and a dozen of those camp chairs that are associated
with house weddings and funerals; and while, in the library, Vance and
Mannie arranged these to their liking, on the third floor Vera, with
Mrs. Vance, waited for that moment to arrive when Vance considered her
entrance would be the most effective.

This entrance was to be made through the doorway that opened from the
hall on the second story into the library. To the right of this door,
in an angle of two walls, was the cabinet, and on the left, the first
of the camp chairs. These had been placed in a semicircle that stretched
across the room, and ended at the parlor organ. The door from Mr.
Hallowell's bedroom opened directly upon the semicircle at the point
most distant from the cabinet. In the centre of the semicircle Vance had
placed the invalid's arm chair.

Vance, in his manner as professional and undisturbed as a photographer
focussing his camera and arranging his screens, was explaining to Judge
Gaylor the setting of his stage. The judge was an unwilling audience.
Unlike the showman, for him the occasion held only terrors. He was
driven by misgivings, swept by sudden panics. He scowled at the cabinet,
intruding upon the privacy of the room where for years, without the aid
of accessories, by his brains alone, he had brought Mr. Hallowell almost
to the point of abject submission to his wishes. He turned upon Vance
with bitter self-disgust.

"So, I've got down as low as this, have I?" he demanded.

Vance heard him, undisturbed.

"I must ask you," he said, briskly, "to help me keep the people just
as I seat them. They will be in this half-circle facing the cabinet and
holding hands. Those we know are against us," he explained, "will have
one of my friends, Professor Strombergk, or Mrs. Marsh, or my wife, on
each side of him. If there should be any attempt to rush the cabinet,
we must get there first. I will be outside the cabinet working the
rappings, the floating music, and the astral bodies." At the sight
of the expression these words brought to the face of Gaylor, Vance
permitted himself the shadow of a smile. "I can take care of myself,"
he went on, "but remember--Vera must not be caught outside the cabinet!
When the lights go up, she must be found with the ropes still tied."

Gaylor turned from him with an exclamation of disgust.

"Pah!" he muttered. "It's a hell of a business!"

Vance continued unmoved. "And, another thing," he said, "about these
l