e! Talk about Aaron's rod and those of the old Egyptian
necromancers turning into serpents! Why, I could have sworn that this
knife of mine did precisely the same thing! Now, there is a problem for
you, Doctor: What sort of mental aberration was it that caused me to
imagine such an extraordinary thing as that, eh?"

"Simply, my dear boy, that I hypnotised you `unbeknownst', so to speak,
in illustration of what I have been telling you," answered the Doctor,
laying his hand upon Dick's shoulder. "Hope I didn't scare you very
severely, eh?"

"N-o," answered Dick slowly, "you did not actually scare me, Doctor; but
you managed to give me such a thrill of horror and disgust as I have not
experienced for many a long day. But, I say, do you really mean to tell
me, in sober earnest, that that abominable experience was due to
hypnotic suggestion on your part?"

"Yes, I do," answered Humphreys. "I wanted to bring home to you in a
very convincing manner the power which the hypnotist exercises over his
subject. I could have done it even more convincingly, perhaps, by
commanding you to take that perfectly cold poker in your hand, and then
suggesting to you that it was red hot, when--despite the fact of the
poker being cold--your hand would have been most painfully blistered.
But probably the `adder' experiment was convincing enough, eh?"

"It was indeed," assented Dick with a little reminiscent shudder. "But
look here, Doctor, you say that you hypnotised me. When did you do it?
I didn't see you do anything peculiar."

"No, my boy, of course you didn't, because I adopted my own especial
method, which is instantaneous and undetectable, and which I will teach
you if you care to learn it; for I seem to foresee that there may be
occasions, by and by, when you get out to South Africa, when you may
find the power extremely useful to you, particularly if you should get
any medical or surgical work to do. In such a case just hypnotise your
patient in the way that I will teach you, then powerfully suggest to him
that your treatment is going to cure him--and it will do so. As to when
I got you under my influence, it was done while I asked you to lend me
your penknife."

"By Jove!" exclaimed Dick; "it is marvellous, perfectly marvellous; and
if I did not know you to be an absolutely truthful man I do not think I
could bring myself to believe it. Now I can understand what you meant
when you spoke of the potency of hypnotism for