“No, no!  I don’t agree!” Sir Lyon spoke with more energy than he had yet displayed.  “Everything points to the fact that those unfortunate people—­I mean the witches and sorcerers of the Middle Ages—­could have been, and sometimes were, exorcised.”

“Exorcised?” repeated Panton.  He had never heard the word “exorcised” uttered aloud before, though he had, of course, come across it in books.  “Do you mean driving out the devil by means of a religious ceremony?” he asked incredulously.

“Yes,” said Sir Lyon, “I do exactly mean that.  As you are probably aware, there is a form of exorcism still in common use.  And if I were our host here, I should have Wyndfell Hall exorcised, preferably by a Roman Catholic priest, as soon as Miss Bubbles is safely off the premises.”

The doctor again looked sharply at the speaker—­but no, Sir Lyon evidently meant what he said; and even Varick seemed to be taking the suggestion seriously; for “That’s not a bad idea,” he muttered.

The three men walked on in silence for a few moments.

“It would be interesting to know,” observed Sir Lyon suddenly, “what Miss Farrow conceives to be the truth as to her niece’s peculiar gifts.  I fancy, from something she told me the other day, that she hasn’t the slightest belief in psychic phenomena, I wonder if she feels the same after what happened yesterday and last night?”

“I can tell you exactly what Miss Farrow thinks,” interposed Varick.  “I had a word or two with her about it all this morning, after we’d examined the servants in the white parlour.”

“What does she think,” asked Sir Lyon.  He had always been interested in Blanche Farrow, and, in a way, he was fond of her.

“She thinks,” said Varick, a little hesitatingly, “that Bubbles, in addition to her extraordinary thought-reading gift, has inherited from her Indian ancestress a power of collectively hypnotizing an audience—­of making people see things that she wants them to see.  That’s rather awkwardly expressed, but it’s the best I can do.”

“I quite understand,” broke in the doctor.  “You mean the sort of power which certain Indian fakirs undoubtedly possess?”

“Yes,” said Varick.  “And, as I said just now Bubbles has got Indian blood in her veins.  One of her ancestors actually did marry an Indian lady of high degree, and Bubbles is descended from one of the children of that marriage.”

“I think that may account for the potency of her gift,” said Sir Lyon thoughtfully, “though, of course, many Europeans have had, and now possess, these curious powers.”

“But though, in a sense, spiritualism is no new thing, even those who believe in it admit that it has never led to anything,” observed Varick musingly.

“Very rarely, I admit; but still, sometimes even a dream has contained a revelation of sorts.  Thus it is on positive record that a dream revealed the truth as to what was called the Murder of the Red Barn.”