"

Mrs. Folsom shook her head. "No. No, of course not! It disappeared
again. It was only there for a second. But I'm sure I saw it!"

"Now this is very interesting," Ormond said seriously. "Has anyone
else observed anything at all unusual during the last few minutes?"

There was a murmured chorus of dissent, but Cavender noticed that the
expressions of amusement and annoyance had vanished. Dr. Al had
changed the tune, and the students were listening intently. He turned
back to Mrs. Folsom.

"Let us consider the possibilities here, Eleanor," he said. "For one
thing, you should be congratulated in any case, because your
experience shows that your visualization was clear and true throughout
our exercise. If it hadn't been, nothing like this could have
occurred.

"But precisely what was the experience? There we are, as of this
moment, on uncertain ground. You saw something. That no one else saw
the same thing might mean simply that no one else happened to be
looking at the plate at those particular instances in time. I, for
example, certainly gave it no further attention after the exercise was
over. You _may_ then have observed a genuine materialization!"

Mrs. Folsom nodded vigorously. "Yes, I--"

"But," Ormond went on, "under the circumstances, the scientific
attitude we maintain at this Institute demands that we leave the
question open. For now. Because you might also, you understand, have
projected--for yourself only--a vivid momentary impression of the
image you had created during our exercise and were still holding in
your mind."

Mrs. Folsom looked doubtful. The flush of excitement began to leave
her face.

"Why ... well, yes, I suppose so," she acknowledged unwillingly.

"Of course," Ormond said. "So tonight we shall leave it at that. The
next time we engage in a similar exercise ... well, who knows?" He
gave her a reassuring smile. "I must say, Eleanor, that this is a very
encouraging indication of the progress you have made!" He glanced over
the group, gathering their attention, and raised the trident-like
device he had taken from the table.

"And now for our second experiment this evening--"

Looking disappointed and somewhat confused, Eleanor Folsom settled
back in her chair. Cavender also settled back, his gaze shifting
sleepily to the remaining items on the prop table. He was frowning a
little. It wasn't his business, but if the old woman had started to
hypnotize herself into having hallucinati