'Security!' repeated the Demon, 'real, substantial, valuable, and irrevocable security! Am I a fool to run the risk of losing you without security ? How can I tell what might happen? You might be wrenched from me by a thunderbolt from the hand of an angel of light, and then where should I be without security? The soul of a man whom I shall accept, one in whom, when I have once gained him, I can place implicit confidence, and in whose intellectual society I can take delight. I could name one man whom I would accept, but his heart appears to be hardened against me now. He declines my friendship, and spurns my service, but I have every hope of gaining him over. If he offers himself, I will accept him.'
I understood the fiend's meaning only too well, and my mind was in a state of positive torture. I had sworn to myself that I would rescue Julius if I could, but my resolution nearly gave way when I heard his extraordinary speech. But, unable to control a sudden impulse, I turned to the Demon, and said:
'I understand you, sir; I will be security for Doctor Julius.'
'No, no, Ubertus, you shall not,' said the alarmed Doctor. 'Do not mind him, my lord; his brain is weak; he does not know what he is saying.'
'If,' interrupted the Demon, without heeding the last speaker, and addressing me, 'you fully understand the drift of our present conversation, and agree to put yourself in this man's place, and give yourself for all eternity in exchange for him if, by any falsehood or treachery on his part, he succeeds in making his escape from me, or fails to appear at the appointed place and appointed time, I will take him to the surface of the earth.'
I stared at the Doctor, and he at me. His countenance was open, manly, and honest. I reflected with bitterness
