my blood run cold. It
makes it run cold now, to remember it!"

"How do you explain all that crystal sphere business, anyway?" asked
Simmonds, who had been chewing his cigar perplexedly. "It stumps me."

"Lester was hypnotised and saw what Silva willed him to see," answered
Godfrey. "You'll remember he sat facing him."

"But," I objected, "no one remembers what happens during hypnosis."

"They do if they are willed to remember. Silva willed you to remember.
It was cleverly done, and his explanation of the origin of the vision
was clever, too. Moreover, it had some truth in it, for the secret of
crystal-gazing is that it awakens the subjective consciousness, or
Great Spirit, as Silva called it. But you weren't crystal-gazing,
to-night, Lester--you were simply hypnotised."

"You may be right," I admitted; "I remember how his eyes stared at me.
But it was wonderful--I'm more impressed with him than ever."

"It isn't the fact that he hypnotised you that bothers me," said
Godfrey, after a moment. "It's the fact that he has also hypnotised
Miss Vaughan."

The words startled me.

"You think that's the reason of her behaviour?" I asked, quickly.

"What other reason can there be?" Godfrey demanded. "Here we have a
girl who thinks herself in danger and summons to her aid the man who
loves her and whom, presumably, she loves. And two days later, when he
has been imprisoned for a crime of which she declares it is absurd to
suspect him, instead of hastening to him or trying to carry out his
wishes, she turns her back on him and deliberately walks into the
danger from which, up to that moment, she had shrunk with loathing.
Contrast her behaviour of Saturday, when she declared her faith in
Swain and begged your assistance, with her behaviour of yesterday and
to-day, when she throws you and Swain aside and announces that she is
going to follow Silva--to become a priestess of Siva. Do you know what
that means, Lester--to become a priestess of Siva?"

"No," I answered, slowly; "I don't know. Silva said it was a great
destiny; yes, and that it meant turning one's back on marriage."

"That is right," said Godfrey, in an indescribable tone, "there is no
marriage--there are only revolting, abominable, unspeakable rites and
ceremonies. I ran across Professor Sutro, the Orientalist, to-day, and
had a talk with him about it. He says the worship of Siva is merely
the worship of the reproductive principle, as it runs through all
crea