Chapter II

When the clock struck eight on the evening appointed, the members of the Club were all present. The room to which they had been summoned by Dr. Taunton was simply furnished with a table, before which the seats were arranged in a semicircle, and behind which was a small platform on which stood a single chair. This platform was raised on blocks of glass, above which were thin slabs of a substance which to the eye seemed like a sort of brown resin, in which were to be discerned sparkles of yellow, as of minute crystals. The chair was in turn insulated in the same manner, while before it for the feet of the performer was placed a slab of glass covered with the same resinous substance. On the chair lay a thick robe of knitted silk. Beneath the table was a trunk containing the articles of which the President had read a list at the previous meeting.

The members examined everything and handled everything except the platform and the chair upon it. These they were especially requested not to touch. At five minutes past eight a carriage was heard to stop outside, and almost immediately the President came in.

"The gentleman is in the dressing-room," he said, "and is ready for the examining committee. If the members will be seated, we shall be prepared to receive him."

The members took their seats, and there was a brief interval of silence. Then Judge Hobart and Professor Gray, who had gone to the dressing-room, reëntered. Between them was a tall man, well formed, rather slender, but showing in his figure some signs of approaching middle age. He wore simply a single garment of knit silk. It was laced in the back, and fitted him so tightly that the play of his muscles was as evident as it would have been in a nude figure. His face was covered down to the lips by a black mask of silk.

The unknown stepped out of the loose slippers he wore, mounted the platform, put on the silk robe, and sat down in the chair. Judge Hobart made a formal statement that the perfor-- that their guest had neither properties nor apparatus concealed about his person. Then he sat down, and silence filled the room.

"We are ready," President Taunton said.

The stranger smoothed from his lips the smile which had curled them when Judge Hobart so nearly spoke of him as the "performer." He rose, and stood on the slab before his chair.

"I must say a word or two by way of preface," he began, in a voice cultivated and pleasant. "In the first place, I have no concealed motive in coming here to-night. I am not even--as I shall convince you before we are done--gratifying my vanity by advertising my powers. It has seemed to me that the Club is not on the right track, and although in one sense it is none of my business, I am interested in the subject which it is, as I understand, the object of this body to investigate. The paper by Judge Hobart in a recent number of the 'Agassiz Quarterly' decided me to show to him that certain forces which he conclusively proves to be non-existent do, nevertheless, exist. As I am personally known to perhaps half the gentlemen in the room, and am likely to meet some of them not infrequently, I take the liberty of asking that if any one shall chance to recognize me, he will remember that I come on the condition that my identity remain concealed. The President," he continued, "will bear me out when I say that I have not seen the things provided for use this evening, and that I had no knowledge of the place appointed for the meeting. The dressing-gown I sent him because the scantiness of my dress makes it rather a necessity. I presume that he has examined it carefully enough to be sure that it is innocent of witchery and of trickery."

He paused for a moment, and then in a tone somewhat more determined went on.

"One thing I must add. I decline to answer any questions whatever in regard to the means which produce the effects to which I shall call your attention. Those from whom I have learned would be sufficiently unwilling that I exhibit my power at all, and were there no other reason, their wishes would be sufficient to prevent me from offering information or explanation. I may not succeed in doing all that I shall attempt. I have laid out a pretty serious evening's work, especially for one who lives as I do amid unfavorable conditions; and of course I can receive no assistance from my audience."

He took off the dressing-gown and dropped it into the chair. Then he removed from his finger a large seal ring, and laid it between his feet on the resinous slab.

"I wish to show you first," the stranger said, "that if I chose, I could manage to deceive you into thinking that I accomplished much that I did not really do. For instance, I perhaps at this moment look to you like an elephant."

The members of the Psychical Club gasped in astonishment. Surely upon the platform stood a large white elephant, twisting his pink trunk.

"Or a palm tree," they heard the voice of the stranger say.

No; not an elephant stood on the platform, but a tall and graceful date-palm, crowned with a splendid cluster of spreading fronds.

"Or Dr. Taunton."

The members looked in amazement from the figure of the President sitting in his chair, twirling his gold eye-glasses with his familiar gesture, and his double on the platform, as faithful as a reflection in a mirror, doing the same thing.

"But all this is mere illusion," the voice went on; "I am none of these things."

Once more they saw only the silken-clad figure, tall and supple, smiling under the black mask.

