Rigidly upright, with limbs stiffening for sheer terror, I stood listening,—the waves seemed to roar “Ave Sathanas!”—the wind shrieked it to the thunder,—the lightning wrote it in a snaky line of fire on the darkness “Ave Sathanas!” My brain swam round and grew full to bursting,—I was going mad,—raving mad surely!—or why should I thus distinctly hear such unmeaning sounds as these? With a [p 459] sudden access of superhuman force I threw the whole weight of my body against the door of my cabin in a delirious effort to break it open,—it yielded slightly,—and I prepared myself for another rush and similar attempt,—when all at once it was flung widely back, admitting a stream of pale light, and Lucio, wrapped in heavy shrouding garments, confronted me.
“Follow me, Geoffrey Tempest,—” he said in low clear tones—“Your time has come!”
As he spoke, all self-possession deserted me,—the terrors of the storm, and now the terror of his presence, overwhelmed my strength, and I stretched out my hands to him appealingly, unknowing what I did or said.
“For God’s sake ...!” I began wildly.
He silenced me by an imperious gesture.
“Spare me your prayers! For God’s sake, for your own sake, and for mine! Follow!”
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 [p 460] 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?”