e sound of lips, and at
last a voice came to her speaking the name of her father. His voice
answered some of her questions correctly, but could not utter the pet
name which her father used to call her. This breakdown of the
individuality of the phantom voices is very characteristic. This ended
the sitting. The voices had not been as strong as we had hoped for, but
as we threw on the light we found a number of messages written upon the
sheets of paper which Fowler had put in the middle of the table. These
messages were lying with the writing wrong side up, so far as the
psychic was concerned. Altogether we felt that the results were both
significant and encouraging, and we agreed to meet three days later in
the same room and under the same conditions.

"What I want to do now is to hold your arms while the horn is in the
air, or while the writing is going on," I said to Mrs. Smiley.

And to this she replied: "You may make any test you please. I feel that
in this house my powers will return."

"That is a real gain," I said, to encourage her.

VI

The next sitting was an almost exact duplication of the last so far as
the binding (and nailing) of the psychic was concerned, except that we
sewed _two_ bands of tape to her sleeves and _four_ tacks were used at
each wrist. Her feet were tied separately in the middle of a long tape,
and the ends brought together, carried back beneath her chair, and
tacked to the floor. As before, we placed the large end of the cone on
the floor, out of her reach, leaving the smaller end on the table, which
we left just out of her utmost reach. On the table we placed some sheets
of paper specially marked and dated, and took our seats as usual.

No one was present at this sitting but Mr. and Mrs. Fowler and myself.
Even the faithful Brierly had been unable to share in this, the
twenty-ninth experiment. I was delighted to have the circle narrow down,
for Fowler was a good investigator and a man of vast experience in
psychic matters. Outside interference was absolutely excluded. "Whatever
happens to-night, Fowler," I said, "you and I or the spirits must be
responsible for it."

We began, as usual, by putting Mrs. Smiley into hypnotic sleep. In a
few moments the familiar shuddering action took place. Her palms grew
moist. She said she found it difficult to submit to our touch. She asked
us to put our fingers above hers, and soon after, in the midst of our
singing, her voice ceased, her