To the right
of this door, in an angle of two walls, was the cabinet, and on
the left, the first of the camp chairs. These had been placed in
a semicircle that stretched across the room, and ended at the
parlor organ. The door from Mr. Hallowell's bedroom opened
directly upon the semicircle at the point most distant from the
cabinet. In the centre of the semicircle Vance had placed the
invalid's arm chair.
Vance, in his manner as professional and undisturbed as a
photographer focussing his camera and arranging his screens, was
explaining to Judge Gaylor the setting of his stage. The judge
was an unwilling audience. Unlike the showman, for him the
occasion held only terrors. He was driven by misgivings, swept
by sudden panics. He scowled at the cabinet, intruding upon the
privacy of the room where for years, without the aid of
accessories, by his brains alone, he had brought Mr. Hallowell
almost to the point of abject submission to his wishes. He
turned upon Vance with bitter self-disgust.
"So, I've got down as low as this, have I?" he demanded.
Vance heard him, undisturbed.
"I must ask you," he said, briskly, "to help me keep the people
just as I seat them. They will be in this half-circle facing the
cabinet and holding hands. Those we know are against us," he
explained, "will have one of my friends, Professor Strombergk,
or Mrs. Marsh, or my wife, on each side of him. If there should
be any attempt to rush the cabinet, we must get there first.
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