The only
chance is to fight him with his own weapons. Would you mind if I went
over to Paris to consult Dr Porhoet? You know that he is learned in every
branch of the occult, and perhaps he might help us.'
But Arthur pulled himself together.
'It's absurd. We mustn't give way to superstition. Haddo is merely a
scoundrel and a charlatan. He's worked on our nerves as he's worked on
poor Margaret's. It's impossible to suppose that he has any powers
greater than the common run of mankind.'
'Even after all you've seen with your own eyes?'
'If my eyes show me what all my training assures me is impossible, I can
only conclude that my eyes deceive me.'
'Well, I shall run over to Paris.'
13
Some weeks later Dr Porhoet was sitting among his books in the quiet, low
room that overlooked the Seine. He had given himself over to a pleasing
melancholy. The heat beat down upon the noisy streets of Paris, and the
din of the great city penetrated even to his fastness in the Ile Saint
Louis. He remembered the cloud-laden sky of the country where he was
born, and the south-west wind that blew with a salt freshness.
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