"What I profess to do," the speaker continued, "I shall really do, and not depend upon cheating your senses. I shall hope to leave you proofs and evidences to establish this completely. The difficulty of the different expositions of force is not to be judged by appearances. First, for instance, I shall show you an exceedingly simple and easy thing. It has come to be customary, for some foolish reason, to speak of these phenomena as illustrations of the 'fourth dimension.' The term, I suppose, is as good as another, since it certainly conveys no definite idea whatever to people in general. I will ask a couple of gentlemen to take a pair of interlocked iron rings that I suppose are among the articles prepared, and to bring them to me. I do not wish to leave my insulation, as in later trials I shall need all my force."

The rings were taken from the trunk and brought forward. They were of iron as thick as a man's thumb, were linked together, and firmly welded. To pull them apart would have been impossible for teams of strong horses. By the direction of the stranger they were held before him by the two gentlemen.

"I have asked Dr. Taunton," he said, "to have the rings privately marked, so as to insure against any possible suspicion of substitution. I have never seen them."

He leaned forward, and laid his hand lightly on the junction of the rings. They fell apart instantly. Both were unbroken; and neither gave the slightest appearance of strain or rupture. A murmur of surprise circled the room, and then the members of the Club broke into hearty applause.

The stranger laughed frankly.

"I thank you, gentlemen," he said good-humoredly; "but I am not a juggler."

He asked next for the cube of wood and for the sealed letter.

"I have never seen either of these," he said, the phrase being repeated almost with a mechanical indifference. "I suppose that the President or the person who wrote the letter can identify the note wherever he finds it."

At his direction President Taunton held up before him the cube with the letter lying upon it. The stranger laid his hand over the letter, and then showed an empty palm toward the audience.

"You see I have not taken the letter," he said. "If the saw is there, please cut the block in two in the middle. Cut it across the grain."

While the sawing was going on, the magician put on his wrap and sat down. He resumed his signet ring, and sat with his head bowed in his hands. When the block had been divided, the ends of the letter, cut in halves, appeared in the midst of the wood.

"I think," the stranger said, "that the two halves of the note will slip out of the envelope without difficulty, and Dr. Taunton will then be able to say whether it is the original letter or not."

The president with a little trouble pulled out the pieces of paper and fitted them together. He examined them critically, even using a pocket-glass.

"If I had not been deceived earlier in the evening, and if I did not know that it is wildly impossible," he said, "I should say that this is my letter."

"'I believe because it is impossible,'" quoted the stranger. "You may keep the pieces and decide at your leisure."

He rose as he spoke, and once more threw off his robe. The Club waited breathless. He again placed the ring between his feet.

"I wish now," he said, "the three globes filled with colored fluid."

These were brought to him on a tray, and at his bidding placed close together in a triangle.

"This is only another of the innumerable possible variations upon the penetrability of matter, and would come under the head in common nomenclature of that stupidly used term 'fourth dimension.' I said that I am not a juggler, but of course I chose some of the tests because they are picturesque, and so might amuse an audience. See."

He laid his hand upon the top of the three globes. Instantly they became one by intersection, the three bases being moved nearer together. Each globe preserved perfectly its shape, and in the divisions now made by the coalescing of the section of one sphere with that of another the liquid was of the hue resulting from a mingling of the colors of the differently tinted fluids.

A murmur went around. Several of the members rose to examine the globes.

"Put them on the table," the wonder-worker said, "and then everybody may see."

"We are not to ask questions of methods," Judge Hobart observed. "Is it proper to inquire whether the experiment involves a contradiction of the old law that two bodies cannot occupy the same space?"

"Not at all," was the answer. "Modern science has shown clearly enough that to seem to occupy space is only to fill it as the stars fill the sky. I have only taken advantage of that fact to crowd more matter into a defined area."

The members were asked to seat themselves, and when this had been done, the stranger said: "Any number of examples of this power could be given, but these should be enough, unless some one would prefer to improvise a test on the spot."

"I am glad that you say this," Professor Gray remarked. "I am subject to the prejudice, foolish enough but common, of being more impressed by experiments of my own contriving. Do you mind, sir, if Dr. Taunton and I loop handkerchiefs together, and let you separate them while we hold the ends?"

"Certainly not," was the reply.

The experiment was instantly successful, and was repeated for double assurance.

"If we had nothing else to do," the stranger observed, "we might go on in this line indefinitely; but this is enough of the 'fourth dimension,' so called. Now we will try development."