"He ceased speaking, and approaching close to me, tapped my forehead;
whereupon there was a blank; and on recovering consciousness, I found
myself in bed, feeling somewhat exhausted and very cold." "You have no recollection of coming to see us, in your pyjamas, about
two o'clock in the morning?" Hamar asked. "Don't talk rot," Kelson said. "I'm in no mood for fooling, I've got a
chill on my liver." "What was it, Leon?" Curtis inquired. "A case of unconscious projection," Hamar said. "Clearly the work of
the Unknown. We must commence carrying out the instructions at once." At the end of a week, Hamar, Kelson and Curtis, began to put in
practice their newly acquired properties. Hamar tested his, in a first-class railway carriage, on the London,
Brighton & South Coast Railway. "I'll go for a day's trip to Brighton," he said, "and cheat the
Company. They deserve it." He went to Victoria, and ignoring the booking-office, calmly seated
himself in a first-class compartment, where, amongst other occupants,
sat a quite remarkably proper-looking clergyman, and a very handsomely
dressed lady, with a haughty stare, and a typical _nouveau riche_
nose! When the ticket collector came round before the train started, Hamar
waited, till every one else in the compartment had shown him their
tickets, and then, just as the man was about to demand his, swallowed
one of the prescribed pills, repeating immediately, in a loud voice,
which caused considerable excitement among the other passengers, the
words, "Bakra--naka--taksomana!" The next moment he had disappeared. "Strike me red!" the collector gasped, putting one hand to his heart,
and grasping the door with the other. "What's become of him? Was
he--a--a--gho--st?" "I don't--er--know--er what to--to make of it," the parson said,
heroically preserving his Oxford drawl, in spite of his chattering
teeth. "I don't--er, of course--er, believe in gho--sts! He must--er
have been--a--a--an evil spirit. Dear me--aw!" "Help me out of the carriage at once," the lady with the stare panted. "I consider the whole thing most disgraceful. I shall report it to the
Company." "What's the matter, Joe?" an inspector called out, threading his way
through the crowd of people, that had commenced to collect at the door
of the compartment. "I'm blessed if I know!" the collector said. "The honly explanation I
can give is that a gent who was seated here has dissolved--the hot
weather has melted him like butter!" At this there was a shout of laughter, the inspector slammed the door,
the guard whistled, and the next moment the train was off. As soon as the train was well out of the station Hamar repeated the
words he had used, backwards, and he was once again visible. The effect of his reappearance amongst them was even more striking
than that of his previous disappearance. "Take it away--take it away!" the lady opposite him shouted, throwing
up her hands to ward him off. "It's there again! Take it away! I shall
die--I shall go mad!" "How hideous! How diabolical!" a stout, elderly man said in slow,
measured tones, as if he were reading his own funeral service. "It
must be the devil! The devil! Ha!" and burying his face in his hands,
he indulged in a loud fit of mirthless laughter. "Why don't you do something? Talk theology to it, exorcise it," a
remarkably plain woman, in the far corner of the carriage said, in
highly indignant tones to the clergyman. "As usual, whenever there is
something to be done, it is woman who must do it!" She got up, and casting a look of infinite scorn at the
clergyman--whose condition of terror prevented him uttering even the
one telling, biting word--Suffragette--that had risen and stuck in his
throat--raised her umbrella, and, before Hamar could stop her, struck
it vigorously at him. "Ghost, demon, devil!" she cried. "I know no fear! Begone!" And the
point of her umbrella coming in violent contact with Hamar's
waistcoat, all the breath was unceremoniously knocked out of him; and
with a ghastly groan he rolled off his seat on to the floor, where he
writhed and grovelled in the most dreadful agony, whilst his assailant
continued to stab and jab at him. In all probability, she would have succeeded, eventually, in reaching
some vital part of his body, had not one of the frenzied passengers
pulled the communication-cord and stopped the train! CHAPTER XIX

A SERIES OF MISADVENTURES


With the advent of the guard, Hamar's assailant was dragged off him,
and he was locked up in a separate compartment, "to be given in
charge," so the indignant official announced, directly they got to
Brighton. But Hamar ordained it otherwise. As soon as he had
sufficiently recovered from the effects of the severe castigation the
female furioso had inflicted on him, he became invisible, and when the
train drew up at the Brighton platform, and a couple of policemen
arrived to march him on, he was nowhere to be found! This was his
first experiment with the newly acquired property. "In future," he
said to himself, "before I try any tricks, I'll take very good care
there are no Suffragettes about." In London there was, of course, no need for him ever to pay fares. All
he had to do, was to become invisible as soon as the taxi stopped,
calmly step out of the vehicle, and walk away. As for meals, he was
able to enjoy many--gratis. He simply walked into a restaurant, fed on
the very best, and then disappeared. Of course, he could not repeat
the trick in the same place, and cautious though he was, he was at
last caught. It appears that a description of him had been circulated
among the police, and that private detectives were employed to watch
for him in the principal hotels and restaurants. Consequently,
directly he entered the grill room at the Piccadilly Hotel, he was
arrested and handcuffed before he had time to swallow a pill. He was now in a most unpleasant predicament--the tightest corner he
had ever been in. Supposing he could not escape--his sentence would be
at the least two years' penal servitude--what would happen? Curtis and
Kelson would never work the show without him. Curtis would give
himself entirely up to eating and drinking, Kelson would marry Lilian
Rosenberg; the compact with the Unknown would be broken; and after
that--he dare not think. He must escape! He must get at the pills! The
police took him away in a taxi, and all the time he sat between them,
he struggled desperately to squeeze his hands through the small, cruel
circle that held them. "It's all right for Curtis and Kelson!" he said
to himself, "all right at least--now! They know nothing! They have
never tried to think what the breaking of the compact means! Their
weak, silly minds are entirely centred on the present! The present! Damn the present! They are fools, idiots, imbeciles who think only of
the present--it's the future--the future that matters!" He scraped the
skin off his wrists, he sweated, he swore!