Free The Implacable Hunter by Gerald Kersh Page A

said Melanion, caressing Hector’s ears, ‘but we might be called in. I hope not. Actually, it is more likely to be a matter for your attention than for mine. So I asked you to be good enough to come here. Forewarned is forearmed.’
    ‘My dear Melanion, why waste time in preamble? What’s the matter?’
    ‘Well, very simply; things occurred exactly as I predicted,’ said Melanion. ‘Little Lucius awoke a short while ago, and as I told you, he was shaky. And of course, his right hand was shakier than his left. Naturally, the memory of last night came to him like a slap in the face with something wet and cold. He was sick as a cat that has swallowed feathers. From the depths of his revolting being he was sick! He produced fruits out of season – wild strawberries – aïe, aïe, aïe!’
    Melanion was enjoying himself. I asked: ‘Were you there, then?’
    ‘No, I wasn’t; and that’s where the trouble begins. Of course, a bad morning after a heavy night is no novelty to a pig like Lucius. He vomits on rising as you or I yawn. It was the memory of Paulus’s so-called “curse” that struck him prostrate. His symptoms were precisely according to my prognosis. My messenger had them in detail from Lucius’s body-servant.’
    ‘So he sent for you?’
    ‘No, he sent for Paulus. And Paulus sent back word that he was otherwise engaged – urgently engaged.’
    ‘Please go on, Melanion.’
    ‘Well, then, Lucius sent for me. But I was with Soxias, and could not come. In any case, Lucius’s physician is that fool Mnesicles – not that Mnesicles could have helped – but Lucius ought to have sent for him in the first place. I would not trust Mnesicles to worm my dog. Still … However, by this time, Lucius had got it firmly into his head that he had been smitten by the wrath of Jehovah, and that only one of Jehovah’s hand-picked people could help him. So, instead of sending for Mnesicles, he sent for Parnach the Jew.
    ‘Parnach came, with some reluctance, and Lucius poured out the entire story of last night. Parnach told him that the whole affair was foolish; that, in effect, Paulus was not qualified to curse anyone. Then he gave Lucius a purge and an emetic. Lucius raved all the more. Parnach put leeches on his temples and wrists. Lucius started screaming that the Jews had sent worms to devour him alive. Parnach had hot stones put on his belly and cold compresses on his forehead. Lucius howled that the Jews were burning him to death and freezing his brain. Parnach gave him a terrific dose of valerian; it worked in reverse, and Lucius had the horrors.
    ‘So Parnach fled the house, and soon after Mnesicles came in. That jackass washed out Lucius’s stomach with hot milk; dosed him – of all things! – with hemp and with foxglove; and gave him a steam bath. Naturally, Lucius got worse.Equally naturally, Mnesicles blamed it all on Parnach, and Jewish sorcery in general, while Lucius lay there crying piteously for Paulus to come and lift the palsy that had fallen upon him.’
    ‘Damn that Paulus!’ I said.
    ‘Oh, damn him by all means, my friend. He’s your pup, in a manner of speaking: you’re his arbiter, his mentor, his Soldier’s Handbook, his –’
    ‘Well, well, go on. You did not bring me here to chatter, friend Melanion, if I know you.’
    ‘No, I didn’t. And as for damning Paulus – admit that when he played that game with Lucius last night you were proud of the boy! Yet you, of all people, Diomed, might have foreseen some of the consequences at least.’
    ‘Whatever I might have foreseen, could I have made that winedrop fly back?’ I asked, impatiently. ‘What consequences do you mean, anyway?’
    ‘Don’t pretend to be more of a fool than the gods made you. Paulus having laid the “curse” on Lucius, only Paulus can take it off, and Paulus –’
    ‘Paulus is inaccessible,’ I said, interrupting. ‘And Mnesicles is the biggest mischief-maker in Tarsus, and he hates the Jews in