"Well, he did, and I went to see him. He's a stiff old buckram creature, who declined to impart anything about Miss Isabella Hopkins as he wanted to know why I wished to know; and, of course, on the face of it, you can see, Towton, that I couldn't gratify his very natural curiosity." "But why not, if we are to catch Diabella?" "We haven't got enough grounds to go upon," said Vernon, shaking his head. "I think it is best to let her fancy we don't suspect anything and then we may be able to capture her unawares. She's connected with The Spider, if not that gentleman himself, I am sure, and your visit and behaviour, which led to the strangling attempt, have given her a fright. But if we keep silent her suspicions will be lulled and she may reappear." "Surely not." "Oh, I think so. Fortune-telling is an invaluable way of learning secrets, and Diabella must be very useful to The Spider, or to herself, if she is him. She won't surrender her position without a struggle. It's too paying all round, my dear fellow." "But she did surrender it." "Only because she lost her head for the moment and thought you might bring the police on the scene for the assault. That would lead to unpleasant questions being asked, which might result in heaven knows what revelations. Fortune-tellers are not in good odour since the campaign of a certain halfpenny paper against them." The Colonel leaned back in his chair, reflecting, while Vernon rose to walk up and down the room for the purpose of stretching his long legs. He lighted a cigar and went on talking lightly. "You never saw such a heap of clever dodges as this Diabella has to impress the weak-minded. Those mummies--they are all faked, by the way--have reeds inside them leading to their mouths, and Diabella, by pressing on the arms of her state chair, could send a stream of wind along to make them squall." "And they did squall," said Towton musingly. "I never heard such a devilish row in my life. What else?" "Oh, some arrangement by which when the room was darkened the interior of the painted walls were illuminated to reveal the Egyptian figures as walking and sitting skeletons. Then there's an apparatus to make thunder, and flashlights for lightning, to say nothing of ingeniously arranged draughts calculated to make anyone's hair rise in the necessary darkness when he or she felt a cold breath fanning him or her. I wonder Diabella didn't send her clients stark, staring mad." "It sounds like a fraudulent spiritualistic medium, Vernon, and only confirms my suspicions that Diabella was not a genuine occultist." "But do you really believe anyone has such powers?" asked Vernon curiously.