Section 5

Margaret shuddered.
“T’ve never met a man who filled me with such loathing,” she said. “I don’t know what there is about him that frightens me. Even now I feel his eyes fixed strangely upon me. I hope I shall never see him again.”
54 THE MAGICIAN
Arthur gave a little laugh and pressed her hand. She would not let his go, and he felt that she was trembling. Personally he had no doubt about the matter. He would have no trifling with credibility. Either Haddo believed things that none but a luna- tic could, or else he was a charlatan who sought to attract attention by his extravagances. In any case he was contemptible. It was certain, at all events, that neither he nor anyone else could work mir- acles.
“T’ll tell you what Pll do,” said Arthur. “If he really knows Frank Hurrell [ll find out all about him. Ill drop a note to Hurrell to-night and ask © him to tell me anything he can.”
“T wish you would,’ answered Susie, “ because he interests me enormously. There’s no place like Paris for meeting queer folk. Sooner or later you run across persons who believe in everything. There’s no form of religion, there’s no eccentricity or enormity, that hasn’t its votaries. Just think what a privilege it is to come upon a man in the twentieth century who honestly believes in the oc- cult.”
“Since I have been occupied with these matters I have come across strange people,” said Dr. Por- hoét quietly, “but I agree with Miss Boyd that Oliver Haddo is the most extraordinary. For one thing it is impossible to know how much he really believes what he says. Is he an impostor or a madman? Does he deceive himself, or is he laugh-
THE MAGICIAN 55
ing up his sleeve at the folly of those who take him seriously? I cannot tell. All I know is that he has travelled widely and is acquainted with many tongues. He has a minute knowledge of alchemical literature, and there is no book I have heard of, dealing with the black arts, which he does not seem to know.” Dr. Porhoét shook his head slowly. “I should not care to dogmatise about this man. I know I shall outrage the feelings of my friend Ar- thur, but I am bound to confess it would not sur- prise me to learn that he possessed powers by which he was able to do things seemingly miraculous.”
Arthur was prevented from answering by their | arrival at the Lion de Belfort.
‘The fair was in full swing. The noise was deaf- ening. Steam bands thundered out the popular tunes of the moment, and to their din merry-go- rounds were turning. At the door of booths men vociferously importuned the passers-by to enter. From the shooting saloons came a continual spatter of toy rifles. Linking up these sounds were the voices of the serried crowd that surged along the central avenue, and the shuffle of their myriad feet. The night was lurid with acetylene torches, which flamed with a dull unceasing roar. It was a curious sight, half gay, half sordid. The throng seemed bent with a kind of savagery upon amusement, as though resentful of the weary round of daily labour, it sought by a desperate effort to be merry.
The English party with Dr. Porhoét, mildly
56 THE MAGICIAN
ironic, had scarcely entered before they were joined by Oliver Haddo. He was indifferent to the plain fact that they did not want his company. He at- tracted attention, for his appearance and his manner were remarkable, and Susie noticed that he was pleased to see people point him out to one another. He wore a Spanish cloak, the capa, and he flung the red and green velvet of its lining gaudily over his shoulder. He had a large soft hat. His height was great, though less noticeable on account of his obesity, and he towered over the puny multitude.
They looked idly at the various shows, resisting the melodramas, the circuses, the exhibitions of ec- centricity, which loudly clamoured for their custom. Presently they came to a man who was cutting silhouettes in black paper, and Haddo insisted on posing for him. A little crowd collected and did not spare their jokes at his singular appearance. He threw himself into his favourite attitude of proud command. Margaret wished to take the op- portunity of leaving him, but Miss Boyd insisted on staying.
“ He’s the most ridiculous creature I’ve ever seen in my life,” she whispered. ‘“ I wouldn’t let him out of my sight for worlds.”
When the silhouette was done he presented it with a low bow to Margaret.
“T implore your acceptance of the only portrait now in existence of Oliver Haddo,” he said.
“Thank you,” she answered, frigidly.
ee
THE MAGICIAN 57
She was unwilling to take it, but had not the presence of mind to put him off by a jest, and would not be frankly rude. As though certain she set much store on it, he put it carefully in an envelope. They walked on and suddenly came to a canvas booth on which was an Eastern name. Roughly painted on sail-cloth was a picture of an Arab charming snakes, and above were certain words in Arabic. At the entrance a native sat cross-legged, listlessly beating a drum. When he saw them stop, he addressed them in bad French.
“Does not this remind you of the turbid Nile, Dr. Porhoét?” said Haddo. “ Let us go in and see what the fellow has to show.”
Dr. Porhoét stepped forward and addressed the charmer, who brightened on hearing the language of his own country.
“ He is an Egyptian from Assiut,” said the doc- tor.
“T will buy tickets for you all,’ said Haddo.
