period I mention had elapsed, the hand of the medium was again seized with its convulsive tremor, and she wrote, under this strange influence, a few words on the paper, which she handed to me. They were as follows:

"LEEUWENHOEK."1

I was astounded. The name was identical with that I had written beneath the table, and carefully kept concealed. Neither was it at all probable that an uncultivated woman like Mrs. Vulpes should know even the name of the great father of microscopics. It may have been biology; but this theory was soon doomed to be destroyed. I wrote on my slip-still concealing it from Mrs. Vulpes a series of questions, which, to avoid tediousness, I shall place with the responses, in the order in which they occurred: -

I.Can the microscope be brought to perfection?

I. — Am I destined to accomplish this great task?

SPIRIT. You are.

I.

-I wish to know how to proceed to attain this end. For the love which you bear to science, help me!

SPIRIT.

A diamond of one hundred and forty

1 See p. 160.

carats,1 submitted to electro-magnetic currents for a long period, will experience a rearrangement of its atoms inter se, and from that stone you will form the universal lens.

I.

Will great discoveries result from the use of such a lens?

SPIRIT.So great that all that has gone before is as nothing.

I. But the refractive power of the diamond is so immense, that the image will be formed within the lens. How is that difficulty to be surmounted? SPIRIT. Pierce the lens through its axis, and the difficulty is obviated. The image will be formed in the pierced space, which will itself serve as a tube to look through. Now I am called. Good night.

I cannot at all describe the effect that these extraordinary communications had upon me. I felt completely bewildered. No biological theory could account for the discovery of the lens. The medium might, by means of biological rapport with my mind,3 have gone so far as to read my questions, and reply to them coherently. But biology could not enable her to discover that magnetic currents would so alter the crystals of

1 The carat is the unit of weight for diamonds: there are 151.76 carats to the ounce. A diamond of 140 carats is very large, but not unheard of.

2 Atoms are the smallest possible particles of which anything is made. Inter se = within itself.

3 By what is now known as telepathy or mind-reading.

the diamond as to remedy its previous defects, and admit of its being polished into a perfect lens. Some such theory may have passed through my head, it is true; but if so, I had forgotten it. In my excited condition of mind there was no course left but to become a convert, and it was in a state of the most painful nervous exaltation that I left the medium's house that evening. She accompanied me to the door, hoping that I was satisfied. The raps followed us as we went through the hall, sounding on the balusters, the flooring, and even the lintels of the door. hastily expressed my satisfaction, and escaped hurriedly into the cool night air. I walked home with but one thought possessing me, how to obtain a diamond of the immense size required. My entire means multiplied a hundred times over would have been inadequate to its purchase. Besides, such stones are rare, and become historical. I could find such only in the regalia of Eastern or European monarch.1

IV

THE EYE OF MORNING

I

THERE was a light in Simon's room as I entered my house. A vague impulse urged me to visit

1 Thus the famous Koh-i-noor, the largest of the jewels of the English crown, is now, after being recut, but 106 carats.

him. As I opened the door of his sitting-room unannounced, he was bending, with his back toward me, over a carcel lamp,1 apparently engaged in minutely examining some object which he held. in his hands. As I entered, he started suddenly, thrust his hand into his breast pocket, and turned to me with a face crimson with confusion.

"What!" I cried, "poring over the miniature of some fair lady? Well, don't blush so much; I won't ask to see it."

Simon laughed awkwardly enough, but made none of the negative protestations usual on such occasions. He asked me to take a seat.

66

Simon," said I, "I have just come from Madame Vulpes."

This time Simon turned as white as a sheet, and seemed stupefied, as if a sudden electric shock had smitten him. He babbled some incoherent words, and went hastily to a small closet where he usually kept his liquors. Although astonished at his emotion, I was too preoccupied with my own idea to pay much attention to anything else.

"You say truly when you call Madame Vulpes a devil of a woman," I continued. "Simon, she told me wonderful things to-night, or rather was the means of telling me wonderful things. Ah! if I could only get a diamond that weighed one hundred and forty carats!" Scarcely had the sigh with which I uttered this

1 A lamp named after its inventor.

desire died upon my lips, when Simon, with the aspect of a wild beast, glared at me savagely, and rushing to the mantelpiece, where some foreign weapons hung on the wall, caught up a Malay creese, and brandished it furiously before him.

"No!" he cried in French, into which he always broke when excited. "No! you shall not have it! You are perfidious! You have consulted with that demon, and desire my treasure! But I will die first! Me! Me! I am brave ! You cannot make me fear!"

All this, uttered in a loud voice trembling with excitement, astounded me. I saw at a glance that I had accidentally trodden upon the edges of Simon's secret, whatever it was. It was necessary to reassure him.

66

My dear Simon," I said, "I am entirely at a loss to know what you mean. I went to Madame Vulpes to consult with her on a scientific problem, to the solution of which I discovered that a diamond of the size I just mentioned was necessary. You were never alluded to during the evening, nor, so far as I was concerned, even thought of. What can be the meaning of this outburst? If you happen to have a set of valuable diamonds in your possession, you need fear nothing from me. The diamond which I require you could not possess; or, if you did possess it, you would not be living here."

Something in my tone must have completely

N