pendence on my present recollection," I
frankly responded, "but I reported on the case at once while my mind
was most accurate as to details. Speaking further of these tricks, if
you choose to call them such, I have had several failures, where the
failure meant as much as a success. I have held two slates with a
psychic (while we were both standing) when the creaking and scratching
and grinding went on between my hands. I give you my word I was
convinced at the moment of holding between my palms a sentient force. I
felt as Franklin must have felt when he played with the lightning in the
bottle at the tail of his kite. Once I heard the writing going on in a
half-opened slate, but I did not see the pencil in motion. Some of these
cases of 'direct-writing' are the most convincing of all my experiences.
People ask me why I didn't talk with the spirits about heaven and
angels. I was not interested in their religious notions. I kept to this
one line--I wanted to see a particle of matter move from A to B without
a known push or pull. I paid very little attention to 'trance-mediums'
like Mrs. Piper; and although I saw a great deal of what is called
'mind-reading' and 'thought-transference,' I did not permit the cart to
get before the horse. 'Independent slate-writing' interested me, for the
reason that I could put the clamps on it. Materialization, on the
contrary, is so staged and arranged for that to prove its genuineness
seems impossible at present; but slate-writing under your hand is a
different matter."

"I'd like to have it under _my_ hand," said Miller, grimly.

"You can have it if you'll go after it," I retorted, "and you can have
it hard."

Mrs. Miller was deeply interested. "Tell us more. Have you had other
messages written in that wonderful way?"

"Yes, many of them. One of the most curious examples of this kind I have
ever seen came to me in Chicago. It was a 'new one,' as Howard would
say. Old Mr. MacVicker told me one day that there was a woman on the
West Side who had a trick of producing independent slate-writing beneath
the stem of a goblet of water--"

"Why under a goblet of water?" interrupted Miller.

"As a test. You see, nearly every one who goes to a psychic wants first
of all to witness a miracle. Each seeker demands that his particular
message shall come hard--that is to say, under conditions impossible to
the living. His reasoning is like this: 'The dead are free from the
limitations of our life