Page:Weird Tales volume 38 number 03 CAN.djvu/60

 approached them with curses and drove them into the church—where the priests hurriedly barred the doors.

Those unaffected remained indoors frightened nearly out of their wits. Many of those who ventured forth out of necessity were encumbered with all manner of talismanical paraphernalia for protection. And when the band from Paris reached the cathedral they were admitted only after guards ascertained that they were free of the disease. The great edifice was serving as a refuge. Groups were praying. Not until after their admittance did Dr. Planquette learn with shock that one of their own number had joined the dancers, even though a pair of his companions did everything in their power to stop him. Choosing a citizen of good appearance, Dr. Planquette approached him and queried: "We have just entered the city and are appalled by the sights. What do you make of it?"

"They are demoniacs," replied the citizen. "Their misfortune is due to unworthy priests whose baptism had not sufficient validity to expel the demons. You see, most of the dancers when first possessed, attempt to invoke St John the Baptist. It is the prevailing opinion."

Planquette and his students rested at the cathedral, and started their journey anew the next dawn. It was one hundred miles to the next city, Dinant, and they were weary when they arrived, but the doctor had a friend here in whose home they rested. There were demonstrations in Dinant, too, and another of the party was lost to the dancers.

T WAS the same story at Huy, Liege, and Maestrucht. By the time they reached Aix-la-Chapelle Planquette, Christian and Hynek Zerotin were the only survivors of the band.

When they entered Christian's native city throngs were reaching the peak of dissolute orgy.

The horrors here were worse than anything they had yet seen. Bloody garments littered the gutters. Men and women were rending their clothes. Many were naked and bleeding. Profligacy was rampant. They leaped into the air shrieking invocations which only the Devil could understand. Their contortions were lascivious and gruesome. Exhausted victims lay about trampled upon while unmolested criminals went about looting and ravishing.

Christian, his uncle, and Hynek became separated, but they had prepared for this contingency by planning to meet at the cathedral. Intent now only upon finding Mina and his home, Christian evaded the congestion, slipping through the side streets of which he was familiar.

Suddenly in one of these narrow ways a figure on horseback swung from around a corner, approached and passed him at a terrific pace. The rider was attired in a flowing black cape with a heavy hood. A white encircled swastika was patterned on the breast of the cape. As he passed Christian the rider ducked his head as though to avoid being seen, but Christian caught one fleeting glimpse of the face. What a face it was!

It was a visage that never would leave Christian's memory. It was blacker than charcoal and the eyes were solid crimson. The mouth, a round puckered hole without lips. The nose, a mere ridge separating the nostrils, like that of a skull.

His breath taken by sheer awe, Christian stopped for a moment. Then,