Quests of Simon Ark Read Free

moment’s hesitation I joined him and glanced at the titles on the shelves. They were mostly children’s books, with a few others that had probably served as college textbooks. One, an ancient history book, was stamped State University.
    This seemed to remind Simon Ark of the charred remains of the book he had found earlier. He removed it from his pocket and carefully examined it. A few charred pieces drifted to the floor.
    “It seems to be …” Simon Ark began, and then fell silent.
    “What?”
    “Ah, yes, The Confessions of Saint Augustine. A truly remarkable book. Did you ever read it?”
    “No, I’m not a Catholic,” I replied.
    “Augustine wrote for all men,” Simon Ark said slowly; “this is a very interesting discovery.”
    “Why should anyone want to burn it?”
    “I am beginning to fear that I know the answer to that,” he told me, and there was something in his voice that scared even me.
    He returned the remains of the book to his pocket as the girl joined us again. “I’m sorry,” she said. “Please forgive me.”
    “Certainly,” I told her; “we understand.”
    “I’ll see if I can fix us coffee or something,” and she disappeared into the kitchen.
    Presently she returned, with three steaming cups, and as we drank she told us of her early life in Gidaz …
    “… I suppose it was about five years ago when I left to attend college. Of course, I was home for the summers, but for the first two years things seemed the same as they had always been in Gidaz. Then, in the summer following my third year at the University, I returned home to find things had changed slightly.”
    “In what way?”
    “Well, I suppose it would be hard for you to understand, because it was really nothing I could put my finger on. It seemed to be just a change in attitude at first. They talked of a man who had come to Gidaz—a man named Axidus, who seemed to have a great influence on their lives from then on. Of course, you must realize that Gidaz is so remote from other cities that these seventy-three people were forced to live entirely among themselves. My father and brother usually got into town about once every month or two. To them, the village was everything, even though it was slowly dying. A few of the men kept working in the mines, finding just enough gold to keep them alive. Others worked small farms in the valley. But they were happy here, probably because they had never known anything better.”
    “But you were not satisfied with it?”
    “I wasn’t the only one. Many of the young people like me left Gidaz, especially after the coming of this man Axidus.”
    Simon Ark’s face had grown dark while she talked. “You say his name was Axidus?”
    “Yes, do you know him?”
    “I may have met him once, long ago …”
    “Well, he was the cause of all the trouble, and I saw that right away. When I came home for Christmas that year, it was as if a madness had seized the people. They talked of nothing but Axidus, and how he was going to help them save themselves. He seemed to have some kind of new religion …”
    I glanced at him, but his face was like stone. Once again I seemed to feel a shiver run down my spine.
    “It really scared me, the way they all believed in him so completely,” she continued. “Once each week he held a meeting in the old town hall, and everyone would go to hear him—even the children. It was uncanny, the way he seemed to know everything that happened in the village. He would tell people secret facts that no one else could possibly have known. When I was away at school, he would tell my father everything I was doing. Of course, people like this have always been attracted by fortunetellers and the like, and a person like this knew exactly how to get them in his power. I went to see him just once, and I must admit I found something strangely haunting about this man Axidus.”
    “What did he look like?” I asked.
    “He was fairly tall, with a white beard that hung to his