It was a prodigious find, an illustrious find – and he the discoverer of it! The announcement of it would resound throughout the world, penetrate to the remotest lands, paralyse all the nations with amazement – and carry his name with it, and make him renowned forever. It was a wonderful piece of luck, a splendid piece of luck; the glory of it made him dizzy.

All the house made reverence to him, Marget seated him, Ursula ordered Gottfried to bring a special table for him, then she decked it and furnished it, and asked for his orders.

»Bring me what you will,« he said.

The two servants brought supplies from the pantry, together with white wine and red – a bottle of each. The priest took some water, blessed it, then sprinkled it over everything, bottles and all; then bowed his head and said grace. He poured out a beaker of red wine, drank it off, poured another, then began to eat, with a grand appetite.

I was not expecting Satan, for it was more than a week since I had seen him or heard of him, but now he came in – I knew it by the feel, though people were in the way and I could not see him. I heard him apologising for intruding; and he was going away, but Marget urged him to stay, and he thanked her and stayed. She brought him along, introducing him to the girls, and to Meidling and to some of the elders; and there was quite a rustle of whispers: »It's the young stranger we hear so much about and can't get a sight of, he is away so much.« »Dear, dear, but he is beautiful – what is his name?« »Philip Traum.« »Ah, it fits him!« (You see, Traum is German for Dream.) »What does he do?« »Studying for the ministry, they say.« »His face is his fortune – he'll be a cardinal some day.« »Where is his home?« »Away down somewhere in the tropics, they say – has a rich uncle down there.« And so on. He made his way at once; everybody was anxious to know him and talk with him. Everybody noticed how cool and fresh it was, all of a sudden, and wondered at it, for they could see that the sun was beating down the same as before, outside, and the sky clear of clouds, but no one guessed the reason, of course.

Father Adolf had drunk his second beaker; he poured a third. He set the bottle down, and by accident overturned it. He seized it before much was spilt, and held it up to the light, saying »What a pity – it is royal wine.« Then his face lighted with joy or triumph or something, and he said –

»Quick – bring a bowl.«

It was brought – a four-quart one. He took up that two-pint bottle and began to pour; went on pouring, and still pouring, the red liquor gurgling and gushing into the white bowl and rising higher and higher up its sides, everybody staring and holding their breath – and presently the bowl was full to the brim.

»Look at the bottle,« he said, holding it up; »it is full yet!« I glanced at Satan, and in that moment he vanished. The priest rose up, flushed and excited, crossed himself, and began to thunder in his bull voice: »This house is bewitched and accursed!« People began to cry and shriek and crowd toward the door. »I summon this detected household to....« I saw Satan, a transparent film, melt into the priest's body; then the priest put up his hand, and apparently in his own big voice said, »Wait – remain where you are.« All stopped where they stood. »Bring a funnel.« Ursula brought it, trembling and scared, and he stuck it in the bottle and took up the great bowl and began to pour the wine back, the people gazing and dazed with astonishment, for they knew that the bottle was already full before he began. He emptied the whole of the bowl into the bottle, then smiled out over the room, chuckled, and said, indifferently, »It is nothing – anybody can do it!«

A frightened cry burst out everywhere, »Oh, my God, he is possessed!« and there was a tumultuous rush for the door which swiftly emptied the house of all who did not belong in it except us boys and Meidling. We boys knew the secret, and would have told it if we could, but we couldn't. We were very thankful to Satan for furnishing that good help at the needful time.

Marget was pale, and crying, Meidling looked kind of petrified; Ursula the same; but Gottfried was the worst – he couldn't stand, he was so weak and scared. For he was of a witch family, you know, and it would be bad for him to be suspected of witching a priest. Agnes came loafing in, looking pious and unaware, and wanted to rub up against Ursula and be petted, but Ursula was afraid of her and shrank away from her, but pretending she was not meaning any incivility, for she knew very well it wouldn't answer to have strained relations with that kind of a cat. But we boys took Agnes and petted her, for Satan would not have befriended her if he had not had a good opinion of her, and that was endorsement enough for us. He seemed to trust anything that hadn't the Moral Sense.

 

Outside the guests scattered in every direction and fled in a pitiable state of terror, gasping out to all they met, that Father Adolf was possessed of a devil; and such a tumult they made with their running and sobbing and shrieking and shouting that soon all the village came flocking from their houses to see what had happened, and they thronged the street and shouldered and jostled each other in their excitement and fright; and then Father Adolf appeared and they fell apart in two walls like the cloven Red Sea, and down this lane Father Adolf came striding and mumbling, and where he passed the lanes surged back in packed masses, and fell silent with awe, and their eyes stared and their breasts heaved, and several women fainted; and when he was gone by, the crowd swarmed together and followed him at a distance, talking excitedly and asking questions and finding out the facts. Finding out the facts and passing them on to others, with improvements; improvements which soon enlarged the bowl of wine to a barrel and made the one bottle hold it all and yet remain empty to the last.

When Father Adolf reached the market square he went straight to a juggler fantastically dressed, who was keeping three brass balls in the air and took them from him and faced around upon the approaching crowd and said –

»This poor clown is ignorant of his art. Come forward and see an expert perform.«

So saying he tossed the balls up one after the other and set them whirling in a slender bright oval in the air, and added another, then another and another and so on – no one seeing whence he got them – adding, adding, adding, the oval lengthening and lengthening all the time, his hands moving so swiftly that they were just a web or a blur and not distinguishable as hands; and such as counted said there were now a hundred balls in the air. The spinning great oval reached up twenty feet in the air and was a shining and glinting and wonderful sight. Then he folded his arms and told the balls to go on spinning without his help – and they did it. After a couple of minutes he said, »There, that will do,« and the oval broke and came crashing down and the balls scattered abroad and rolled every whither. And wherever one of them came, the people fell back in dread, and no one would touch it. It made him laugh, and he scoffed at the people and called them cowards and old women. Then he turned and saw the tight-rope, and said foolish people were daily wasting their money to see a clumsy and ignorant varlet degrade that beautiful art – now they should see the work of a master. With that he made a spring into the air and lit firm on his feet on the rope.