บทที่ บทที่ 15 · The Master And His Pupil

There was once a very learned man in the north-country who knew all the

languages under the sun, and who was acquainted with all the mysteries

of creation. He had one big book bound in black calf and clasped with

iron, and with iron corners, and chained to a table which was made fast

to the floor; and when he read out of this book, he unlocked it with an

iron key, and none but he read from it, for it contained all the secrets

of the spiritual world. It told how many angels there were in heaven,

and how they marched in their ranks, and sang in their quires, and what

were their several functions, and what was the name of each great angel

of might. And it told of the demons, how many of them there were, and

what were their several powers, and their labours, and their names, and

how they might be summoned, and how tasks might be imposed on them, and

how they might be chained to be as slaves to man.

Now the master had a pupil who was but a foolish lad, and he acted as

servant to the great master, but never was he suffered to look into the

black book, hardly to enter the private room.

One day the master was out, and then the lad, as curious as could be,

hurried to the chamber where his master kept his wondrous apparatus

for changing copper into gold, and lead into silver, and where was his

mirror in which he could see all that was passing in the world, and

where was the shell which when held to the ear whispered all the words

that were being spoken by anyone the master desired to know about. The

lad tried in vain with the crucibles to turn copper and lead into gold

and silver--he looked long and vainly into the mirror; smoke and clouds

passed over it, but he saw nothing plain, and the shell to his ear

produced only indistinct murmurings, like the breaking of distant seas

on an unknown shore. “I can do nothing,” he said; “as I don't know the

right words to utter, and they are locked up in yon book.”

He looked round, and, see! the book was unfastened; the master had

forgotten to lock it before he went out. The boy rushed to it, and

unclosed the volume. It was written with red and black ink, and much of

it he could not understand; but he put his finger on a line and spelled

it through.

At once the room was darkened, and the house trembled; a clap of thunder

rolled through the passage and the old room, and there stood before him

a horrible, horrible form, breathing fire, and with eyes like burning

lamps. It was the demon Beelzebub, whom he had called up to serve him.

“Set me a task!” said he, with a voice like the roaring of an iron

furnace.

The boy only trembled, and his hair stood up.

“Set me a task, or I shall strangle thee!”

But the lad could not speak. Then the evil spirit stepped towards him,

and putting forth his hands touched his throat. The fingers burned his

flesh. “Set me a task!”

“Water yon flower,” cried the boy in despair, pointing to a geranium

which stood in a pot on the floor. Instantly the spirit left the room,

but in another instant he returned with a barrel on his back, and poured

its contents over the flower; and again and again he went and came, and

poured more and more water, till the floor of the room was ankle-deep.

“Enough, enough!” gasped the lad; but the demon heeded him not; the lad

didn't know the words by which to send him away, and still he fetched

water.

It rose to the boy's knees and still more water was poured. It mounted

to his waist, and Beelzebub still kept on bringing barrels full. It rose

to his armpits, and he scrambled to the table-top. And now the water

in the room stood up to the window and washed against the glass, and

swirled around his feet on the table. It still rose; it reached his

breast. In vain he cried; the evil spirit would not be dismissed, and

to this day he would have been pouring water, and would have drowned

all Yorkshire. But the master remembered on his journey that he had

not locked his book, and therefore returned, and at the moment when

the water was bubbling about the pupil's chin, rushed into the room and

spoke the words which cast Beelzebub back into his fiery home.