| EIGHTY-FIVE |

| 4 : 30 AM |

SWANN CARRIED THE BOX. IT WAS HEAVY. HE HAD FORGOTTEN HOW heavy it could be.

They were lying to him. It was a trick. Their trick. Claire was dead. She was in the Bridal Chamber. They would pay for this.

“You have failed.”

“I have not.”

“Acceptance is not enough, Joseph.”

“It is not just acceptance. It is certainty.”

Just about everything was in place for his grand finale. They would forever remember him. He would find a niche in the hierarchy of all things magic, all things puzzling, all things inexplicable. Even Thoreau believed that human beings require mystery.

“People must believe the impossible.”

“They will believe.”

“All magic is mentalism, Joseph. All magic makes people believe. The effect is in the mind.”

He could no longer carry the box. He put it down, began to drag it.

“All magic is mentalism,” he repeated. “All magic.”

He got the box into position. He sat down next to it.

The effect is in the mind.