Page:Weird Tales Volume 8 Number 4 (1926-10).djvu/127

 these she proceeded to light a fire. It was slow work but eventually a tiny blue flame flared up in the darkness of the night. Immediately she commenced to dance a weird, wild dance. Despite her age she capered about the fire like a sprightly elf, shouting and screaming and shrieking for the spirit of Coralie to come to her. It was an uncanny sight. The pitch of her voice was frightful. It seemed to rasp on raw nerves.

Dr. Winwood shuddered. He knew at last that the old woman was a charlatan, that she possessed no spiritual power whatever. Her fame, such as it was, rested solely on her power to hypnotize and awe her audience. He rose to his feet and rushed blindly off into the cool blackness of the forest trails. He wanted to be alone, to get away from those awful sounds. His head was bursting. And he was unutterably sad and lonely. The exhibition which he had just viewed seemed like a sacrilege. He knew that the spirit of Coralie could never be influenced by such an extreme display of discord. All through the night he roamed through the forest. Often he fell, and the cool moist breast of the earth seemed to refresh him. Once he lay for almost an hour at full length, as though stunned, yet his faculties were doubly clear and calmness came to him in the soft fragrant lush of the dew.

When he returned to the house the sun had been up for hours. Coralie sat on the porch steps softly singing a plaintive melody. Near by Bar-low Garth reclined in a hammock, gazing into space as though even in his moment of relaxation his scientific mind refused to let him rest.

entered the house he motioned to Barlow to follow him. Not till they had reached his study did the doctor speak, then he said, "All last night I wandered through the forest, endeavoring to solve my problem. Never before did my mind work so keenly. The cool air on my face seemed to awaken every ounce of energy in me. In the silence of the forest a simple solution came to me. I marvel I did not think of it before. All along I have been trying to induce the spirit of Coralie to come to me. I failed. But there is nothing to prevent my spirit from temporarily going to hers."

Barlow Garth leaned forward in his chair. "What do you mean?" he cried.

"Merely that death is a door," was the reply, "and I intend to pass through it for a few minutes only. To many, death appears to be a black flood of mystery. They fear it because they do not understand it. But to me death holds no fear. It is a natural thing. I think of it merely as an adventure, not necessarily a permanent one. Tonight I intend to die. I will take a certain drug that will stop my heart. Exactly five minutes later you will bring me back to life again. That will give me five minutes to remain with Coralie, and as time does not exist in the spiritual world, the period will be as long there as we choose to make it. That gives you a leeway of two minutes."

Barlow Garth was amazed, but he offered no objection to the suggestion. He knew it would be useless to raise any obstacles. In any event he did not desire to do so. He was the perfect servant. He was the perfect friend as well. One could not ask more.

So in the early evening as the mist blanket of night was spreading down over the countryside, the doctor and Barlow went to the study. They took the physical Coralie with them and arranged a comfortable chair for her in front of the cheerful hearth. In the grate an immense pine log crackled merrily, and Coralie laughed back at it with all the abandon of a