to symbolize a bar of music, and
the whole was signed, 'E. Alexander.' The writing was firm and manly,
but I did not recognize it as that of my friend.

"The second trial resulted in this vague communication: '_My dear
friend, don't overdo. Earth is but one life. Many I recall. I tried to
give expression to my one talent._' This was signed 'Ernest Alexander.'
Both these replies, as you see, were very general in phraseology, but
the third message came closer to the individual: '_I was so tired and
not myself. I am well and in the world of progress. Ernest Alexander._'
The bar of music again appeared, this time much more 'developed.'"

Miller stopped me here. "All this is quite simple. Mrs. Hartley opened
and read your note and, following up the clew, simply did some neat
trick-writing beneath the table."

"It is not so simple as all that," I answered. "She was interrupted
about this time by the doorbell, and while she was gone I wrote on
another piece of paper: 'Ernest, give me a test of your identity. Write
a bar from the "---- Sonata."' This note I folded close and put in an
inside pocket.

"In answer to this request, when the medium returned I got these
pertinent words: '_I was not a disappointment to myself, but I was at a
point where nerve force failed me._' This was signed '_Ernest_,' and was
accompanied by another sketchy bar of music. It all looked like a real
attempt to give me what I had asked for, and yet it was the kind of
reply that might have been made by the medium had she known the history
of my musical friend, or had she been able to take it out of my mind."

"Even that is a violent assumption to me," remarked Miller.

"So it is to me," I answered. "I can't really believe in thought
transmission, and yet-- I then asked for the signature of the staff, and
a small '_c_' was written in the bar above, and another bar was added.
Now on the slates there came (with every evidence of eager haste)
intimate questions concerning Alexander's family: '_Is my wife cared
for?_' and the like. To these I replied orally. I must tell you that all
along the whisper spoke of Alexander's wife as 'Mary,' which was wrong,
although it was close to the actual name. Also, after I began to speak
of him as 'E. A.' the messages were all signed in that manner, all of
which would seem to argue a little confusion in the psychic's mind.

"A little later, _while I held the slate myself_, the mysterious 'force'
wrote, '_I thank you