ch as prepared to see him in the neighbourhood.
All perfectly clear so far. But the Indians being ignorant of the
precautions thus taken, how was it that they had made no attempt on Lady
Verinder's house (in which they must have supposed the Diamond to be)
through the whole of the interval that elapsed before Rachel's birthday?

In putting this difficulty to Mr. Murthwaite, I thought it right to add
that I had heard of the little boy, and the drop of ink, and the rest of
it, and that any explanation based on the theory of clairvoyance was
an explanation which would carry no conviction whatever with it, to MY
mind.

"Nor to mine either," said Mr. Murthwaite. "The clairvoyance in
this case is simply a development of the romantic side of the Indian
character. It would be refreshment and an encouragement to those
men--quite inconceivable, I grant you, to the English mind--to surround
their wearisome and perilous errand in this country with a certain halo
of the marvellous and the supernatural. Their boy is unquestionably a
sensitive subject to the mesmeric influence--and, under that influence,
he has no doubt reflected what was already in the mind of the person
mesmerising him. I have tested the theory of clairvoyance--and I have
never found the manifestations get beyond that point. The Indians don't
investigate the matter in this way; the Indians look upon their boy as
a Seer of things invisible to their eyes--and, I repeat, in that marvel
they find the source of a new interest in the purpose that unites them.
I only notice this as offering a curious view of human character,
which must be quite new to you. We have nothing whatever to do with
clairvoyance, or with mesmerism, or with anything else that is hard of
belief to a practical man, in the inquiry that we are now pursuing. My
object in following the Indian plot, step by step, is to trace results
back, by rational means, to natural causes. Have I succeeded to your
satisfaction so far?"

"Not a doubt of it, Mr. Murthwaite! I am waiting, however, with some
anxiety, to hear the rational explanation of the difficulty which I have
just had the honour of submitting to you."

Mr. Murthwaite smiled. "It's the easiest difficulty to deal with of
all," he said. "Permit me to begin by admitting your statement of the
case as a perfectly correct one. The Indians were undoubtedly not aware
of what Mr. Franklin Blake had done with the Diamond--for we find them
making their first m