took their charm from the voice and the eye, the aspect, the manner, the
man!" So it was with the incomprehensible being before me. Though his
youth was faded, though his beauty was dimmed, though my fancies clothed
him with memories of abhorrent dread, though my reason opposed his
audacious beliefs and assumptions, still he charmed and spell-bound me;
still he was the mystical fascinator; still, if the legends of magic had
truth for their basis, he was the born magician,--as genius, in what
calling soever, is born with the gift to enchant and subdue us.

Constraining myself to answer calmly, I said, "You have told me your
story; you have defined the object of the experiment in which you ask me
to aid. You do right to bid me postpone my replies or my questions. Seek
to recruit by sleep the strength you have so sorely tasked. To-morrow--"

"To-morrow, ere night, you will decide whether the man whom out of all
earth I have selected to aid me shall be the foe to condemn me to perish!
I tell you plainly I need your aid, and your prompt aid. Three days from
this, and all aid will be too late!"

I had already gained the door of the room, when he called to me to come
back.

"You do not live in this but, but with your family yonder. Do not tell
them that I am here; let no one but yourself see me as I now am. Lock the
door of the but when you quit it. I should not close my eyes if I were
not secure from intruders."

"There is but one in my house, or in these parts, whom I would except from
the interdict you impose. You are aware of your own imminent danger; the
life, which you believe the discovery of a Dervish will indefinitely