ether any
constable of ordinary size and courage could be found who would
undertake to summon the witness to testify in the county court at
Atkinsville.

I mention the matter only because, on the theories of Spiritualism, it
appeared to give some point and occasion to the phenomena, and their
infesting that particular house.

Whether poor Mr. Timothy Jabbers felt relieved by having unburdened
himself of his confession, I cannot state; but after he found that I
paid some attention to his messages, he gradually ceased to express
himself through turnips and cold keys; the rappings grew less violent
and frequent, and finally ceased altogether. Shortly after that Miss
Fellows went home.

Garth and I talked matters over the day after she left. He had brought
his "thinking" to a close, whittled his opinions to a point, and was
quite ready to stick them into their places for my benefit, and leave
them there, as George Garth left all his opinions, immovable as the
everlasting hills.

"How much had she to do with it now,--the Fellows?"

"Precisely what she said she had, no more. She was a medium, but not a
juggler."

"No trickery about the affair, then?"

"No trickery could have sent that turnip into my soup-plate, or that
candlestick walking into the air. There _is_ a great deal of trickery
mixed with such phenomena. The next case you come across may be a
regular cheat; but you will find it out,--you'll find it out. You've had
three months to find this out, and you couldn't. Whatever may be the
explanation of the mystery, the man who can witness what you and I have
witnessed, and pronounce it the trick of that incapable, washed-out
woman, is either a liar or a fool.

"You understand yourself and your wife, and you've tested your servants
faithfully; so we're somewhat narrowed in our conclusions."

"Well, then, what's the matter?"

I was, I confess, a little startled by the vehemence with which my
friend brought his clerical fist down upon the table, and exclaimed:--

"The Devil?"

"Dear me, Garth, don't swear; you in search of a pulpit just at this
time, too!"

"I tell you I never spoke more solemnly. I cannot, in the face of facts,
ascribe all these phenomena to human agency. Something that comes we
know not whence, and goes we know not whither, is at work there in the
dark. I am driven to grant to it an extra-human power. Yet when that
flabby Miss Fellows, in the trance state, undertakes to bring me
messages