Page:Doughty--Mirrikh or A woman from Mars.djvu/102

 “Yes,” he answered; “I will go to Mars with you Mr. Mirrikh. When do we start?”

“Let him alone! Take your eyes off him!” I shouted, suddenly springing to my feet as a peal of crashing thunder shook the old tower again. “You shan’t hypnotize him! You shan’t”

“Sit down, Mr. Wylde! Sit down?”

What was the matter?

Everything seemed swimming before me, and yet all that Mr. Mirrikh had done was to extend his hand.

Was I also being hypnotized?

Then what of the Doctor?

Why the Doctor just sat there as motionless and rigid as the big stone stone Buddha on the other side of the fire, and  all because Mirrikh had waved the other hand at him.

I sat down. More than that, I did not get up again, for in an instant I was nobody—nowhere—nothing—simply nil.

The next thing I knew it was broad daylight and there was Maurice just coming through the open door of the tower  from which the shawl had been taken down; there also was  Doctor Philpot lying stretched upon the stone floor snoring  lustily; there was the big stone Buddha with its broken  nose, frowning down upon us; there was everything but  Mirrikh, and he was not.

Was it all a dream?

Had he ever been there at all? If so, where did the reality end and the dream begin?

Hello, George! So you have waked up at last, have you?” Maurice exclaimed, as his eyes rested upon me. “Time, too, I must say. Your friend has been gone this hour. I walked down to the place where we met the tiger with him. Wonderful man! I’ve made a regular engagement with him George. I am to meet him at the Lamasery of Psamdagong, in Thibet, on the 18th of December. You are to go with me, and Doc shall go along too, if he wants to. I tell you, George, there never was such a glorious proposition made to  mortal man. I shall be talked of all over the civilized world; I shall visit every court in Europe; and as for scientific men they will come round me in droves. I shall write a book about it, and”

“Hold on! Hold on! What in the name of sense are you talking about?” I shouted.

Then came the answer, just as I had expected.