"Yes," agreed Dick, "there is no doubt that much of it is. But, nevertheless, hypnotism is a perfectly genuine science, and a tremendously powerful agent for good, if properly used. There is the well-known institution at Nancy, for instance, where several almost miraculous cures have been effected solely by the employment of hypnotism. Oh yes, hypnotism is genuine enough, make no mistake about that; and the hypnotic practitioner can do many wonderful things by its employment. For instance, do you suppose that old villain, Sekosini, would have revealed all the details of his precious plot to-day had I not hypnotised him?" "No, I don't suppose he would," acknowledged Grosvenor. "But--er--I say, old chap, I'm just wondering whether it was quite playing the game--doin' the square thing by the wizard and the other johnnies to make them give themselves away under the influence of hypnotism--eh, what?" "Ah, now," said Dick, "you raise a question of an exceedingly controversial character. I admit, of course, that at the first blush, and regarding the matter superficially--if I may say so--it certainly would seem that I had taken an unfair advantage of those fellows by compelling them to speak the truth, and so `give themselves away', as you expressively put it. Yet why, I ask you, should they not be made to do so? Are evildoers to be permitted to shelter themselves from the consequences of their misdeeds behind a protective screen of lies? Is right to be handicapped in its battle with wrong by what, after all, seems to me an overstrained if not altogether false sense of justice? There can be little doubt that skilful criminals have escaped the just punishment of their crimes simply because they have refused to incriminate themselves. This, of course, is all right from the criminars point of view; but is it right from the point of view of the community, who look to the law to protect them from him? My own view-- which I give for whatever it may be worth--is that the criminal has no right to be protected from himself. It is the interests of the community and not of the criminal that have to be considered. If by speaking the truth he furthers the ends of justice he ought to be allowed to do so, ay, or even compelled, where compulsion is possible, as in the case of these conspirators. Here we have certain men who, for their own selfish ends, deliberately planned to plunge this Makolo nation into all the horrors of civil war, and deluge it with the blood of its own people; also, in pursuance of their plans they foully and treacherously took the lives of six of the most important chiefs and endangered that of a seventh. Were they `playing the game', or, in other words, were they acting openly and above-board? On the contrary, their acts were wrapped in secrecy, and were characterised by the vilest treachery; and they would have been successful but for my intervention. For it is certain that the facts could never have been brought to light,