The suburban citizen., 1902-06-28

~ festations and the etheric
y double" said Major Mont
ford, when Nine Blavat.
sky, Mrs. Eddy, Colonel Olcott and all
the modern adopts had been discussed
II don't profess to understand any
thing about occult science and I am
prompted to confess that the little ex.
perience had in India"
IF you tell that story, major. I'll
quit the room. You know that l can
explain away your whole theory. That
Marjheet adept was all right. 1t was
the fault OF the camera c. something.
L"
"Now come, come, Anne! Don't
spoil the story. Try your hand at n
Welsh rarebit if you don't like to hear
it, but let me tell it my own way first
You can add 2ll the trimmings after
ward
So the sweet little lady Youted like
q sweetheart at the fior.d beau who
had been her husband foa ave years
and left the room.
Il was CHARTERED with Marjhect that
year with M squadron OF the House
hold Cavalry. II was oug drst Try cut
in the tropics, and every Jolly officer,
line and staff, was dying of elnul. 1t
was too hot for golf, the ponies, were
too sick with the fever to stand even
an inning AZ polo and there wasn't a
tolernble white woman within sixty
miles. We were all bachelors but
Colonel Dinwiddle, and he, for reasons
of his own, had left the madam in Bir-
mingham and was glad of 1t.
well, we were hard put to it for
recreation until Ensign Pitcairn, a
weird.faced, inqusitive young chap
began to give us all the creeps with bis
stories about occultism. astral bodies
spooks and manifestations Well
Dinwiddle and Pitcairn and | kept up
the best mess in the station and, of
course, every buck in the garrison who
bad the entree sponged off our hos
pltality So when they were all
worked up with the ensign's story l
hit upon the canny idea of getting up
called them, to give a seance in our
garden. 1t wasn't a garden at all. as
a matter Of fact, but a sandy, fiat bit
of ground fenced in at the back of our
bungalow, with bower in the middle
made of nothing better than a hpped
roof, cane pillars and mosquito bars.
1t was a good place to play ecarte Of
a hot night, but in the daytime it was
as hot as the fire box of Tophet.
$50 Pity arranged matters with his
sorcerer and sold tickets to the enter
tainment at two shillings, English
money, for the officers and one
Tor the soldiers We wrote the
tickets out by hand on the backs of
old playing cards, and they went like
hot cakes, for the unlucky Tommies
didn't know what to do with
themselves day or night, and the
chance Of a show was almost as wei.
come as letter from home.
Except for the colonel and major
surgeon we had no chairs, and the
audience squatted around in circle
upon the sand. We borrowed a few
torches from the quartermaster
though We didn't need them, as II
turned out, for the moon was well over
the low roof of my quarters before
Pitcairn as self-impOrtant as Mrs. Jar
ley herself, came in with Ali Beg, the
vaunted mystic, who alone could make
sure my personal guarantee that the
entertainment was worth the fee.
Pity led his adept into the centre OF
the ring, space about twenty feet il
diameter and introduced him with 1
pompous salutatory and grand wave
of the hand. The Tommies. who ha(
no respect for anything native hoo;e(
the miserable Indian, who almost grow
eled before them, calling him ALLEY
beggar' and asking him, ''Aven't yol
any happaratusY The performer
who was almost a skeleton, hat
brought with him one Of the para
phernalia which European magicians
always have about them, though h
wore upon his skinny shoulders a dirty
drab-cOlored cloak, which he unwoun
and dropped upon the sand as he sa
luted Colonel Dinwiddie and the ribal
ring Of 'sahlbs' round about Perhap
some OF you have seen these strang
necTomancers Of the East? No. Wei
they are quite past understanding
This one, like all l have known, beln
as agile as he was thin, with deep-se
scintillating black eyes, skin like
faded yellow parchment and finger
like the talons Of a hawk.
But hear what Ali Beg did befoI
a,,r uphoItovfn0 avac and ~ Van an,