le.

"Miller," said I, with conviction, "_that woman did not lift her wrists
from that chair_!

"I don't see how she did it; but to say she did not, is to admit the
preposterous. I wish she had permitted us to hold her hands."

"I don't know of another psychic in America who would have submitted to
the test we put upon Mrs. Smiley to-night, but 'Mitchell' has assured me
he will go further: he will let us hold her hands and turn on the light.
I feel as if the great mystery were almost within our grasp. By the
ghost of Euclid! I have the conviction at this moment that we are at the
point of proving for ourselves the elongation of the psychic's limbs!
Suppose Flammarion is right? Suppose that the psychic can extend her
arms beyond their normal proportions? You should be ready to give a
year, ten years, to demonstrating a single one of these physical
effects. If I am any judge of character, this little woman is as honest
and as wholesome as Mrs. Miller herself. It isn't this one performance
alone which proves it. It is the implication of a dozen other sittings,
almost as convincing as this, that gives me hope of proving something.
Let us have our next sitting at Cameron's. It is only fair to readmit
them, for we have proven that they had nothing to do with our
performance that first night. Let us ask to be permitted to hold the
hands and feet of the psychic, and also to take a flash-light picture of
the floating cone. We may yet see these ghostly hands in the light of
the lamp."

Miller was shaken. I could see that. He sat like one who has been dealt
a stunning blow.

"I don't believe it--I can't believe it," he repeated.

"Crookes got some photos of 'Katie King,' and I fully believe that Mrs.
Smiley may be developed further. Anyhow, let's test her. Now for a word
of theory. This is the way it all appears to me at this time. She seems
to enter successively three stages of hypnotic sleep. In the first stage
the 'spirits' speak through her own throat--or she impersonates, as Mrs.
Harris did. Her second and deeper sleep permits of the movement of the
cone--'telekinesis,' 'independent slate-writing,' etc. But in this final
deathly trance she has the power of projecting her astral hands,
whatever that may mean, and the production of spirit voices. Perhaps she
has an astral head--"

"I don't believe a word of it! It is all impossible, monstrous!"

"Well, how will you explain this performance? What about the tacks, the
t