till. Each time as the cone left the
table it seemed to rock to and fro as though a hand were trying to grasp
it, and a moment later it rose with a light spring. My impression
was--my _belief_ at the moment was--that Mrs. Smiley had nothing to do
in any ordinary way with the movement of the horn. If there is any
virtue in a taut tape and my sense of touch, her arms lay like marble
during the precise time the voice was speaking to me. I could detect no
connection between herself and the voice.

"Mitchell" assured me that he approved of every test we were putting
upon "the instrument," and expressed confidence that she would triumph
over Miller. "But the circles have been too often changed," he asserted,
"and the places have not been well chosen. All must be unhurried and
harmonious," he added, and I replied that I had been discouraged, but
that this sitting had given me new interest. "I will be faithful to the
end," I assured him.

"Wilbur" and "Mitchell" were perfectly distinct personalities, and
appeared to confer and act together. I had a sense of nearness to the
solution of the mystery that thrilled me. Here in the circle of my
out-stretched arms the incredible was happening. I held Mrs. Brierly's
hands, and controlled (by means of my tightly stretched tape) the
movements of the psychic, and yet the megaphone was lifted, handled,
used as a mouthpiece by "spirits." I felt that if at the moment I had
been able to turn on a clear light I could have seen _my_ ghostly
visitors. This final hour's experience revived all my confidence in Mrs.
Smiley, and not even another long series of absolute failures could
destroy my faith in her honesty or my belief in her occult powers.

My patience was sorely tried by twelve almost perfectly useless
sittings, during which everybody dropped away but Mr. and Mrs. Fowler,
Dr. Towne, Brierly, and myself. They were not utterly barren sittings,
but the phenomena were repetitious or slight and fugitive.

Mr. and Mrs. Fowler were friends of Brierly, and, like him, avowed
spiritists, but they both lent their best efforts to make the tests
complete and convincing. After trying sittings here and there, we
finally settled upon a series of afternoon sessions in Fowler's own
house. This was the twenty-sixth sitting of the series, and Cameron's
Amateur Psychical Society was practically a memory. I was now going
ahead pretty much on my own lines, but with an eye to catching Miller
and the Camerons