Page:Weird Tales volume 11 number 02.pdf/54

Rh while I thought of Vienna—the old Vienna of the empire, not the poverty-stricken city of the mongrel republic. An old lady, a beautiful, white-haired lady, came to sit on a bench near mine. She seemed sad and thoughtful, too, and one day when she addressed me, my heart nearly burst with joy. She was a Frau Stoeger, and like me she came from Vienna; like me, she had lost her nearest ones in the war our envious foes forced upon us."

De Grandin twisted fiercely at the waxed ends of his little mustache and something very like a snort of contempt escaped him, but he controlled himself with a visible effort and nodded for her to proceed.

"One afternoon, when I had told her how my noble brothers died gloriously at the Piave," the girl went on, "she suggested that we go to a spiritualistic friend of hers and see if it were possible for us to converse with the beloved dead. I shrank from the suggestion at first, for Holy Church frowns on such attempts to pierce the veil heaven hangs between us and the blessed ones who sleep in the Lord, but she finally persuaded me, and we went to see the medium."

"Ah?" de Grandin nodded understandingly. "I suppose this Madame Medium told you most remarkable things?"

"Nein, mein Herr," the girl negatived eagerly. "That she did not. Me she would have no intercourse with. 'Out of my sight and out of my house!' she cried the moment I entered the room where she sat. 'Begone, accursed woman, you are possessed of devils!' she told me, and moaned and screamed until I had left the building."

"Parbleu, this is of the strange unusualness!" de Grandin muttered. "Proceed, Mademoiselle, I listen."

"Frau Stoeger was almost as embarrassed as I at the strange reception," the girl replied, "but she told me not to lose hope. Too late she confided that when she first went to the medium's she, too, was bidden to depart because a minor imp had fastened on her; yet she went to a learned man who could cast out devils and had the spirit exorcised without trouble or expense, for the Herr Doktor Martulus will take no fees for his work. Now she is one of the most intimate members of the circle over which Laila, the Medium, presides."

"Yes? And then?" the Frenchman prompted.

"That very night we drove into the country and met the professor. He listened sympathetically to my case and gave me a little box of pills which I was to take. I followed his directions to the letter, but the pills made me very sick, so I stopped them.

"Next time I met Frau Stoeger she questioned me concerning the medicine, and when she learned it had made me ill, she said it was a very evil sign, and begged me with tears to go for another consultation.

"The moment Professor Martulus saw me he seemed greatly alarmed and called a council of his associates, telling them he was certain I was possessed by one of the major fiends, since the medicine he had given me had never before failed to drive the lesser demons from their victims. But they all assured me there was no need to fear, since Belial, Mammon and even dread Milchim could be thrown from their possession by their spells. Only one demon was proof against them, and that one was Mephistopheles, the Fiend of Fiends, Satan’s other self. If he claimed me for his own, my case was well-nigh hopeless.

"They took me to an inner chamber where the mystic rites began, and by their magic they sought the name of the fiend possessing me. All efforts were vain, and no response came to their questions until, in fear and