as lit. He seemed disappointed, but made
no further remark when he was told they were not ready. Mr. Dickinson
stated that in conversation with the father afterwards, he told him that
his son, on the Friday, had been delirious and had cried out for his
photographs so frequently that they had tried to get them, and that was
why he had called on Friday night. Hebburn is on the south side of the
Tyne, about four miles from Newcastle. The father was absolutely certain
that it was physically impossible for his son to have left the house. He
did not leave it. They knew the end was approaching, and he and his wife
were in constant attendance at the death-bed. He also stated that it was
impossible, from the position of the bedroom, for him to have left the
house, even if he had been able to get out of bed without their hearing
him. As a matter of fact, he did not get out of bed, and at the moment
when his Double was talking to Mr. Dickinson in Grainger Street he was
lying unconscious at Hebburn.

It is impossible to explain this on the theory that Mr. Dickinson
visualised the impression left upon his mind by Mr. Thompson, for Mr.
Dickinson had never seen Mr. Thompson in his life. Neither could he have
given apparent objectivity to a photograph which he might possibly have
seen, although Mr. Dickinson asserts that he had never seen the
photograph until it was brought him on the Saturday morning. If he had
done so by any chance he would not have fitted his man with a top-coat
and hat. It cannot, therefore, be regarded as a subjective
hallucination; besides, the evidence afforded by the looking up of the
book, the making an entry of what occurred, and the conversation which
took place, in which the visitor mentioned facts which were not present
in Mr. Dickinson's own mind, but which he verified there and then by
looking up his books, bring it as near certainty as it is possible to
arrive in a case such as this. Whoever the visitor was, it was not a
subjective hallucination on the part of Mr. Dickinson.

It is equally impossible to believe that it was the actual Mr. Thompson,
because he was at that moment within six hours of death, and the
evidence of his father is that his son at that moment was physically
incapable of getting out of bed, and that he was actually lying
unconscious before their eyes at Hebburn at the moment when his
apparition was talking to Mr. Dickinson at Newcastle. The only other
hypothesis that can be brought