| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Red Seal by Natalie Sumner Lincoln: "There, look at the window," she cried. "I saw a face peering in.
Look quick, Harry, look!"
Kent needed no second bidding, but although he craned his head far
outside the open window and gazed both up and down the street and
along the path to the kitchen door, he failed to see any one. "Was
it a man or woman?" he asked, turning back to the room.
"I - I couldn't tell; it was just a glimpse." Barbara stood resting
one hand on the table, her weight leaning upon it. Not for words
would she have had Kent know that her knees were shaking under her.
"Did you see the face, Helen?" As he put the question Kent looked
around at the silent girl in the corner; she had slipped back in
The Red Seal |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Insidious Dr. Fu-Manchu by Sax Rohmer: But the silence fell again.
Dusk was upon Redmoat now, but from sitting in the twilight my eyes had
grown accustomed to gloom, and I could see fairly well what lay before me.
Not daring to think what might lurk above, below, around me, I pressed
on into the midst of the thicket.
"Vernon!" came Eltham's voice from one side.
"Bear more to the right, Edwards," I heard Nayland Smith cry
directly ahead of me.
With an eerie and indescribable sensation of impending disaster upon me,
I thrust my way through to a gray patch which marked a break in the
elmen roof. At the foot of the copper beech I almost fell over Eltham.
The Insidious Dr. Fu-Manchu |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The Goodness of St. Rocque and Other Stories by Alice Dunbar: a vicious crab by its flippers, and smiling at its wild attempts
to bite. "You see I am busy, but make yourself at home."
"Well, how on earth--" began Philip.
"Sh--sh--" whispered Annette. "I was driving out in the woods
this morning, and stumbled on the hut. He asked me in, but I came
right over after you."
The fisherman, having succeeded in getting the last crab in the
kettle of boiling water, came forward smiling and began to
explain the curios.
"Then you have not always lived at Pass Christian," said Philip.
"Mais non, monsieur, I am spending a summer here."
The Goodness of St. Rocque and Other Stories |
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 Out of Time's Abyss by Edgar Rice Burroughs: irregularly shaped room in which a single, giant Wieroo whose
robe was solid blue sat upon a raised dais.
The creature's face was white with the whiteness of a corpse, its
dead eyes entirely expressionless, its cruel, thin lips tight-drawn
against yellow teeth in a perpetual grimace. Upon either side of
it lay an enormous, curved sword, similar to those with which some
of the other Wieroos had been armed, but larger and heavier.
Constantly its clawlike fingers played with one or the other of
these weapons.
The walls of the chamber as well as the floor were entirely
hidden by skins and woven fabrics. Blue predominated in all
Out of Time's Abyss |
