that only he is truly aware of). Magical powers and abilities Throughout the novels Hugo Rune claims that he has a great many magical powers, referring to himself as a wizard in The Witches of Chiswick. Some of his powers may be cunning tricks or outright fraud. Others, he has demonstrated effectively as a sign of his power or to get out of a tricky situation. Invisibility - Rune claimed to have the power to turn himself invisible and H. G. Wells claimed that he demonstrated this ability before him and several friends at dinner. Wells was impressed by how Rune appeared to fade from view, and stated that his used this as inspiration for his novel The Invisible Man. A rival and critic of Rune who was also at the dinner gave a slightly different account “I was expecting some trickery from Rune and was on my guard. So when he gestured wildly shouting ‘look it’s Humphrey Bogart!’ I was the only one not to look away and saw him dive under the table. I attempted to expose his fraud by kicking him with by shoe, only for him to bite my leg!” A court case followed. With these two contradictory accounts, Hugo Rune himself was asked to explain to the court and the judge exactly what had occurred. He claimed that he had in fact vanished, but also moved out of phase with the Earth itself, and so as it rotated he found himself sinking through the floor. In a desperate attempt to anchor himself he grabbed hold of a convenient leg with his teeth, pulling him back to reality. The judge and jury were not convinced and Rune was sentenced to prison. However, when his cell was opened it was found to be empty save for a note that read “They seek him there, they seek him here. Is he in heaven or on the moon, that disappearing Hugo Rune?” Illusion magic – Rune was able to create a convincing illusion spell of himself and Inspectre Hovis being gunned down outside the Wife's Legs Café, fooling their enemies that they had been killed. Jinx – He was able to place a powerful jinx on the phantom driver Norris Striver, who was doomed to drive around Lewes in his morris minor. Anyone who accepted his offer of a lift was doomed to join him in eternal drive around