later there was no longer the possibility of a doubt.

There before the boy's eyes, as he stared, white-faced, with parted
lips, the pencil rose, hesitated, quivered; but, instead of falling
back again, hung so for a moment on its point, forming with itself an
acute angle with the plane of the table in an entirely impossible
position; then, once more rising higher, swung on its point in a
quarter circle, and after one more pause and quiver, rose to its full
height, remained poised one instant, then fell with a sudden movement,
rolled across the table and dropped on the carpet.

The medium leaned back, drawing a long breath.

"There," he said; and smiled at the bewildered young man.

"But--but--" began the other.

"Yes, I know," said the man. "It's startling, isn't it? and indeed
it's not as easy as it looks. I wasn't at all sure--"

"But, good Lord, I saw--"

"Of course you did; but how do you know you weren't hypnotized?"

Laurie sat down suddenly, unconscious that he had done so. The medium
put out his hand for his pipe once more.

"Now, I'm going to be quite honest," he said. "I have quite a quantity
of comments to make on that. First, it doesn't prove anything
whatever, even if it really happened--"

"Even if it--!"

"Certainly.... Oh, yes; I saw it too; and there's the pencil on the
floor"--he stooped and picked it up.

"But what if we were both hypnotized--both acted upon by
self-suggestion? We can't prove we weren't."

Laurie was dumb.

"Secondly, it doesn't prove anything, in any case, as regards the
other matters we were speaking of. It only shows--if it really
happened, as I say--that the mind has extraordinary control over
matter. It hasn't anything to do with immortality, or--or
spiritualism."

"Then why did you do it?" gasped the boy.

"Merely fireworks ... only to show off. People are convinced by such
queer things."

Laurie sat regarding, still with an unusual pallor in his face and
brightness in his eyes. He could not in the last degree put into words
why it was that the tiny incident of the pencil affected him so
profoundly. Vaguely, only, he perceived that it was all connected
somehow with the ordinariness of the accessories, and more impressive
therefore than all the paraphernalia of planchette, spinning mirrors,
or even his own dreams.

He stood up again suddenly.

"It's no good, Mr. Vincent," he said, putting out his hand, "I'm
knocked over. I can't imagine why. It's no us