in?"

Doctor Lagarde sighed, and reclined in his chair. "My head is heavy," he
said; "my spirits are dull. The darkness baffles me. I have toiled long
enough for you. Drop my hand and leave me to rest."

Hearing those words, Madame Lagarde approached her son's chair.

"It will be useless, sir, to ask him any more questions to-night," she
said. "He has been weak and nervous all day, and he is worn out by the
effort he has made. Pardon me, if I ask you to step aside for a moment,
while I give him the repose that he needs."

She laid her right hand gently on the Doctor's head, and kept it there
for a minute or so. "Are you at rest now?" she asked.

"I am at rest," he answered, in faint, drowsy tones.

Madame Lagarde returned to Percy. "If you are not yet satisfied," she
said, "my son will be at your service to-morrow evening, sir."

"Thank you, madam, I have only one more question to ask, and you can no
doubt answer it. When your son wakes, will he remember what he has said
to Captain Bervie and to myself?"

"My son will be as absolutely ignorant of everything that he has seen,
and of everything that he has said in the trance, as if he had been at
the other end of the world."

Percy Linwood swallowed this last outrageous assertion with an effort
which he was quite unable to conceal. "Many thanks, madam," he said; "I
wish you good-night."

Returning to the waiting-room, he noticed the money-box fixed to the
table. "These people look poor," he thought to himself, "and I feel
really indebted to them for an amusing evening. Besides, I can afford
to be liberal, for I shall certainly never go back." He dropped a
five-pound note into the money-box, and left the house.

Walking toward his club, Percy's natural serenity of mind was a little
troubled by the remembrance of Captain Bervie's language and conduct.
The Captain had interested the young man in spite of himself. His
first idea was to write to Bervie, and mention what had happened at the
renewed consultation with Doctor Lagarde. On second thoughts, he saw
reason to doubt how the Captain might receive such an advance as this,
on the part of a stranger. "After all," Percy decided, "the whole thing
is too absurd to be worth thinking about seriously. Neither he nor I are
likely to meet again, or to see the Doctor again--and there's an end of
it."

He never was more mistaken in his life. The end of it was not to come
for many a long day yet.

PART II.--THE FULFI