BLACK MAGIC. Bowen Marjorie

through the trapdoor, his body heaving with long-drawn breaths.

      Dirk, light-footed and lithe, followed him, and dropped the flap.

      “The charm was not strong enough,” he said through his teeth. “And you —”

      Theirry broke in.

      “I could not help myself — I— I— saw them.”

      He sank on a chair by the open window and dropped his brow into his hand.

      The room was full of a soft starlight, far away and infinitely sweet; the vines and grasses made a quivering sound in the night wind and tapped against the lattice.

      Dirk moved into the workshop and came back with the candle and a great green glass of wine. He held up the light so that he could see the scholar’s beautiful agonised face, and with his other hand gave him the goblet.

      Theirry looked up and drank silently.

      When he had finished, the colour was back in his cheeks.

      Dirk took the glass from him and set it beside the candle on the window-sill.

      “What did you see — in the mirror?” he asked.

      “I do not know,” answered Theirry wildly. “A woman’s face —”

      “Ay,” broke in Dirk. “Now, what was she to us? And a figure like — the Pope?”

      He smiled derisively.

      “I saw that,” said Theirry. “But what should they do with holy things? — and then I saw —” Dirk swung round on him; each white despite the candle-light.

      “Nay — there, was no more after that!”

      “There was,” insisted Theirry. “A stormy sky and a gallows tree —” His voice fell hollowly. Dirk strode across the room into the trailing shadows.

      “The foul little imps!” he said passionately. “They deceived us!”

      Theirry rose in his place.

      “Will you continue these studies?” he questioned.

      The other gave him a quick look over his shoulder.

      “Do you think of turning aside?”

      “Nay, nay,” answered Theirry. “But one may keep knowledge this side of things blasphemous and unholy.”

      Dirk laughed hoarsely.

      “I have no fear of God!” he said in a thick voice. “But you — you are afraid of Sathanas. Well, go your way. Each man to his master. Mine will give me many things — look to it yours does the like by you —”

      He opened the door, and was leaving, when Theirry came after him and caught him by the robe.

      “Listen to me. I am not afraid. Nay, why did I leave Courtrai?”

      With resolute starry eyes Dirk gazed up at Theirry (who was near a head taller), and his proud mouth curled a little.

      “I may not disregard the fate that sent me here,” continued Theirry. “Will you come with me? I can be loyal.”

      His words were earnest, his face eager; still Dirk vas mute.

      “I have hated men, not loved them, all my life — most wonderfully am I drawn to thee —” “Oh!” cried Dirk, and gave a little quivering laugh.

      “Together might we do much, and it is ill work studying alone.”

      The younger man put out his hand.

      “If I come, will you swear a pact with me of friendship?”

      “We will be as brothers,” said Theirry gravely. “Sharing good and ill.”

      “Keeping our secret?” whispered Dirk —“allowing none to come between us?”

      “Yea.”

      “You are a-tune to me,” said Dirk. “So be it. I will come with you to Basle.”

      He raised his strange face; in the hollowed eyes, in the full colourless lips, were a resolution and a strength that held and commanded the other.

      “We may be great,” he said.

      Theirry took his hand; the red candle-light was being subdued and vanquished by a glimmering grey that overspread the stars; the dawn was peering in at the window.

      “Can you sleep?” asked Theirry.

      Dirk withdrew his hand.

      “At least I can feign it — Balthasar must not guess — get you to bed — never forget to-night and what you swore.”

      With a soft gliding step he gained the door, opened it noiselessly, and departed.

      Theirry stood for a while, listening to the slight sound of the retreating footfall, then he pressed his hands to his forehead and turned to the window.

      A pale pure flush of saffron stained the sky above the roof-line; there were no clouds, and the breeze had dropped again.

      In the vast and awful stillness, Theirry, feeling marked, set apart and defiled with blasphemy, yet elated also, in a wild and wicked manner, tiptoed up to his chamber.

      Each creaking board he stepped on, each shadow that seemed to change as he passed it, caused his blood to tingle guiltily; when he had gained his room he bolted the door and flung himself along his tumbled couch, holding his fingers to his lips, and with strained eyes gazing at the window. So he lay through long hours of sunshine in a half-swoon of sleep.

      Chapter 4

      The Departure

       Table of Contents

      He was at length fully aroused by the sound of loud and cheerful singing.

      “My heart’s a nun within my breast

      So cold is she, so cloistered cold” . . .

      Theirry sat up, conscious of a burning, aching head and a room flooded with sunshine.

      “To her my sins are all confest —

      So wise is she, so wise and old —

      So I blow off my loves like the thistledown”

      A burst of laughter interrupted the song; Theirry knew now that it was Balthasar’s voice, and he rose from the couch with a sense of haste and discomfiture.

      What hour was it?

      The day was of a drowsing heat; the glare of the sun had taken all colour out of the walls opposite, the grass and vines; they all blazed together, a shimmer of gold.

      “So I blow off my loves like the thistledown

      And ride from the gates of Courtrai town” . . .

      Theirry descended.

      He found Balthasar in the workshop; there were the remains of a meal on the table, and the Knight, red and fresh as a rose, was polishing up his sword handle, singing the while, as if in pleased expression of his own thoughts.

      In the corner sat Dirk, drawn into himself and gilding the devil.

      Theirry was conscious of a great dislike to Balthasar; ghosts nor devils, nor the thought of them had troubled his repose; there was annoyance in the fact that he had slept well, eaten well, and was now singing in sheer careless gaiety of heart; yet what other side of life should a mere animal like Balthasar know?

      Dirk looked up, then quickly down again; Theirry sank on a stool by the table.

      Balthasar turned to him.

      “Are you sick?” he asked, wide-eyed.

      The scholar’s