“Oh, I should like that very much!” Isobel said. “Two or three men came to our bungalow at Cawnpore and did some conjuring, but it was nothing particular; but uncle says some of them do wonderful things--things that he cannot account for at all. That was one of the things I read about at school, and thought I should like to see, more than anything in India. When I was at school we went in a body, two or three times, to see conjurers when they came to Cheltenham. Of course I did not understand the things they did, and they seemed wonderful to me, but I know there are people who can explain them, and that they are only tricks; but I have read accounts of things done by jugglers in India that seemed utterly impossible to explain--really a sort of magic.” “I have heard a good many arguments about it,” Mrs. Hunter said; “and a good many people, especially those who have seen most of them, are of opinion that many of the feats of the Indian jugglers cannot be explained by any natural laws we know of. I have seen some very curious things myself, but the very fact that I did not understand how they were done was no proof they could not be explained; certainly two of their commonest tricks, the basket trick and the mango, have never been explained. Our conjurers at home can do something like them, but then that is on a stage, where they can have trapdoors and all sorts of things, while these are done anywhere--in a garden, on a road--where there could be no possible preparation, and with a crowd of lookers on all round; it makes me quite uncomfortable to look at it.” “Well, I must be off now, Mrs. Hunter; it is nearly time for uncle to be back, and he likes me to be in when he returns.” CHAPTER IX. Dr. Wade was sitting in the veranda smoking and reading an English paper that had arrived by that morning’s mail, when Isobel returned. “Good morning, Doctor. Is uncle back?” “Not yet. He told me he might be half an hour late, and that I was to come round and amuse you until he came back.” “So in my absence you have been amusing yourself, Doctor. I have been round at Mrs. Hunter’s; she is going to have a juggler there this evening, and we are all to go.” “Yes, I got a chit from her this morning. I have seen scores of them, but I make a point of never missing an exhibition when I get the chance. I hate anything I don’t understand, and I go with the faint hope of being able to find things out, though I know perfectly well that I shall not do so.” “Then you think it is not all quite natural, Doctor?”