"Oh, I've been there many times, in defiance of local custom and
law--I'm not a native, you see." Once more his warming smile. "There
are at least three springs, and the thick growth of trees makes a
natural enclosure, roof and walls, to hold in the damp heat. It's not
the only place of its kind in the world, Mr. Wills. But the thing
you met there is a trifle more difficult of explanation. Come on
home--we'll both feel better when we sit down."
* * * * *
We finished the journey in half an hour. Judge Pursuivant's house
was stoutly made of heavy hewn timbers, somewhat resembling certain
lodges I had seen in England. Inside was a large, low-ceilinged room
with a hanging oil lamp and a welcome open fire. A fat blond cat came
leisurely forward to greet us. Its broad, good-humored face, large eyes
and drooping whiskers gave it somewhat of a resemblance to its master.
"Better get your things off," advised the judge. He raised his voice.
"William!"
A squat negro with a sensitive brown face appeared from a door at the
back of the house.
"Bring in a bathrobe and slippers for this gentleman," ordered Judge
Pursuivant, and himself assisted me to take off my muddy jacket.
Thankfully I peeled off my other garments, and when the servant
appeared with the robe I slid into it with a sigh.
"I'm in your hands, Judge Pursuivant," I said. "If you want to turn me
over----"
"I might surrender you to an officer," he interrupted, "but never to a
lawless mob. You'd better sit here for a time--and talk to me."
Near the fire was a desk, with an arm-chair at either side of it. We
took seats, and when William returned from disposing of my wet clothes,
he brought along a tray with a bottle of whisky, a siphon and some
glasses. The judge prepared two drinks and handed one to me. At his
insistence, I talked for some time about the séance and the events
leading up to it.
"Remarkable," mused Judge Pursuivant. Then his great shrewd eyes
studied me. "Don't go to sleep there, Mr. Wills. I know you're tired,
but I want to talk lycanthropy."
"Lycanthropy?" I repeated. "You mean the science of the werewolf?" I
smiled and shook my head. "I'm afraid I'm no authority, sir. Anyway,
this was no witchcraft--it was a bona fide spirit séance, with
ectoplasm."
"Hum!" snorted the judge. "Witchcraft, spiritism! Did it ever occur to
you that they might be one and the same thing?"
"Inasmuch as I never believed in either of them, it never did occur to
me."
Judge Pursuivant finished his drink and wiped his mustache. "Skepticism
does not become you too well, Mr. Wills, if you will pardon my
frankness. In any case, you saw something very werewolfish indeed, not
an hour ago. Isn't that the truth?"
"It was some kind of a trick," I insisted stubbornly.
"A trick that almost killed you and made you run for your life?"
I shook my head. "I know I saw the thing," I admitted. "I even felt
it." My eyes dropped to the bruised knuckles of my right hand. "Yet I
was fooled--as a magician, I know all about fooling. There can be no
such thing as a werewolf."
"Have a drink," coaxed Judge Pursuivant, exactly as if I had had none
yet. With big, deft hands he poured whisky, then soda, into my glass
and gave the mixture a stirring shake. "Now then," he continued,
sitting back in his chair once more, "the time has come to speak of
many things."
He paused, and I, gazing over the rim of that welcome glass, thought
how much he looked like a rosy blond walrus.
"I'm going to show you," he announced, "that a man can turn into a
beast, and back again."
_9. "To a Terrified Victim He Is Doom Itself."_
He leaned toward the bookshelf beside him, pawed for a moment, then
laid two sizable volumes on the desk between us.
"If this were a fantasy tale, Mr. Wills," he said with a hint of one
of his smiles, "I would place before you an unthinkably rare book--one
that offered, in terms too brilliant and compelling for argument, the
awful secrets of the universe, past, present and to come."
He paused to polish a pair of pince-nez and to clamp them upon the
bridge of his broad nose.
"However," he resumed, "this is reality, sober if uneasy. And I give
you, not some forgotten grimoire out of the mystic past, but two works
by two recognized and familiar authorities."