The Secrets of Dr. Taverner Read Online Free PDF Page A

occult ceremonial is being performed. For instance, I have only got to listen mentally for a moment to tell whether one of the Lhassa Lodges is working its terrific ritual.
     
    "When I was subconscious just now I heard one of the rituals of my own Order being worked, but worked as no Lodge I have ever sat in would perform it. It was like a rendering of Tschaikowsky picked out on the piano with one finger by a child, and unless I am very much mistaken, some unauthorized person has got hold of that ritual and is experimenting with it."
     
    "Someone has broken his oath and given away your secrets," I said.
     
    "Evidently," said Taverner. "It has not often been done, but instances have occurred, and if any of the Black Lodges, who would know how to make use of it, should get hold of the ritual the results might be serious, for there is great power in these old ceremonies, and while that power is safe in the hands of the carefully picked students whom we initiate, it would be a very different matter in those of unscrupulous men."
     
    "Shall you try to trace it?" I inquired.
     
    "Yes," said Taverner, "but it is easier said than done. I have absolutely nothing to guide me. All I can do is to send round word among the Lodges to see whether a copy is missing from their archives; that will narrow our zone of search somewhat."
     
    Whether Taverner made use of the post or of his own peculiar methods of communication I do not know, but in a few day's time he had the information he required. None of the carefully guarded rituals was missing from any of the Lodges, but when search was made among the records at headquarters it was discovered that a ritual had been stolen from the Florentine Lodge during the middle ages by the custodian of the archives and sold (it was believed) to the Medici; at any rate, it was known to have been worked in Florence during the latter half of the fifteenth century. What became of it after the Medician manuscripts were dispersed at the plundering of Florence by the French was never known; it was lost sight of and was believed to have been destroyed. Now, however, after the lapse of so many centuries someone was waking its amazing power.
     
    As we were passing down Harley Street a few days later, Taverner asked me if I would mind turning aside with him into the Marylebone Lane, where he wished to call at a second-hand bookshop. I was surprised that a man of the type of my colleague should patronize such a place, for it appeared to be stocked chiefly with tattered paper covered Ouidas and out-of-date piousness, and the alacrity with which the shopboy went to fetch the owner showed that my companion was a regular and esteemed customer.
     
    The owner when he appeared was an even greater surprise than his shop; unbelievably dusty, his frock-coat, beard and face all appeared to be of a uniform grey-green, yet when he spoke his voice was that of a cultured man, and, though my companion addressed him as an equal, he answered as to a superior.
     
    "Have you received any reply to the advertisement I asked you to insert for me?" asked Taverner of the snuff-coloured individual who confronted us.
     
    "I have not; but I have got some information for you-- you are not the only purchaser in the market for the manuscript."
     
    "My competitor being?"
     
    "A man named Williams."
     
    "That does not tell us very much."
     
    "The postmark was Chelsea," said the old bookseller with a significant look.
     
    "Ah!" said my employer. "If that manuscript should come into the market I will not limit you as to price."
     
    "I think we are likely to have a little excitement" observed Taverner as we left the shop, its dust-covered occupant bowing behind us. "The Chelsea Black Lodges have evidently heard what I heard and are also making a bid for the ritual."
     
    "You do not suppose that it is one of the Chelsea Lodges that has got it at the present moment?" I inquired.
     
    "I do not," said Taverner, "for they would have made a