Towards suppertime Jacob Meyer
reappeared, looking pale and shaken, but otherwise much as usual.
"I had a kind of fit this morning," he explained, "the result of an
hallucination which seized me when my light went out in that cave. I
remember that I thought I had seen a ghost, whereas I know very
well that no such thing exists. I was the victim of disappointment,
anxieties, and other still stronger emotions," and he looked at Benita.
"Therefore, please forget anything I said or did, and--would you give me
some supper?"
Benita did so, and he ate in silence, with some heartiness. When he had
finished his food, and swallowed two or three tots of squareface, he
spoke again:
"I have come here, where I know I am not welcome, upon business," he
said in a calm, matter-of-fact voice. "I am tired of this place, and
I think it is time that we attained the object of our journey here,
namely, to find the hidden gold. That, as we all know, can only be done
in a certain way, through the clairvoyant powers of one of us and the
hypnotic powers of another. Miss Clifford, I request that you will allow
me to throw you into a state of trance. You have told us everything
else, but you have not yet told us where the treasure is hidden, and
this it is necessary that we should know.
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