eep
his faculties unremittingly streaming to one end. Finally, as this
tremendous effort, which made minutes seem hours, went on, there came
a sense of efficiency, the feeling of achieving something. From this
consciousness was first born a faith, no longer desperate, but rational,
that he might succeed, and with faith came an instantaneous tenfold
multiplication of force. The overflow of energy lost the tendency to
dissipation and became steady. The will appeared to be getting the
mental faculties more perfectly in hand, if the expression may be used,
not only concentrating but fairly fusing them together by the intensity
with which it drove them to their object. It was time. Already, perhaps,
Mary was about to utter the vows that would give her to another.
Lansing's lips moved. As if he were standing at her side, he murmured
with strained and labored utterance ejaculations of appeal and
adjuration.

Then came the climax of the stupendous struggle. He became aware of a
sensation so amazing that I know not if it can be described at all,--a
sensation comparable to that which comes up the mile-long sounding-line,
telling that it touches bottom. Fainter far, as much finer as is mind
than matter, yet not less unmistakable, was the thrill which told the
man, agonizing on that lonely mountain of Colorado, that the will which
he had sent forth to touch the mind of another, a thousand miles away,
had found its resting-place, and the chain between them was complete.
No longer projected at random into the void, but as if it sent along an
established medium of communication, his will now seemed to work upon
hers, not uncertainly and with difficulty, but as if in immediate
contact. Simultaneously, also, its mood changed. No more appealing,
agonizing, desperate, it became insistent, imperious, dominating. For
only a few moments it remained at this pitch, and then, the mental
tension suddenly relaxing, he aroused to a perception of his
surroundings, of which toward the last he had become oblivious. He was
drenched with perspiration and completely exhausted. The iron horseshoe
which he had held in his hands was drawn halfway out.

Thirty-six hours later, Lansing, accompanied by Pinney, climbed down
from the stage at the railroad station. During the interval Lansing
had neither eaten nor slept. If at moments in that time he was able to
indulge the hope that his tremendous experiment had been successful, for
the main part the overwhel