The Tour Part 5

"We are close to her dwelling, my lord," Caleb declared.

They almost fought their way through the crowd. The men cursed them because they pushed and the women flung themselves round their necks. Caleb drew his dagger and raised it threateningly. Other knives were drawn forthwith. There was a demoniacal yelling and din. But they succeeded in avoiding bloodshed.

"I want to go to the sibyl," Lucius repeated, panting and with his clenched fists pus.h.i.+ng away two women who were hanging on to his arms.

Lucius and Caleb now hurried through a reek of wine past the open brothels and reeking taverns. Caleb stopped in front of a small, narrow door and knocked. It was opened by a little Greek girl, pretty and delicate as a Tanagra figurine, with very large black eyes.

"Is Herophila within?" asked Caleb. "A distinguished foreigner wishes to consult her."

"I will tell her," said the girl.

They entered a very narrow little chamber. A woman came from behind a curtain. She was shrouded in a white veil, like a phantom; she carried an earthenware lamp; and it was not possible to see if she was young or old.

"Do you wish to know the future?" she asked, in a hollow voice.

"No," said Lucius, "I want to know the past and the present. I want to know where a girl named Ilia is and how she vanished from my house. Here is the sandal which she left behind: the only trace of her. If she ... is dead, can you make her appear before me, so that I may ask her?"

"Yes," said the sibyl, "I can. For I am descended from the witch of En-dor."

"Who was she?" asked Lucius.

"The witch who made Samuel appear before Saul...."

"I never heard of them," said Lucius.

"And another of my forbears was my honoured namesake, Herophila of Erythrae."

"Who was she?" asked Lucius.

"She was the custodian of the shrine of Apollo Smintheus, the divine rat-killer. She prophesied to Hecuba the calamity which would cause the death of her son Paris, whom she was bearing in her womb."

"I never heard of her before," Lucius repeated. "Tell me if Ilia is dead."

The sibyl pressed the blue-leather sandal to her head; and her other hand pressed Lucius' forehead.

"She is not dead!" she cried, in a voice of rapture.

"She is not dead?"

"No, Ilia lives!"

"Where? Where is she?"

The sibyl, in a trance, muttered incomprehensible sounds:

"She appears ... she appears," she stammered, at length.

Suddenly, behind her, the curtains parted. There was nothing there but a smoking tripod. Thick fumes filled the apartment and rolled on high like a heavy curtain.

"She appears ... she appears," the sibyl went on stammering.

Lucius stared breathlessly.

Suddenly, in the fumes, a figure was vaguely outlined as of a dainty woman, flimsy and thin, a shade that moved to and fro.

"I see her!" cried Lucius. "Ilia, Ilia! Speak one word to me! Come back to me! I cannot live without you!"

The vision had vanished. The smoke clouded away. The curtains closed again.

"It is difficult," said the sibyl, faintly, "to hold the astral bodies of living persons for more than a single moment. I can summon the dead for you for a longer time. But Ilia is not dead."

"Then where is she?" cried Lucius.

The sibyl now pressed the sandal to her forehead and her other hand lay on Lucius' head:

"I see her," said the sibyl. "She is lying in a boat, swooning.... The sea is raging.... Now rough, bearded men are hurrying her away...."

"She is kidnapped!" cried Lucius. "By pirates?"

"Yes!" cried the sibyl and fell into a faint.

The pretty Greek girl appeared and said:

"The fee is half a ptolemy, in gold...."

Caleb paid.

Lucius looked down in despair upon the swooning sibyl.

"To-morrow night, my lord," said the Greek girl, in a sing-song voice, "Herophila will be able to tell you more ... where Ilia was taken by the pirates."

But Lucius clenched his fists; he foamed at the mouth with sudden anger and roared:

"She has merely read my own thoughts! No more! No more!"

He glared round him like a madman, drew his dagger and made as though to fling himself upon the sibyl's swooning body.

"My lord! My lord!" shouted Caleb, holding him back and gripping him in his strong arms.

The Greek girl, standing in front of the fainting woman, spread wide her arms and cried:

"Do not murder a holy woman, my lord! Do not murder a poor, holy woman!"

And, as she stood thus, Lucius saw that she was like the shade of Ilia ... and he burst into sobs.