y according to the purpose which the _maagun_
is intended to serve. This renders the subject particularly open to
subjective hallucination, and a pliable instrument in the hands of a
hypnotic operator, for instance."

"You see, old man?" cried Smith eagerly. "You see?"

But I shook my head weakly.

"I shot you," I said. "It is impossible that I could have missed."

"Mr. Smith has placed me in possession of the facts," interrupted
McCabe, "and I can outline with reasonable certainty what took place.
Of course, it's all very amazing, utterly fantastic in fact, but I
have met with almost parallel cases in Egypt, in India, and elsewhere
in the East: never in London, I'll confess. You see, Dr. Petrie, you
were taken into the presence of a very accomplished hypnotist, having
been previously prepared by a stiff administration of _maagun_.
You are doubtless familiar with the remarkable experiments in
psycho-therapeutics conducted at the Salpetrier in Paris, and you
will readily understand me when I say that, prior to your recovering
consciousness in the presence of the mandarin Ki-Ming, you had
received your hypnotic instructions.

"These were to be put into execution either at a certain time (duly
impressed upon your drugged mind) or at a given signal...."

"It was a signal," snapped Smith. "Ki-Ming stood in the court below
and looked up at the window," I objected.

"In that event," snapped Smith, "he would have spoken softly, through
the letter-box of the door!"

"You immediately resumed your interrupted trance," continued McCabe,
"and by hypnotic suggestion impressed upon you earlier in the evening,
you were ingeniously led up to a point at which, under what delusion
I know not, you fired at Mr. Smith. I had the privilege of studying an
almost parallel case in Simla, where an officer was fatally stabbed by
his _khitmatgar_ (a most faithful servant) acting under the hypnotic
prompting of a certain _fakir_ whom the officer had been unwise
enough to chastise. The _fakir_ paid for the crime with his life, I
may add. The _khitmatgar_ shot him, ten minutes later."

"I had no chance at Ki-Ming," snapped Smith. "He vanished like a
shadow. But has has played his big card and lost! Henceforth he is a
hunted man; and he knows it! Oh!" he cried, seeing me watching him in
bewilderment, "I suspected some Lama trickery, old man, and I stuck
closely to the arrangements proposed by the mandarin, but kept you
under careful observat