with the fingers."

He stopped again, for a brief moment, as in reflection.

"It was then that the Master unlocked the door and asked for the
liquor." He indicated the court record in my pocket. "I brought it, a
goblet of brandy, with some carbonated water. He drank it all without
putting down the glass.... His face was strange, Excellency.... Then he
looked at me.

"'Put a log on the fire,' he said.

"I went in and added wood to the fire and came out.

"The Master remained in the doorway; he reentered when I came out, and
closed the door behind him.... There was a long silence after that; them
I heard the voice, permitted to the devocation thin, metallic, offering
the barter to the Master. It began and ceased because the Master was
on his feet and before the fireplace. I heard hi