"
"You recognized the first scene, I suppose, Doctor?" Bathurst asked.
"Perfectly. It took me back twenty-five years. It was a cottage
near Sidmouth, and was correct in every minute detail. The figure
was that of the young lady I married four years afterwards. Many a
time have I seen her standing just like that, as I went along the
road to meet her from the little inn at which I was stopping; the
very pattern of her dress, which I need hardly say has never been
in my mind all these years, was recalled to me.
"Had I been thinking of the scene at the time I could have accounted
for it somehow, upon the theory that in some way or other the
juggler was conscious of my thought and reflected it upon the smoke
--how, I don't at all mean to say; but undoubtedly there exists,
to some extent, the power of thought reading. It is a mysterious
subject, and one of which we know absolutely nothing at present,
but maybe in upwards of a hundred years mankind will have discovered
many secrets of nature in that direction. But I certainly was not
thinking of that scene when I spoke and said the 'past.' I had no
doubt that he would show me something of the past, but certainly
no particular incident passed through my mind before that picture
appeared on the smoke."
"The other was almost as curious, Doctor," Captain Doolan said,
"for it was certainly you masquerading as a native. I believe the
other was Bathurst; it struck me so; and he seemed to be running
off with some native girl.
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