metimes it seemed everlasting) torment of Brother Lorenzo's presence.
Twenty-nine distinct damnations listed in Galatians, if you cared to
look up the text; and not one of them could the enemy be made to trip
on, a-dying.

In fact, of late, so bad had the situation grown that Brother Ambrose
had even once considered pledging his soul to Satan. Oh, not for keeps!
No enmity was worth that dread sacrifice. But as a trick, sort of--with
a flaw in the indenture that proud Lucifer would miss until it was too
late to wriggle out of the bargain.

But that had been two days ago.

Now, a better scheme presented itself to Brother Ambrose, engendered by
that forced labor within the dreary precincts of the convent library.
For that was where (and when) he had made his delightful discovery, the
one that would now redeem him from all his irritations and travail. The
discovery that would rid him of Brother Lorenzo for always!

It had happened like this.

Inasmuch as the monastery was over eight hundred years old, many ancient
books and moldy scrolls lay forgotten in the cobwebby corners of the
great library, especially where the light was gloomy. One afternoon
during his week of enforced toil, Brother Ambrose had sought the shelter
of one of these ill-lighted and seldom-visited nooks of the building to
recover certain lost hours of sleep, hours that had gone astray the
night before as he sat up in his lonely cell and brooded over his
wrongs. But before his drowsy head could nod off into dreams completely,
his eye had chanced to notice a faded scroll that jutted forth from its
fellows on the shelves. Starting to push the offender back in place,
Ambrose's fingers had hesitated when he noticed the title: _De
Necromantiae_.

Surely, thought the monk, such a book belonged on the Index. Then, it
occurred to him that possibly the copy in front of him was the only one
of its kind in the world, in which case not even the Holy Father could
be expected to know it existed. Then, how could it be on the Index or be
forbidden?

Taking advantage of this personal achievement in casuistry, Brother
Ambrose promptly untied the scroll and began reading.

What he discovered there interested him very much. We do not intend to
describe all of the marvels unfolded for him in that venerable mildewed
manuscript, for some of the more gruesome mysteries of the supernatural
world are better left unrevealed; but let it be said at least, that one
chapter in