Page:Magician 1908.djvu/286

 back with fright, as it raised itself on its four legs and tried to reach up to them.

Susie turned away and hid her face. She could not look at those ghastly counterfeits of humanity. She was terrified and ashamed.

“Do you understand what this means?” said Dr. Porhoët to Arthur, in an awed voice. “It means that he has discovered the secret of life.”

“Was it for these vile monstrosities that Margaret was sacrificed in all her loveliness?”

The two men looked at one another with sad, wondering eyes.

“Don’t you remember that he talked of the manufacture of human beings? It’s these misshapen things that he’s succeeded in producing,” said the doctor.

“There is one more that we haven’t seen,” said Arthur.

He pointed to the covering which still hid the largest of the vases. He had a feeling that it contained the most fearful of all these monsters; and it was not without an effort that he drew the cloth away. But no sooner had he done this than something sprang up, so that instinctively he started back, and it began to gibber in piercing tones. These were the unearthly sounds that they had heard. It was not a voice, it was a kind of raucous crying, hoarse yet shrill, uneven like the barking of a dog, and appalling. The sounds came forth in rapid succession, angrily, as though the being that uttered them sought to express itself in furious words. It was mad with passion and beat