all shows the inadequacy of human evidence. You must not expect
any one to believe that such a manifestation took place. It is like
the stories we hear of haunted houses. A friend of mine the other day
was telling me of a ghost that frequented an Australian bungalow where
he was visiting last year. Said he: 'I saw vases thrown from the
mantel-piece in broad daylight. I've heard invisible feet tramping all
about my chair in a vividly lighted room.' I didn't believe him, of
course. The fact is, we don't know our own capacity for being
deceived. We are each a microcosm--a summing-up of all our forebears,
and in the obscure places of our brains are the cells of cavemen,
nooks troubled by shadows and inhabited by strange noises. If you come
at me in the right way you can raise a terrifying echo deep in some
knot of my brain-cells; but it is only the echo of a far-away cry--it
is not even the cry."

Britt poised himself. "Let me tell you this. I have started in to
understand this thing. It isn't a haphazard series of deceits, of that
I am at this moment convinced. The most amazing consideration to my
mind is this: there is _system_ in their fool-tricks. I don't mean
Miss Lambert alone, I mean in all the best-authenticated
manifestations. As you say, they know how to attack the public; the
ones who don't are exposed and drop out; but, generally speaking, they
go on smoothly because they know just what can be safely attempted and
what can't. Now in Miss Lambert's case the same system appears. Her
alleged phenomena fit into the scheme, her development is according to
the spiritualistic Hoyle. No originality is permitted, hence no
failure of effect."

"And yet my brother tells me she is quite young and engaging."

"Altogether charming in body, and in every other thought most
ingenuous."

Morton interposed mockingly. "And you think she has built up this most
elaborate system of deceit?"

"Somebody has. I lay a good part of it to Clarke, but most of it to
hysteria and the suggestion of _The Flag of Truth_ and other similar
sheets."

"But she already had all these manifestations before Clarke's coming,
and presumably before she read _The Flag of Truth_."

"They say so. I don't know that. Many of the tricks are noted in
Randall's notes."

"Who was Randall?" asked Kate.

"Their family physician--my predecessor. Some of her phenomena
convinced him. He put himself on record in his notes as a convert.
However, that was after