No longer was there any circulation in the crowd.  People remained in their places now, just as they expected the end to find them.  Chick and Harry marvelled at their composure, strangely in contrast with the ceaseless activities of the temple pheasants darting everywhere overhead.

Suddenly Harry remarked: 

“I’ve got an idea, Chick!  It’s this:  How does the professor expect to send a message to Hobart?” Chick could not guess.

But already Harry had taken his sheet of instructions from his pocket, and was rolling it into a compact pellet.  Then he went to Queen, and with a ribbon borrowed from the Nervina, tied the message tightly to the dog’s collar.

“Hobart will be certain to see it,” said he.  “I wonder if the doctor’s figured it out yet?”

“He’s playing with a tremendous force,” observed Chick, thoughtfully.  He reached out and touched the snow-stone with his foot, just as he had done before, and fancied that he could feel that electric thrill even through the leather of his shoes.  “Still, it’s worth any risk he may be taking down in that chamber.  If only he could send Queen through!  Hobart—­”

He never finished the sentence.  He staggered, thrown off his balance by reason of the fact that he had been resting the weight of one foot on the stone and—­it moved!

Moved—­shifted about its axis, just as it had done forty-eight hours previously, when the Aradna had dropped through.

And Chick had only a flash of a second for a glimpse of the startled faces of Harry, the Nervina and the Geos, the huge multitude below the stair, Queen on the other side, and the fateful Prophecy on the walls above him, before—­

A figure came into existence at his side.  It was that of a powerfully built man, on whose wrists were curious red circles.  And Chick shouted in a great voice: 

“Hobart!”

And then came blackness.

XLVII

THE LAST LEAF

Watson’s story was now completed.  During the entire recital his auditors had spoken scarcely a word.  It had been marvellous—­ almost a revelation.  With the possible exception of Sir Henry Hodges, not one had expected that it would measure up to this.  For the whole thing backed up Holcomb’s original proposition: 

“The Occult is concrete.”

Certainly, if what Watson had told them was true, then Infinity had been squared by itself.  Not only was there an infinity that we might look up to through the stars, but there was another just as great, co-existent, here upon the earth.  The occult became not only possible, but unlimited.

The next few minutes would prove whether or not he had told the truth.

It was now close to midnight.

Jerome and General Hume had returned from Berkeley.  Their quest had been successful; Watson now had the missing green stone.  A number of soldiers were stationed about the house.  Watson noted these men when he had finished his account, and said: