Lilian Rosenberg had
assumed, and which he knew to be quite foreign to her, filled him with
misgivings. Nor was he mistaken. The evidence she gave was entirely in
favour of the trio.

The case for the prosecution was concluded. For the defence, Gerald
Kirby, K.C., resorted to satire. He characterized the whole
proceedings as the most absurd heard in any Court for the past two
centuries, and wondered, only, that it had been possible to procure a
counsel for such a ridiculous prosecution.

"Even though," he remarked, "spirits such as have been specified by
the prosecution do exist--which is extremely dubious--there has never
yet been produced any reliable corroborative evidence respecting them,
and the Prosecution has wholly failed to prove, that it is through the
medium of these spirits, that the Modern Sorcery Company have worked
their spells. The marvellous feats that we have all seen performed in
Cockspur Street have been accomplished--as the defendants have all
along stated--through will--sheer will power and nothing else; and I
intend producing evidence to show that the secret of the wonderful
efficacy of all the charms and spells sold by the Sorcery Company,
lies in will power also. Whenever they have been consulted with regard
to the purchasing of a spell, the Firm have invariably pointed out
this fact to the purchasers, carefully explaining at the same time
that the rings, lockets and other articles sold to them were merely to
assist them in concentration. It is ridiculous to suppose that such
trivial articles could have produced, of themselves, such calamities
as the witnesses for the prosecution attributed to them. But, of
course you did not believe the statements of such witnesses. How could
you? How could you expect anything but falsehood from women who, upon
cross-examination, had owned that their object in obtaining the spells
was a far more dangerous object than they had at first led you to
suppose. They sought spells that would do evil, and that evil was not
accomplished. Now, I ask you, if the Firm worked their spells through
the instrumentality of evil spirits--for it is assuredly only evil
spirits that are associated with Sorcery--would not the spells they
sold naturally have brought about the sinister results for which they
were required? Undoubtedly they would! And they failed to produce the
desired effect, simply because their efficacy depended, not on spirit
agency, but on human will power; which