ually bobbing up to see what was going on, disturbing
conditions, stirring things up as with a spoon to see how it was all
going on. They broke the chain of hands whenever they wanted to see what
'the spirits' were doing. In other words, these scientists were
students, not devotees. They were experimenting, not communing with the
dead."

"Others have tried that," said Fowler. "But they succeeded in preventing
any manifestations whatsoever."

"It didn't work out so in this instance. Bottazzi says that during the
first seance Professor Scarpa irritated Eusapia greatly by his
impertinent curiosity, but Bottazzi himself quieted her by saying: 'You
see, dear Eusapia, we are not here only to admire the marvellous
phenomena you are able to produce, but also, and chiefly, to observe and
verify and criticise. We do not doubt you or suspect any fraud, but we
want to see clearly, and to follow the development of the phenomena.
That is why M. Scarpa surveys the cabinet between the curtains,
illuminating it occasionally with an electric pocket-lamp. Which do you
prefer, passive admiration, of which you must have had more than enough
already, or the calm affirmation of physicists who are accustomed to
extort from Nature secrets which she hides from physical eyes? 'In this
way,' adds the master, 'Eusapia's irritation was softened; she rebelled
no further, but yielded with docility to the sharp, attentive scrutiny
of the observer, who finally declared himself beaten, not having been
able to discover at any point a shadow of fraud.'"

"Hurrah for Eusapia!" shouted Howard. "She must be a wonder!"

"A spiritist would say that her guides were insisting on the most rigid
test. The account goes on to say that the psychic, when entranced, was
not satisfied with the grasp of two of the spies; she frequently asked,
in a faint voice, for a third or even a fourth hand in order that there
could be no question of her freedom from connection with the phenomena.
As in the case of our own psychic, Mrs. Smiley co-operated to the utmost
with us. She never refused to permit any test."

Miller here remarked: "I can't but think that our control of Mrs. Smiley
was complete, and yet I could not (under the conditions) assert that she
was not the author of the acts we witnessed in my library. I cannot
bring myself to entertain, even for an instant, the spirit hypothesis,
but in Bottazzi's theory I glimpse an alternative."

"Yes, Bottazzi plainly hints at