WYLDER'S HAJVD.
303
was a free agent, and yet, for purposes of secrecy, employ-
ing another person to post his letters at various continen-
tal towns; and this blunder might just as well have hap-
pened in this case, as in any other that supposed the same
machinery.
On the whole, then, it was a difficult question. But
there were Larcom's conclusions about the mad-house to
throw into the balance. And though, as respected Mark
Wylder, they were grisly, the attorney would not have
been sorry to be quite sure that they were sound. What
he most needed were ascertained data. With these his
opportunities were immense.
Mr. Larkin eyed the Wylder correspondence now with
a sort of reverence that was new to him. There was
something supernatural and talismanic in the mystery.
The sheaf of letters lay before him on the table, like Cor-
nelius Agrippa's "blooody book " — a thing to conjure
with. What prodigies might it not accomplish for its
happy possessor, if only he could read it aright, and com-
mand the spirits which its spells might call up before
him? Yes, it was a stupendous secret. Who knew to
what it might conduct? There was a shade of guilt in
his tamperings with it, akin to the black art, which he
felt without acknowledging. This little parcel of letters
was, in its evil way, a holy thing. While it lay on the
table, the room became the holy of holieB in his dark re-
ligion; and the lank attorney, with tall bald head, shaded
face, and hungry dangerous eyes, a priest or a magician^
The attorney quietly bolted his study door, and stoou
erect, with his hands in his pockets, looking sternly down
on the letters. Then he took a little gazetteer off a tiny
shelf near the bell-rope, where Was a railway guide, an
English dictionary, a French ditto, and a Bible, and with
his sharp penknife he deftly sliced from its place in the
work of reference the folded map of Europe.