the Adept. To his
astonishment he declined it with another bow, saying:

"I thank you, my lord, but I do not need it."

"What!" exclaimed the other, with a frank stare of astonishment. "Excuse
me, but tennis without a racquet, you know--are you going to play with
your hands?"

"To some extent, yes, my lord," replied Phadrig, as he took his place.
"Will you ask Miss van Huysman if she will be kind enough to serve?"

Brenda would. Phadrig stood on the middle line between the two courts
with his hands folded in front of him. She certainly felt a little
nervous, but she knew her skill, and she sent a scorcher of an undercut
skimming across the net. The ball stopped dead. Phadrig gave a flick
with his right forefinger, and it hopped back over the net and ran
swiftly along the ground to Brenda's feet. She flushed as she picked it
up and changed courts. Then she raised her racquet and sent a really
vicious slasher into the opposite court. Phadrig, without moving, raised
his hand at the same moment. The ball, hard as it had been driven,
stopped in mid-air over the net, hung there for a moment, then dropped
on Brenda's side and rolled to her feet again. She picked it up, walked
to the net with it in her hand, and said quite good-humouredly:

"I think you're a bit too smart for me, Mr Phadrig. I can't pretend to
play against a gentleman who can suspend the law of gravitation just to
win a game of tennis."

"I did not do it to win the game, Miss van Huysman," he replied with a
gentle smile; "I only desired to amuse you and the other guests of
Professor Marmion. Now, it may be that some excellent but ignorant
people here may think that that ball is bewitched, as they would call
it, so if you will give it to me, I will send it out of reach."

She handed him the ball, wondering what was going to happen next. He
took it and put it on the thumb of his right hand as one does with a
coin when tossing. He flicked it into the air, and, to the amazement of
every one, saving always Franklin Marmion, it rose slowly up to the
cloudless sky, followed by the gaze of a hundred eyes, and vanished.
Then he bowed again to Brenda, and said in the most commonplace tone:

"It is out of harm's way now. Thank you once more for your
condescension."

"But how did it go up like that?" asked Brenda, looking him frankly and
somewhat defiantly in the eyes.

"That, Miss Huysman," he replied with perfect gravity, "was only a
demonstration of what Spi