The Complete Simon Iff by Aleister Crowley Page B

up for lost time.’ How to do that? The madman’s reason finds it easy The connection between gold and copper coins is an arbitrary one, isn’t it. Yes. Well, if I haven’t got a barrow load of coppers, I can give you a fist full of sovereigns, and it’s just as good. The whole idea of primitive magic (which he had been reading, remember!) rests on arbitrary substitution. The king must die every year, or the sun won’t come back—there’s an arbitrary connection, to begin with, though its based on false reasoning, or rather on correct reasoning from false observation. Now the king doesn’t want to die; so he takes a criminal, labels him king, and kills him. Every one is happy. So this man seeks to satisfy his genius, suppressed for forty years, in a night. Surely it must be through some monstrous act of violence and horror! That is madman’s logic. Then, as I said before, some ancestral memory in the subconscious self influenced his recent impression, and that gave the form to the idea. It is also conceivable that he had a real purpose, thought that the sacrifice of the first-born might enable him to become a painter. Gilles de Retz murdered over 800 children in his endeavor to make gold4. I But of this theory I have no evidence. However, the rest stands.”
    André de Bry listened with white lips to this speech.
    “Now will you confess?” asked the magician, with mild persistence.
    “I don’t see why I should.”
    “Because you are still looking at the past. Can’t you foresee the future?”
    “Ought I to kill myself?”
    “Be serious, sir!” reprimanded Simon. “I see that I must tell you more. So far I have told you how I know that Cudlipp killed his son, and how he came to do it. You may or may not know why he did it but you must know that he did it, if only by a process of exclusion. Then—what will he do next?”
    The boy began to smile. “Oh Eleanor is with an aunt” he said: “she’s safe enough.”
    “Now we begin to confess indirectly” continued Simon. “But what will he do? Is he conscious of his act? You see, I must know all. I was already sure that you would never have left Eleanor in danger. But there are other problems”
    “I’m beaten,” said Andre. “I’ll tell you all I know.”
    “Good.”
    V
    “It was I who discovered the body of poor Harry; for I had risen with the first light, intending to paint. I needn’t go into the events of that day, much; it was all suspicion, perfectly hellish. I haven’t your reasoning powers, Mr. Iff, and I didn’t think he had done it, particularly. He pretended to suspect me, of course. We can see now, thanks to you, that his whole life has been one long hypocrisy, that he has been pretending to be an artist, just like any other fraud. His deadly earnestness about it only made it worse; I see that now. But I didn’t see it then; to me he was just a bad painter, and I looked no deeper. Well, by dinner time our nerves were all on edge; Eleanor’s, naturally, more than any. After dinner I said I would go to bed, meaning to snatch an hour’s sleep and then to watch Eleanor’s door all night. I had told her to have her companion in her room—the poor old lady was glad enough to have company, you can imagine.
    Eleanor s manner to me had been strange beyond words; but I only thought that it meant that she suspected me. However, when I said I was going to bed, she jumped up: ’Do play me a hundred up first!’ she cried; ’I’ll go mad if you don’t.’ We went into the billiard room together. She closed the door, and put her back to it. ’André,’ she cried, ’I’ve been insane about this all day, but I’m in a fearful position. Only—I can’t let you go to bed. I must tell you. Papa did it.’ I caught her in my arms, for she was falling. In a moment she recovered. ’Last night,’ she went on, ’I woke with frightful dreams—and I found my nose was bleeding. I lit my candle, and got up to get water. Then I knew suddenly