I am convinced that we are but
highly-developed mammals born by chance, and when our day is done,
departing into the black nothingness out of which we came. Everything
else, that is, what is called the higher and spiritual part, I attribute
to the superstitions incident to the terror of the hideous position in
which we find ourselves, that of gods of a sort hemmed in by a few years
of fearful and tormented life. But you know the old arguments, so why
should I enter on them? And now I am confronted with an experience
which I cannot explain. I certainly thought that in the office on Friday
evening I saw that gold mask to which I had taken so strange a fancy
that I offered to give Vernon L17,000 for it because I thought that it
brought us luck, swim across the floor of our room and look first into
your face and then into mine. Well, the next night that negro tells his
story. What am I to make of it?"
"Can't tell you," answered Mr. Champers-Haswell with a groan. "All I
know is that it nearly made a corpse of me. I am not like you, Aylward,
I was brought up as an Evangelical, and although I haven't given much
thought to these matters of late years--well, we don't shake them off in
a hurry.
Pages:
77
78
79
80
81
82
83
84
85
86
87
88
89
90
91
92
93
94
95
96
97
98
99
100
101