Lewisham did not mind, and the same girl who had admitted him to the _séance_ appeared. When she had given her evidence she went again. As she left the room by the door behind Lagune her eyes met Lewisham's, and she lifted her eyebrows, depressed her mouth, and glanced at Lagune with a meaning expression. "I'm afraid," said Lagune, "that I have been shabbily treated. Mr. Chaffery is a man of indisputable powers--indisputable powers; but I am afraid--I am very much afraid he has abused the conditions of the experiment. All this--and his insults--touch me rather nearly." He paused. Lewisham rose. "Do you mind if you come again?" asked Lagune with gentle politeness. Lewisham was surprised to find himself sorry. "He was a man of extraordinary gifts," said Lagune. "I had come to rely upon him.... My cash balance has been rather heavy lately. How he came to know of that I am unable to say. Without supposing, that is, that he had very remarkable gifts." When Lewisham saw Lagune again he learnt the particulars of Chaffery's misdeed and the additional fact that the "lady" had also disappeared. "That's a good job," he remarked selfishly. "There's no chance of _his_ coming back." He spent a moment trying to imagine the "lady"; he realised more vividly than he had ever done before the narrow range of his experience, the bounds of his imagination. These people also--with grey hair and truncated honour--had their emotions! Even it may be glowing! He came back to facts. Chaffery had induced Lagune when hypnotised to sign a blank cheque as an "autograph." "The strange thing is," explained Lagune, "it's doubtful if he's legally accountable. The law is so peculiar about hypnotism and I certainly signed the cheque, you know." The little man, in spite of his losses, was now almost cheerful again on account of a curious side issue. "You may say it is coincidence," he said, "you may call it a fluke, but I prefer to look for some other interpretation! Consider this. The amount of my balance is a secret between me and my bankers. He never had it from _me_, for I did not know it--I hadn't looked at my passbook for months. But he drew it all in one cheque, within seventeen and sixpence of the total. And the total was over five hundred pounds!" He seemed quite bright again as he culminated. "Within seventeen and sixpence," he said. "Now how do you account for that, eh? Give me a materialistic explanation that will explain away all that. You can't. Neither can I." "I think I can," said Lewisham. "Well--what is it?" Lewisham nodded towards a little drawer of the bureau. "Don't you think--perhaps"--a little ripple of laughter passed across his mind--"he had a skeleton key?"