"And you mustn't expect the statue to come down and walk about,
or anything like that," he continued. "_Those_ aren't the really
wonderful things. And no doubt people will tell you it hasn't changed;
but you'll know better! It's much more wonderful that I should be there
than that they should be able to prove it, isn't it?... And, of course,
I don't know exactly how it will happen, for I've never done this
before.... You have the letter for the S.P.R.? They can photograph it if
they want.... By the way, you don't think the same of my statue as you
did at first, do you?"
"Oh, it's wonderful!" I breathed.
"And even if, like the God of the others, it doesn't vouchsafe a special
sign and wonder, it's Benlian, for all that?"
"Oh, do be quick, Benlian! I can't bear another minute!"
Then, for the last time, he turned his great eaten-out eyes on me.
"_I seal you mine, Pudgie_!" he said.
Then his eyes fastened themselves on the statue.
I waited for a quarter of an hour, scarcely breathing. Benlian's breath
came in little flutters, many seconds apart. He had a little clock on the
table. Twenty minutes passed, and half an hour. I was a little
disappointed, really, that the statue wasn't going to move; but Benlian
knew best, and it was filling quietly up with him instead. Then I thought
of those zigzag bunches of lightning they draw on the electric-belt
advertisements, and I was rather glad after all that the statue _wasn't_
going to move. It would have been a little cheap, that ... vulgar, in a
sense.... He was breathing a little more sharply now, as if in pain, but
his eyes never moved. A dog was howling somewhere, and I hoped that the
hooting of the tugs wouldn't disturb Benlian....
Nearly an hour had passed when, all of a sudden, I pushed my chair
farther away and cowered back, gnawing my fingers, very frightened.
Benlian had suddenly moved. He'd set himself forward in his chair, and he
seemed to be strangling. His mouth was wide open, and he began to make
long harsh "_Aaaaah-aaaah's_!" I shouldn't have thought passing yourself
was such agony....
And then I gave a scream--for he seemed to be thrusting himself back in
his chair again, as if he'd changed his mind and didn't want to pass
himself at all. But just you ask anybody: When you get yourself just over
half-way passed, the other's dragged out of you, and you can't help
yourself. His "_Aaaaahs_!" became so loud and horrid that I shut my eyes
and stopped my ears.... Minutes that lasted; and then there came a high
dinning that I couldn't shut out, and all at once the floor shook with a
heavy thump. When all was still again I opened my eyes.
His chair had overturned, and he lay in a heap beside it.