quences--consequences that might be disastrous to us all!
Confound it all, who's this? What on earth does he want?"

Gladys gazed in astonishment. A young and very smartly dressed man was
advancing towards them with a soft, cat-like tread. He was of medium
height and slim build. His head disproportionately large; his right
ear standing out, in proof that it had long been used as a pen-rest;
his nose pronounced and Semitic in outline; his eyes, big, projecting
and yellowish brown; his chin, retreating; his complexion, dark and
saturnine.

Gladys shivered. "What a horrible person!" she whispered, "there is
something positively uncanny about him. I feel cold all over and how
he stares!"

"Yes--what is it?" John Martin demanded. "Do you want to see me?"

"You're Mr. Martin, I reckon!" the stranger replied in the soft drawl,
characteristic of California. "I've come to have a little talk with
you on business."

"With me--on business!" John Martin cried. "I don't know you! I've
never seen you before!"

"You see me now anyway!" the stranger laughed, casting approving eyes
at Gladys. "My name's Leon Hamar, and I've come to talk over that show
of yours."

"D--n your impudence!" John Martin said, raising his stick
threateningly. "How dare you intrude upon me here on such a pretext."

"Calmly, calmly, sir!" Hamar cried, his cheeks paling. "I've come here
with every intention of being civil. I am chief partner in the Modern
Sorcery Company Ltd., and as conjuring figures prominently in our
programme I thought you might prefer to have us as friends rather than
rivals."

"I'm sure my father need not fear your rivalry," Gladys broke in,
meeting Hamar's admiring gaze stonily.

Hamar bowed.

"If," he said, "you desire a proof of our ability to accomplish what
we profess, I will give that proof without delay. With your per--"

"You have no permission from me, sir," John Martin cried fiercely.
"Go!"

Hamar merely shrugged his shoulders. "You ought not to get so heated,"
he said, "considering that exactly twenty feet below where you are
standing is a spring. All you have to do is to mark the spot, and sink
a well, and there will be no need for you to use the Company's water.
As you are probably aware, spring water is a thousand times clearer
and purer. Also," he went on, stepping hastily back as John Martin
again raised his stick, "in the trunk of that elm over yonder is a
hollow about eight feet from the ground, and if you