San Antonio light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1911-1993, 1926-01-03


man-in the arms of Satan. .,
His sword was up. He lunged
forward like crazy hound. But
Satan saw him and doubtless
feared the might that clothed his
shoulders. He released the girl,
who fell like a sack of rubbish,
and sprang forward.
Put out the torches" The
loud words echoed hOllOwly be-
meath the roof. They were per-
emptory, as a command Of Lucifer
should be.
Now came mad scuffle,
squeals, showering sparks. smoke
darkness. But before the dark
ness dropped, smothering sight.
the sword of Gervais had found
the body of Satan. There was
groan, deep and shuddering-sure-
ly more vibrant than that of any
mere human being!-and then
nothingness, save for the fugitive
glow of a few stamped embers.
The spell had been broken. The
young man, blinded as much by the
suddenness as by the actual night,
stood stock-still, and the fingers
of his felt hand, with a killers
instinct, felt along the blade of his
sword. 1t was wet THE Devils
blood! He experienced triumph
that lifted him. for an instant. to
the height of the mailed and he'll
melted archangels and his teeth
gritted. But where was Sidonia?
All about him there were noises
like the scurrying of rats. He had
no fears, he had defeated Satan,
even as the winged Michael him
self. Remembering that the girl
had fallen to the floor, he stopped
and CROPPED very carefully. After
few moments his hand touched
a woman's shoulder and the long,
scattered air of her head. Sheath
ing his sword as hastily and awk-
wardly as he had unsheathed it,
he gathered the inert, unseen body
up into his arms. 1t seemed pulse
less. Yet it, and the soul within
it. was redeemed from He'll. She
was all his now, his to wed with
the sacred church rites that would
tie them as unbreakably to each
other in the golden, eternal groves
of Paradise as in the fortified
house of his father. He Rugged
the easy weight of her to him and
had the novel sensation of desir-
ing to crush it utterly from sheer
savage tenderness. Somehow he
must find his way out of this
death place to the upper world.
He turned, and began to move
in the direction where he felt the
door and the stair should be
found. but with the utmost eau
ton for fear of encountering a
pillar, or some wagner obstacle.
At last, The first murky glim-
mer of returning sight, as when
life begins to grayly leaven the
darkness of death for person
climbing upward out of the prison
of the underworld. Gervais be-
came aware of the stair-walls, of
til e arched, doorless doorway
where the steps ended. At the top
of the flight he staggered, paus
ing. The cold, motionless, heavy
brooding dusk of the great church
was like broad day after the hor-
ror of the dark from which he had
come. Everything was as I'M
changed as the MINDLESS heart of
a forest. The blasphemies, the
madness, the grapple of He'll and
Heaven in the crypt might have
been buried a hundred miles I'M
derground, or have taken place a
hundred years off. Like bed of
daffodils the yellow candle-stars
surrounding the saints shrine
bloomed serene, softly bright and
remote. P yond them, suspended
by invisible chains, glowed the
dull, living ruby of the sanctuary
lamp. As naturally as a knight,
exhausted hut victorious, turns to-
ward his waiting overload, Gervais
approached the sanctuary. He
wanted to kneel, to lay the girl,
his redeemed love, upon the step
that led TO the high altar. The
only reality in the world was his
victory over Satan.
The lighted shrine was upon his
left and partly hidden by the great
shaft of a column as he came