ognize it as being mine, unless through the means Heliobas had
explained.

"Can you command human beings so?" I asked, with a slight tremor of
nervousness.

"Not all," returned Heliobas quietly. "In fact, I may say, very few.
Those who are on my own circle of power I can, naturally, draw to or
repel from me; but those who are not, have to be treated by different
means. Sometimes cases occur in which persons, at first NOT on my
circle, are irresistibly attracted to it by a force not mine.
Sometimes, in order to perform a cure, I establish a communication
between myself and a totally alien sphere of thought; and to do this is
a long and laborious effort. But it can be done."

"Then, if it can be done," said Prince Ivan, "why do you not accomplish
it for me?"

"Because you are being forcibly drawn towards me without any effort on
my part," replied Heliobas, with one of his steady, keen looks. "For
what motive I cannot at present determine; but I shall know as soon as
you touch the extreme edge of my circle. You are a long way off it yet,
but you are coming in spite of yourself, Ivan."

The Prince fidgeted restlessly in his chair, and toyed with the fruit
on his plate in a nervous manner.

"If I did not know you to be an absolutely truthful and honourable man,
Casimir," he said, "I should think you were trying to deceive me. But I
have seen what you can do, therefore I must believe you. Still I
confess I do not follow you in your circle theory."

"To begin with," returned Heliobas, "the Universe is a circle.
Everything is circular, from the motion of planets down to the human
eye, or the cup of a flower, or a drop of dew. MY 'circle theory,' as
you call it, applied to human electric force, is very simple; but I
have proved it to be mathematically correct. Every human being is
provided INTERNALLY and EXTERNALLY with a certain amount of
electricity, which is as necessary to existence as the life-blood to
the heart or fresh air to the lungs. Internally it is the germ of a
soul or spirit, and is placed there to be either cultivated or
neglected as suits the WILL of man. It is indestructible; yet, if
neglected, it remains always a germ; and, at the death of the body it
inhabits, goes elsewhere to seek another chance of development. If, on
the contrary, its growth is fostered by a persevering, resolute WILL,
it becomes a spiritual creature, glorious and supremely powerful, for
which a new, brilliant, and endless existenc