The Sorcerer's House Read Online Free PDF

always looking for that smile, George, always eager to earn it.) "You know there's nothing about you to remind me of Ted. He was taller and quite a bit heavier. Your hair's sort of yellow-brown, and his was almost black. Your faces are different, and so are your voices. But you do remind me of him. Why is that?"
    "His ring, of course." I displayed it.
    "No, that's yours, not Ted's. Besides, I wouldn't have given it to you if you hadn't reminded me of him already. There's a warmth, and--and I get the feeling there's courage to back it up."
    Here I laughed aloud, George, although I had to cover my mouth. "I've been accused of a great many things, but never of being brave."
    "You've been living in the Black House."
    "Quite uneventfully. Peacefully, in fact."
    "Have you explored the basement? Or the attic?"
    That took me by surprise. "Do you know, I haven't. I never even thought of doing it. I've been thinking about the garage. It's locked--a large padlock that looks like trouble. I don't have a key, and I've been wondering how I can get inside. I never even thought about the cellar or the attic."
    "Will you go in them now?"
    "Yes, certainly." As soon as she had mentioned them, it had occurred to me that there might be old furniture stored in them. In the attic, particularly.
    "At midnight?"
    I shook my head. "Why wait? I'll look as soon as I get home."
    Doris sighed. "I wish I could join you, but I'll have to go back to the office."
    She would, I believe, have joined me had I given her the least encouragement. Not wishing her to see how I live here, I did not.
    I had a stroke of luck on the way home. Only two houses from my own (granted, the houses are widely spaced here) a neighbor had set out a perfectly good recliner for the garbage collection. It was almost too heavy to lift, but I recalled that the old lady who had let me borrow her lawn mower had a wheelbarrow. I asked to borrow it.
    "I really don't think I own such a thing. Do I? You may certainly borrow it if I have one."
    The wheelbarrow was in her garage, where I had seen it when I returned her mower. I loaded my new recliner onto it, brought it home, and am sitting on it this minute while I write on a book in my lap. It has clearly seen some use, but it is by no means worn out.
    Furthermore, I found fifty-five cents in the crack between the seat and the back. You will laugh, George, but fifty-five cents is a significant sum to me just now.
    Well, my check should arrive in three days.
    You will be eager to hear about the attic--or perhaps only eager to burn my letter. To be honest, I would like to know much more about it myself. There are a great many things up there, and after my first discovery I undertook no further exploration.
    Before I get to that, I ought to explain that I had a great deal of trouble finding my way into it. There are six rooms upstairs, I believe, although the correct number might be seven. There is a short hall, and another hall beyond it, reached (I would judge) by the stairs from the side door I nailed shut. Some rooms open onto both halls, others onto one or the other--but not both. Another (or perhaps two) can be reached only from other rooms. Allow me to change hands.

    The entrance to the attic was in a closet. Perhaps I ought to have written that the only entrance I have found thus far was. The ceiling of this closet is a trapdoor. I used the pole on which clothing once hung to push it up. Rungs in the form of oak rods had been mounted on the wall of the closet.
    That said, I must add, George, that I feel certain there must be another entrance. There are chests and massive articles of furniture up there. They can hardly have been brought up through the trapdoor I found.
    I have never been athletic, as you know, but I mounted the oak rungs without great difficulty and managed (rather less easily) to clamber into the attic itself. At once I heard scrabbling and scratching sounds that made me think that squirrels had nested there.
    Conceive