of it?"

"But certainly. It is the fact which lies under all other facts. That is
why an evil thought is also a danger."

"They are, I suppose, upon the astral plane?" said Moir.

"Ah, well, these are but words, my friends. They are
there--somewhere--everywhere--I cannot tell myself. I see them. I could
touch them."

"You could not make _us_ see them."

"It is to materialise them. Hold! It is an experiment. But the power is
wanting. Let us see what power we have, and then arrange what we shall
do. May I place you as I wish?"

"You evidently know a great deal more about it than we do," said Harvey
Deacon; "I wish that you would take complete control."

"It may be that the conditions are not good. But we will try what we can
do. Madame will sit where she is, I next, and this gentleman beside me.
Meester Moir will sit next to madame, because it is well to have blacks
and blondes in turn. So! And now with your permission I will turn the
lights all out."

"What is the advantage of the dark?" I asked.

"Because the force with which we deal is a vibration of ether and so
also is light. We have the wires all for ourselves now--_hein_? You will
not be frightened in the darkness, madame? What a fun is such a seance!"

At first the darkness appeared to be absolutely pitchy, but in a few
minutes our eyes became so far accustomed to it that we could just make
out each other's presence--very dimly and vaguely, it is true. I could
see nothing else in the room--only the black loom of the motionless
figures. We were all taking the matter much more seriously than we had
ever done before.

"You will place your hands in front. It is hopeless that we touch, since
we are so few round so large a table. You will compose yourself, madame,
and if sleep should come to you you will not fight against it. And now
we sit in silence and we expect--_hein_?"

So we sat in silence and expected, staring out into the blackness in
front of us. A clock ticked in the passage. A dog barked intermittently
far away. Once or twice a cab rattled past in the street, and the gleam
of its lamps through the chink in the curtains was a cheerful break in
that gloomy vigil. I felt those physical symptoms with which previous
seances had made me familiar--the coldness of the feet, the tingling in
the hands, the glow of the palms, the feeling of a cold wind upon the
back. Strange little shooting pains came in my forearms, especially as
it seemed to me in my l