l tell you what is in it. I cannot get
the words unless some mind in the earth-plane has absorbed them.'"

Harris spoke first. "That would seem to prove a sort of universal mind
reservoir, wouldn't it?"

"That is the way my friend figured it. But isn't that a staggering
hypothesis? I have never had a sealed letter read, but the psychic
research people seem to have absolutely proved psychometry to be a fact.
After you read Myers you are ready to believe anything--or nothing."

The hostess rose. "Suppose we go into the library and have more ghost
stories. Come, Mr. Garland, we can't leave you men here to talk
yourselves out on these interesting subjects. You must let us all hear
what you have to say."

In more or less jocose mood the company trooped out to the library,
where a fire was glowing in the grate and easy-chairs abounded. The
younger people, bringing cushions, placed themselves beside the hearth,
while I took a seat near Mrs. Cameron and Harris.

"There!" said Miss Brush, with a gurgle of delight. "This is more like
the proper light and surroundings for creepy tales. Please go on, Mr.
Garland. You said you'd had a good deal of experience--tell us all about
it. I always think of you as a trailer, a man of the plains. How did you
happen to get into this shadow world?"

"It came about while I was living in Boston. It was in 1891, or
possibly 1892. A friend, the editor of the _Arena_, asked me to become a
member of the American Psychical Society, which he was helping to form.
He wished me to go on the Board of Directors, because, as he said, I was
'young, a keen observer, and without emotional bias'--by which he meant
that I had not been bereaved."

"Quite right; the loss of a child or a wife weakens even the best of us
illogical," commented Harris. "No man who is mourning a relative has any
business to be calling himself an investigator of spiritualism."

"Well, the upshot was, I joined the society, became a member of the
Executive Board, was made a special committee on 'physical
phenomena'--that is to say, slate-writing, levitation, and the like--and
set to work. It was like entering a new, vague, and mysterious world.
The first case I investigated brought out one of the most fundamental of
these facts, which is, that this shadow world lies very close to the
sunny, so-called normal day. The secretary of the society had already
begun to receive calls for help. A mechanic had written from South
Boston askin