“Did you hear that?” gasped Percy Vere.
“I just did,” replied Cute, sepulchrally.
“What do you think of it?”
“It knocks me endwise. Hush! he’s going to hocus-pocus a little more.”
The boys were greatly interested now. Though they felt it was all mummery, they could not help being impressed by it.
The Prophet waved his hand in the direction of the boys.
“Reveal all you know concerning them,” he said, as if addressing an invisible spirit above his head—invisible to all other eyes but his.
Then he appeared to listen for a moment; and in this moment the boys could almost hear their hearts beat, in the intensity of their interest in the proceedings. Smoholler nodded his head.
“It is enough, good Monedo,” he said. “Depart to the Land of Shadows, from whence I summoned you.”
Then the Prophet came out of his trance, and addressed himself to the first Percy.