Meyer? I have never been mesmerized in my
life."
"It does not matter how. I do know it; I have been sure of it from the
moment when first we met, that night by the kloof. Although, perhaps,
you felt nothing then, it was that gift of yours working upon a mind in
tune, my mind, which led me there in time to save you, as it was that
gift of yours which warned you of the disaster about to happen to the
ship--oh! I have heard the story from your own lips. Your spirit can
loose itself from the body: it can see the past and the future; it can
discover the hidden things."
"I do not believe it," answered Benita; "but at least it shall not be
loosed by you."
"It shall, it shall," he cried with passion, his eyes blazing on her as
he spoke. "Oh! I foresaw all this, and that is why I was determined you
should come with us, so that, should other means fail, we might have
your power to fall back upon. Well, they have failed; I have been
patient, I have said nothing, but now there is no other way. Will you be
so selfish, so cruel, as to deny me, you who can make us all rich in an
hour, and take no hurt at all, no more than if you had slept awhile?"
"Yes," answered Benita. "I refuse to deliver my will into the keeping of
any living man, and least of all into yours, Mr.
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