randt's--for, gradually, one
detail after another emerged from the darkness, vague shadows took on
shape and meaning, but farther back there was always more shadow, and
farther back still more ...

The man was sitting cross-legged on a low divan, his hands crossed in
front of him and hanging limply between his knees. His clothing I
could see but vaguely, for it was merged into the darkness about him,
but his hands stood out white against it. He was staring straight at
the crystal, with unwavering and unwinking gaze, and sat as motionless
as though carved in stone. The glow from the sphere picked out his
profile with a line of light--I could see the high forehead, the
strong, curved nose, the full lips shaded by a faint moustache, and
the long chin, only partially concealed by a close-clipped beard. It
was a wonderful and compelling face, especially as I then saw it, and
I gazed at it for a long moment.

"It's the adept, I suppose," said Godfrey, no longer taking care to
lower his voice.

It sounded unnaturally loud in the absolute stillness of the room,
and I looked at the adept quickly, but he had not moved.

"Can't he hear you?" I asked.

"No--he couldn't hear a clap of thunder. That is, unless he's faking."

I looked again at the impassive figure.

"He's not faking," I said.

"I don't know," and Godfrey shook his head sceptically. "It looks like
the real thing--but these fellows are mighty clever. Do you see the
other victim? There's no fake about it!"

"I see no one else," I said, after a vain scrutiny.

"Look carefully on the other side of the sphere. Don't you see
something there?"

My eyes were smarting under the strain, and for a moment longer I saw
nothing; then a strange, grey shape detached itself from the
blackness. It was an ugly and repulsive shape, slender below, but
swelling hideously at the top, and as I stared at it, it seemed to me
that it returned my stare with malignant eyes screened by a pair of
white-rimmed glasses. Then, with a sensation of dizziness, I saw that
the shape was swaying gently back and forth, in a sort of rhythm. And
then, quite suddenly, I saw what it was, and a chill of horror
quivered up my back.

It was a cobra.

To and fro it swung, to and fro, its staring eyes fixed upon the
sphere, its spectacled hood hideously distended.

The very soul within me trembled as I gazed at those unwinking eyes.
What did they see in the sphere? What was passing in that inscrutab