San Antonio light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1911-1993, 1925-11-22

Someone approached, slowly, on
bare feet. The cats, dreamed on.
Sidonia came. right up to the
hearth and knelt down. She held
her palms to the warmth of the
embers.
ooh! Sometimes my daughter
comes home to her mother"
The tired voice of the witch was
peevish. She did not seem to see
that the girls hair was in disorder,
her chemise in ribbons, her bodice
lacings broken and her legs briar-
torn.
Sidonia did not answer. She
put back the black looks from her
eyes, feeling the giddiness of par
tial intoxication. She endured her
mother just as she endured the
chief circumstances of her life. In
the abyss of her soul resentment
at the usage of her dam was
smouldering fire. But in some
oblique way this very feeling in
creased the distaste that was nor
NAL with her. The two of them
were as incompatible as oil and
water, and the mother, with her
daytime dozings and her mutter-
ing alterations, was little better
than lay figure, anyhow.
"Put this with the Others" The
witch extended her long, ladylike
hand with the coin in the narrow
palm of it.
Sidonia took the coin, moved
one of the outer hearth bricks, and
placed the piece of money cheek
by jowl with two or three others
that lay there. She put back the
bricks, and the mental images of
cabbage, loaf of rye bread and
a sleeps heart-luxurious pur-
chases-flitted through her con-
fused mind.
The witch's head dropped fur
Their forward-she. was just a
mound of patchwork surmounted
by tangle of grazing hair. A
crutch lay on the floor beside her.
Subconsciously Sidonia remem-
bered the day of the white-hot
ploughshares. It was the impetus
of that memory that had carried
her forward into the mob of for
est folk, and lifted her breathless
voice on behalf of the withered
lunatic palsied with spite and ter
ror. Yet her mother was to her
only circumstance to be endured.
In the stiffness a sharp crack
sounded, as though flooring or
rafter had been raped smartly
with a stick. The girl took no
notice. Such uncaused sounds had
followed them ever since she could
remember. Her head was clearer.
She sat between the browsing cats,
hugging her knees. The stifing,-
half-warmed air of the loft was
grateful to her, relaxing her body,
but her brain was on fire. Sealed
to the Master, deserted by the
angel. Freedom, passionate life.
Oh, to fly on a black horse with
wings! And this was the eve of
All Hallows-the night when the
upper air was populous. 1t must
be midnight now. What was the
method?
Set against the wall of the loft,
between the hearth and the heap
of rags that was bed was an
antique wooden chest. 1t had been
there for no one knew how long,
and now contained the dubious
wares of Lame Esa's trade.
Drawing back little from the
hearth, the girl got up and moved
quietly to this chest. The older
woman, sunk in one of the long,
hypnotic stupors that were habit
ual to her, was as strless as the
two cats. Once again the sharp,
causeless raps sounded.
Sidonia knelt down and lifted
the broken-hinged lid. She was
impelled to all her actions-some-
thing had laid hold upon her.
Within her, inside of the last six
hours, there had been a breaking
down, a letting free-a myster-
ious, .seething alchemy of emo
tons. She was above-or below
herself. Automatic. Overstimu-
lated. Quick and mentally fear
less she had always been, for she
was her fathers daughter.
A balsamic smell arose from the
depths of the chest Bundles of
dried herbs half filled it, and
among them withered, gro
tesquely human-shaped mandrake
root-said to have been dragged,
uttering dreadful screams, from
the gound beneath a murderer's
gibbet by a black dog which had
Immediately died. The dim, oily
light Of the single lantern scarcely
illuminated the chests entrails.
Sidonia CROPPED, encountering glass
phials, salve pots and dried toad.
All! Here were the scrolls of
parchment!
Rap, rap! A quick, loud,
double knocking, so perceptibly
Jared the time-blackened cross
piece above the girls head that it
was wonder no dust was shaken
down.
Then years earlier her mother
had taught Sidonia to read and
write. But these words seemed
senseless. Oh! They were the
names of demons of the air! How
fortunate! They were long and
difficult. Sidonia repeated them
carefully.
"Typhurgus, Aplestus, Philo-
kreus, Miastor."
Kneeling erect, she scanned the
scrolls hurriedly. There were dia-
i