Sordid details followed: a detective who had been there seized an
apparition by the throat, and turned on the electric light. It was the
woman Popoffski's throat that he held, and her secretary, Hezekiah
Schwarz, was discovered under the table detaching an electric hammer. A
fine was inflicted....
A moment's mental debate was sufficient to determine Robert not to tell
his wife. It was true that she had produced Popoffski, but then he had
praised and applauded her for that; he, no less than she, had been
convinced of Popoffski's integrity, high rank and marvellous psychic
powers, and together they had soared to a pinnacle of unexampled
greatness in the Riseholme world. Besides poor Daisy would be simply
flattened out if she knew that Popoffski was no better than the Guru.
He glanced at the pile of papers, and at the fire place....
It had been a cold morning, clear and frosty, and a good blaze
prospered in the grate. Out of each copy, of "Todd's News" he tore the
page on which were printed the police reports, and fed the fire with
them. Page after page he put upon it; never had so much paper been
devoted to one grate. Up the chimney they flew in sheets of flame;
sometimes he was afraid he had set it on fire, and he had to pause,
shielding his scorched face, until the hollow rumbling had died down.
With the page from two copies of the "Daily Mirror" the holocaust was
over, and he unlocked the door again.
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