nstantly there
came over this man, this pleasant-looking, respectable American citizen,
such a change as is not made by death worms gnawing in a grave. Now
there was a fiend grovelling at her feet, a foul, sin-stained fiend.

"'Now you see the demon-soul,' said my sister. 'Watch It writhe and
struggle; it has served me well, brother, sayest thou not so, the lore I
gained from our wise men?'

"The horror of what followed chilled my blood; nor would I trust my
memory were it not that there remained and still remains plain proof of
all that I affirm. This hideous creature, dwarfed, crouching, devoid of
all resemblance to the man we had but now beheld, chattering to us in
curious old-time French, poured out such horrid blasphemy as would have
blanched the cheek of Satan, and made recital of such evil deeds as
never mortal ear gave heed to. And as she willed my sister checked It or
allowed It to go on. What it all meant was more than I could tell. To me
it seemed as if these tales of wickedness had no connection with our
modern life, or with the world around us, and so I judged presently from
what my sister said.

"'Speak of the later time, since thou wast in this clay.'

"Then I perceived that the creature came to things of which I knew: It
spoke of New York, of a wife, a child, a friend. It told of strangling
the child, of robbing the friend; and was going on to tell God knows
what other horrid deeds when my sister stopped It.

"'Stand as thou didst in killing the little babe, stand, stand!' and
once more she spoke some words unknown to me. Instantly the demon sprang
forward, and, bending Its clawlike hands, clutched them around some
little throat that was not there,--but I could see it in my mind. And
the look on its face was a blackest glimpse of hell.

"'And now stand as thou didst in robbing the friend, stand, stand'; and
again came the unknown words, and again the fiend obeyed.

"'These we will take for future use,' said my sister. And bidding me
watch the creature carefully until she should return, she left the room,
and, after none too short an absence, returned bearing a black box that
was an apparatus for photography, and something more besides,--some
newer, stranger kind of photography that she had learned. Then, on a
strangely fashioned card, a transparent white card, composed of many
layers of finest Oriental paper, she took the pictures of the creature
in those two creeping poses. And when it all was do