Part 18 (1/2)

Smiley,” I said, as I placed my hand upon her wrist. ”Proceed, 'Wilbur.'

Let me hear your voice now.”

With tense expectation, I put my ear close to the psychic's lips and listened breathlessly. The horn soared into the air and was drummed there, as if to show that it was out of the reach of the psychic, but no voice came from it! This was a disappointment to me, as well as to Fowler, and I banteringly said: ”You know this failure is suspicious, Wilbur.' It seems to indicate that Mrs. Smiley is only a wonderful ventriloquist, after all. Can't you prove that she is independent of your voice? Can't you do something decisive at this moment?”

No reply came to this; but while my hand was firmly pressed upon her wrist (both sleeves being nailed to the chair), the loose leaves of the paper in the centre of the table were whisked away to the left. I could follow their flight, and we all heard their deposition on a couch in a corner of the room.

”Fowler,” I said, ”are you controlling your wife's hands?”

”Yes; we had nothing to do with that noise.”

This was another tense moment, for the movement of those papers was very ghostly indeed. We had demonstrated clearly that their movement was supernormal.

”May I come forward?” asked Fowler.

Tap--”_No_,” was the decided answer.

I then asked: ”'Wilbur,' do you want me to change with Fowler and control Mrs. Fowler's hands?”

An emphatic ”_Yes_” was rapped in reply.

”They seem as anxious for a conclusive test as we are,” remarked Fowler.

”Did you mean you didn't want Mrs. Fowler unaccounted for?”

A perfect fusillade of raps followed: ”_Yes, yes, yes._”

Fowler then came forward to Mrs. Smiley's left, while I returned to the table. Taking both of Mrs. Fowler's hands in mine, and setting the toes of my shoes upon hers, I awaited developments. At this moment, while Fowler was pressing the psychic's imprisoned wrists, the cone banged about most furiously, describing wide circles entirely out of Mrs.

Smiley's reach. This action was another perfectly convincing test of the psychic's supernormal powers. As the same movement had taken place with _each_ of us in control of the psychic, each was absolved from any complicity in the matter; but I did not forget my further test. ”Mrs.

Smiley,” I said, ”I want Mr. Fowler to return to his seat, and I want to place my hand over your lips--or to m.u.f.fle you in some way. _I must_ prove that you have nothing to do with the production of those voices.

Will you permit this test?”

”Certainly,” she answered, with patient sweetness. ”You may gag me in any way you please. I am perfectly sure you can secure the proof you want.” Upon this hint I acted. Taking a large kerchief from my pocket, I tied it tightly around her mouth, knotting it at the back, and then, in growing excitement, challenged the ghostly voice: ”Now, 'Wilbur,' let's hear from you.”

A moment later the voice came from the cone, but apparently very much m.u.f.fled and blurred. ”You are not articulating well,” I rather sarcastically observed.

Instantly the voice came out clearly, more sharply than ever before.

”_I was fooling you!_” jeered ”Wilbur.”

We all applauded. ”There, that's better,” I said. ”Your voice improved wonderfully.”

”Wilbur” chuckled with glee. ”_I've taken a lozenge_,” he whimsically retorted, expressing a very human delight in our mystification.

Fowler then said: ”Now let's consider this a moment, Garland. Suppose Mrs. Smiley has been able to loosen the gag. How does she handle the cone? We will suppose she is a marvellous ventriloquist. How does she write on the pads on the table, and how does she whisk them away? You see, it isn't the matter of one thing, but of all that has happened.”

”Yes, I admit that everything points to an exercise of supernormal force. It really looks, so far as anything in the dark can look, like spirits, but I prefer to think Mrs. Smiley has the power to project her will in some way.”

”I don't see how we are going to escape the spirit hypothesis,” replied Fowler.

”'Mitch.e.l.l,'” I said, addressing the phantom, ”I want to examine that gag, and I want to hold both hands of the psychic. Will you permit that?”