“A lot of people think they are all nonsense. Personally, I like them.”

He lugged out a few specimens from their dusty obscurity. One seemed to have nothing but a little dried-up fly in it; others contained what might have been horsehairs or straws, or mere wisps of heaven knows what; some appeared to be filled with gray or opalescent smoke. “They are,” said the old man, “various sorts of genii, jinns, sibyls, demons, and such things. Some of them, I believe, are much harder, even than a full-rigged ship, to get into a bottle.”

“Oh, but come! This is New York,” said Frank.

“All the more reason,” said the old man, “to expect the most extraordinary jinns in bottles. I’ll show you. Wait a moment. The stopper is a little stiff.”

“You mean there’s one in there?” said Frank. “And you’re going to let it out?”

“Why not?” replied the old man, desisting in his efforts, and holding the bottle up to the light. “This one. . . . Good heavens! Why not, indeed? My eyes are getting weak. I very nearly undid the wrong bottle. A very ugly customer, that one! Dear me! It’s just as well I didn’t get that stopper undone. I’d better put him right back in the rack. I must remember he’s in the lower right-hand corner. I’ll stick a label on him one of these days. Here’s something more harmless.”

“What’s in that?” said Frank.

“Supposed to be the most beautiful girl in the world,” said the old man. “All right, if you like that sort of thing. Myself, I’ve never troubled to undo her. I’ll find something more interesting.”

“Well, from a scientific point of view,” said Frank, “I . . . .”

“Science isn’t everything,” said the old man. “Look at this.” He held up one which contained a tiny, mummified, insect-looking object, just visible through the grime. “Put your ear to it,” he said.

Frank did so. He heard, in a sort of whistling nothing of a voice, the words, “Louisiana Lad, Saratoga, four-fifteen. Louisiana Lad, Saratoga, four-fifteen,” repeated over and over again.

“What on earth is that?” said he.

“That,” said the old man, “is the original Cumaean Sibyl.