So surely as the crystal fluid which is the air streams in
circles of waves about our sphere, so surely ranged his sense.
At a certain moment of time, without stirring, he changed. Intensity of
search gathered in his eyes, and filled them with power. He remained for a
little time longer in a state of tension so extreme, so strung to an act
that there might have streamed a music from him, as from the Memnon in the
sands when light and heat thrill the fibres of the stone. His look was
concentrated upon a point above him where, look as one might, one could
have seen nothing to break the translucent veil of dark.
Yet, after a time, looking just there, one might feel rather than know a
something coming. The watcher certainly did. Deep within the shadow of the
cowl his eyes dilated and narrowed, his lips parted, his breath came quick
and sharp. But he did not move.
The sense of a presence heightened; one knew it much nearer. By and by,
one could have seen pale forms wavering in the fluid violet of the night,
like marsh-fires going and coming--and could guess them one and the same.
Bodily substance could only be inferred. But he who waited, tense for the
hour, knew that the hour had come.
Pages:
397
398
399
400
401
402
403
404
405
406
407
408
409
410
411
412
413
414
415
416
417
418
419
420
421