He held up the flap that gave access to the booth, and Susie went in. Margaret and Arthur Burdon, somewhat against their will, were obliged to follow. The native closed the opening behind them. They found themselves in a dirty little tent, ill-lit by two smoking lamps; a dozen stools were placed in a circle on the bare ground. In one corner sat a fellah woman, motionless, in ample robes of dingy black. Her face was hidden by a long veil, which was held in place by a queer ornament of brass in
58 THE MAGICIAN
the middle of the forehead, between the eyes. These alone were visible, large and sombre, and the lashes were darkened with kohl: her fingers were brightly stained with henna. She moved slightly as the visitors entered, and the man gave her his drum. She began to rub it with her hands, curiously, and made a droning sound, which was odd and mysteri- ous. There was a peculiar odour in the place, so that Dr. Porhoét was for a moment transported to the evil-smelling streets of Cairo. It was an acrid mixture of incense, of attar of roses, with every imaginable putrescence. It choked the two women, and Susie asked for a cigarette. The native grinned when he heard the English tongue. He showed a row of sparkling and beautiful teeth.
“My name Mohammed,” he said. ‘“ Me show serpents to Sirdar Lord Kitchener. Wait and see. Serpents very poisonous.”
He was dressed in a long blue gabardine, more suited to the sunny banks of the Nile than to a fair in Paris, and its colour could hardly be seen for dirt. On his head was the national tarboosh.
A rug lay at one side of the tent, and from under it he took a goatskin sack. He placed it on the ground in the middle of the circle formed by the seats, and crouched down on his haunches. Mar- garet shuddered, for the uneven surface of the sack moved strangely. He opened the mouth of it. The woman in the corner listlessly droned away on the drum, and occasionally uttered a barbaric cry. With
-
THE MAGICIAN 50
a leer and a flash of his bright teeth, the Arab thrust his hand into the sack and rummaged as a man would rummage in a sack of corn. He drew out a long, writhing snake. He placed it on the ground and for a moment waited, then he passed his hand over it: it became immediately as rigid as a bar of iron. Except that the eyes, the cruel eyes, were open still there might have been no life in it.
“Look,” said Haddo. “That is the miracle which Moses did before Pharaoh.”
Then the Arab took a reed instrument, not unlike the pipe which Pan in the hills of Greece played to the dryads, and he piped a weird, monotonous tune. The stiffness broke away from the snake suddenly, and it lifted its head and raised its long body till it stood almost on the tip of its tail, and it swayed slowly to and fro.
Oliver Haddo seemed extraordinarily fascinated. He leaned forward with eager face, and his un- natural eyes were fixed on the charmer with an in- describable expression. Margaret drew back in terror.
“Your need not be frightened,” said Arthur. “These people only work with animals whose fangs have been extracted.”
Oliver Haddo looked at him before answering. He seemed to consider each time what sort of man this was to whom he spoke.
““A man is only a snake-charmer because, with-
60 THE MAGICIAN
out recourse to medicine, he is proof against the fangs of the most venomous serpents.”
“Do you think so?” said Arthur.
“T saw the most noted charmer of Madras die two hours after he had been bitten by a cobra,” said Haddo. ‘I had heard many tales of his prowess, and one evening asked a friend to take me to him. He was out when we arrived, but we waited, and presently, accompanied by some friends, he came. We told him what we wanted. He had been at a marriage-feast and was drunk. But he sent for his snakes, and forthwith showed us marvels which this man has never heard of. At last he took a great — cobra from his sack and began to handle it. Sud- denly it darted at his chin and bit him. It made two marks like pin-points. The juggler started back.
“*T am a dead man,’ he said.
“ Those about him would have killed the cobra, but he prevented them.
“* Tet the creature live,’ he said. ‘It may be of service to others of my trade. To me it can be of no other use. Nothing can save me.’
“His friends and the jugglers, his fellows, gath- ered round him and placed him in a chair. In two hours he was dead. In his drunkenness he had for- gotten a portion of the spell which protected him, and so he died.”
“You have a marvellous collection of tall stories,’ said Arthur. “I’m afraid I should want
ee
THE MAGICIAN 61
better proof that these particular snakes are poison- ous.”
Oliver turned to the charmer and spoke to him in Arabic. Then he answered Arthur.
“The man has a horned viper, cerastes is the name under which you gentlemen of science know it, and it is the most deadly of all Egyptian snakes. It is commonly known as Cleopatra’s Asp, for that is the serpent which was brought in a basket of figs to the paramour of Cesar in order that she might not endure the triumph of Augustus.”
“What are you going to do?” asked Susie.
He smiled, but did not answer. He stepped for- ward to the centre of the tent and fell on his knees. He uttered Arabic words, which Dr. Porhoét trans- lated to the others:
“O viper, I adjure you by the great God who is all powerful, to come forth. You are but a snake, and God is greater than all snakes. Obey my call and come.”
