saw him move to and fro. They
saw him bend to the ground. Presently there was a crackling of wood, and
from the brazen bowls red flames shot up. They did not know what he
burnt, but there were heavy clouds of smoke, and a strong, aromatic
odour filled the air. Now and again the doctor was sharply silhouetted
against the light. His slight, bowed figure was singularly mysterious.
When Susie caught sight of his face, she saw that it was touched with a
strong emotion. The work he was at affected him so that his doubts, his
fears, had vanished. He looked like some old alchemist busied with
unnatural things. Susie's heart began to beat painfully. She was growing
desperately frightened and stretched out her hand so that she might touch
Arthur. Silently he put his arm through hers. And now the doctor was
tracing strange signs upon the ground. The flames died down and only a
glow remained, but he seemed to have no difficulty in seeing what he was
about. Susie could not discern what figures he drew. Then he put more
twigs upon the braziers, and the flames sprang up once more, cutting the
darkness sharply as with a sword.

'Now come,' he said.

But, inexplicably, a sudden terror seized Susie. She felt that the hairs
of her head stood up, and a cold sweat broke out on her body. Her limbs
had grown on an instant inconceivably heavy so that she could not move.
A panic such as she had never known came upon her, and, except that her
legs would not carry her, she would have fled blindly. She began to
tremble. She tried to speak, but her tongue clave to her throat.

'I can't, I'm afraid,' she muttered hoarsely.

'You must. Without you we can do nothing,' said Arthur.

She could not reason with herself. She had forgotten everything except
that she was frightened to death. Her heart was beating so quickly that
she almost fainted. And now Arthur held her, so firmly that she winced.

'Let me go,' she whispered. 'I won't help you. I'm afraid.'

'You must,' he said. 'You must.'

'No.'

'I tell you, you must come.'

'Why?'

Her deadly fear expressed itself in a passion of sudden anger.

'Because you love me, and it's the only way to give me peace.'

She uttered a low wail of pain, and her terror gave way to shame. She
blushed to the roots of her hair because he too knew her secret. And then
she was seized again with anger because he had the cruelty to taunt her
with it. She had recovered her courage now, and she stepped forward.