ping your little
girl from you! But you must have noticed her voice, how pretty it is if
she _does_ talk English fashion. Now that was my first sight into her.
Whatever she's done, she's never done materializin', which is just
where pure, proved fakin' begins. It's as soft as a girl's. It wouldn't
be if she'd worked up her voices for men controls. I've been
complimented on my voice myself, but you must have noticed the way it
slides down and gits deep every little while. That's left to show I did
materializin' in St. Paul; and I'm ashamed of it, too. My, how I wander
around in Robin Hood's barn! But I'm full of it."

"Tell me everything," he said, "and in your own way."

"'You know my profession?' says Mrs. Markham.

"'No, Ma'am,' says I.

"'I'm a religious teacher, in a way,' says she. 'A medium if you care
to call it that. I prefer another name.'

"'A medium!' says I. 'My! I was to a medium last week!'

"Perhaps you don't see why I done that. 'T was to give her an opening.
First move, when you're fakin' on a big scale, is to make dopes out of
your servants. Git 'em to swallow the whole thing; then find the yellow
spot, work it, and pull 'em into your fakin'. But she never followed
the lead, even so much as to seem interested. 'Indeed?' says she.
'Well, I see only a few callers, and usually in the evening. I'm a
little particular about bein' disturbed at such times, and I must ask
you not to come below the top floor on such evenings. Ellen, the parlor
maid, always sits by the front door to answer the bell.' That was a
relief. I was afraid I'd have to answer bells, which would have been
risky. Dopes that follow big mediums go to little ones sometimes; there
was a chance that I'd let in one of my own sitters and be recognized.
And the arrangement didn't look faky to me as it may to you; for a
fact, you're just a bundle of nerves when you're coming in and out of
real control.

"'And I hope you'll be comfortable,' says she, 'I'm coming up this
evening to see if your room is all right and if there's anything you
want. You'll like my servants, I think.'

"Right there I began to be ashamed of our game, and it hasn't got any
less, I'll tell _you_.

"It was hard work getting the job to runnin', and I didn't have much
time for pokin' into things. When I did git room to turn around, I went
through that whole house pretendin' to take inventories. I didn't find
a thing that looked out of place, or faky. Not a scrap of no