he bowl
vanished from sight, and Shin Shira turned the bowl upside down to show
that nothing was inside.

"It's really most marvellous," murmured the Duchess, taking off a most
valuable diamond ornament and handing it to the Yellow Dwarf. "Please
make this disappear too. I shall value it more highly than ever if I
know that it has been through such a wonderful adventure."

Shin Shira bowed, and taking the jewelled ornament from the lady, he
dropped it into the bowl, where it at once shared the same fate as the
other articles.

"Ha! Hum!" said a grave and somewhat pompous voice, "our friend here
might readily become a very dangerous person if he exercised his
remarkable gifts in private, and made things disappear in this
extraordinary fashion, and then refused to produce them again. Eh? Ha!
Hum!"

"Yes--ha! ha! very good. Ha! ha!" laughed a number of people who were
standing near to the guest who had spoken.

"That's the Lord Chief Justice," explained a gentleman who stood near
me. "That's why everybody is laughing; it's considered very improper not
to laugh when the Lord Chief Justice makes a joke--however feeble it
is."

I hardly listened to what he was saying, though, for I had suddenly
noticed something which caused me a good deal of anxiety.

Shin Shira was beginning to look very thin and vapoury about the head,
and, while I was watching him, to my horror, he began to vanish
piecemeal till he had entirely disappeared from sight, after giving me a
strange, apologetic look.

The people clapped and stamped and laughed, evidently imagining that it
was all part of the trick--but I--_I_ knew differently, and scarcely
dared realise what it all meant for me.

For a few minutes everybody waited patiently for him to appear again,
and clapped and stamped in great good humour. Presently, however, they
began to get rather tired and impatient, and, after we had waited for
about twenty minutes, the delay began to get very awkward.

"Why doesn't he come back?" inquired the Duchess, in an impatient voice,
coming over to where I was standing. "The delay is becoming very
embarrassing."

I turned very red, I am afraid, for I hardly liked to explain that the
probability was that he would _not_ come back at all.

"Several of my guests are wanting to go early, and they must have their
jewellery before they depart," she continued. "Can you not tell him to
hurry up?"

"I--I--I--am--afraid n--not," I stammered.

"But you