let an innocent man
suffer for him."

"Especially when you loved the innocent man," I added to myself, but
managed to keep the words from my lips.

"As soon as I told him of my decision," Miss Vaughan continued, "he
led me to the room where the crystal sphere is, placed me on the
divan, sat down opposite me, and began to explain to me the beliefs of
his religion. Meditation, it seems, is essential to it, and it was by
gazing at the crystal that one could separate one's soul from one's
body and so attain pure and profound meditation."

"Was that your first experience of crystal-gazing?" Godfrey asked.

"Yes; both he and my father had often tried to persuade me to join
them. They often spent whole nights there. But it seemed to me that
the breaking down of father's will was due to it in some way; I grew
to have a fear and horror of it, and so I always refused."

"The change in your father was undoubtedly directly traceable to it,"
Godfrey agreed. "During those periods of crystal-gazing, he was really
in a state of hypnosis, induced by Silva, with his mind bare to
Silva's suggestions; and as these were repeated, he became more and
more a mere echo of Silva's personality. That was what Silva desired
for you, also."

"I felt something of the sort, though I never really understood it,"
said Miss Vaughan; "and as I sat there on the divan that Sunday
afternoon, with his burning eyes upon me, I was terribly afraid. His
will was so much stronger than mine, and besides, I could not keep my
eyes from the crystal. In the end, I had a vision--a dreadful vision."

She pressed her hands to her eyes, as though it was still before her.

"The vision of your father's death?" I questioned.

She nodded.

"With Swain as the murderer?"

"How did you know?" she asked, astonished.

"Because he induced the same vision in me the next evening. But don't
let me interrupt."

"I don't know how long the seance lasted," she continued; "some hours,
I suppose, for it was dark when I again realised where I was. And
after dinner, there was another; and then at midnight he led me to the
roof and invoked what he called an astral benediction--a wonderful,
wonderful thing...."

Godfrey smiled drily.

"You were over-wrought, Miss Vaughan," he said, "and straight from a
spell of crystal-gazing. No wonder it impressed you. But it was really
only a clever trick."

"I realise, now, that it must have been a trick," she agreed; "but at
the time