Page:Magician 1908.djvu/283

 “I have seen enough. I want to see no more,” he said.

“Then you may go, both of you,” answered Arthur. “I do not wish to force you to see anything. But I shall go on. Whatever it is, I wish to find out.”

“But Haddo? Supposing he is there, waiting? Perhaps you are only walking into a trap that he has set for you.”

“I am convinced that Haddo is dead.”

Again that unintelligible jargon, unhuman and shrill, fell upon their ears, and Arthur stepped forward. Susie did not hesitate. She was prepared to follow him anywhere. He opened the door, and there was a sudden quiet. Whatever made those sounds was there. It was a larger room than any of the others and much higher, for it ran along the whole front of the house. The powerful lamps showed every corner of it at once, but above, the beams of the open ceiling were dark with shadow. And here the nauseous odour, which had struck them before, was so overpowering that for a while they could not go in. It was indescribably foul. Even Arthur thought it would make him sick, and he looked at the windows to see if it was possible to open them; but it seemed they were hermetically closed. The extreme warmth made the air more overpowering. There were four furnaces here and they were all alight. In order to give out more heat and to burn slowly, the fronts of them were open, and one could see that they were filled with glowing coke.