Read Online Hangmans Holiday by Dorothy L. Sayers - Free Book Online

think she will come. Perhaps even to-night.”
    “Thank goodness! I want to get the thing over before Wetherall comes back, or we may find ourselves in Queer Street. It will take some weeks, you know, before we are ready to move, even if the scheme works at all. Damn it, what’s that?”
    Juan rose and went into the inner room, to return in a minute carrying the lemur.
    “Micky had been playing with your hair-brushes,” he said indulgently, “Naughty one, be quiet! Are you ready for a little practice, my lord?”
    “Oh, rather, yes! I’m getting quite a dab at this job. If all else fails, I shall try for an engagement with Maskelyn.”
    Juan laughed, showing his white teeth. He brought out a set of billiard-balls, coins and other conjuring apparatus, palming and multiplying them negligently as he went. The other took them from him, and the lesson proceeded.
    “Hush!” said the wizard, retrieving a ball which had tiresomely slipped from his fingers in the very act of vanishing. “There’s somebody coming up the path.”
    He pulled his robe about his face and slipped silently into the inner room. Juan grinned, removed the decanter and glasses, and extinguished the lamp. In the firelight the great eyes of the lemur gleamed strongly as it hung on the back of the high chair. Juan pulled a large folio from the shelf, lit a scented pastille in a curiously shaped copper vase and pulled forward a heavy iron cauldron which stood on the hearth. As he piled the logs about it, there came a knock. He opened the door, the lemur running at his heels.
    “Whom do you seek, mother?” he asked, in Basque.
    “Is the Wise One at home?”
    “His body is at home, mother; his spirit holds converse with the unseen. Enter. What would you with us?”
    “I have come, as I said—ah, Mary! Is that a spirit?”
    “God made spirits and bodies also. Enter and fear not.”
    The old woman came tremblingly forward.
    “Hast thou spoken with him of what I told thee?”
    “I have. I have shown him the sickness of thy mistress—her husband’s sufferings—all.”
    “What said he?”
    “Nothing; he read in his book.”
    “Think you he can heal her?”
    “I do not know; the enchantment is a strong one; but my master is mighty for good.”
    “Will he see me?”
    “I will ask him. Remain here, and beware thou show no fear, whatever befall.”
    “I will be courageous,” said the old woman, fingering her beads.
    Juan withdrew. There was a nerve-shattering interval. The lemur had climbed up to the back of the chair again and swung, teeth-chattering, among the leaping shadows. The parrot cocked his head and spoke a few gruff words from his corner. An aromatic steam began to rise from the cauldron. Then, slowly into the red light, three, four, seven white shapes came stealthily and sat down in a circle about the hearth. Then, a faint music, that seemed to roll in from leagues away. The flame flickered and dropped. There was a tall cabinet against the wall, with gold figures on it that seemed to move with the moving firelight.
    Then, out of the darkness, a strange voice chanted in an unearthly tongue that sobbed and thundered.
    Martha’s knees gave under her. She sank down. The seven white cats rose and stretched themselves, and came sidling slowly about her. She looked up and saw the wizard standing before her, a book in one hand and a silver wand in the other. The upper part of his face was hidden, but she saw his pale lips move and presently he spoke, in a deep, husky tone that vibrated solemnly in the dim room:
“ὧ πέπov, ἐi µὲv γàp, πóλεµov πεpì τóvδε φuγόvτε, aìεì δὴ µέλλoiµεv ἀγήpω τ’ ἀθaváτω τε ἕσσεθ’, oὔτε κεv aὐτòς ἐvì πpώτoiσi µaχoίµηv, oὔτε κέ σε στέλλoiµi µάχηv ἐς κuδiávεipav …”
    The great syllables went rolling on. Then the wizard paused, and added, in a kinder tone:
    “Great stuff, this Homer. ‘It goes so