Harvey Deacon started in his chair. The Frenchman was moving his head slowly round and staring into the shadows which draped the walls. “What a fun!” said he. “Always unicorns. Who has been thinking so hard upon a subject so bizarre?” “This is wonderful!” cried Deacon. “I have been trying to paint one all day. But how could you know it?” “You have been thinking of them in this room.” “Certainly.” “But thoughts are things, my friend. When you imagine a thing you make a thing. You did not know it, _hein_? But I can see your unicorns because it is not only with my eye that I can see.” “Do you mean to say that I create a thing which has never existed by merely thinking of it?” “But certainly. It is the fact which lies under all other facts. That is why an evil thought is also a danger.” “They are, I suppose, upon the astral plane?” said Moir. “Ah, well, these are but words, my friends. They are there—somewhere—everywhere—I cannot tell myself. I see them. I could not touch them.” “You could not make _us_ see them.” “It is to materialize them. Hold! It is an experiment. But the power is wanting. Let us see what power we have, and then arrange what we shall do. May I place you as I should wish?” “You evidently know a great deal more about it than we do,” said Harvey Deacon; “I wish that you would take complete control.” “It may be that the conditions are not good. But we will try what we can do. Madame will sit where she is, I next, and this gentleman beside me. Meester Moir will sit next to madame, because it is well to have blacks and blondes in turn. So! And now with your permission I will turn the lights all out.” “What is the advantage of the dark?” I asked. “Because the force with which we deal is a vibration of ether and so also is light. We have the wires all for ourselves now—_hein_? You will not be frightened in the darkness, madame? What a fun is such a séance!” At first the darkness appeared to be absolutely pitchy, but in a few minutes our eyes became so far accustomed to it that we could just make out each other’s presence—very dimly and vaguely, it is true. I could see nothing else in the room—only the black loom of the motionless figures. We were all taking the matter much more seriously than we had ever done before. “You will place your hands in front. It is hopeless that we touch, since we are so few round so large a table. You will compose yourself, madame, and if sleep should come to you you will not fight against it. And now we sit in silence and we expect——_hein_?”