Page:Magician 1908.djvu/263

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seeing what he was about. Susie could not discern what figures he drew. Then he put more twigs upon the braziers, and the flames sprang up once more, cutting the darkness sharply as with a sword.

“Now come,” he said.

But inexplicably a sudden terror seized Susie. She felt that the hairs of her head stood up, and a cold sweat broke out on her body. Her limbs had grown on an instant inconceivably heavy, so that she could not move. A panic such as she had never known came upon her, and, except that her legs would not carry her, she would have fled blindly. She began violently to tremble. She tried to speak, but her tongue clave to her throat.

“I can’t, I’m afraid,” she muttered hoarsely.

“You must. Without you we can do nothing,” said Arthur.

She could not reason with herself. She had forgotten everything except that she was frightened to death. Her heart was beating so quickly that she almost fainted. And now Arthur held her, so firmly that she winced.

“Let me go,” she whispered. “I won’t help you. I’m afraid.”

“You must,” he said. “You must.”

“No.”

“I tell you, you must come.”

“Why?”

Her deadly fear expressed itself in a passion of sudden anger.

“Because you love me, and it’s the only way to give me peace.”