the house of the learned Professor
Marmion at the request of my very good friend and patron, His Highness
Prince Oscar Oscarovitch, to give you a little display of what I may
call white magic. But before I begin I must ask you to accept my word of
honour as a humble student of the mysteries of what, for want of a
better word, we call Nature, that I am not in any sense a conjurer, by
which I mean one who performs apparent marvels by merely deceiving your
senses.

"What I am going to show you, you really will see. My marvels, if you
please to think them such, will be realities, not illusions; and I shall
be pleased if you will take every means to satisfy yourselves that they
are so. I say this with all the more pleasure because I know that there
are present three gentlemen of great eminence in the world of science,
and if they are not able to detect me in anything approaching trickery,
I think you will take their word for it that I am not deceiving you.

"In order that there may not be the smallest possible chance of error, I
will ask Professors Marmion, Hartley, and Van Huysman to come and stand
near to me, so that they may be satisfied that I make use of none of the
mere conjurer's apparatus. I shall use nothing but the knowledge, and
therefore the power, to which it has been my privilege to attain."

Phadrig spoke with all the calm confidence of perfect self-reliance, and
therefore his words were not wanting in effect on his audience, critical
and sceptical as it was.

"I reckon that's a challenge we can't very well afford to let go," said
Professor van Huysman, with a keen look at his two brother scientists.
"Of course he's just a trick-merchant, but they're so mighty clever
nowadays, especially these fellows from the gorgeous East, that you've
got to keep your eyes wide open all the time they've got the platform."

"Certainly," said Professor Hartley, as they moved out from the circle;
"it must be trickery of some sort, and we shall be doing a public
service by exposing it. What do you think, Marmion? I hope you won't
mind the exposure taking place in your own garden and among your own
guests?"

"Not a bit, my dear Hartley," replied Franklin Marmion with a smile,
which was quite lost upon his absolutely materialistic friends. "We
have, as Van Huysman says, received a direct challenge. We should be
most unworthy servants of our great Mistress if we did not take it up.
Personally, I mean to find out everything th