INE AND I WILL UNDERSTAND'" _Facing p._ 436

BOOK I

THE CHARACTERS CONCERNED

{ VIOLA LAMBERT, the subject
{ MRS. LAMBERT, her mother
{ JOS. LAMBERT, her step-father
Those { ANTHONY CLARKE, her pastor
in { DR. BRITT, her physician
the Light { MORTON SERVISS, her lover
{ KATE RICE, her friend
{ DR. WEISSMANN, her investigator
{ SIMEON PRATT, her patron

{ WALDRON, her father
Those { MCLEOD, her "control"
in { WALTIE, her poltergeist
the Dark { JENNIE PRATT, Pratt's eldest daughter
{ MRS. PRATT, "Loggy," and others dimly felt

THE TYRANNY OF THE DARK

I

THE SETTING

The village of Colorow is enclosed by a colossal amphitheatre of
dove-gray stone, in whose niches wind-warped pines stand like
spectators silent and waiting. Six thousand feet above the valley
floor green and orange slopes run to the edges of perennial
ice-fields, while farther away, and peering above these almost
inaccessible defences, like tents of besieging Titans, rise three
great mountains gleaming with snow and thunderous with storms.
Altogether a stage worthy of some colossal drama rather than the calm
slumber of a forgotten hamlet.

The railway enters the valley from the south by sinuously following
the windings of a rushing, foam-white stream, and for many miles the
engines cautiously feel their way among stupendous walls, passing
haltingly over bridges hung perilously between perpendicular cliffs by
slender iron rods, or creep like mountain-cats from ledge to ledge,
so that when they have reached safe harbor beside the little red depot
they never fail to pant and wheeze like a tired, gratified dog beside
his master's door. Aside from the coming and going of these trains,
the town is silent as the regarding pines.

The only other ways of entrance to this deep pocket lie over
threadlike trails which climb the divide from Silver City and Toltec
and Vermilion, and loop their terrifying courses down the declivities
trod only by the sturdy burro or the agile, sure-footed
mountain-horse. These wavering paths, worn deep and dusty once, are
grass-grown now, for they were built in the days when silver was
accounted a precious metal, and only an occasional hunter or
prospector makes present use of them.

Colorow itself, once a flaming, tumultuous centre