carefully, and was the more annoyed as he found himself trying to explain how impossible it was that it could be a fake. Yet he didn't mention that one line which had most disturbed him.

Mannard chuckled once or twice as Coghlan's story unfolded.

"Clever!" he said when Coghlan finished. "How do you suppose they did it, and what do they want?"

Appolonius the Great wiped his mouth and topmost chin.

"I do not like it," he said seriously. "I do not like it at all. Oh, the book and the fingerprints and the writing ... one can do such things. I remember that once, in Madrid, I--but no matter! They are amateurs, and therefore they may be dangerous folk."

Laurie said, "I think Tommy'd have seen through anything crude. And I don't think he told quite all the story. I've known him a long time. There's something that still bothers him."

Coghlan flushed. Laurie could read his mind uncannily.

"There was," he admitted, "a line that I didn't tell. It mentioned something that would mean nothing to anyone but myself--and I've never mentioned it to anyone."

Appolonius sighed. "Ah, how often have I not read someone's inmost thoughts! Everyone believes his own thoughts quite unique! But still, I do not like this!"

Laurie leaned close to Coghlan. She said, under her breath, "Was the thing you didn't tell--about me?"

Coghlan looked at her uncomfortably, and nodded.

"Nice!" said Laurie, and smiled mischievously at him.

Appolonius suddenly made a gesture. He lifted a goblet with water in it. He held it up at the level of their eyes.

"I show you the principle of magic," he said firmly. "Here is a glass, containing water only. You see it contains nothing else!"

Mannard looked at it warily. The water was perfectly clear. Appolonius swept it around the table at eye-level.

"You see! Now, Mr. Coghlan, enclose the goblet with your hands. Surround the bowl. You, at least, are not a confederate! Now...."

The fat little man looked tensely at the glass held in Coghlan's cupped hands. Coghlan felt like a fool.

"Abracadabra 750 Fatima Miss 

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