The Devil's Alphabet

The year is 1876, the month November, and 7 young men are about to graduate from Cambridge University. Their group, the Devil's Alphabet Society, had been formed for "highblown words and revelry" while they were in school, but this is their last meeting.

The members have their own ring, and a charter which they sign at every meeting. And a chant.

The charter of the Devil's Alphabet society

We the undersigned conspire
To set our hearts and minds entire
Against complacent decency
And Bourgeois insipidity
To free ourselves from all constraint
And scorn both sanctity and saint
One quarter of the alphabet
from A to G are all here met
Sworn are we to deviltry,
highblown words and revelry
Dionysius ever rule us
Andrew Brian and Cornelius
May Apollo guild our chant
Deaver, Eli, Frederick, Grant
To this, our names we do affix,
November 1876.

One of the members, Andrew, has a 99 year lease on his lodgings, where they hold their meetings.

They vote to hold a reunion meeting each year on the same day and at the same place. They are all for it.

Grant suggests they not only meet once a year, but annually through eternity, whether alive or dead.

They don't believe him, and all laugh.

He also proposes that if they don't show up, alive or dead, they be fined.

It's all a jolly joke to the members, and they all vote to sign a new charter.

Frederick suggests that a group majority can cancel the meeting for that year, and Grant says that all votes must be counted, whether alive or dead. Grant pricks his finger, drawing blood, and puts a few drops of blood in a wine glass with a bit of wine. They all sign the charter in blood.

20 years later, just before the 20th year anniversary meeting, Deaver is having some major personal problems.

He's lost all to gambling debts, and is selling off the few pieces he has left. The consignment company is carting off what is sellable, and leaves what won't. One of the items that they wouldn't bother with is a desk. Deaver says it's just as well.

He pulls a gun out of the desk drawer, and shoots himself.

At the meeting, his comrades propose a toast to his memory.

They discuss the charges for their last carousal.

At that meeting, Deaver had walked through a plate glass window, without a scratch, as if he'd been a ghost. Cornelius mentions that of course, now he is.

Since Deaver isn't there, they charge it all to him, plus a 100 pound fine. Grant remarks, "Sift the ore of Hell, Deaver, and bring it hence."

Frederick is miffed, and asks Grant if he has any human feeling, and any respect for their dead brother.

Grant says they didn't form the Devil's Alphabet out of respect, and begin to argue.

Eli starts to pass the scroll, so they can all register their names, but stops when he sees there is already a name on there.

It's Deaver's, with today's date, and the ink is still wet.

Eli says that he "...didn't write it, so help me God." Brian says they aren't gathered there to ask the help of God, and reminds them of the fine for invoking his name, and Eli laughs a bit nervously. He accepts the fine.

Grant says that if Deaver is there he owes no fine. He tells Deaver to pull up a chair and have a drink. He's their first incorporeal member.

Grant fills a wineglass and places it at the empty place. He tells him to howl the night away. Everyone laughs. Grant asks Deaver if he'll have more wine.

Frederick says "I believe he will, Grant. His glass is empty."

Grant is now looking a bit scared, but regains his composure. Andrew is fed up and leaves.

On the morning of the next year's meeting, two chimney sweeps call at Andrew's building.

They find him swinging from a rope. But there is nothing around him that he could have stepped up on to hang himself. How did he get up there?

That night, the 5 remaining members show up at Andrew's lodgings, and Cornelius and Frederick want to call off the meeting. Eli says he wants to dissolve the society completely.

Grant wants to hear none of it. The society is all to him.

They take a vote at the door. Grant votes to have the meeting, and the other 4 vote no, so the meeting for that year is canceled. Grant says they can't stop him from attending. The others leave to go home.

Grant sits down to have a drink, and then goes to sign the register. Two names are already on it, and the ink is wet. Deaver and Andrew.

Grant feels a presence and looks up. Andrew is there, in ghostly form, pointing at him.

He beckons, and Grant screams "No!"

He gets up and runs to the door, but it won't open. He's caught.

Outside, Eli and Brian are in a coach, and Frederick and Cornelius are walking home.

The coachman is wearing a Devil's Alphabet Society ring. Could it be Deaver? The coachman whips the horse and the coach goes flying off at full speed.

Frederick and Cornelius look on in amazement. When the coach starts to weave back and forth on the street Frederick runs off after it, telling Cornelius to telephone for help from the house.

Brian yells at the coachman to slow down, but no one answers.

Cornelius finds Grant swinging from the same lamp as Andrew had, one year earlier.

Meanwhile, the coach is in flames, and the men in it die.

Cornelius and Frederick are the only two members left. Cornelius hasn't slept well for a year.

He doesn't want to go to the meeting that night, but they have no living majority anymore, and must attend. Frederick says that he'd rather be hanged for keeping a contract than breaking it.

Frederick calls for Cornelius at his lodgings that night, and gets there just in time to hear a gunshot.

Cornelius can't face the unknown horrors of tonight's meeting, so he killed himself. In any case, in his letter he says that he'll see Frederick tonight at the meeting, as a ghost.