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Warthrop started to speak, and von Helrung cut him off

"Don’t, Pellinore It is not John who speaks now It is the beast"

"You don’t believe me," said Chanler "You haven’t bathed in it yet, that’s all The minute it sullies your unadulterated ass, you juhed, and thick green bile broiled in his mouth and bubbled over his lips His Adam’s apple bobbed as he sed it back down

"You disgustabout you is repulsive--nauseating--you sickening mealy- If he remembered that he himself had spoken these words before, he did not show it But I re perfect is such a chore! Do you remember that one?" Chanler asked

"Yes," answered the doctor "One of the kinder ones, as I recall"

"I should have let you drown"

Warthrop smiled "Why didn’t you?"

"Who would I have played my jokes on, then? It was all for shoay You didn’t really mean to drown yourself"

"How do you know?"

"Because I ith you, you stupid bugger If you’d really meant it, you would have waited till you were alone"

"An error owing to inexperience"

"Oh, don’t worry, Pell You’ll get there One of these daysall of ussuffocating in shit"

His eyes rolled toward the ceiling The lids fluttered The doctor looked at h He pointed toward the door We’ d crossed halfway to the exit when Chanler called out in a loud voice, "It won’t do any good, Pellinore! He’ll finish ates!"

The doctor turned He looked at von Helrung, and then swung his eyes in Skala’s direction

"What do you think he’s got in his pocket, hmm?" Chanler said "He’ll have it in my heart the minute you close that door He pulls it out when nobody’s around and cleans his nails with it--picks his teeth--scrapes the crud off his crusty bunghole" Chanler was grinning ghoulishly "Amateur!" he sneered at the stoic Boheirant monkey?"

At the use of the Iyiniord, Warthrop stiffened "How do you know that word, John?"

Chanler’s head lolled upon the pillow The eyes rolled back in their sockets "Heard it from the man old, the old man in the woods"

"Jack Fiddler?" asked the doctor

"Old Jack Fiddler pulled on his pipe, stuck it up his arse, and gave it a light!"

"Pellinore" Von Helrung touched the doctor’s arently, "No more Call the ambulance if you like, but do not push--"

Warthrop shrugged off the hand and strode back to John Chanler’s side

"You re, Chanler answered, "His eyes see very far--much farther than yours"

"And Larose? Do you remember Pierre Larose?"

I heard a snatch of the same nonsense he’d spouted in the wilderness, "Gudsnuth nesht! Gebgung grojpech chrishunct" In a loud voice Warthrop repeated the question, adding, "John, what happened to Pierre Larose?"

Chanler’s deed A look of profound dis like a child’s when confronted by inexpressible loss--transfor pathos

"‘You don’t go doin’ it, Mr John,’ he told o peekin’ up the Grand Lady’s skirts You don’t look in thes that’re lookin’ for you’"

"And he was right, wasn’t he, John?" asked von Helrung, for Warthrop’s benefitlook

"He left me!" Chanler wailed "He knew--and he left me!" Blood-flecked tears trailed down his hollow cheeks "Why did he leave me? Pellinore, you’ve seen them--the eyes that do not look away The ood Christ, I am on fire"

"It called your naly "Larose abandoned you to the desolation--and the desolation called to you"

Chanler did not reply His mouth, its sores ripped open by the contortions of his despair, glistened with fresh blood He stared vacantly at the ceiling, and I remembered Muriel’s remark, He is thereand he is not there

"Gudsnuth nesht It’s cold Gebgung grojpech It burns SlonFor the love of Christ, slon The light is gold The light is black What have we given?"

His hand erotesquely long, the nails ragged and encrusted with his own filth He reached desperately for the doctor, who gathered the withered claw into both his hands--and it ith utter astonish in iven?" Chanler de In the center, in the beating heart--the pit The yellow eye unblinking The golden light black"

The doctor rubbed his hand, mur turned away He crossed his ar

"You must take me back," the broken man pleaded "Mesnawetheno--he knows Mesnawetheno--he will pull lared at the doctor with unalloyed animosity "You stopped him You stole iven?"

With that question lingering in the air, John Chanler fell back to the fevered drearay land where none can save us from the crush of the soundless depths