ed to some extent), and
leaving the room involved in a profound darkness.

"For the love av the saints--for the love av the saints, save us from
the yellow devils!" exclaimed a voice from the spot where last the
barbarian princess had reclined, and upon this person going to her
assistance with lights it was presently revealed that she alone had
remained seated, the others having all assembled themselves beneath the
table in spite of the incapability of the space at their disposal. Most
of the weightier evidences of Kwan Kiang-ti's majestic presence had
faded away, though the table retained the print of his impressive hand,
many objects remained irretrievably torn apart, and in a distant corner
of the room an insignificant heap of shells and seaweed still lingered.
From the floor covering a sprinkling of the purest Fuh-chow sand rose
at every step, the salt dew of the Tung-Hai still dropped from
the surroundings, and, at a later period, a shore crab was found
endeavouring to make its escape undetected.

Convinced that the success of the manifestation would have enlarged
the one Glidder's esteem towards me to an inexpressible degree, I now
approached him with words of self-deprecation ready on my tongue, but
before he spoke I became aware, from the nature of his glance, that
the provision had been unnecessary, for already his face had begun to
assume, to a most distended amount, the expression which I had long
recognised as a synonym that some detail had been regarded at a
different angle from that anticipated.

"May I ask," he began in a somewhat heavily-laden voice, after he had
assured himself that the person who was speaking was himself, and his
external attributes unchanged, "May I ask, sir" (and at this title,
which is untranslatable in its many-sided significance when technically
employed, I recognised that all complimentary intercourse might be
regarded as having closed), "whether you accept the responsibility of
these proceedings?"

"Touching the appearance which has so essentially contributed to the
success of the occasion, it is undeniably due to this one's foresight,"
I replied modestly.

"Then let me tell you, sir, that I consider it an outrage--a dastardly
outrage."

"Yet," protested this person with retiring assertiveness, "the expressed
object of the ceremony, as it stood before my intelligence, was for the
set purpose of invoking spirits and raising certain visions."

"Spirits!" exclaimed the one