Not pleasant, but effective," came the quiet reply; "the exhalations of
freshly spilled blood."

"Not human blood!" cried Colonel Wragge, starting up from his chair with
a voice like an explosion. I thought his eyes would start from their
sockets.

The face of Dr. Silence relaxed in spite of himself, and his spontaneous
little laugh brought a welcome though momentary relief.

"The days of human sacrifice, I hope, will never come again," he
explained. "Animal blood will answer the purpose, and we can make the
experiment as pleasant as possible. Only, the blood must be freshly
spilled and strong with the vital emanations that attract this peculiar
class of elemental creature. Perhaps--perhaps if some pig on the estate
is ready for the market--"

He turned to hide a smile; but the passing touch of comedy found no echo
in the mind of our host, who did not understand how to change quickly
from one emotion to another. Clearly he was debating many things
laboriously in his honest brain. But, in the end, the earnestness and
scientific disinterestedness of the doctor, whose influence over him was
already very great, won the day, and he presently looked up more calmly,
and observed shortly that he thought perhaps the matter could be
arranged.

"There are other and pleasanter methods," Dr. Silence went on to
explain, "but they require time and preparation, and things have gone
much too far, in my opinion, to admit of delay. And the process need
cause you no distress: we sit round the bowl and await results. Nothing
more. The emanations of blood--which, as Levi says, is the first
incarnation of the universal fluid--furnish the materials out of which
the creatures of discarnate life, spirits if you prefer, can fashion
themselves a temporary appearance. The process is old, and lies at the
root of all blood sacrifice. It was known to the priests of Baal, and it
is known to the modern ecstasy dancers who cut themselves to produce
objective phantoms who dance with them. And the least gifted clairvoyant
could tell you that the forms to be seen in the vicinity of
slaughter-houses, or hovering above the deserted battlefields,
are--well, simply beyond all description. I do not mean," he added,
noticing the uneasy fidgeting of his host, "that anything in our
laundry-experiment need appear to terrify us, for this case seems a
comparatively simple one, and it is only the vindictive character of the
intelligence directing this fire-elemen