"No. Under certain circumstances, when the High Ones permit, the future is revealed beyond all doubt, but those circumstances are connected only with spiritual enlightenment. Otherwise those who have the sight merely deduce what will happen by reading the karma of the past, which can be discerned in the astral light."
"Your claims are certainly more modest than I expected," said Towton somewhat interested, "and if you can tell me my past life correctly I shall credit more or less your prophecies. You know my name?"
"Richard Towton."
"Ah--you got that from my letter asking for an appointment. But I have a middle name which I don't use. What is it?"
"Richard Henry Towton is your full name."
"Correct. Where was I educated?"
"At Wimperly Public School, and then at Sandhurst."
Towton nodded. "You might be certain of Sandhurst, as I am a soldier, but Wimperly is good. Go on."
"You joined your regiment twenty-five years ago, and shortly after joining it was ordered to India. You were stationed at Bombay, afterwards at Travancore. You fought in Burmah, where you met Martin Dimsdale, and became intimate with him. You won a D.S.O. in the Vikram Expedition, and----"
"All that," interrupted the Colonel politely, "with the exception of my meeting with Dimsdale, you might have read in the newspapers. Why did I retire from the army?"