Then there was another thing: Hicks wasn't worth a tallow dip on mute mental suggestion.

Whenever Simmons stood behind him and gazed at the back of his skull and tried to drive a mental suggestion into it, Hicks sat with vacant face, and never suspected.

If he had been noticing, he could have seen by the rapt faces of the audience that something was going on behind his back that required a response.

Inasmuch as I was an impostor I dreaded to have this test put upon me, for I knew the professor would be "willing" me to do something, and as I couldn't know what it was, I should be exposed and denounced.

However, when my time came, I took my chance.