have seen, kingdoms crumble and generations pass away -- had you gathered as ripe grain the dark secrets of the centuries ----' 

"He was raving away, his wildly lit face scarcely human in appearance, and suddenly, noting my evident bewilderment, he burst into a horrible cackling laugh. 'Gad!' he cried in a voice and accent strange to me, 'methinks I've frighted ye, and certes, it is not to be marveled at, sith ye be but a naked savage in the arts of life, after all. Ye think I be old, eh? Why, ye gaping lout, ye'd drop dead were I to divulge the generations of men I've known ----' 

"But at this point such horror overcame me that I fled from him as from an adder, and his high-pitched, diabolical laughter followed me out of the shadowy house. Some days later I received a letter apologizing for his manner and ascribing it candidly -- too candidly -- to drugs. I did not believe it, but I renewed our relations, after some hesitation." 

"It sounds like utter madness," I muttered. 

"Yes," admitted Conrad, hesitantly. "But -- Kirowan, have you ever seen anyone who knew John Grimlan in his youth?" 

I shook my head. 

"I have been at pains to inquire about him discreetly," said Conrad. "He has lived here -- with the exception of mysterious absences often for months at a time -- for twenty years. The older villagers remember distinctly when he first came and took over that old house on the hill, and they all say that in the intervening years he seems not to have aged perceptibly. When he came here he looked just as he does now -- or did, up to the moment of his death -- of the appearance of a man about fifty." 

I met old Von Boehnk in Vienna, who said he knew Grimlan when a very young man studying in Berlin, fifty years ago, and he expressed astonishment that the old man was still living; for he said at that time Grimlan seemed to be about fifty years of age." 

"I gave a incredulous exclamation, seeing the implication toward which the conversation was trending. 

"Nonsense! Professor Von Boehnk is past eighty himself, and liable to the errors of extreme age. He confused this man with another." Yet as I spoke, my flesh crawled unpleasantly and the hairs on my neck prickled. 

"Well," shrugged Conrad, "here we are at the house." The huge pile reared up menacingly before us, and as we reached the front door a 

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