ce, dealing only with the general, leaves out
of consideration the individual cases that contradict the enormous
majority. Occasionally the heart is on the right side of the body, but
you would not on that account ever put your stethoscope in any other
than the usual spot. It is possible that under certain conditions the
law of gravity does not apply, yet you will conduct your life under the
conviction that it does so invariably. Now, there are some of us who
choose to deal only with these exceptions to the common run. The dull man
who plays at Monte Carlo puts his money on the colours, and generally
black or red turns up; but now and then zero appears, and he loses. But
we, who have backed zero all the time, win many times our stake. Here and
there you will find men whose imagination raises them above the humdrum
of mankind. They are willing to lose their all if only they have chance
of a great prize. Is it nothing not only to know the future, as did the
prophets of old, but by making it to force the very gates of the
unknown?'

Suddenly the bantering gravity with which he spoke fell away from him. A
singular light came into his eyes, and his voice was hoarse. Now at last
they saw that he was serious.

'What should you know of that lust for great secrets which consumes me to
the bottom of my soul!'

'Anyhow, I'm perfectly delighted to meet a magician,' cried Susie gaily.

'Ah, call me not that,' he said, with a flourish of his fat hands,
regaining immediately his portentous flippancy. 'I would be known rather
as the Brother of the Shadow.'

'I should have thought you could be only a very distant relation of
anything so unsubstantial,' said Arthur, with a laugh.

Oliver's face turned red with furious anger. His strange blue eyes grew
cold with hatred, and he thrust out his scarlet lips till he had the
ruthless expression of a Nero. The gibe at his obesity had caught him on
the raw. Susie feared that he would make so insulting a reply that a
quarrel must ensure.

'Well, really, if we want to go to the fair we must start,' she said
quickly. 'And Marie is dying to be rid of us.'

They got up, and clattered down the stairs into the street.

4

They came down to the busy, narrow street which led into the Boulevard du
Montparnasse. Electric trams passed through it with harsh ringing of
bells, and people surged along the pavements.

The fair to which they were going was held at the Lion de Belfort, not
mo