And high above the elfin kingdom on a wooded ravine where a silver
rivulet leaped and sang along the mountain, a gray and lonely monastery
had offered him a cell of retreat.
Houdania! Yes, he had found Houdania. Philip Poynter had told him of
the monastery months before. Philip liked to seek and find the
picturesque. Thus had he come into Andorra in the Pyrenees and Wisby
in the Baltic. And he--Carl--had found Houdania. But what of it? Ah,
yes, the burning candlestick--the paper--the paper! And again a gust
of laughter drowned the fitful crackle of the fire. There was gold at
his hand--great, tempting quantities of it!
"When the test comes, you'll ring true," came the crackle of Philip's
voice from the fire. "Mark that, old man, you'll ring true. I tell
you, I know." Well, Philip Poynter was his only friend. But Philip
was off somewhere, gone out of his life this many a day in a
characteristic burst of quixotism.
Carl laughed and shuddered, for a mad instant he held the tempting
yellow paper above the fire--and drew it back, stared at the charred
candlestick and laughed again--but there was nothing of laughter in his
eyes. They were darkly ironic and triumphant. There was blood in the
fire--and gold--and Diane had mocked his mother.
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