Page:The Master of Mysteries (1912).djvu/242

 a few minutes. His gaze became abstracted. For several minutes he did not speak, seemingly falling into a deep reverie. Then he said:

"My dear sir, your wife is still alive, and I think I can find her. But I get from the radiations of this writing a conviction that she is in great mental distress which it is not well for you to break in upon just yet. I should prefer that you permit me to inspect your house and see if I can not discover the reason for this surprising action. By visiting the place where she was last, I shall the more readily be impressed by her magnetism and get the vibrations that have undoubtedly affected her. First of all, I must ask you to send me immediately several photographs of Mrs. Burbank, that I may fix her image in my mind."

Major Burbank had stood looking at him with a tense anxious look. "Is that necessary?" he said, "I had hoped that, if you had the occult power you claim, you could do it more simply."

"If you wish to help her—" Astro shrugged his shoulders.

"Help her! It's just that!" he exclaimed. "I want to save her, even more than I want to find her."

"That goes without saying. Very well. Only a few more questions, so that I may be prepared for whatever influences I may find. Who lives in your house?" He added, "Including servants, of course."

"Besides my wife and myself, only the cook, a second girl, and a nurse."

"Who are your most frequent visitors?"

"Why, let's see. Ellen has a lot of women friends who run in occasionally, of course."

"No, the men."