Page:The council of seven.djvu/138

 One's actions can be controlled from a distance, without physical contact of any kind, simply by the massed power of thought."

"How horrid! And how uncomfortable!"

"It is, I grant you. But we live in an uncomfortable world."

"Isn't the world largely what we make it?" said Helen softly.

"A week ago one would have said yes. But I've had a knock on the head since then. Everything is altered." He forced a sudden laugh which jarred a little on Helen's nerves. "But, to return to this diabolically clever old Chinaman. I'm swotting up his book, because this day fortnight—touching wood!—I shall be at Doe Hill at Rose Carburton's, and the great Lien Weng himself is expected to be there. So you see one is likely to hear a great deal about his theory."

"Rather too much about it, perhaps," said Helen chaffingly. "He might consider you a fit subject for one of his experiments."

Clearly she was not inclined to take Lien Weng too seriously. John for his part, however, was impressed by something he had read in a book which had caused a flutter in the dove cotes of science; or it may have been something he had heard as to the reputation of its writer. "Great discoveries are in the air," he said.

"No doubt," said Helen. "At any rate, George Hierons thinks so."