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Herrick had prepared everything. And much of what we are about to do is merely symbolical, of course. Most people undervalue symbols. They do not seem to understand that there could never have been any conceivable need of inventing a periphrasis for what did not exist." Sir Thomas Browne regarded Borsdale for a while intently. Then the knight gave his habitual shrugging gesture.
Oh, but of course that at least is simply a coincidence. . . . I grant you it was an uncanny beast. And I grant you that Dr. Herrick was a dubious ornament to his calling. Of that I am doubly certain to-day," said Borsdale, and he waved his hand comprehensively, "in view of the state in which you see he left this room.
Thus Borsdale, as he composedly smoked his churchwarden. "In short, the whole affair is as mysterious " Here Sir Thomas raised his hand. "Spare me the simile. I detect a vista of curious perils such as infinitely outshines verbal brilliancy. You need my aid in some insane attempt." He considered. He said: "So! you have been retained?" "I have been asked to help him.
Sir Thomas Browne, that ardent amateur of the curious, came into Devon, however, without the risk of incurring any such fate, inasmuch as the knight traveled westward simply to discuss with Master Philip Borsdale the recent doings of Cardinal Alioneri. Now, Philip Borsdale, as Sir Thomas knew, had been employed by Herrick in various transactions here irrelevant.
Oh, yes, there is no doubt he was insane," said Sir Thomas, comfortably. "Faith! what he moaned was gibberish, of course " "Oddly enough, his words were intelligible. They meant in Russian 'Out of the lowest hell." "But, why, in God's name, Russian?" "I am sure I do not know," Sir Thomas replied; and he did not appear at all to regret his ignorance. But Borsdale meditated, disappointedly.
I doubt if I could explain in any workaday English even what we will attempt to do," said Philip Borsdale. "I do say this: You believe the business which we have settled, involving as it does the lives of thousands of men and women, to be of importance. I swear to you that, as set against what we will essay, all we have done is trivial.
I may confess, however, that I am afraid of wagering against unknown odds." Borsdale reflected. Then he said, with deliberation: "Dr. Herrick's was, when you come to think of it, an unusual life. He is or perhaps I ought to say he was upward of eighty-three. He has lived here for over a half-century, and during that time he has never attempted to make either a friend or an enemy.
Borsdale leaned back and laughed, purringly, for the outcome of this affair of the Cardinal and the Wax Image meant much to him from a pecuniary standpoint. "Yet it is odd a prince of any church which has done so much toward the discomfiture of sorcery should have entertained such ideas. It is also odd to note the series of coincidences which appears to have attended this Alioneri's practises."
In consequence, Sir Thomas Browne was not greatly surprised when, on his arrival at Buckfastleigh, Borsdale's body-servant told him that Master Borsdale had left instructions for Sir Thomas to follow him to Dean Prior. Browne complied, because his business with Borsdale was of importance. Philip Borsdale was lounging in Dr.
Herrick's chair, intent upon a lengthy manuscript, alone and to all appearances quite at home. The state of the room Sir Thomas found extraordinary; but he had graver matters to discuss; and he explained the results of his mission without extraneous comment. "Yes, you have managed it to admiration," said Philip Borsdale, when the knight had made an end.
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