Page:Magician 1908.djvu/236

 “How do you know?” she asked quickly.

He looked at them for a moment and flushed. He kept his eyes upon them as though actually to force his listeners into believing what he was about to say.

“I feel it,” he answered hoarsely.

“What do you mean?”

“It came upon me quite suddenly, I can’t explain why or how. I only know that something has happened.”

He began again to walk up and down the room, prey to an agitation that was frightful to behold. Susie and Dr. Porhoët stared at him helplessly. They tried to think of something to say that would calm him.

“Surely if anything had occurred, we should have been informed.”

He turned to Susie angrily.

“How do you suppose we could know anything? She was quite helpless. She was imprisoned like a rat in a trap.”

“But, my dear friend, you mustn’t give way in this fashion,” said the doctor. “What would you say of a patient who came to you with such a story?”

Arthur answered the question with a shrug of the shoulders.

“I should say he was absurdly hysterical.”

“Well?”

“I can’t help it, the feeling’s there. If you try all night you’ll never be able to argue me out of it. I feel it in every bone of my body. I couldn’t be more certain if I saw Margaret lying dead in front of me.”