Page:Artabanzanus (Ferrar, 1896).djvu/148

140 profitable trade by stirring up the most savage passions of the human heart?'

The Doctor groaned in acquiescence.

'I have spoken of the national, or patriotic, party, boiling over with hatred of England. There is another party, numbering about two millions, certainly the better informed and more peacefully inclined party, which is loyal to the Crown, and in favour of the closest union with England. It is bitterly opposed to Home Rule, which means throwing the governing and taxing power into the hands of the majority, no matter of what disloyal and discordant elements it may be composed.'

Here I was alarmed to see a wonderful change coming over my auditor. He began to fidget uneasily in his chair, stare wildly about him, shuffle with his feet, and betray by other signs of disquietude his consciousness that a formidable and unwelcome presence had intruded itself upon us, Then he suddenly started up, and walked hastily into his hospital. At the same moment the lamp on the table emitted a blue light, and a suffocating odour diffused itself through the apartment. I looked round me in terror, and distinctly saw, in my mind's eye, the Demon's fiendish balloon driver, Obeltub, scowling, and shaking his fist at me from a corner of the room. I immediately retreated into my own cell, and took refuge in my bed, where, happily, my spiritual enemies left me in peace; but, as I closed my in sleep, I heard a wild, sardonic laugh ringing through the vaulted chambers.