And so, to continued laughter, he went on, finding remarkable cake-bumps, holiday-bumps, and picnic-bumps, and proportionately under-developed school and chore-bumps—with the exception of one glowing example, which finally proved to have been developed by a baseball bat.
Then came the “mind-reading.” Placing a small blackboard on the front of the platform, facing the audience, the professor seated himself in a chair ten feet behind it, and invited someone to step to the board and write.
“All I ask is,” announced the mind-reader, “please write not too fast, and fix ze mind on what you write. And by ze thought-wave will I tell it, letter by letter.”
The first to respond wrote the name of his father, a doctor. Expecting only some humorous guess as to what was written, the audience was somewhat surprised when the professor spelled out the name correctly, only adding the humorous touch of “mud,” hastily corrected to “M. D.” As others followed with figures, and more difficult names and words, the interest of the audience began to take on a new tone.
The last of the first party which had stepped forward to write was the over-dressed young man Alex had poked some of his fun at, and who was bent on “showing him up.”
He wrote: “You are a faker.”
“Explain to ze audience how I do it, zen, Mr. Peters,” retorted the professor. In some confusion Peters sought his seat, and the minister approached the board.
The interest of the audience had now become serious and silent. Even Kate Orr, though knowing there was trickery somewhere, was nonplussed. For Jack, in the front row, appeared as immovable, and as frankly interested as those about him. Loosely folded in his lap was a newspaper which for a moment attracted Kate’s suspicious eye; but watching closely, she saw not the hint of a movement that might have been a signal.
The minister’s first word was the name Hosea. This was promptly called off, and the writer went on with others, gradually more difficult. Finally, in rapid succession, one under the other, he wrote “ZEDEKIAH, AHOLIBAH, NEBUCHADNEZZAR.” As readily the figure on the platform announced them, and the reverend gentleman turned away with an expression frankly puzzled.
“Pardon me, Mr. Professor, but since this is genuine mind-reading, of course you could read just as well with your eyes blindfolded, could you not? Would you kindly give a demonstration that way?”