Part 29 (1/2)
”And waste my time. Why can't you rely on your own strength? I am not going to have you here draining mine, particularly when this body I have at present is so frail. Act the courteous host and give the young fool as much of your daughter's company as he desires. The rest can be left to me.”
”But when are you going to move in the matter?”
”When the time is ripe and when I choose. How often am I to tell you that it is impossible to hurry things? Corn takes time to grow: a rose takes time to unfold, and everything in the visible and invisible world progresses inch by inch, step by step. Nature, as you should know by this time, is a tortoise and not a kangaroo.”
”There is another reason why I came,” said Enistor, accepting the rebuke with a meekness foreign to his nature; ”that fisherman--Trevel!”
”Well? He is annoyed because I give the girl jewels, and waken her ambition to be something better than a domestic drudge.”
”His annoyance extends to an intention to kill you,” said Enistor dryly.
”I advise you to be careful, Master. Trevel is dangerous.”
”Dangerous!” Narvaez spoke with supreme contempt. ”You know what I am and yet talk of danger to me from an ignorant boor. I could guard myself in a hundred ways if I so chose. But,” ended Narvaez deliberately, ”I do not choose.”
”I wonder what you mean?”
”You may wonder. Threatened men live long. Content yourself with that proverb. And now go; I am busy!”
Without a word Enistor rose and walked to the door. There he paused to say a few words not complimentary to Narvaez, and he said them with a black look of suppressed rage. ”You treat me like a dog,” snarled the weaker man. ”Be careful that I do not bite you like a dog.”
”I trust you as little as any one else, and am always on my guard,” said the magician mildly, and stared in a cold sinister way at his pupil.
Enistor felt a wave of some cruel force surge against him--a force which struck him with the dull stunning blows of a hammer, and which twisted his nerves so sharply that but for dogged pride he would have shrieked with pain. As it was he writhed and grew deadly pale, the sweat beading his brow showing what agony he suffered. Hours seemed to be concentrated into that one long minute during which Narvaez held him in the vice of his will, and made him suffer the torments of the d.a.m.ned.
”I beat my dog when he bites,” said an unemotional voice. ”Go!” And Enistor, conquered by supreme pain, crept away in silence. As the door closed, he heard his master chuckle like a parrot over a piece of cake.
The Squire returned painfully to Tremore, cursing himself for having been such a fool as to defy a man possessed of super-physical powers.
Twice before he had done so, and each time Don Pablo had inflicted torments. The man, more learned than an ordinary hypnotist, simply used in a greater degree the will and suggestion which such a one employs. A hypnotist can make his subject believe that he has toothache, or has taken poison, by insisting with superior force that he shall so believe.
Narvaez, more learned in the laws which govern this creation, compelled Enistor in this way to feel the torments of a heretic on the rack, without resorting to the ordinary necessity of casting his subject into a hypnotic trance. If Enistor had concentrated his will, he could have repelled the suggestion, but he had not the terrific power of concentration which ages of exercise had given Don Pablo. He was in the presence of a powerful influence, directed by an equally powerful will, and therefore had no weapons with which to fight his dark master. In a fury Enistor wished that he could make Narvaez suffer in the same degree, but he knew that he could never hope to do so. Even if he became possessed of knowledge, of concentration, and of a more powerful will than was human, the Spaniard knew of ways which could baffle the attack.
The sole consolation which Enistor had to pacify his wounded pride was that there was no disgrace in a mere mortal being beaten by a superman.
Narvaez, in a minor degree, was a G.o.d, a very evil G.o.d, and those wors.h.i.+ppers who did not obey him felt very speedily what their deity could do. Enistor had no wish to measure forces with so powerful a being again.
For the rest of that week he left the magician alone and devoted himself to entertaining his guest. It was impossible to induce Narvaez to act until he chose to act, and all that could be done was to obey his instructions and behave agreeably to Montrose, so that the visitor might be lulled into false security. Never was there so amiable a host as the Squire; never was there so genial a companion, and Douglas became quite fascinated with a personality which transcended his own. The young man was so much weaker than his host that the latter wondered why Narvaez did not compel him to surrender the fortune by putting forth resistless power. Had Enistor guessed that Montrose's desire to do good and to love every one nullified the evil spell, he would have wondered less. And at the same time Enistor would have understood how, not having unselfish love in his own breast, he lay open to the a.s.saults of the magician. As he treated others so he was treated, and a realisation of this golden truth would have enabled him to defy Narvaez and his suggestions. But the mere fact that he wished to exercise the same might-over-right free-lance law prevented his understanding how to defend himself from a more accomplished devil. And Don Pablo was as much a devil as there is possible to be one, since he wholly obeyed the instincts, carefully fostered, of hate and selfishness. Enistor was a very minor devil indeed, as he had too much of the milk of human kindness in him as yet to equal or rival the superior fiend.
In his determination to act his comedy thoroughly, Enistor went to the great length of asking the vicar and his wife to dinner. As Mr. Sparrow had never before been invited to break bread under the Squire's roof, he was extremely surprised by the unexpected honour. At first he was minded to decline, since Enistor never came to church and never took the least interest in matters connected with the parish. But Mrs. Sparrow pointed out that this desire for their company might be a sign of grace, and that if they went, it might entail the reformation of their host. Also the dinner was sure to be good, and she could wear her new dress in decent society, which she very rarely had an opportunity of doing. Urged in this way and having a certain amount of curiosity of his own regarding the splendours of the big house, Mr. Sparrow sent an acceptance in his neat Oxford calligraphy. The Squire gave it to his daughter and told her to order the dinner.
”See that it is a good one,” said Enistor genially. ”Sparrow is as lean as a fasting friar and won't object to a decent meal for once. It isn't Lent or any of their confounded Church feasts, is it?”
”No!” answered Alice, very much puzzled by this unusual behaviour; ”but why do you ask Mr. and Mrs. Sparrow to dinner? I thought you didn't like them.”
”I don't! They are a couple of bores. But it is rather dull here for Montrose, and we must get what society we can to cheer him up.”
”I think Douglas is very well satisfied with my company,” retorted the girl, rather nettled by the implied slight, ”and these two bores, as you call them, certainly will not amuse him.”
”Very well; ask Hardwick also. He isn't a bore and Montrose likes him.”
”Julian isn't very well, father. He hasn't been since you found him on the moor fainting. But I shall send the invitation. Shall you ask Senor Narvaez?”
”No!” said her father sharply and uneasily, for his body still tingled with the memory of Don Pablo's reproof. ”I shan't submit him to the ordeal of enduring so dull a set of people.”