"Please do not touch my platform," he requested, as he had earlier in the evening. "I must still show you something more." IV "Levitation is a phenomenon which is common enough," he said by way of preface, "but our examination would by no means be complete without it. Of course I am only touching upon a few of the less subtle principles that underlie what is commonly misnamed occultism; but this is one of the obvious ones. Please let some heavy man step upon the scales." Judge Hobart was with some laughter persuaded to take his place upon the platform of the scales, and the indicator marked a weight of two hundred and six pounds. "Will you look again?" the stranger asked of the gentleman who had read the number. "Why, he weighs nothing!" the weigher exclaimed, in astonishment. "His weight has broken the scales," another member declared. "You may think," the magician went on, "that I have bewitched the spring. Will somebody lift the Judge?" Professor Gray, who happened to stand nearest, put out one hand and picked the venerable Judge up as easily as he would have lifted a pocket-handkerchief. As he took his victim by the collar, the effect did not tend toward solemnity. "What do you mean, sir?" demanded the Judge. "Put me down, sir, at once." The stranger made a little sign with his hand. The Professor saw and understood, so instead of putting Judge Hobart down, he lightly tossed the rotund figure upward. The Judge, probably more to his amazement than to his satisfaction, found himself floating in the air with his head against the ceiling, and with his legs paddling hopelessly as if he were learning to swim. The other members shouted with laughter. "That will do," the magician said. "I did not mean to turn things into a farce." The ponderous form of Judge Hobart floated softly to the floor; his face showed a wonderful mixture of bewilderment, wounded vanity, and relief. "It's very warm at the top of the room," he said, wiping his red forehead; "very warm. Heat rises so." "Other things rise also at times," somebody said. Everybody laughed, and then the members settled into quiet again, and listened to the magician.