"But," Ormond went on, "under the circumstances, the scientific
attitude we maintain at this Institute demands that we leave the
question open. For now. Because you might also, you understand, have
projected--for yourself only--a vivid momentary impression of the
image you had created during our exercise and were still holding in
your mind."
Mrs. Folsom looked doubtful. The flush of excitement began to leave
her face.
"Why ... well, yes, I suppose so," she acknowledged unwillingly.
"Of course," Ormond said. "So tonight we shall leave it at that. The
next time we engage in a similar exercise ... well, who knows?" He
gave her a reassuring smile. "I must say, Eleanor, that this is a very
encouraging indication of the progress you have made!" He glanced over
the group, gathering their attention, and raised the trident-like
device he had taken from the table.
"And now for our second experiment this evening--"
Looking disappointed and somewhat confused, Eleanor Folsom settled
back in her chair. Cavender also settled back, his gaze shifting
sleepily to the remaining items on the prop table. He was frowning a
little. It wasn't his business, but if the old woman had started to
hypnotize herself into having hallucinations, Dr. Al had better turn
to a different type of meeting exercises. And that probably was
exactly what Ormond would do; he seemed very much aware of danger
signals. Cavender wondered vaguely what the red suitcase on the table
contained.
There was a blurry shimmer on the wooden plate beside the suitcase.
Then something thickened there suddenly as if drawing itself together
out of the air. Perrie Rochelle, sitting only ten feet back from the
table, uttered a yelp--somewhere between surprise and alarm. Dexter
Jones, beside her, abruptly pushed back his chair, made a loud,
incoherent exclamation of some kind.
Cavender had started upright, heart hammering. The thing that had
appeared on the wooden plate vanished again.
But it had remained visible there for a two full seconds. And there
was no question at all of what it had been.
For several minutes, something resembling pandemonium swirled about
the walls of the lecture room of the Institute of Insight. The red
suitcase had concealed the wooden plate on the prop table from the
eyes of most of the students sitting on the right side of the room,
but a number of those who could see it felt they had caught a glimpse
of something. Of just what they weren't sure at first, or perhaps they
preferred not to say.
Perrie and Dexter, however, after getting over their first shock, had
no such doubts. Perrie, voice vibrant with excitement, answered the
questions flung at her from across the room, giving a detailed
description of the ham sandwich which had appeared out of nowhere on
the polished little table and stayed there for an incredible instant
before it vanished. Dexter Jones, his usually impassive face glowing
and animated, laughing, confirmed the description on every point.
On the opposite side of the room, Eleanor Folsom, surrounded by her
own group of questioners, was also having her hour of triumph, in the
warmth of which a trace of bitterness that her first report of the
phenomenon had been shrugged off by everyone--even, in a way, by Dr.
Al--gradually dissolved.
Dr. Al himself, Cavender thought, remained remarkably quiet at first,
though in the excitement this wasn't generally noticed. He might even
have turned a little pale. However, before things began to slow down
he had himself well in hand again. Calling the group to a semblance of
order, he began smilingly to ask specific questions. The witnesses on
the right side of the room seemed somewhat more certain now of what
they had observed.
Dr. Ormond looked over at Cavender.
"And you, Wally?" he asked. "You were sitting rather far back, to be
sure--"
Cavender smiled and shrugged.
"Sorry, Dr. Al. I just wasn't looking in that direction at the moment.
The first suggestion I had that anything unusual was going on was when
Perrie let out that wild squawk."
There was general laughter. Perrie grinned and flushed.
"Well, I'd have liked to hear _your_ squawk," she told Cavender, "if
you'd seen a miracle happen right before your nose!"
"Not a miracle, Perrie," Ormond said gently. "We must remember that.
We are working here with natural forces which produce natural
phenomena. Insufficiently understood phenomena, perhaps, but never
miraculous ones. Now, how closely did this materialization appear to
conform to the subjective group image we had decided on for our
exercise?"
"Well, I could only see it, of course, Dr. Al. But as far as I saw it,
it was exactly what we'd ... no, wait!" Perrie frowned, wrinkling her
nose. "There was something added!" She giggled. "At least, I don't
remember anyone saying we should imagine the sandwich wrapped in a
paper napkin!"
Across the room, a woman's voice said breathlessly, "Oh! A _green_
paper napkin, Perrie?"