vable
against odds. And the strange contrast of the pale skin and the burning
face I had never seen before, or wish to see again.

But what has left an even sharper impression on my memory was the
blackness that then began crawling over his face, obliterating the
features, concealing their human outline, and hiding him inch by inch
from view. This was my first realisation that the process of
materialisation was at work. His visage became shrouded. I moved from
one side to the other to keep him in view, and it was only then I
understood that, properly speaking, the blackness was not upon the
countenance of Colonel Wragge, but that something had inserted itself
between me and him, thus screening his face with the effect of a dark
veil. Something that apparently rose through the floor was passing
slowly into the air above the table and above the bowl. The blood in the
bowl, moreover, was considerably less than before.

And, with this change in the air before us, there came at the same time
a further change, I thought, in the face of the soldier. One-half was
turned towards the red lamps, while the other caught the pale
illumination of the moonlight falling aslant from the high windows, so
that it was difficult to estimate this change with accuracy of detail.
But it seemed to me that, while the features--eyes, nose,
mouth--remained the same, the life informing them had undergone some
profound transformation. The signature of a new power had crept into the
face and left its traces there--an expression dark, and in some
unexplained way, terrible.

Then suddenly he opened his mouth and spoke, and the sound of this
changed voice, deep and musical though it was, made me cold and set my
heart beating with uncomfortable rapidity. The Being, as he had dreaded,
was already in control of his brain, using his mouth.

"I see a blackness like the blackness of Egypt before my face," said
the tones of this unknown voice that seemed half his own and half
another's. "And out of this darkness they come, they come."

I gave a dreadful start. The doctor turned to look at me for an instant,
and then turned to centre his attention upon the figure of our host, and
I understood in some intuitive fashion that he was there to watch over
the strangest contest man ever saw--to watch over and, if necessary, to
protect.

"He is being controlled--possessed," he whispered to me through the
shadows. His face wore a wonderful expression, half triumph