“Some of you chaps are having a lark with us,” I said.
“No! No, we’re not. It’s all fair and aboveboard; isn’t it, Fatty?” they cried.
And Fatty, of course, assured me on his word of honour as a man and a gentleman that he did not even know what was the article he had to find. Which was quite true. And neither did we in the beginning.
“Well,” I replied, as if still unconvinced, “I’ll mark a penny myself, and we’ll see if you can find that.”
Again Fatty was led from the room, blindfolded, and the same rigmarole gone through, the penny being slipped right under his hand as he groped along the mantelpiece.
“My God!” he cried excitedly. “I’m a marvel. I’ve found it.”
I pretended to be surprised, but still somewhat incredulous.
“Look here,” I said, picking up a piece of paper and an envelope from my dressing-table, “we will have one more test. I am going to write the name of a colour on this sheet of paper, seal it up in the envelope, and place it inside my coat-pocket. Then you must leave your mind a blank, and I will try and will you to tell me the colour I have written down.”
This test also succeeded. He named a colour, and it proved to be the one written on the paper inside the envelope I took from my pocket. As a matter of fact I had a dozen or so envelopes in rotation in my pocket, each with a different colour-name inside, so that was impossible that the test should have failed. But this, of course, Fatty did not know.
I made out to be really and truly surprised now. So did all the others. Nevertheless, I suggested one more final test, a drastic one that would place the matter beyond doubt for evermore; or, at least, so I told him.