believe the knowledge of
them at one time existed, but has been entirely lost, at any rate among
Western peoples. The belief in magic is as old as anything we have
knowledge of. The magicians at the court of Pharaoh threw down their
rods and turned them into serpents. The Witch of Endor called up the
spirit of Samuel. The Greeks, by no means a nation of fools, believed
implicitly in the Oracles. Coming down to comparatively later times, the
workers of magic burnt their books before St. Paul. It doesn't say, mind
you, that those who pretended to work magic did so; but those who worked
magic.

"Early travelers in Persia and India have reported things they saw far
surpassing any we have witnessed this evening, and there is certainly a
sect in India at present, or rather a body of men, and those, as far as
I have been able to learn, of an exceptionally intelligent class, who
believe that they possess an almost absolute mastery over the powers of
nature. You see, fifty years back, if anyone had talked about traveling
at fifty miles an hour, or sending a message five thousand miles in a
minute, he would have been regarded as a madman. There may yet be other
discoveries as startling to be made.

"When I was in England I heard something of a set of people in America
who called themselves Spiritualists, some of whom--notably a young man
named Home--claimed to have the power of raising themselves through
the air. I am far from saying that such a power exists; it is of course
contrary to what we know of the laws of nature, but should such a power
exist it would account for the disappearance of the girl from the top
of the pole. Highland second sight, carried somewhat farther, and united
with the power of conveying the impressions to others, would account
for the pictures on the smoke, that is, supposing them to be true, and
personally I own that I expect they will prove to be true--unlikely as
it may seem that you, I, and Miss Hannay will ever be going about in
native attire."

By this time they had reached the Doctor's bungalow, and had comfortably
seated themselves.

"There is one thing that flashed across me this evening," Bathurst said.
"I told you, that first evening I met Miss Hannay, that I had a distinct
knowledge of her face. You laughed at me at the time, and it certainly
seemed absurd, but I was convinced I was not wrong. Now I know how it
was; I told you at dinner today about the feat of the girl going up and
not