The MagicianMaugham, W. Somerset (William Somerset)
General
The Magician
Maugham, W. Somerset (William Somerset)
Magic -- Fiction; Paris (France) -- Fiction
She looked appealingly at Dr Porhoët. He was white and anxious. The
heat of that place had made the sweat break out on his forehead.
“I have seen enough. I want to see no more,” he said.
“Then you may go, both of you,” answered Arthur. “I do not wish to
force you to see anything. But I shall go on. Whatever it is, I wish to
find out.”
“But Haddo? Supposing he is there, waiting? Perhaps you are only
walking into a trap that he has set for you.”
“I am convinced that Haddo is dead.”
Again that unintelligible jargon, unhuman and shrill, fell upon their
ears, and Arthur stepped forward. Susie did not hesitate. She was
prepared to follow him anywhere. He opened the door, and there was a
sudden quiet. Whatever made those sounds was there. It was a larger
room than any on the others and much higher, for it ran along the whole
front of the house. The powerful lamps showed every corner of it at
once, but, above, the beams of the open ceiling were dark with shadow.
And here the nauseous odour, which had struck them before, was so
overpowering that for a while they could not go in. It was
indescribably foul. Even Arthur thought it would make him sick, and he
looked at the windows to see if it was possible to open them; but it
seemed they were hermetically closed. The extreme warmth made the air
more overpowering. There were four furnaces here, and they were all
alight. In order to give out more heat and to burn slowly, the fronts
of them were open, and one could see that they were filled with glowing
coke.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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