He made his way with the utmost caution down

the corridor. At the head of the stairs he paused and listened. Below

him, the hall where they had gathered was dark and still, but through

opened doors and windows on the far side of the building came the sound

of a great throng moving farther and farther into the distance.

He made his way down the creaking wooden stairs,

dreading yet longing to meet some straggler who should point the way,

but finding no one; across the dark hall, so lately thronged with

living, moving things, and out through the opened front doors into the

street. He could not believe that he was really left behind, really

forgotten, that he had been purposely permitted to escape. It perplexed

him.

Nervously he peered about him, and up and down the

street; then, seeing nothing, advanced slowly down the pavement.

The whole town, as he went, showed itself empty and deserted, as

though a great wind had blown everything alive out of it. The doors and

windows of the houses stood open to the night; nothing stirred;

moonlight and silence lay over all. The night lay about him like a

cloak. The air, soft and cool, caressed his cheek like the touch of a

great furry paw. He gained confidence and began to walk quickly, though

still keeping to the shadowed side. Nowhere could he discover the

faintest sign of the great unholy exodus he knew had just taken place.

The moon sailed high over all in a sky cloudless and serene.

Hardly realising where he was going, he crossed the open marketplace

and so came to the ramparts, whence he knew a pathway descended to the

high road and along which he could make good his escape to one of the

other little towns that lay to the northward, and so to the railway.

But first he paused and gazed out over the scene at

his feet where the great plain lay like a silver map of some dream

country. The still beauty of it entered his heart, increasing his sense

of bewilderment and unreality. No air stirred, the leaves of the plane

trees stood motionless, the near details were defined with the

sharpness of day against dark shadows, and in the distance the fields

and woods melted away into haze and shimmering mistiness.

But the breath caught in his throat and he stood

stockstill as though transfixed when his gaze passed from the horizon

and fell upon the near prospect in the depth of the valley at his feet.

The whole lower slopes of the hill, that lay hid from the brightness of

the moon, were aglow, and through the glare he saw countless moving

forms, shifting thick and fast between the openings of the trees; while

overhead, like leaves driven by the wind, he discerned flying shapes

that hovered darkly one moment against the sky and then settled down

with cries and weird singing through the branches into the region that

was aflame.

Spellbound, he stood and stared for a time that he

could not measure. And then, moved by one of the terrible impulses that

seemed to control the whole adventure, he climbed swiftly upon the top

of the broad coping, and balanced a moment where the valley gaped at

his feet. But in that very instant, as he stood hovering, a sudden

movement among the shadows of the houses caught his eye, and he turned

to see the outline of a large animal dart swiftly across the open space

behind him, and land with a flying leap upon the top of the wall a

little lower down. It ran like the wind to his feet and then rose up

beside him upon the ramparts. A shiver seemed to run through the

moonlight, and his sight trembled for a second. His heart pulsed

fearfully. Use stood beside him, peering into his face.

Some dark substance, he saw, stained the girl’s face

and skin, shining in the moonlight as she stretched her hands towards

him; she was dressed in wretched tattered garments that yet became her

mightily; rue and vervain twined about her temples; her eyes glittered

with unholy light. He only just controlled the wild impulse to take her

in his arms and leap with her from their giddy perch into the valley

below.

“See!” she cried, pointing with an arm on which the rags fluttered

in the rising wind towards the forest aglow in the distance. “See where

they await us! The woods are alive! Already the Great Ones are there,

and the dance will soon begin! The salve is here! Anoint yourself and

come!”

Though a moment before the sky was clear and

cloudless, yet even while she spoke the face of the moon grew dark and

the wind began to toss in the crests of the plane trees at his feet.

Stray gusts brought the sounds of hoarse singing and crying from the

lower slopes of the hill, and the pungent odour he had already noticed

about the courtyard of the inn rose about him in the air.

“Transform, transform!” she cried again, her voice

rising like a song. “Rub well your skin before you fly. Come! Come with

me to the Sabbath, to the madness of its furious delight, to the sweet

abandonment of its evil worship! See! the Great Ones are there, and the

terrible Sacraments prepared. The Throne is occupied. Anoint and come!

Anoint and come!”

She grew to the height of a tree beside him, leaping

upon the wall with flaming eyes and hair strewn upon the night. He too

began to change swiftly. Her hands touched the skin of his face and

neck, streaking him with the burning salve that sent the old magic into

his blood with the power before which fades all that is good.

A wild roar came up to his ears from the heart of

the wood, and the girl, when she heard it, leaped upon the wall in the

frenzy of her wicked joy.

“Satan is there!” she screamed, rushing upon him and

striving to draw him with her to the edge of the wall.