Free The Case of the Vanishing Beauty by Richard S. Prather Page A

for breath at the end of each phrase, but rather with the monotonous, hypnotic chant of a priest. Sometimes the words had less meaning than his voice. He could have been singsonging Latin or Esperanto, but I found myself listening to him in spite of my skepticism.
    "Disciples. Disciples. Listen to me. Listen to me. I shall lead you into the world of Truth that has so long been hidden from you. Yea, hidden, even though it has forever lain fallow beneath the surface of your consciousness. Listen to me. The power and the strength that is in you has but to be stirred and it will awaken and flower into such force as belonged to the ancients; a force that has withered through neglect and is dormant on the vine of mortal consciousness.
    "Listen to me. Listen to me. Ye shall follow whither I lead and I shall make you whole. Ye shall follow me; ye shall follow me; ye shall follow me. Ye shall follow, and I will lead you to the Cosmic Truth that is all-present and all-pervading.
    "Listen to me. The mind is all. The mind is all.
    "I will take your hand; I will lead you; I will strike away your fetters. Follow me. Listen to me. Follow me and I will make the Great Mysteries your Truths.
    "I, Narda, say it, and it is therefore so."
    There was more, a lot more, but all of it in the same vein. I jerked my eyes away from Narda and looked around me. On my left an elderly woman stared fixedly up at Narda, her lips parted, breathing deeply as she watched him. The people all around me appeared rapt; they didn't seem to notice my inspection.
    I vaguely heard Narda saying, "As Christ, the Great Healer, the Son of God, gave unto His disciples food and drink, so shall I, Narda, give unto you." He talked on, but then I noticed the two women down front were again carrying their lighted candles, this time on trays burdened with glasses of liquid and what looked like cheese crackers.
    Goody, breakfast. Old Narda was doing this thing up brown.
    The women passed among the seats, giving each person food and drink, as Narda put it. Me, I could have used some prime ribs. The woman who'd led me across the grass extended the tray to me. I took a cracker and a glass and started to raise the glass to my lips. She quickly raised one hand before her face, palm out, fingers curled. This was the second time I'd seen that cute "No!" I'll bet they practiced in front of mirrors.
    Apparently Narda was to give the signal. I looked back up at him and noticed something. No picture. Apparently while he'd talked, the light on the picture behind him had faded slowly till now Narda was alone, suspended, floating over our heads. Then he brought his hands into the light, holding a glass and a wafer. He placed the wafer on his tongue and slowly drank from the glass.
    He didn't have to tell anybody. Of common accord arms raised around me and everyone I could see followed suit. Me too. I still guessed the wafer was a cheese cracker, and the liquid tasted like flat limeade, bitter as hell. Cheapskate. Keep down the overhead.
    On my right, a middle-aged man drank fervently, his eyes closed and his Adam's apple gliding up and down accompanied by horrible noises issuing from inside his throat, glurk, glurk, glurk. Then he lowered his arm and returned his fixed gaze to Narda.
    I liked to bust out laughing. It struck me funny, but I knew if I let out a peep I'd probably land on my behind outside. That made it worse; I came close to strangling. Nobody even looked at me. I wasn't there; I'd missed the cloud.
    The girls collected the glasses quietly while Narda continued his spiel. I wondered how he was going to end this thing.
    He did all right. He spoke for another minute, then stopped and threw back his turbaned head, his arms raised high. In that resonant voice he cried, "I, Narda, say it," and the light on his face winked out. A fiery corona suddenly grew around his head like a halo.
    I blinked and tried to figure it out. Cute. The big picture behind him had blocked out the eastern