Dr Nikola Returns | Page 7

rare workmanship and
design, while scattered about the room were numberless cushioned
chairs and divans, beside one of which I noticed a beautifully inlaid
huqa of a certain shape and make that I had never before seen out of
Istamboul.
"Pray sit down," said Dr. Nikola, and as he spoke he signed me to a
chair at the further end. I seated myself and wondered what would
come next.
"This is not your first visit to China, I am given to understand," he
continued, as he seated himself in a chair opposite mine, and regarded
me steadfastly with his extraordinary eyes.
"It is not," I answered. "I am an old resident in the East, and I think I
may say I know China as well as any living Englishman."
"Quite so. You were present at the meeting at Quong Sha's house in the
Wanhsien on the 23rd August, 1907, if I remember aright, and you
assisted Mah Poo to evade capture by the mandarins the week
following."
"How on earth did you know that?" I asked, my surprise quite getting
the better of me, for I had always been convinced that no other soul,
save the man himself, was aware of my participation in that affair.

"One becomes aware of many strange things in the East," said Nikola,
hugging his knee and looking at me over the top of it, "and yet that
little circumstance I have just referred to is apt to teach one how much
one might know, and how small after all our knowledge is of each
other's lives. One could almost expect as much from brute beasts."
"I am afraid I don't quite follow you," I said simply.
"Don't you?" he answered. "And yet it is very simple after all. Let me
give you a practical illustration of my meaning. If you see anything in it
other than I intend, the blame must be upon your own head."
Upon a table close to his chair lay a large sheet of white paper. This he
placed upon the floor. He then took a stick of charcoal in his hand and
presently uttered a long and very peculiar whistle. Next moment,
without any warning, an enormous cat, black as his master's coat, leapt
down from somewhere on to the floor, and stood swishing his tail
before us.
"There are some people in the world," said Nikola calmly, at the same
time stroking the great beast's soft back, "who would endeavour to
convince you that this cat is my familiar spirit, and that, with his
assistance, I work all sorts of extraordinary magic. You, of course,
would not be so silly as to believe such idle tales. But to bear out what I
was saying just now let us try an experiment with his assistance. It is
just possible I may be able to tell you something more of your life."
Here he stooped and wrote a number of figures up to ten with the
charcoal upon the paper, duplicating them in a line below. He then took
the cat upon his knee, stroked it carefully, and finally whispered
something in its ear. Instantly the brute sprang down, placed its right
fore-paw on one of the numerals of the top row, while, whether by
chance or magic I cannot say, it performed a similar action with its left
on the row below.
"Twenty-four," said Nikola, with one of his peculiar smiles.
Then taking the piece of charcoal once more in his hand, and turning

the paper over, he wrote upon it the names of the different months of
the year. Placing it on the floor he again said something to the cat, who
this time stood upon June. The alphabet followed, and letter by letter
the uncanny beast spelt out "Apia."
"On the 24th June," said Nikola, "of a year undetermined you were in
Apia. Let us see if we can discover the year."
Again he wrote the numerals up to ten, and immediately the cat, with
fiendish precision, worked out 1895.
"Is that correct?" asked this extraordinary person when the brute had
finished its performance.
It was quite correct, and I told him so.
"I'm glad of that. And now do you want to know any more?" he asked.
"If you wish it I might perhaps be able to tell you your business there."
I did not want to know. And I can only ask you to believe that I had
very good reasons for not doing so. Nikola laughed softly, and pressed
the tips of his long white fingers together as he looked at me.
"Now tell me truthfully what you think of my cat?" said he.
"One might be excused if one endowed him with Satanic attributes," I
answered.
"And yet, though you think it so wonderful, it