"29 be it," said Delapine, smiling, and as the wheel was spun round the little ball dropped into 29 as he had predicted. One director after another repeated the experiment, but always with the result that the ball fell into whatever number they suggested. Cheer after cheer arose from the witnesses, and the police were either unwilling or powerless to suppress the applause. "Une merveille," said M. Eperon, holding up his hands. Everyone was absolutely dumbfounded. As the directors were unable to maintain any of the charges against Delapine and Renée, they were requested to retire with the police to one of the anterooms, where a further conference was held. At length they returned, and the Chef de Police asked Delapine how he invariably managed to put his stakes on the winning numbers. "The law cannot compel me to explain my systems of play, gentlemen, and I refuse to answer. I have broken no law, I never saw either the croupiers or the roulette wheel before. I have not done anything against the regulations. I merely pitted my wits against yours, and I have won. Therein lies the whole of my offence." At this all the visitors cheered, and were immediately silenced by the police. M. Eperon was obliged to admit that they could not produce any evidence of guilt, and told the directors he was reluctantly compelled to dismiss the charge. "What will you accept now to reveal your system to me?" said the head of the Administration in a whisper as he stepped up to the professor. "If you will first hand over to me 500,000 francs as a reward for my disclosure as well as compensation to my fiancée and myself for our unjust arrest, I will disclose the secret," he replied, "but not otherwise." At length after some discussion a cheque for the amount asked for by the professor was handed over to him. "Excuse me," replied Delapine, "but I should much prefer to be paid in notes." The head of the Administration gave a grim smile as he ordered the sum of half a million francs to be handed to him in crisp bank notes. "Ah! that is better," replied Delapine as he put them very carefully away in his pocket-book. "The whole secret, gentlemen," said the professor slowly and with great deliberation, "lies in my will power. It is the power of Mind over Matter. When I concentrate the whole of my will on the little ball, and resolve that it shall stop, it is obliged to do so. That is the whole secret, gentlemen--'Mens agitat molem' (the mind moves matter) is just as true to-day as it was when Vigil wrote these words nearly nineteen hundred years ago." Thereupon Delapine took Renée by the hand, and bowing gracefully to the astonished and bewildered officials, and shaking hands with M. Eperon, he left the gendarmerie amid the applause of the crowd.