o you want?" she asked, tremulously; "what do you intend to do?"

"I intend to do a great many things," Peter replied, gravely, "but I
want very little. Only that you shall conduct a _seance_, at the time I
set and entirely in accordance with my orders."

"And if I refuse?"

"Then I shall feel it my duty to expose you as a fraud and a charlatan."

The woman winced at these words, but meeting Peter's steely gaze and
realizing his power over her, she said:

"First, tell me who you are."

"I am Louis Bartram," he said, "you know that already. For the rest, I
am an investigator of psychic conditions and a student of the occult,
along certain definite lines. You will find it to your best advantage,
Madame, to be perfectly frank and truthful with me. Any other course you
will find most disastrous."

"Are you--are you of the----"

"Of the police? No, this is not an official investigation. And,
moreover, it all depends on yourself whether the results of our work
together are ever made public or not. Now, answer my questions. How did
you come to give these _seances_ to the Cranes?"

"Mr. Crane came and asked me to."

"Where had he heard of you?"

"I was recommended to him by some friends of his."

"Did you ever know his son, Peter?"

"No; I never heard of him until Mr. Crane came here."

"And then you immediately got into spiritual communication with the dead
man?"

"Yes; that is my business."

She spoke a little defiantly, and Peter smiled. "I know. I accept that.
Now, I'm a friend of the Cranes, because of having read that book. A man
who is so absolutely positive of his beliefs is too good and dear a man
to be disturbed in his enjoyment of them."

"Oh, Mr. Bartram, I'm glad you see it that way, too! Truly, I've come to
love the Cranes, and if--if I help along a little, it is largely for the
comfort and happiness it gives them."

"I know,-- I see; and I realize what an awful thing it would be if the
world were to learn that all the matter in his book is really false----"

"Oh, it would kill him! If you knew Mr. Crane, if you knew how his very
life is bound up in this matter, you would be even more assured what a
disaster it would be to have him in any way discredited!"

Peter's heart fell at this, for he had a half hope that he could yet
bring himself to demolish his father's air castle.

"Well, then," he said, slowly, "I'll not discredit him, nor you, for, of
course, one involves the other. But this,