“Have the patience to follow me but a little,” he continued. “You have sense and ability and you can decipher a meaning from an apparent chaos of words. Consider, then, that within the limitations of this rolling ball, the earth, we are permitted to recognise seven tones of music and seven tones of colour. The existing numbers of the creative sum, so far as we can count them, are Seven and Five, which added together make Twelve, itself a ‘creative’ number. Man recognises in himself Five Senses, Touch, Taste, Sight, Hearing, Smell--but as a matter of fact he has Seven, for he should include Intuition and Instinct, which are more important than all the others as the means of communicating with his surroundings. Now ‘the culmination of the Eighth’ is neither Five nor Seven nor Twelve,--it is the close or rebound of the Octave--the end of the leading Seven--the point where a fresh Seven begins. It is enough for humanity to have arrived at this for the present--for we have not yet sounded the heights or depths of even the _first_ Seven radiations which we all agree to recognise. We admit seven tones of music, and seven tones of colour, but what of our seven rays of light? We have the ‘violet ray,’ the ‘X ray’--and a newly discovered ray showing the working bodily organism of man,--but there are _Seven_ Rays piercing the density of ether, which are intended for the use and benefit of the human being, and which are closely connected with his personality, his needs and his life. Seven Rays!--and it is for us to prove and test them all!--which is the very problem you have brought to my notice in this old Latin document: ‘the Fourth, Sixth and Seventh, culminating in the Eighth.’” He put the papers carefully together on the table beside him, and turned to Diana. “You have understood me?” She bent her head. “Perfectly!” “You recall the incidents of the first day of your arrival here?--your brief visit to my laboratory, and what you saw there?” She smiled. “Do you think I could ever forget?” “Well!--that being so I do not see why I should wait,” he said, musingly, and speaking more to himself than to her. “There is no reason why I should not begin at once the task which is bound to be long and difficult! My ‘subject’ is at my disposal--I am free to operate!” He rose and went to an iron-bound cabinet which he unlocked and took from thence a small phial containing what appeared to be a glittering globule like an unset jewel, which moved restlessly to and fro in its glass prison. He held it up before her eyes. “Suppose I ask you to swallow this?” he said. For all answer, she stretched out her hand to take the phial. He laughed.