d
incantation.

"Those of whom Vertabied, the Armenian, says: '_Their orders differ from
one another in situation and degree of glory, just as there are
different ranks among men, though they are all of one nature._' They
cannot cross nor overthrow this Wall, nor can man alone; but if they and
man join together----One there beyond whispers to me of power, splendor,
victory----"

Days later, there was entered a passage of mad triumph and terror. The
Barrier was broken through. Out of the breach issued the One whom she
had invited to her silver lamps; colossal, formless, whose approach
froze blood and spirit. Eyes of unspeakable meaning glared across the
dark, whispers unbearable to humanity beat upon her intelligence and
named her comrade.

Now as Vere read this, I felt again that quiver of the house or air he
had likened to an earth shock and held responsible for the fall of the
willow tree that had destroyed our hope of escape by automobile. I
looked at my companions and saw no evidence of anyone having noticed
what I had seemed to feel. Vere indeed was pale; while Phillida, who sat
beside him, was highly flushed with excitement and wonder as she
listened. Desire had not stirred in her chair, except to bend her head
so her face was shaded by the loosened richness of her hair. Seeing them
so undisturbed, I kept silence. A storm might be approaching, but I made
no pretense to myself of believing that shock either thunder or
earthquake.

The tone of the diary altered rapidly. At first, the unknown from beyond
the wall appalled the woman only by its unhuman strangeness, the
repugnance of flesh and blood for its loathly neighborhood. Fear
emanated from its presence, seen yet unseen, a blackness moving in the
black of night when it visited her. Yet she had courage to endure those
awful colloquies. She listened. She strove by the spell and incantation
to subdue This to her service, as the demon Orthone served the Lord of
Corasse, as Paracelsus was served by his Familiar, or Gyges by the
spirit of his ring.

Alas for the sorceress, misguided by legend and fantasy! She had evoked
no phantom, but a fact actual as nature always is even if nature is not
humanly understood. The Thing was real.

The awe of the magician became the stricken panic of the woman. She had
unloosed what she could not bind. She had called a servant, and gained a
master. Gone forever were the dreams of power and splendor and triumph.
Now she learned