Pagina 373 van 490

"Alan, they will have to interest you. This one will have to

interest you. I am awfully sorry for you, Alan. But I can't help

myself. You are the one man who is able to save me. I am forced

to bring you into the matter. I have no option. Alan, you are

scientific. You know about chemistry and things of that kind. You

have made experiments. What you have got to do is to destroy the

thing that is upstairs-to destroy it so that not a vestige of it

will be left. Nobody saw this person come into the house. Indeed,

at the present moment he is supposed to be in Paris. He will not

be missed for months. When he is missed, there must be no trace

of him found here. You, Alan, you must change him, and everything

that belongs to him, into a handful of ashes that I may scatter

in the air."

"You are mad, Dorian."

"Ah! I was waiting for you to call me Dorian."