"I wish to show you first," the stranger said, "that if I chose, I could manage to deceive you into thinking that I accomplished much that I did not really do. For instance, I perhaps at this moment look to you like an elephant."
The members of the Psychical Club gasped in astonishment. Surely upon the platform stood a large white elephant, twisting his pink trunk.
"Or a palm tree," they heard the voice of the stranger say.
No; not an elephant stood on the platform, but a tall and graceful date-palm, crowned with a splendid cluster of spreading fronds.
"Or Dr. Taunton."
The members looked in amazement from the figure of the President sitting in his chair, twirling his gold eye-glasses with his familiar gesture, and his double on the platform, as faithful as a reflection in a mirror, doing the same thing.
"But all this is mere illusion," the voice went on; "I am none of these things."
Once more they saw only the silken-clad figure, tall and supple, smiling under the black mask.
"What I profess to do," the speaker continued, "I shall really do, and not depend upon cheating your senses. I shall hope to leave you proofs and evidences to establish this completely. The difficulty of the different expositions of force is not to be judged by appearances.
First, for instance, I shall show you an exceedingly simple and easy thing. It has come to be customary, for some foolish reason, to speak of these phenomena as illustrations of the 'fourth dimension.' The term, I suppose, is as good as another, since it certainly conveys no definite idea whatever to people in general. I will ask a couple of gentlemen to take a pair of interlocked iron rings that I suppose are among the articles prepared, and to bring them to me. I do not wish to leave my insulation, as in later trials I shall need all my force."
The rings were taken from the trunk and brought forward. They were of iron as thick as a man's thumb, were linked together, and firmly welded.
To pull them apart would have been impossible for teams of strong horses. By the direction of the stranger they were held before him by the two gentlemen.
"I have asked Dr. Taunton," he said, "to have the rings privately marked, so as to insure against any possible suspicion of substitution.
I have never seen them."
He leaned forward, and laid his hand lightly on the junction of the rings. They fell apart instantly. Both were unbroken; and neither gave the slightest appearance of strain or rupture. A murmur of surprise circled the room, and then the members of the Club broke into hearty applause.
The stranger laughed frankly.
"I thank you, gentlemen," he said good-humoredly; "but I am not a juggler."
He asked next for the cube of wood and for the sealed letter.
"I have never seen either of these," he said, the phrase being repeated almost with a mechanical indifference. "I suppose that the President or the person who wrote the letter can identify the note wherever he finds it."
At his direction President Taunton held up before him the cube with the letter lying upon it. The stranger laid his hand over the letter, and then showed an empty palm toward the audience.
"You see I have not taken the letter," he said. "If the saw is there, please cut the block in two in the middle. Cut it across the grain."
While the sawing was going on, the magician put on his wrap and sat down. He resumed his signet ring, and sat with his head bowed in his hands. When the block had been divided, the ends of the letter, cut in halves, appeared in the midst of the wood.
"I think," the stranger said, "that the two halves of the note will slip out of the envelope without difficulty, and Dr. Taunton will then be able to say whether it is the original letter or not."
The president with a little trouble pulled out the pieces of paper and fitted them together. He examined them critically, even using a pocket-glass.
"If I had not been deceived earlier in the evening, and if I did not know that it is wildly impossible," he said, "I should say that this is my letter."
"'I believe because it is impossible,'" quoted the stranger. "You may keep the pieces and decide at your leisure."
He rose as he spoke, and once more threw off his robe. The Club waited breathless. He again placed the ring between his feet.
"I wish now," he said, "the three globes filled with colored fluid."
These were brought to him on a tray, and at his bidding placed close together in a triangle.
"This is only another of the innumerable possible variations upon the penetrability of matter, and would come under the head in common nomenclature of that stupidly used term 'fourth dimension.' I said that I am not a juggler, but of course I chose some of the tests because they are picturesque, and so might amuse an audience. See."
He laid his hand upon the top of the three globes. Instantly they became one by intersection, the three bases being moved nearer together. Each globe preserved perfectly its shape, and in the divisions now made by the coalescing of the section of one sphere with that of another the liquid was of the hue resulting from a mingling of the colors of the differently tinted fluids.
A murmur went around. Several of the members rose to examine the globes.
"Put them on the table," the wonder-worker said, "and then everybody may see."
"We are not to ask questions of methods," Judge Hobart observed. "Is it proper to inquire whether the experiment involves a contradiction of the old law that two bodies cannot occupy the same space?"
"Not at all," was the answer. "Modern science has shown clearly enough that to seem to occupy space is only to fill it as the stars fill the sky. I have only taken advantage of that fact to crowd more matter into a defined area."
The members were asked to seat themselves, and when this had been done, the stranger said: "Any number of examples of this power could be given, but these should be enough, unless some one would prefer to improvise a test on the spot."
"I am glad that you say this," Professor Gray remarked. "I am subject to the prejudice, foolish enough but common, of being more impressed by experiments of my own contriving. Do you mind, sir, if Dr. Taunton and I loop handkerchiefs together, and let you separate them while we hold the ends?"
"Certainly not," was the reply.
The experiment was instantly successful, and was repeated for double assurance.
"If we had nothing else to do," the stranger observed, "we might go on in this line indefinitely; but this is enough of the 'fourth dimension,'
so called. Now we will try development."
III
The flower-pot filled with earth was placed upon the slab at the feet of the magician. The orange seed was laid upon the earth.
"So ingenious an explanation has recently been given--or, more exactly, recently revived--of the development of a plant from a seed, that you may suppose me to have all the different pieces of an orange grove concealed about me, despite the fact that my dress is not adapted to the concealment of a needle. However, you may judge for yourselves."
He leaned forward, and with the point of his finger pushed the seed into the earth.
"Will some one cover the pot with a handkerchief?" he said. "Please be careful not to touch me or it. Hold the handkerchief out, and drop it."
One of the members followed the directions, and for a moment the stranger sat quiet, his eyes fixed on the covered flower-pot. The centre of the handkerchief was seen gradually to rise, and when the cloth was lifted, the astonished eyes of the Club beheld a glossy shoot, three or four inches in height. Without again covering it, the magician continued to gaze fixedly upon the plant. Before the eyes of the spectators the shoot became a shrub, the shrub a tree; the fragrance of orange blossoms filled the air, and among the shining leaves began to swell the golden fruit. The time had been numbered only in minutes, yet there stood a tree higher than a man's head, and laden with golden globes.
"Take it away," the wonder-worker said, "and let me rest a little before I try anything more. You will find the tree to-morrow, and I think you will concede that it is too bulky to have been concealed under these fleshings. If you think it only an optical delusion or the result of hypnotism, try to-morrow by the senses of persons who do not know how it was produced."
He sat for some moments with his head bowed in his hands. Then at his direction a globe about a foot in diameter was filled with clear water and placed on the table. The lights were then turned down so as to leave all the room in shadow except the platform.
"I must ask you to be as quiet as possible," the magician requested.
"The experiment is a difficult one, and from living in the atmosphere which surrounds my daily life I am out of the proper condition."
Putting his hands behind him, he sank downward on the slab to his knees, and so reached forward as to press his thumbs upon his great toes.
The position was a singular one, and earlier in the evening might have raised a smile. Now all was breathless silence for a couple of moments.