Durand bowed quite civilly and withdrew.

"A cosy party," resumed the Master, scornfully, "and yet I
believe some of you are in doubt about how we all came together.
I will explain it, ladies and gentlemen; I will explain
everything. To whom shall I specially address myself? To Mr.
James Turnbull. He has a scientific mind."

Turnbull seemed to choke with sudden protest. The Master seemed
only to cough out of pure politeness and proceeded: "Mr. Turnbull
will agree with me," he said, "when I say that we long felt in
scientific circles that great harm was done by such a legend as
that of the Crucifixion."

Turnbull growled something which was presumably assent.

The Master went on smoothly: "It was in vain for us to urge that
the incident was irrelevant; that there were many such fanatics,
many such executions. We were forced to take the thing thoroughly
in hand, to investigate it in the spirit of scientific history,
and with the assistance of Mr. Turnbull and others we were happy
in being able to announce that this alleged Crucifixion never
occurred at all."

MacIan lifted his head and looked at the Master steadily, but
Turnbull did not look up.

"This, we found, was the only way with all superstitions,"
continued the speaker; "it was necessary to deny them
historically, and we have done it with great success in the case