boucher book oct28.pdf - Index of

432 Anthony Boucher
and in it was only water and around the body of Mark Mallow was only the
blood of one man.
He left the house. He understood a little. He understood that human reason
cannot accept a corpse which sheds twice its amount of blood, and that his presence
had enabled him to redress the balance. Now Mallow’s death would be only a terrible
and unsolved murder, while it might have opened to man a knowledge which
he could not bear. He found it harder to understand why he had been permitted
to arrive only after the … happening. He guessed that in some way the small petty
comfortable evils of Mark Mallow had made him vulnerable to a larger evil.
He did not know. He did not know if he himself could bear the knowledge
which he had shouldered. He knew only that he could pray for Mark Mallow’s
soul—and probably for that of a man named Blackland.
The man who usually kept his face in the shadow had the decency to attend Jerome
Blackland’s funeral. He always did this for his clients. It was a sort of professional
ethics.
A purist of professional ethics might suggest that he should have warned Blackland
of the dangers inherent in bestowing the vital virtues of one’s blood to animate
printer’s ink. But why? Half the time the charms worked imperfectly if at all; and
you do not wantonly frighten away customers.
He too said prayers, of his sort, for the souls of Blackland and Mallow.