Ferdinand answered, "has ever set eyes on the
picture; this I told you before. And I have never told any creature but
yourself of the adventure which has had such an immensely important
influence on my whole life. It is an utter impossibility that the Turk
can have got to know of this in any ordinary manner. Much more
probably, what you say you are 'going a long roundabout way' in search
of may be much nearer the truth."

"'"Well then," said Lewis, "what I mean is this; that this automaton,
strongly as I appeared to-day to assert the contrary, is really one of
the most extraordinary phenomena ever beheld, and that everything goes
to prove that whoever controls and directs it has at his command higher
powers than is supposed by those who go there simply to gape at things,
and do no more than wonder at what is wonderful. The figure is nothing
more than the outward form of the communication; but that form has been
cleverly selected, as such, since the shape, appearance, and movements
of it are well adapted to occupy the attention in a manner favourable
for the preservation of the secret, and, particularly, to work upon the
questioners favourably as regards the intelligence, whatsoever it is,
which gives the answers. There cannot be any human being concealed
inside the figure; that is as good as proved, so that it is clearly the
result of some acoustic deception that we think the answers come from
the Turk's mouth. But how this is accomplished--how the Being who gives
the answers is placed in a position to hear the questions and see the
questioners, and at the same time to be audible by them--certainly
remains a complete mystery to me. Of course all this merely implies
great acoustic and mechanical skill on the part of the inventor, and
remarkable acuteness, or, I might say, systematic craftiness, in
leaving no stone unturned in the process of deceiving us. And I admit
that this part of the riddle interests me the less, inasmuch as it
falls completely into the shade in comparison with the circumstance
(which, is the only part of the affair which is so extraordinarily
remarkable) that the Turk often reads the very soul of the questioner.
How, if it were possible to this Being which gives the answers, to
acquire by some process unknown to us, a psychic influence over us, and
to place itself in a spiritual _rapport_ with us, so that it can
comprehend and read our minds and thoughts, and more than that, have
cognizance of our