Reuel was awed into silence. He could say nothing, and listened to Ai’s learned remarks with a reverence that approached almost to worship before this proof of his supernatural powers. What would the professors of Harvard have said to this, he asked himself. In the heart of Africa was a knowledge of science that all the wealth and learning of modern times could not emulate. For some time the images came and went upon the mirror, in obedience to his desires. He saw the scenes of his boyhood, the friends of his youth, and experienced anew the delights of life’s morning. Then he idly desired to see the face of his loved Dianthe, as she last appeared on earth. The surface of the disk reflected nothing!

“You have not reached perfection then, in this reflector?”

“Why think you so?” asked Ai gravely.

“I have asked to see the face of a friend who is dead. The mirror did not reflect it.”

“The disk cannot err,” said AL “Let us try the water in the font.”

“But that reflects the living, you say; she is dead.”

“The disk cannot err,” persisted Ai. He turned to the font, gazed in its surface, and then beckoned Reuel to approach. From the glassy surface Dianthe’s face gazed back at him, worn and lined with grief.

“’Tis she!” he cried, “her very self.”

“Then your friend still lives,” said Ai, calmly.

“Impossible!”

“Why do you doubt my word, Ergamenes?”

Then with great suppressed excitement and much agitation, Reuel repeated the story of Dianthe’s death as brought to him by the last mail he had received from America.

“You say that ‘Molly,’ as you call her, was also drowned?”

“Yes.”

“Let us try the disk.”

They returned to the mirror and instantly the face of Molly Vance gazed at them from the river’s bed, surrounded by seaweed and grasses.

“Can a man believe in his own sanity!” exclaimed Reuel in an agony of perplexity.

Ai made no reply, but returned to the font. “I think it best to call up the face of your enemy. I am sure you have one.” Immediately the water reflected the debonair face of Aubrey Livingston, which was almost instantly blotted out by the face of Jim Titus.

“Two!” murmured Ai. “I thought so.”

“If she then lives, as your science seems to insist, show me her present situation,” cried Reuel, beside himself with fears.

“I must have a special preparation for the present,” said Ai, calmly. He set about preparing a liquid mixture. When this was accomplished he washed the face of the disk with a small sponge dipped in the mixture. A film of sediment instantly formed upon it.