For a long time he stood staring at the little square
window low down behind the ebony chair, striving to imagine uses for
it as his wife had urged him to do. The globular green lamp in the
second apartment was worked by three switches situated in the inside
room, and he had discovered that in this way the visitor who came to
consult Kazmah was treated to the illusion of a gradually falling
darkness. Then, the door in the first partition being opened, whoever
sat in the ebony chair would become visible by the gradual uncovering
of a light situated above the chair. On this light being covered again
the figure would apparently fade away.
It was ingenious, and, so far, quite clear. But two things badly
puzzled the inquirer; the little window down behind the chair, and the
fact that all the arrangements for raising and lowering the lights
were situated not in the narrow chamber in which Kazmah's chair stood,
and in which Sir Lucien had been found, but in the room behind it--the
room with which the little window communicated.
The table upon which the telephone rested was set immediately under
this mysterious window, the window was provided with a green blind,
and the switchboard controlling the complicated lighting scheme was
also within reach of anyone seated at the table.
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