“No,” she admitted.

“You are still sure he is here?”

“I am still sure he is living. I may have made a mistake in the place, but I know he is alive and well somewhere. I shall look again in the crystal to-morrow.”

“Yes, to-morrow,” answered Wilson, vaguely.

He rose to his feet.

“But there is still the hunger of to-day.”

26

She seemed disappointed in the lightness with which apparently he took her search.

“You don’t believe?”

“I believe you. And I believe that you believe. But I have seen little of such things myself. In the meanwhile it would be good to eat––if only a few crackers. Are you afraid to stay here alone while I explore a bit?”

She shook her head.

He was gone some ten minutes, and when he came back his loose robe bulged suspiciously in many places.

“Madame,” he exclaimed, “I beg you to observe me closely. I snap my fingers twice,––so! Then I motion,––so! Behold!”

He deftly extricated from one of the large sleeves a can of soup, and held it triumphantly aloft.

“Once more,––so!”

He produced a package of crackers; next a can of coffee, next some sugar. And she, watching him with face alight, applauded vigorously and with more genuine emotion than usually greets the acts of a prestidigitator.

“But, oh!” she exclaimed, with her hands clasped beneath her chin, “don’t you dare to make them disappear again!”

“Madame,” answered Wilson, with a bow, “that shall be your privilege.”

He hurried below once more, and this time returned with a chafing-dish, two bowls, and a couple of iron spoons which he had found in the kitchen. In ten 27 

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