n' besides. This wasn't any of 'em. But that wasn't the funny
thing. _It lasted just about as long as my foot rested on a step of the
stairs_. I didn't make the break of going back and ringin' again; but I
remembered that step--third from the top.

"'T ain't easy to admit you've been fooled, and 't ain't easy to give
up somebody you've believed in. I couldn't have slept that night even
if I'd wanted. I opened the registers in my room, because open
registers help you to hear things, and sat in the darkness. I could
catch that the sitting was over, because the front door slammed. Then
Ellen came upstairs, and the bell rang b-r-r again. I could hear
someone come upstairs to the second floor, where Mrs. Markham and the
girl have their rooms. I listened for that bell when she struck the
stairs. I couldn't hear nothing. The current has been switched off,
thinks I. Maybe it was ten minutes later when I got a faint kind of
thud, like somebody had let down a folding bed, though there ain't a
one of those man-killers in our house. Sort of stirred up a
recollection, that sound. I lay puzzling, and the answer came like a
flash. Worst fake outfit I ever had anything to do with was Vango's
Spirit Thought Institute in St. Paul. I've told you before how ashamed
I am of that. I left because there's some kinds of work I won't stand
for. Well, he used a ceiling trap for his materializin'; though the
wainscot is a sight better and more up-to-date in my experience. When
he let it drop careless, in practicing before the seance, it used to
make a noise like that. I fell asleep by-and-bye; and out of my dreams,
which was troubled and didn't bring nothing definite, I got the general
impression that Mrs. Markham wasn't all right and that I'd been fooled.

"Mrs. Markham and the little girl went to the matinee next afternoon.
Now I'm comin' to her. You let me tell this story _my_ way. The cook
was bakin' in the kitchen, Ellen the parlor maid, who had to stay home
to answer bells, was gossipin' with her. Martin was cleanin' out the
furnace. I had the run of the house. First thing I looked at was the
third step from the top of the stairs. I worked out two tacks in the
carpet--wasn't much trouble; they come out like they was used to it. I
pulled the carpet sideways. Sure enough, there was a wide crack just
below the step, and when I peeked in, I could see the electric
connections. Question was, where was the bell? But I had something to
think of fir