A tremor went through the goatskin bag, and in a moment a head was protruded. A lithe body wriggled out. It was a snake of a light grey colour, and over each eye was a horn. It lay slightly curled.
“Do you recognise it?” said Oliver in a low voice to the doctor.
“é I do.’’
The charmer sat motionless, and thé woman in the dim background ceased her weird rubbing of
62 THE MAGICIAN
the drum. Haddo seized the snake and opened its mouth. Immediately it fastened on his hand, and the reptile teeth went deep into his flesh. Arthur watched him for signs of pain, but he did not wince. The writhing snake dangled from his hand. He repeated a sentence in Arabic, and, with the pecu- liar suddenness of a drop of water falling from a roof, the snake fell to the ground. The blood flowed freely. Haddo spat upon the bleeding place three times, muttering words they could not hear, and three times he rubbed the wound with his fin- gers. The bleeding stopped entirely. He stretched out his hand for Arthur to look at.
“That surely is what a surgeon would call healing by first intention,” he said.
Burdon was astonished, but he was irritated, too, and would not allow that there was anything strange in the cessation of the flowing blood.
“You haven’t yet shown that the snake was poisonous.”
“JT have not finished yet,” smiled Haddo.
He spoke again to the Egyptian, who gave an order to his wife. Without a word she rose to her feet and from a box took a white rabbit. She lifted it up by the ears, and it struggled with its four quaint legs. Haddo put it in front of the horned viper. Before anyone could have moved, the snake darted forward, and like a flash of light- ning struck the rabbit. The wretched little beast
THE MAGICIAN 63
gave a slight scream, a shudder went through it, and it fell dead.
Margaret sprang up with a cry.
“Oh, how cruel! How hatefully cruel!”
“ Are you convinced now?” asked Haddo coolly.
The two women hurried to the doorway. They were frightened and disgusted. Oliver Haddo was left alone with the snake-charmer.
V
Dr. Porwoet had asked Arthur to bring Margaret and Miss Boyd to see him on Sunday at his apart- ment in the Ile Saint Louis; and the lovers ar- ranged to spend an hour on their way at the Louvre. Susie, invited to accompany them, preferred inde- pendence and her own reflections.
To avoid the crowd which throngs the picture galleries on holidays, they went to that part of the museum where ancient sculpture is kept. It was comparatively empty, and the long halls had the singular restfulness of places where works of art are gathered together. Margaret was filled with a genuine emotion; and though she could not analyse it as Susie, who loved to dissect her state of mind, would have done, it strangely exhilarated her. Her heart was uplifted from the sordidness of earth, and she had a sensation of freedom which was as delightful as it was indescribable. Arthur had never troubled himself with art till Margaret’s en- thusiasm taught him that there was a side of life he did not realise. Though beauty meant little to . his practical nature, he sought, in his great love for Margaret, to appreciate the works which excited her to such charming ecstasy. He walked by her side with docility and listened, not without defer-
a
THE MAGICIAN 6s
ence, to her outbursts. He admired the correctness of Greek anatomy, and there was one statue of an athlete which attracted his prolonged attention, be- cause the muscles were indicated with the precision of a plate in a surgical text-book. When Mar- garet talked of the Greeks’ divine repose and of their blitheness, he thought it very clever because she said it; but in a man it would have aroused his impatience.
Yet there was one piece, the charming statue known as La Diane de Gabies, which moved him differently, and to this presently he insisted on go- ing. With a laugh Margaret remonstrated, but se- cretly she was not displeased. She was aware that his passion for this figure was due, not to it intrinsic beauty, but to a likeness he had discovered in it to herself.
It stood in that fair wide gallery where is the mocking faun, with his inhuman savour of fellow- ship with the earth which is divine, and the sight- less Homer. The goddess had not the arrogance of the huntress who loved Endymion, nor the majesty of the cold mistress of the skies. She was in the likeness of a young girl, and with collected gesture fastened her cloak. There was nothing divine in her save a sweet strange spirit of virginity. A lover in ancient Greece, who offered sacrifice before this fair image, might forget easily that it was a god- dess to whom he knelt, and see only an earthly maid all fresh with youth and chastity and loveliness.
66 THE MAGICIAN
In Arthur’s eyes Margaret had all the exquisite grace of that statue, and the same unconscious com- posure; and in her also breathed the spring odours of ineffable purity. Her features were chiselled with the clear and divine perfection of this Greek girl’s; her ears were as delicate and as finely wrought. The colour of her skin was so tender that it reminded you vaguely of all beautiful soft things, the radiancy of sunset and the darkness of the night, the heart of roses and the depth of run- ning water. The goddess’s hand was raised to her right shoulder, and Margaret’s hand was as small, as dainty, and as white.
“Don’t be so foolish,” said she, as Arthur looked silently at the statue.
He turned his eyes slowly, and they rested upon her. She saw that they were veiled with tears.