"I can't do it. All I can say is this: he believes mother is honest, and that she has some strange power. He will defend her in court; but he intends to study into the whole business very closely, and he wants us to help him." "Of course we'll help him," responded Mrs. Joyce, readily. Mrs. Ollnee went to the heart of the problem. "Just what does he want to do, Victor?" "It is necessary to prove absolutely that you have nothing to do with these phenomena." "But I do have everything to do with them," she replied; "that's what being a medium means. However, I know what he needs better than you do. He wants to prove that the messages are supra-normal. Very well, I am ready for any test." "It will be a fierce one, mother. He intends to use electricity and machines for recording movements and instantaneous photography." "I am willing, provided he will proceed in co-operation with your father and Watts." "He will never do that," declared Victor. "He will not begin by granting the very thing he's trying to prove." It was upon this most solemn conference that Leo descended, pale and restrained, and though Victor sprang up with new-born love in his face, she did not flush with responding warmth. Her mood of the moonlit walk had utterly vanished, and he found himself checked, chilled, and thrust down from his high place of exaltation. It was as if she (ashamed of her own weakness) had resolved to punish him for presumption. He smarted under her indifference, but made no open protest, though his hand (in the pocket of his coat) rested upon the jeweled sign of her self-surrender. She lost a little of her indifference when she learned that Bartol had been kept awake all night by the significance of the phenomena he had witnessed, and she joined heartily in declaring that he must be met in every demand. "Oh, I wish I might see the experiments," she exclaimed. "He wishes you to do so," replied Victor, eagerly. "The Voices told him to have you in the circle, you and Mrs. Joyce--" "And Marie," added Mrs. Ollnee. "Marie is psychic." "When do we try?" asked Leo, meeting his eyes a little unsteadily, so it seemed to him. Again Mrs. Ollnee answered for him. "To-night; Mr. Bartol is telephoning now, arranging for it." "How do you know?" asked Victor. "Your father is speaking to me." "I hear him!" exclaimed Mrs. Joyce, listening intently. "What does he say?" asked Leo. Mrs. Ollnee again replied. "He says: '_Be brave--trust us. We will protect you._'" Looking across at the girl, in whose cheeks the roses were beginning to bloom again, the youth resented the interposition of the supernatural. He was eager to approach her, to hint at the memory of her secret, sweet embrace. As he studied the exquisite curve of her lips their touch burned again upon his flesh, and he rose with sudden reassertion of himself. "Come, Leo, let's return to Morselli."