this company will sit as I direct for
twenty-one days at the same hour, in the same room, under the same
conditions, phenomena will develop which will not merely amaze but scare
some of you; and as for you, Mrs. Quigg, you who are so certain that
nothing ever happens, you will be the first to turn pale with awe."

"Try me! I am wild to be 'shown.'"

Harris was not so boastful. "You mean, of course, that some of these
highly cultured ladies would develop hysteria?"

"I am not naming the condition; I only say that I have seen some very
hard-headed and self-contained people cut strange capers. The trance and
'impersonation' usually come first."

"Let's do it!" cried out Miss Brush. "It would be such fun!"

"You'd be the first to 'go off,'" said I, banteringly.

Harris agreed. "She is neuropathic."

"I propose we start a psychic society here and now," said Cameron. "I'll
be president, Mrs. Quigg secretary, and Garland can be the director of
the awful rites. Miss Brush, you shall be the 'mejum.'"

"Oh no, no!" she cried, "please let some one else be it."

This amused me, but I seized upon Cameron's notion. "I accept the
arrangement provided you do not hold me responsible for any ill
effects," I said. "It's ticklish business. There are many who hold the
whole process diabolic."

"Is the house ready for the question?" asked Cameron.

"Ay, ay!" shouted every one present.

"The society is formed," announced Cameron. "As president, I suggest a
sitting right now. How about it, Garland?"

"Certainly!" I answered, "for I have an itching in my thumbs that tells
me something witching this way comes."

The guests rose in a flutter of pleased excitement.

"How do we go at it?" asked Mrs. Cameron.

"The first requisite is a small table--"

"Why a table?" asked Mrs. Quigg.

"The theory is that it helps to concentrate the minds of the sitters,
and it will also furnish a convenient place to rest our hands. Anyhow,
all the great investigators began this way," I replied, pacifically. "We
may also require a pencil and a pad."

Miller was on his dignity. "I decline to sit at a table in that foolish
way. I shall look on in lonely grandeur."

The others were eager to "sit in," as young Howard called it, and soon
nine of us were seated about an oblong mahogany table. Brierly was very
serious, Miss Brush ecstatic, and Mrs. Harris rather nervous.

I was careful to prepare them all for failure. "This is only a trial
sitting