“Very well — there’s plenty of time to change your mind later.”
Oh, Is there? thought George, looking gloomily at his watch.
Rupert had shepherded his friends round a small but massive table, perfectly circular in shape. It had a flat plastic top which he lifted off to reveal a glittering sea of closely packed ball-bearings. They were prevented from escaping by the table’s slightly raised rim, and George found it quite impossible to imagine their purpose. The hundreds of reflected points of light formed a fascinating and hypnotic pattern, and he felt himself becoming slightly dizzy.
As they drew up their chairs, Rupert reached under the table and brought forth a disc some ten centimetres in diameter, which he placed on the surface of the ball-bearings.
“There you are,” he said. “You put your fingers on this, and it moves around with no resistance at all.” George eyed the device with profound distrust. He noted that the letters of the alphabet were placed at regular intervals — though in no particular order — round the circumference of the table. In addition there were the numbers one to nine, scattered at random among the letters, and two cards bearing the words “YES” and “NO”. These were on opposite sides of the table.
“It looks like a lot of mumbo-jumbo to me,” he muttered. “I’m surprised that anyone takes it seriously in this age.” He felt a little better after delivering this mild protest, which was aimed at Jean quite as much as Rupert. Rupert didn’t pretend to have more than a detached scientific interest in these phenomena. He was open-minded, but not credulous. Jean, on the other hand — well, George was sometimes a little worried about her. She really seemed to think that there was something in this business of telepathy and second-sight. Not until he had made his remark did George realize that it also implied a criticism of Rashaverak. He glanced nervously round but the Overlord showed no reaction. Which, of course, proved absolutely nothing at all.
Everyone had now taken up their positions. Going in a clockwise direction round the table were Rupert, Maia, Jan, Jean, George, and Benny Shoenberger. Ruth Shoenberger was sitting outside the circle with a notebook. She apparently had some objection to taking part in the proceedings, which had caused Benny to snake obscurely sarcastic remarks about people who still took the Talmud seriously. However, she seemed perfectly willing to act as a recorder.
“Now listen,” began Rupert, “for the benefit of sceptics like George, let’s get this straight. Whether or not there’s anything supernormal about this, it works. Personally, I think there’s a purely mechanical explanation. When we put our hands on the disc, even though we may try to avoid influencing its movements, our subconscious starts playing tricks. I’ve analyzed lots of these seances, and I’ve never got answers that someone in the group mightn’t have known or guessed — though sometimes they weren’t aware of the fact. However, I’d like to carry out the experiment in these rather — ah — peculiar circumstances.”
The Peculiar Circumstance sat watching them silently, but doubtless not with indifference. George wondered just what Rashaverak thought of these antics. Were his reactions those of an anthropologist watching some primitive religious rite? The whole set-up was really quite fantastic, and George felt as big a fool as he had ever done in his life.
If the others felt equally foolish, they concealed their emotions. Only Jean looked flushed and excited, though that might have been the drinks.