CHAPTER VII (Continued)
Bagadama

SUMMARY OF PREVIOUS SERIES Constance Phips, the American billionaire's daughter, married Baron Gontran de Champval at the Madeleine Palace. However, just as all the guests are gathered at the "Mundial Palace," rented out entirely for the occasion, they discover that the young bride has mysteriously disappeared. They search everywhere in vain for her. Days pass. The police find nothing. Reginald Phips retires to Saint-Germain where he lives with his son-in-law.

But I warn you, my dear father-in-law, that I'm going to tell you some rather extraordinary things... I'm afraid you'll cry foul and accuse me of absurdity... You're a great businessman, a powerful director... And so, anything that isn't positive, rational, and proven certainly inspires skepticism, even distrust, in you... Now, the joy I have in my soul today is due to facts that you will undoubtedly dismiss as wild imaginations... And yet, I'm ready to swear that these are certain things... I would like to share my conviction and my hope with you...
- Please, Gontran, get to the point, whatever it may be... A man in my position has a duty to listen attentively and seriously to everything that touches on the main interest of his existence...
- Well, there you have it... First of all, I'm certain... do you hear me clearly?... the certainty that Constance is alive...
This was said with such force of affirmation that Reginald Phips let out a hoarse exclamation. His hand tightened on his ministerial desk. When he was able to utter a single articulate word:
"Constance lives!" he said. "You're sure of it!... How do you know?... Tell me!... Tell me quickly!"
"It's because," replied the Baron, "I'm afraid you'll reject the motives on which I base my certainty..."
"Eh, by Jove, tell me your motives!"
"They refer to the mysterious sciences collectively known as occultism, and which a man like you, my dear father-in-law, must consider nonexistent..."
Reginald Phips grimaced. Clearly, he was, with regard to occultism, incredulous and contemptuous. He cried:
"If it's on such nonsense that you base your belief, my poor Gontran, I can only pity you..." "How can a well-balanced mind like yours go so astray?..." "You never told me about this peculiarity, which I consider, I tell you straight, to be a deplorable weakness..."
"I beg you, father-in-law, listen to me to the end..." "I too, just a few days ago, was as skeptical as you on the matter... But since then, I've seen and I'm obliged to believe..."
"You admit it, don't you?" that our friend Countess Zitti has a strong head and is not susceptible to illusions...
"Certainly, the Countess is a woman of superior intelligence and excellent counsel...
"Well, Countess Zitti will confirm to you shortly the accuracy of what I am about to tell you, incredible as it may seem to you..."
Baron de Champval was about to begin his account when there was a discreet knock at the door.
"Come in!" shouted the billionaire, suppressing a gesture of impatience.
"It was Countess Flora Zitti, whose face expressed joy.
"The Baron has informed you, hasn't he?" she said to the billionaire immediately. "That is to say," Gontran interjected, "that I was about to do it the very moment you entered..."
"Well, it's useless... I'll bring the person... Our great and dear friend Reginald Phips will be convinced by the facts much better than by our words..."
Turning toward the door, which she had left ajar, the beautiful countess made a sign that was clearly addressed to someone in the next room. A woman entered the King of Dynamos's study.
She was a strange being, not devoid of grace and charm, but whose grace and charm had something indefinably disturbing about her.
Very dark-skinned, with an elongated oval face, harmonious features, a singular smile puckering her thin lips, the stranger kept her eyes almost constantly half-closed; but when he happened to lift his eyelids, they revealed extraordinary eyes, immense black eyes, whose brilliance was almost frightening. Even dressed in the most neutral, the most ordinary dress, such a creature could go unnoticed anywhere. Now, she wore an exotic costume that added to the strangeness of her appearance: a loose, supple white loincloth, quite similar to that of upper-caste Hindus. A sort of red madras robe enveloped her head. Her brown hands, their fingers laden with heavy rings, nervously played with the hems of this madras robe, which she sometimes pulled over her face like a veil. Her slender feet, with solid gold rings around their ankles, were bare, clad in very thin embroidered sandals. There was a rather long silence.

CHAPTER VIII
The Power of Bagadana

Reginald Phips looked at this strange and unexpected visitor with an expression of surprise that closely resembled bewilderment. But he didn't have time to express what he felt. The Countess was already continuing: I present to you Bagadana... "You have never heard of
Bagadana?..." "A few days ago, I too was unaware of her existence, and the Baron, your son-in-law, knew nothing of her either..." "Yet it is to Bagadana that we owe the great joy we are about to share with you..." "This young girl is endowed with a prodigious power that you will deny, dear friend, just as I began to doubt it... But when Bagadana has experienced her power before you, you will be convinced, and the use she will make of it concerning your dear Constance will give you renewed hope..." While the Countess was speaking, Bagadana had frozen in a hieratic pose. The heavy eyelids, now closed, hid her unbearable gaze. The harmonious mask seemed hardened. It looked like a mysterious statue, a symbolic idol of some fabulous oriental cult. "Bagadana," Flora Zitti continued, "does not read the past and does not predict the future.
"The gift she possesses is both simpler and more positive... Yes, more positive, with all due respect, dear friend...
Bagadana is capable of telling you whether any person, wherever they may be in the world at the present moment, is dead or alive... All you have to do is take her hand and pronounce the name of the person you are questioning, thinking strongly of the person about whom you are consulting Bagadana..."
"And it is with antics of this kind," cried Reginald Phips, almost angrily, "that you base your certainty concerning my poor daughter... Truly, Countess, I think I'm dreaming!...
I beg you," said Flora gently, "to indulge in one or two experiments without getting angry... You will thank me later..." Reginald Phips resisted for a few moments. Finally, he yielded to the affectionate entreaties of the Countess and the Baron. Naturally, Flora Zitti then told him, so that only he could hear, don't ask Bagadana about Constance right away...
Ask her, for example, if a man you know is very much alive, the director of your New York office, for example, exists or is no longer... So be it, Reginald Phips agreed with relative good grace.
A few seconds later, Bagadana placed her slender brown hand in the King of the Dynamos's large paw.
"William Ribsley," he asked, "is he dead or alive?"
A flame flashed in Bagadana's dark eyes. A shiver shook the strange creature. She replied in a sing-song voice with chanting inflections: "William Ribsley is no longer among the living..." Reginald Phips burst out laughing. Then, releasing Bagadana's hand, which had fallen back into its statuesque stillness, he turned back to the Countess and the Baron:
"My compliments, Countess!... My compliments," he exclaimed sarcastically. "Miss Bagadana is obviously endowed with a miraculous gift..." "Unfortunately for her, my excellent collaborator and friend William Ribsley is not yet in the kingdom of shadows... No later than half an hour ago, I instructed my secretary, Sam Quickson, on the reply he should make to this cablegram from William Ribsley..."
Reginald Phips pointed to an unfolded telegram on his desk. William Ribsley is no longer among the living," repeated Bagadana's chanting voice.
The billionaire found the joke in poor taste. He was about to respond with a rude joke when there was a knock at the door, which opened before he could admittance. Secretary Sam Quickson burst into the study. The phlegmatic figure seemed distraught and showed signs of agitation quite out of character. "Sir," he said, panting, "Look at this cable that just arrived... it's awful..." A blue note trembled at his fingertips. Reginald Phips picked it up and read this text, dated New York:
"William Ribsley found dead in his office. Probably murdered." It bore the signature of the deputy director of the cartel of companies controlled by Reginald Phips.
The billionaire was both terrified by the tragic news that had reached him and deeply troubled by Bagadana's revelation.

(To be continued.)
Gabriel BERNARD.