The flower-pot filled with earth was placed upon the slab at the feet of
the magician. The orange seed was laid upon the earth.
"So ingenious an explanation has recently been given--or, more exactly,
recently revived--of the development of a plant from a seed, that you
may suppose me to have all the different pieces of an orange grove
concealed about me, despite the fact that my dress is not adapted to
the concealment of a needle. However, you may judge for yourselves."
He leaned forward, and with the point of his finger pushed the seed into
the earth.
"Will some one cover the pot with a handkerchief?" he said. "Please be
careful not to touch me or it. Hold the handkerchief out, and drop it."
One of the members followed the directions, and for a moment the
stranger sat quiet, his eyes fixed on the covered flower-pot. The centre
of the handkerchief was seen gradually to rise, and when the cloth was
lifted, the astonished eyes of the Club beheld a glossy shoot, three or
four inches in height. Without again covering it, the magician continued
to gaze fixedly upon the plant. Before the eyes of the spectators the
shoot became a shrub, the shrub a tree; the fragrance of orange blossoms
filled the air, and among the shining leaves began to swell the golden
fruit. The time had been numbered only in minutes, yet there stood a
tree higher than a man's head, and laden with golden globes.
"Take it away," the wonder-worker said, "and let me rest a little before
I try anything more. You will find the tree to-morrow, and I think you
will concede that it is too bulky to have been concealed under these
fleshings. If you think it only an optical delusion or the result of
hypnotism, try to-morrow by the senses of persons who do not know how it
was produced."
He sat for some moments with his head bowed in his hands. Then at his
direction a globe about a foot in diameter was filled with clear water
and placed on the table. The lights were then turned down so as to leave
all the room in shadow except the platform.
"I must ask you to be as quiet as possible," the magician requested.
"The experiment is a difficult one, and from living in the atmosphere
which surrounds my daily life I am out of the proper condition."
Putting his hands behind him, he sank downward on the slab to his knees,
and so reached forward as to press his thumbs upon his great toes.
The position was a singular one, and earlier in the evening might have
raised a smile. Now all was breathless silence for a couple of moments.
Then the stranger sprang suddenly to his full height, and directed his
forefinger with a violent movement toward the globe. A spark of violet
light not unlike that from an electric battery flashed from the
outstretched finger to the globe, and was seen to remain like a star
in the midst of the water.
From this violet centre, with slow, sinuous movement, numerous filaments
of light grew out in the liquid, until the globe was filled with tangled
and intertwined threads like the roots of a hyacinth in its glass.
Slowly, slowly, the nucleus rose to the surface, dragging the threads
behind it. Then above the water began to form a faint haze. With gradual
motion it mounted, absorbing by degrees the fire from the phosphorescent
fibres which served for its roots, until a faintly luminous pillar of
dully glowing mist four or five feet high showed above the mouth of the
globe.
The magician made strange gestures, and a slow rotary motion was
discerned in the cloud. Without abrupt or definitely marked alteration
the pillar was modified in shape until more and more plainly was evident
a resemblance to the human form. He rose to his full height, and
extended both his hands toward the figure. Slowly it detached itself
from the water and from the globe, and floated in the air, the perfect
shape of a woman, transparent, faintly luminous, but with a lustre
less cold than at first. One of the men drew in his breath with a deep
and audible inspiration. The shape wavered, and another spectator
impulsively cried "Hush!" The word seemed to break the spell. The
wonderful visionary form trembled, shivered, and its exquisite beauty
melted in the air.
The magician resumed his seat with visible disappointment.
"I am sorry," he said. "I am already tired, and you distracted my
attention. The experiment has failed. May the lights be turned up,
please."
A murmur of disappointment ran around the room.
"I am sorry," he repeated. "I should have impressed on you more strongly
the need of absolute quiet. I am not quite up to beginning this over
again. Let me show you the opposite--disintegration. It is easier to
tear down than to build up."
The block of iron he had asked for was by his direction laid on the
floor in front of the platform. The magician sat for a moment with
closed eyes, his hands laid palm to palm upon his knees. Then with an
abrupt movement he pointed his two forefingers, pressed together, toward
the cube. A report like that of a pistol startled the members, and the
solid iron shivered into almost impalpable dust. The members of the Club
crowded together to the spot.
"Please do not touch my platform," he requested, as he had earlier in
the evening. "I must still show you something more."