ld, and immediately Mrs. Smiley began to twist and sigh, and "Maud"
complained that her mamma had been injured by the jerking of the thread
by Professor Miller, and said that the sitting would have to stop. We
lighted up and found the psychic apparently suffering keenly from a
severe cramp all through her left side, and a good deal of rubbing was
necessary to restore her to anything like a normal condition.

It really seemed like failure for my psychic, and I began to wonder
whether the books really did fly from Miller's shelves. I could not
suspect the gentle little lady of _conscious_ deceit, but with a
knowledge of the wonderful deceptions of somnambulists and hysterics, I
began to doubt. I urged Miller to try one more sitting. He consented,
and we met at Brierly's house. Nothing happened during the first two
hours, and at ten o'clock, or thereabouts, Miller, Brierly, and Fowler
withdrew, leaving me to untie and restore Mrs. Smiley, who was still
apparently in deep sleep.

It was evident that the guides had not released the psychic, and
"Maudie" soon spoke, asking me to put her mamma into a wooden chair, and
to take the cone apart and put the smaller end upon the table. I did as
she requested, and drew the psychic's chair and table together. "Wilbur"
insisted that I tie the psychic as before, but I replied, rather
dejectedly: "Oh no; let things go on as they are."

He insisted, and, with very little faith in the power of the psychic, I
did as I was told. I tied her wrists separately and then together, and,
drawing both ends of the tape into my left hand, I passed them under the
tip of my forefinger in such wise that I could feel any slightest
movement of the psychic's hands. The guides asked me to fasten her
wrists to the chair, but I replied: "I am satisfied."

Again I was brought face to face with the mystery of mediumship. Sitting
thus, with no one present but Mrs. Brierly, a woman to be trusted, the
cone was drummed upon and carried about as if by a human hand. It
touched my cheek at a distance of two feet from Mrs. Smiley's hands, and
"Wilbur's" voice--strong, vital, humorous--came to me, conversing as
readily, as sensibly, as any living flesh-and-blood person, _and all the
time I held to my tapes, carefully noting that no movement, beyond a
slight tremor_, took place in the psychic's arms. Just _before_ each
movement of the cone she shivered convulsively and sighed, but while
the cone moved she was deathly s