He moved before me like a black phantom in the pale strange light surrounding him,--and I, dazzled, dazed and terror-stricken, trod in his steps closely, moved, as it seemed by some volition not my own, till I found myself alone with him in the saloon of the yacht, with the waves hissing up against the windows like live snakes ready to sting. Trembling and scarcely able to stand I sank on a chair,--he turned round and looked at me for a moment meditatively. Then he threw open one of the windows,--a huge wave dashed in and scattered its bitter salt spray upon me where I sat,--but I heeded nothing,--my agonised looks were fixed on Him,--the Being I had so long made the companion of my days. Raising his hand with a gesture of authority he said-- "Back, ye devils of the sea and wind!--ye which are not God's elements but My servants, the unrepenting souls of men! Lost in the waves, or whirled in the hurricane, whichever ye have made your destiny, get hence and cease your clamour! This hour is Mine!" Panic-stricken I heard,--aghast I saw the great billows that had shouldered up in myriads against the vessel, sink suddenly,--the yelling wind dropped, silenced,--the yacht glided along with a smooth even motion as though on a tranquil inland lake,--and almost before I could realize it, the light of the full moon beamed forth brilliantly and fell in a broad stream across the floor of the saloon. But in the very cessation of the storm the words "AVE SATHANAS!" trembled as it were upwards to my ears from the underworld of the sea, and died away in distance like a parting echo of thunder. Then Lucio faced me,--with what a countenance of sublime and awful beauty! "Do you know Me now, man whom my millions of dross have made wretched?--or do you need me to tell you WHO I am?" My lips moved,--but I could not speak; the dim and dreadful thought that was dawning on my mind seemed as yet too frenzied, too outside the boundaries of material sense for mortal utterance. "Be dumb,--be motionless!--but hear and feel!" he continued--"By the supreme power of God,--for there is no other power in any world or any heaven,--I control and command you at this moment, your own will being set aside for once as naught! I choose you as one out of millions to learn in this life the lesson that all must learn hereafter;--let every faculty of your intelligence be ready to receive that which I shall impart,--and teach it to your fellow-men if you have a conscience as you have a Soul!" Again I strove to speak,--he seemed so human,--so much my friend still, though he had declared himself my Enemy,----and yet ... what was that lambent radiance encircling his brows?--that burning glory steadily deepening and flashing from his eyes?