| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Mucker by Edgar Rice Burroughs: know."
Byrne was on his feet now. He found his sword and
revolver and replaced them in his belt.
"You men stay here on the island and take care of Miss
Harding," he said. "If I don't come back the marines will find
you sooner or later, or you can make your way to the coast,
and work around toward the cove. Good-bye, Miss Harding."
"Where are you going?" cried the girl.
"To get your father--and Mr. Mallory," said the mucker.
CHAPTER XVI
THE SUPREME SACRIFICE
The Mucker |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Royalty Restored/London Under Charles II by J. Fitzgerald Molloy: this latest petition was presented to the monarch, Oates had been
examined before the House for over six hours; and so delighted
was he by the unprejudiced manner in which his statements were
received, that he added several items to them. These were not
only interesting in themselves, but implicated peers and persons
of quality to the number of twenty-six. The former, including
Lords Stafford, Powis, Petre, Bellasis, and Arundel of Wardour,
were committed to the Tower, the latter to Newgate prison.
At the end of his examination he was several times asked if he
knew more of the plot, or of those concerned with it, to which he
emphatically replied he did not. Three days later he remembered
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| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The Life of the Spider by J. Henri Fabre: youth that he is! Panic-stricken, he takes a header, hanging by
his safety-line. It is only for a moment, however. Up he comes
again. He has learnt, from certain symptoms, that we are at last
yielding to his blandishments.
With his legs and especially with his palpi, or feelers, he teases
the buxom gossip, who answers with curious skips and bounds.
Gripping a thread with her front tarsi, or fingers, she turns, one
after the other, a number of back somersaults, like those of an
acrobat on the trapeze. Having done this, she presents the under-
part of her paunch to the dwarf and allows him to fumble at it a
little with his feelers. Nothing more: it is done.
The Life of the Spider |
The fourth excerpt represents the element of Earth. It speaks of physical influences and the impact of the unseen on the visible world, and is drawn from The Country Doctor by Honore de Balzac: they turn up in my mind. In a room full of fine folk I should feel
awkward, but here in the country with you----"
"Go on," said the doctor.
"When I came back to my room I found Renard finely flustered. He
thought I had fallen in a duel. He was cleaning his pistols, his head
full of schemes for fastening a quarrel on any one who should have
turned me off into the dark. . . . Oh! that was just the fellow's way!
I confided my story to Renard, showed him the kennel where the
children were; and, as my comrade understood the jargon that those
heathens talked, I begged him to help me to lay my proposals before
her father and mother, and to try to arrange some kind of
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