The Tyranny of the Dark Hamlin Garland “SHE CAME SLOWLY, WITH ONE SLIM HAND ON THE RAILING“ THE TYRANNY OF THE DARK BY HAMLIN GARLAND AUTHOR OF “THE CAPTAIN OF THE GRAY-HORSE TROOP“ “HESPER“ “THE LIGHT OF THE STAR“ ETC. ETC. LONDON AND NEW YORK HARPER & BROTHERS PUBLISHERS :: MCMV CONTENTS I. T HE SETTING II. T HE MAID ON THE MOUNTAIN-SIDE III. T HE MAN IV. A SECOND MEETING V. P UPIL AND MASTER VI. I N THE MARSHALL BASIN VII. T HE FORCES OF LIGHT AND DARKNESS VIII. D R. BRITT EXPLAINS IX. A NTHONY CLARKE, EVANGEL X. C LARKE‘S WOOING I. T HE MODERNISTS II. N EWS OF VIOLA III. B RITT COMES TO DINE IV. T HE PATRON OF PSYCHICS V. K ATE VISITS VIOLA VI. S ERVISS LISTENS SHREWDLY VII. T HE SLEEPING SIBYL VIII. K ATE‘S INTERROGATION IX. V IOLA‘S PLEA FOR HELP X. M ORTON SENDS A TELEGRAM XI. D R. BRITT PAYS HIS DINNER-CALL XII. V IOLA IN DINNER-DRESS XIII. T HE TEST SÉANCE XIV. P UZZLED PHILOSOPHERS XV. V IOLA REVOLTS FROM CLARKE XVI. T HE HOUSE OF DISCORD XVII. W HEN DOCTORS DISAGREE XVIII. L AMBERT INTERVENES XIX. S ERVISS ASSUMES CONTROL XX. T HE MOTHER‘S FAITH XXI. C LARKE SHADOWS THE FEAST XXII. T HE SPIRITUAL RESCUE ILLUSTRATIONS “SHE CAME SLOWLY, WITH ONE SLIM HAND ON THE RAILING“ “THERE WAS IN HIS LOOK AN EXPRESSION OF ACKNOWLEDGED KINSHIP“ “SERVISS LISTENED WITH GROWING AMAZEMENT“ “VIOLA, TOO, CAME BACK TO BEWITCH HIM FROM HIS READING“ “‘WHAT DO YOU MEAN? DO YOU WANT TO KILL THE PSYCHIC?‘“ “‘BUT, TELL ME, HOW DID THE CHANGE COME? WHAT BEGAN TO HAPPEN?‘“ “THE GIRL‘S EYES WERE OPENING AS FROM NATURAL SLUMBER“ “‘YOU NEED NOT SPEAK—JUST PUT YOUR HAND IN MINE AND I WILL UNDERSTAND‘“ THE CHARACTERS CONCERNED Those in the Light V IOLA LAMBERT, the subject M RS. LAMBERT, her mother J OS. LAMBERT, her step- father A NTHONY CLARKE, her pastor D R. BRITT, her physician M ORTON SERVISS, her lover K ATE RICE, her friend D R. WEISSMANN, her investigator S IMEON PRATT, her patron Those in the Dark W ALDRON, her father M CLEOD, her “control“ W ALTIE, her poltergeist J ENNIE PRATT, Pratt‘s eldest daughter M RS. PRATT, “Loggy,“ and others dimly felt [...]... character 4 The Tyranny of the Dark “THERE WAS IN HIS LOOK AN EXPRESSION OF ACKNOWLEDGED KINSHIP“ 5 The Tyranny of the Dark The red went out of the sky The golden eagle of cloud flew home over the illimitable seas of saffron, the purple shadows rose in the valleys, the lights of the town began to sparkle Engine-bells clanged to and fro, and the strains of a saloon band rose to vex the girl‘s poetic soul... sane balance of his mind To camp in the chaparral, to explore the source of streams, and to relive the wonder of the boy kept his faculties alert and keen His love of the sands and the purple buttes of the plain did not blind him to the beauty of coloring and the gracious majesty of these peaks, clothed as they were with the russet and gold and amber of ripened grasses, which grew even to the very summits... give evidence of the mining which goes on far up the zigzag trails towards the soaring, shining peaks of the Continental Divide 2 The Tyranny of the Dark II THE MAID ON THE MOUNTAIN-SIDE One day in July a fair young girl, with beautiful gray eyes, sat musingly beside one of these southern trails gazing upon the inverted pyramid of red sky which glowed between the sloping shoulders of the westward warding... him, and to the sunset 7 The Tyranny of the Dark III THE MAN Meanwhile the young tourist had alighted before the door of the principal hotel, and, after writing his name in a clear and precise hand on the book in the office, had hastened to his supper, carrying a most vivid recollection of the slender figure and flushed and speaking face of the girl on the trail That moment of meeting, accidental and... remembrances of the dance-hall “I suppose he is only camping through,“ she thought, a little wistfully, referring back to the stranger “I wish I knew who he is.“ As she came down to the level of the stream its friendly roar cut off the ribald music and the clamor of the engines precisely as the bank shut away the visible town, leaving the little row of pretty cottages in the ward of the mountains and the martial,... of the charm of the place was due to the glamour of a slender maid lit by the sunset light This delight in the town and its surroundings gained a new quality next morning as he looked from his window upon a single white cloud resting like a weary swan on the keen point of old Kanab Though the mesas of New Mexico and the deserts of Arizona were his special field, he bared his head to the charm of the. .. 8 The Tyranny of the Dark Each summer, after months of prolonged peering into the hidden heart of microscopic things in his laboratory (he was both analytical chemist and biologist), it was his custom to return for a few weeks to huge, crude synthetic, nature for relief After endless discussion of “whorls of force“ and of the office of germs in the human organism,“ he enjoyed the racy vernacular of. .. pack-train came out of a clump of thick trees at the head of a gulch, and, doubling backward and forward, descended swiftly upon the girl, who stood, with some natural curiosity, to let the travellers, whoever they might be, pass and precede her down to the valley She resented 3 The Tyranny of the Dark them, for the reason that they cut short her reverie, her moment of spiritual peace The man who first... inexplicable The molecule lies far below the line of visibility We only push the zone of the known a little farther into the realm of the unknown; but how does that serve your argument?“ By demonstrating that the mind of a man is simply the mastering mystery in a world of mysteries, and that there is no known limit to what it may do We say that at the point where life enters to differentiate the germ.. .The Tyranny of the Dark BOOK I I THE SETTING The village of Colorow is enclosed by a colossal amphitheatre of dove-gray stone, in whose niches wind-warped pines stand like spectators silent and waiting Six thousand feet above the valley floor green and orange slopes run to the edges of perennial ice-fields, while farther away, and peering above these almost inaccessible defences, like tents of besieging . The Tyranny of the Dark Hamlin Garland “SHE CAME SLOWLY, WITH ONE SLIM HAND ON THE RAILING“ THE TYRANNY OF THE DARK. EXPRESSION OF ACKNOWLEDGED KINSHIP“ The Tyranny of the Dark 6 The red went out of the sky. The golden eagle of cloud flew home over the illimitable seas of