be added that I gratefully remitted to Medium Number Three a
double fee, and do yet consider myself many times her debtor? Her
gratitude to me found expression in another outburst of song.

Had the identity of the original owner of the skull been my sole object,
I might well have rested content. I had found the owner, and she had
claimed her own. She was 'Sister Belle,' and confessed to that rare
combination of golden hair with black eyes, like Lady Penelope Rich, Sir
Philip Sydney's first love. But my duty as a member of this Commission
compelled me to complete my investigations, and make application to the
fourth and last Medium for answering Sealed Letters.

As I have stated, this Medium is also a woman, and resides in
Massachusetts. Her circular directs the sealed letters to be 'well
sealed or stitched, so that they may not be opened until returned.'

To this Medium, Mrs. Eliza A. Martin, Oxford, Mass., was sent the same
letter to W---- H---- that had been sent to her predecessor, of the same
name, in Columbus, and it was put in an envelope, merely gummed and
sealed, without the silk stitches.

Within a few days I received the following note, enclosing my sealed
envelope: 'A message awaits your order from W---- H----. Please state if
you recognize Mrs. M.F.H.--Several friends came and that name was
mentioned.... There are some words in an unknown tongue.'

The minute that I looked at the returned envelope, I felt like standing
uncovered, as in the presence of genius, a genius before which Mediums
One, Two and Three paled. Nothing could excel the unsullied virginity of
the seals, or of the gummed spaces between them. I felt that I must
proceed with the utmost caution. With a very sharp penknife I then began
to cut the edge of the envelope at one end. Scarcely had the knife been
drawn very slowly more than the half of an inch before it became
manifest that the edge of the envelope presented more resistance than
the simple fold of paper would make. I stopped and examined the severed
edges. Very delicate but very distinct traces were visible of a thin
mucilage, perhaps of rice-water or of diluted gum-tragacanth. How
exquisite and how light are the touches of ethereal, Spiritual fingers!
After all the trouble with my seals, when, emulating Dr. Watt's _Busy
Bee_, so neat I spread my wax,' it was beginning to dawn upon me that
clairvoyant eyes, quite as much as our own, require Heaven's broad
sunshine on black ink and