out of your scientific complacency."

They were hardly out of the room before Weissmann asked, "Is Miss
Lambert from the West?"

"From the Rocky Mountains."

"So? I find her quite charming."

Morton dryly answered: "I noticed that. Yes, she's Western born, but
of Eastern stock. Mr. Clarke is a New-Yorker, I believe."

"I was born in Maryland, sir, but all my early life was spent in
Brooklyn."

Weissmann turned his telescopic eyes upon Clarke and studied him in
silence somewhat as a pop-eyed crab might regard a clam. "So, so," he
said, softly. "You are the one who is preparing to assault the
scientific world--the Clarke mentioned in the papers to-day?"

Clarke folded his arms in defiant mood. "I am."

"And this charming girl is your victim--the one for whom you make such
claims, eh?"

Clarke regarded the old man with imperious lift of the head. "She is,
without question, the most marvellous psychic in the world."

"'Psychic!'" Weissmann barked this word at him like an angry mastiff.
"'Psychic!' What business has she to be a 'psychic'? She is too lovely
to be anything but a wife and mother--a happy hausfrau. And you would
make her infamous? My friend, I do not understand you."

Clarke's eyes blazed. "If I had the power I would lay her message
before every living soul on the globe. Infamy? Sir, I know no higher
honor than that of being cup-bearer to despairing souls thirsting for
the water of life." Then a direct answer to the old man's prolonged
stare: "You need have no fear. I will not go one jot beyond the advice
of her 'guides.'"

"Her 'guides'? Who are they?"

"I mean her invisible ministers, compared with whose wisdom our
learning is child's prattle for they are one with the sages of
history. Their minds drink of the limitless ocean of all past
knowledge and catch the gleam of discovery to come. Furthermore"--here
his voice grew hard and his glance shifted to Serviss--"no one living
has a more vital interest in her welfare than I. Surely I may be
trusted to guard and cherish one who is soon to be my wife."

This blow, delivered with the orator's telling arrangement of phrase,
fell with tremendous force upon Serviss, towards whom it was
vengefully directed. With a heart filled with anger and disgust and
pain the young host responded: "I am glad to have this assurance from
you, for your action has seemed to me calculated to do Miss Lambert
irreparable injury. Of course, I do not doubt your good inten