A murmur went around. Several of the members rose to examine the globes.
"Put them on the table," the wonder-worker said, "and then everybody may see."
"We are not to ask questions of methods," Judge Hobart observed. "Is it proper to inquire whether the experiment involves a contradiction of the old law that two bodies cannot occupy the same space?"
"Not at all," was the answer. "Modern science has shown clearly enough that to seem to occupy space is only to fill it as the stars fill the sky. I have only taken advantage of that fact to crowd more matter into a defined area."
The members were asked to seat themselves, and when this had been done, the stranger said: "Any number of examples of this power could be given, but these should be enough, unless some one would prefer to improvise a test on the spot."
"I am glad that you say this," Professor Gray remarked. "I am subject to the prejudice, foolish enough but common, of being more impressed by experiments of my own contriving. Do you mind, sir, if Dr. Taunton and I loop handkerchiefs together, and let you separate them while we hold the ends?"
The experiment was instantly successful, and was repeated for double assurance.
"If we had nothing else to do," the stranger observed, "we might go on in this line indefinitely; but this is enough of the 'fourth dimension,' so called. Now we will try development."
The flower-pot filled with earth was placed upon the slab at the feet of the magician. The orange seed was laid upon the earth.
"So ingenious an explanation has recently been given--or, more exactly, recently revived--of the development of a plant from a seed, that you may suppose me to have all the different pieces of an orange grove concealed about me, despite the fact that my dress is not adapted to the concealment of a needle. However, you may judge for yourselves."
He leaned forward, and with the point of his finger pushed the seed into the earth.
"Will some one cover the pot with a handkerchief?" he said. "Please be careful not to touch me or it. Hold the handkerchief out, and drop it."
One of the members followed the directions, and for a moment the stranger sat quiet, his eyes fixed on the covered flower-pot. The centre of the handkerchief was seen gradually to rise, and when the cloth was lifted, the astonished eyes of the Club beheld a glossy shoot, three or four inches in height. Without again covering it, the magician continued to gaze fixedly upon the plant. Before the eyes of the spectators the shoot became a shrub, the shrub a tree; the fragrance of orange blossoms filled the air, and among the shining leaves began to swell the golden fruit. The time had been numbered only in minutes, yet there stood a tree higher than a man's head, and laden with golden globes.