Page:The council of seven.djvu/104

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space are completely transcended by such a mind as your own."

"In a manner of speaking, yes. If one is able to glimpse the Whole its counterfeits don't matter much. But as I am sure you are not particularly concerned with the Realities, perhaps you'll tell me what I can do for you."

Mr. Hartz had now smoked the enchanted cigarette; his ideas were clearer, his thoughts less turgid, but he was not yet convinced that any good end would be served by admitting the mysterious Wygram to his confidence. Still, he hoped for enlightenment, perhaps for a little advice. Many whom the world accounted wise had bestowed upon this man undeniable credentials.

The visitor's perplexity seemed rather to amuse Wygram. "As a proof of my bona fides," he said, after a pause that held a threat of embarrassment, "allow me to indicate your business. It has to do, unless I am greatly mistaken, with the murder of Garland."

Skeptical as he was, Hartz could not repress a start of surprise. "How did you find out that?"

"A simple matter. I claim no supranatural power: at least as far as you are concerned, and as up till now your affairs have been presented to me. But there is a science of deduction, even if of late years it has been sadly blown upon by writers of fiction. In other words, two and two still make four—at all events in a three-dimensional universe."