nd a pretender to forbidden arts."

"He showed thee the sign, and bade thee follow?"

"He did."

"And why was our summons disobeyed?"

"Because I have yet to learn what authority you possess either for my
summons or detention."

"The brotherhood of the Red Cross are not disobeyed with impunity."

"I have heard of such a fraternity--as well too that they be idle
cheats and lying impostors."

"We challenge not belief without sufficient testimony to the truth of
our mission. In pity to man's infirmity this indulgence is permitted.
We unfold the hidden operations, the very arcana of Nature, whom we
unclothe as it were to her very nakedness. Our doctrines thereby carry
credence even to the most impious and unbelieving. Ere we command thy
submission, it is permitted to behold some manifestation of our power.
By means derived from the hidden essences of Nature, the first
principles which renovate and govern all things, the very elements of
which they consist, we arrive at the incorporeal essence called
spirit, holding converse with it undebased, uninfluenced by the
intervention of matter. Thus we converse in spirit with those that be
absent, even though they were a thousand leagues apart."

"And what has this jargon to do with my being despatched hither?"

"Listen, and reply not; the purport will be vouchsafed to thee anon.
We can compel the spirits even of the absent to come at our bidding by
subtle spells that none have power to disobey. We too can renew and
invigorate life, and by the universal solvent bring about the
renovation of all things--renovation and decay being the two
antagonist principles, as light and darkness. As we can make darkness
light, and light darkness at our pleasure, so can we from decay bring
forth life, and the contrary. Seest thou this dead body?"

A black curtain he had not hitherto observed was thrown aside, and he
beheld the features of Grace Ashton, or he was strangely deceived. She
was lying on a little couch, death visibly imprinted on her collapsed
and sunken features.

"Murderers! I will have ye dealt with for this outrage." Maddened
almost to frenzy, he would have rushed towards her, but he was firmly
holden by a power superior to his own.

"She is now in the first region of departed spirits," said the chief.
"We have power to compel answer to our interrogatories. Listen,
perverse mortal. We are well assured that a vast treasure is concealed
hereabouts, hidden by the Knights