"You never saw such a heap of clever dodges as this Diabella has to impress the weak-minded. Those mummies--they are all faked, by the way--have reeds inside them leading to their mouths, and Diabella, by pressing on the arms of her state chair, could send a stream of wind along to make them squall."
"And they did squall," said Towton musingly. "I never heard such a devilish row in my life. What else?"
"Oh, some arrangement by which when the room was darkened the interior of the painted walls were illuminated to reveal the Egyptian figures as walking and sitting skeletons. Then there's an apparatus to make thunder, and flashlights for lightning, to say nothing of ingeniously arranged draughts calculated to make anyone's hair rise in the necessary darkness when he or she felt a cold breath fanning him or her. I wonder Diabella didn't send her clients stark, staring mad."
"It sounds like a fraudulent spiritualistic medium, Vernon, and only confirms my suspicions that Diabella was not a genuine occultist."
"But do you really believe anyone has such powers?" asked Vernon curiously.
"I really do," said the Colonel promptly, "strange as it may appear. In India I have seen too much of the Unseen to doubt. There are certain gifted people who can see and who can control forces of which the average person knows nothing. Oh, yes, I believe, and--but what's the use of talking? I can never make you believe, and I don't want to."
Vernon shrugged his shoulders again and buttoned up his coat. "As you say, it doesn't matter," he answered. "However, Diabella has vanished with her two satellites, so there's nothing more to be done at present."
"You give up the hunt?"
"I said, at present. No. I shall lie quiet until Diabella reappears."
"She won't, if she's wise."