Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1906-09-23
THE CRYSTAL GAZER
Continued from page 10

reporter after they had scrutinized the crystal
The Thinking Machine lifted the ball and
replaced it its pedestal half dozen times,
apparently trying to locate slight click. Then
he fumbled all around the table, above and
below. At his suggestion Hatch lifted the ball
slowly while the scientist slid his slender fin
gers beneath it.
"Ahl" he exclaimed at last. Il thought so.
It's clever, Mr.. Hatch, clever ust stand
here few minutes in the dark and III see If
| can operate it for you.
He disappeared, and Hatch stood staring at
the crystal until he developing severe
case of the creeps himself. Then light
flashed in the crystal which had been only
dirny visible, and he found himself looking
into-the room in Howard Varick's apart
ments miles away As he looked startled,
he saw The Thinking Machine appear in the
crystal and wave his arms The creeplness
passed instantly in the face of this obvious
attempt to attract his attention.
1t was later that afternoon that The Think
ing Machine turned the light of his ANALYTICAL
genius on the problem for the benefit OF Hatch
and Detective Mallory
"Charlatanism is a luxury which costs the
peoples of the world incredible sums he
began. 1T had its beginning, of course, in
the dark ages, when mans mind grasped at
some tangible evidence of an infinite power,
and through its very eagernesS was easily
satisfied Then quacks began to prey upon
man, and do to this day in many guises and
under MANY names This condition will con-
tinue until enlightenment has become gen.
eral that man will realize the absurdty of
such thing nature, or the other worlds
forces, going out of its way to tell him whether
certain stock will go up or down. y sense of
humOr ought to convince HIM that dlsem-
bodied spirits do not come back and rap on
tables in answer to asinine questions These
things are merely prostitutions of the divine
revelations"
Hatch smiled little at the lecture-patform
tone, and Detective Mallory chewed his cigar.
He was there to find out something about
crime; this thing over his head
This is merely preliminary The Thinking
Machine went on after a moment. Now as
to this crystal gazing attalr-a little reason,
little logic When Varck came to me. saw
he was an intelligent who had devoted
years to a study of the so-called occult. Being
intelligent, he not easily hoodwinked; yet
he had been hoodwinked for years Therefore,
| could see that the man who did it must be
far beyond the laundering fool usually found
in these affairs.
Now Narick. personally, had never
anything in any crystal-remember that
until this vision of death When knew this,
| knew that vision stamped as quackery;
the mere fact of his seeing it proved that; but
the quackery was so circumstantial that he
was convinced. Thus have quackery.
Why, For fee! | can imagine successful
guesses on the stock-market bringing fees to
Adhem Singh; but the vision of mans
own death is not the way to his pocketbook.
If not for fee-then WHAT
A deeper motive instantly apparent.
Varick was wealthy; he had known Singh and
had been friendly with HIM for years, had
supplied him with funds to go through Oxford,
and he had family or dependents. There
fore, it seemed probable that in a will, or
perhaps in another way Singh would benefit
by Varick's death. There was a motive for
the vision which might have been at first an
effort to scare him to death, because he had
bad heart. | saw all these things when Narick
talked to me first. several days after he
the vision; but did not suggest them to him.
Had done so, he would not have believed SO
sordid thing; for he believed in Singh, and
would probably have gone his way to be muir
dered or to die of fright, as Singh intended.
Knowing these things, there was only the
labor of trapping clever man. Now the
Hindu mind works in strange channels. 1t
loves the mystic, the theatric, and imagined
that having gone so far, Singh would attempt
to bring the vision to reality. He presumed,
of course, that Varick would keep the matter
to himself
The question of saving Varick's life was
trifling. If he was to die at given time in
given room the thing to do to place him
beyond possible reach OF that room during that
time. l'phoned to you, Mr.. Hatch, and asked
you to bring me private detective who would
obey orders, and you brought Mr.. Byrne.
You heard my instructions to him. 1t was