The question was wrung from me; I felt that the sweat was standing in great drops upon my brow.
‘I will show it you.’
‘Shall you go with me?’
‘Ay,—I shall go with you. All the time I shall be with you. You will not see me, but I shall be there. Be not afraid.’
His claim to supernatural powers, for what he said amounted to nothing less, was, on the face of it, preposterous, but, then, I was in no condition to even hint at its absurdity. He continued.
‘When you have gained the study, you will go to a certain drawer, which is in a certain bureau, in a corner of the room—I see it now; when you are there you shall see it too—and you will open it.’
‘Should it be locked?’
‘You still will open it.’
‘But how shall I open it if it is locked?’
‘By those arts in which a thief is skilled. I say to you again that that is your affair, not mine.’