Godfrey, turning to speak to me, saw my attitude and shook me roughly
by the arm.

"Don't do that, Lester!" he growled in my ear. "Take your eyes off
that crystal!"

I tried to move my eyes, but could not, until Godfrey pulled me around
to face him. I stood blinking at him stupidly.

"I was nearly gone, myself, before I realised the danger," he said. "A
sphere like that can hypnotise a man more quickly than anything else
on earth, especially when his resistance is lessened, as it is by this
heavy perfume."

"It was rather pleasant," I said. "I should like to try it some time."

"Well, you can't try it now. You've got something else to do. Besides,
it has two victims already."

"Two victims?"

"Look carefully, but keep your eyes off the sphere," he said, and
swung me around toward the room again.

The room was shrouded in impenetrable darkness, except for the faint
and quivering radiance which the sphere emitted, and as I plunged my
eyes into its depths in an effort to see what lay there, it seemed to
me that I had never seen blackness so black. As I stared into it,
with straining eyes, a vague form grew dimly visible beside the
glowing sphere; and then I recoiled a little, for suddenly it took