Page:Weird Tales volume 02 number 03.djvu/58

Rh into this driveling creature almost destroyed Eric's self-control.

As for the Devil-Worshipers, they flung themselves face downward, shrieking:

"The Judgment! We have seen it before! Have mercy, Sebastian! Have mercy, oh most dreadful Lord Satan!"

But Julius went on smiling and humming and watching the leaping flames.

Eric managed to pull himself together, again began the ritual of dismissal, and this time pursued it to its close.

But as he paused on the last words a sudden cry went up from the kneeling people. He turned. At the foot of the altar stood Sebastian. The Devil-Worshippers stared dazedly from the Sebastian on the altar to the Sebastian below it.

"There is the traitor!" cried Eric. But they only stared stupidly:

"Drag down that imposter," Sebastian commanded furiously.

It is a well-known fact that conflict of authority incites rebellion. The Worshipers, at first almost ready to believe that Sebastian's dreadful powers had enabled him to materialize another body, took courage at this sign of discord.

In vain Sebastian raved and stormed and quoted the devil ceremony to prove his identity; in vain Eric threatened and lashed at them with the whip and repeated the words Judith had taught him.

They crowded around the two sinister figures. Eric was standing beside Sebastian now, ready to bluff it out as long as possible.

"Don't you see?" shrieked the debutante suddenly. "One is really Sebastian—the other is the traitor!"

"But I tell you Sebastian is the traitor!" growled Carlos, the guard.

"He can't be," she pointed out. "Don't you remember that—Julius—" she shuddered and turned away her head—"said he had seen the traitor and would know his face?"

"But both these men have Sebastian's face!"

"Paint!" cried the debutante, who no doubt was well informed on such matters. "Wash their faces!"

"That ends it for me!" thought Eric as he and Sebastian were dragged struggling to one of the bowls of warm incense. "But why should Sebastian worry? It will put things right for him."

He was scrubbed with vicious energy and there was a cry of triumph as court-plaster and paint melted and the scars vanished from his face.

But to his amazement the cry was echoed by the group around Sebastian. It fell apart and in the midst stood Sebastian, his face as bare of scar's as Eric's own.

For a time pandemonium raged.

"Death! Death!" shrieked the mob,

"No!" cried a few cautious ones. "The treasure first—make them find the treasure!"

Sebastian laughed. "If I had known where to find the treasure I would long ago have sent you to destruction!" he snarled into the faces of his captors.

So great was their fear of him still that for a moment they shrank back. And in that instant's pause a strain of wild music came faintly from somewhere within the Manor. Nearer and nearer it came, strangely disturbing in its fitful rhythm, and the fury of the devil-worshipers died as if under a spell. The strains broke into a walling climax and a long sigh went up as Senta stood within the doorway. Her face was rigid and ghastly white, and her voice was strangely discordant as she chanted:

"Give me the condemned, oh ye People of the Pit. The dreadful power that fills my soul will deal with them through me."

Again there was a violent controversy. "It is ill-fortime to refuse the Victim!" clamored the debutante. "She can make them reveal the treasure, and besides, no one can escape from the Manor. The doors are guarded!"

This mingling of superstition and common sense, combined with the spell of the music, which still sounded hauntingly from the shadows, had its effect on the throng, who fell back as Eric and Sebastian walked slowly to where Senta stood. As they passed the debutante she leaned forward and hissed malignantly:

"Whichever you are, Sebastian, I'll see you tortured yet—you and that ugly Judith for whom you refused my love!"

Sebastian made no reply and the mob was silent as the two followed Senta out of the hall. Through winding passages they went without a word; and up and up a stairway enclosed by stone walls. A faint streak of light gleamed at the top; it widened suddenly, and Judith, violin in hand, stood in a lighted room. As they stepped in and the door closed noiselessly behind them they caught a glimpse of a peering malicious face, as one of the Devil-Worshipers mounted guard at the top of the stairs.

The room was round, and furnished with a couch and a chair. It was brightly lighted, but the air was heavy and stale; apparently there were no windows and the mouth of the wide tile-rimmed fireplace was covered with sheet-iron. Judith and Sebastian were engaged in a low impassioned conversation while Eric and Senta stared around the strange room. Eric turned suddenly to Sebastian.

"We must plan some way of escape," he said.

"Oh, of course we are enemies," he went on, "and if we once get out of here I'll see that you get what's coming to you, but just now we must work together."

Sebastian nodded. "Yes," he admitted reluctantly. "You must help me get Judith out of this."

"How?" asked Eric crisply. Then as Sebastian looked blank, "Surely you know some way out?" he cried.

Sebastian's face was ghastly. "They know all the secret exits," he stammered. "I had to tell them in case of a raid, which would have ruined me. I did keep one to myself but Van Tassell stumbled on it by accident and told the others." His face was suddenly convulsed.

"Blast him!" he shrieked, clutching the air— "I'll—"

Judith's tender touch calmed him instantly.

"Talk of something else for a little while," Judith entreated in a low tone. "When he is calmer he will think of something."

Erie hesitated. But, realizing that Senta's chance of escape was largely dependent on the other two, he complied.

"What is this room?’ he asked.

"The Round Tower," Judith replied absently, her anxious eyes on her husband's brooding face. "The room known as the Heart of the Manor."

Eric and Senta exchanged glances. Sebastian looked up.

"The Heart of the Manor," he repeated. "Old Torvald ate his heart out in this room—the canting hypocrite!"

"And you and Uncle Eldred assisted that operation?" Eric asked incisively.

"Yes!" cried Sebastian. "Oh, it doesn't matter, dearest! I'm through! We're all as good as dead—We paid him out for his 'reform' and for favoring your father—but we couldn't get him to tell about the treasure—but you know!"

He roused himself suddenly and faced Eric. "Where is the treasure?"

"The treasure be damned!" cried Eric, almost beside himself with anxiety for Senta. "We've got to find a way out!"

"There is no way out—but one! And when we take that way, all in this accursed house will go with us! I know that way—we planned it years ago. Judith, my wife, we'll go that way together."

Judith stood beside his chair and pressed his head against her shoulder.

"I've been trying to think of some way out for you two," she told Eric. "But