is
eagerness. "First you must catch your medium. Bottazzi succeeded at last
in getting Paladino's consent, but only through the good offices of
Professor Richet, whom she deeply loves and reverences. Submissively she
entered into this most crucial series of tests. She was no longer afraid
of any scientist, but it was not precisely a joy to her. Bottazzi
invited his friend Galeotti, Professor of General Pathology in the
University of Naples; Dr. de Amicis, Professor of Dermatology; Dr. Oscar
Scarpa, Professor of Electro-chemistry at the Polytechnic High School of
Naples; Luigi Lombardi, Professor of Electro-technology at the same
school; and Dr. Pansini, Professor Extraordinary of Medical Semiotics;
and these gentlemen certainly made up a formidable platoon of
investigation. The room in which the experiments took place was an
isolated one, connected with the laboratory of experimental physiology,
and belonged to that part of the university set aside for Bottazzi's
exclusive use. Nothing could have been further from the ordinary stuffy
back parlor of the 'materializing medium.' No women were present, and no
outsider; as you see, conditions were as nearly perfect as the ingenuity
of Bottazzi and his assistants could make them."

The members present nestled into their chairs with looks of
satisfaction, and Mrs. Cameron said: "Don't leave anything out. Tell it
all."

"It is hardly necessary to say that every precaution was taken.
Photographs of the cabinet were made before the sittings and afterward,
in order that all displacements might be recorded. Provision was made
for registering the action of 'John King's' spectral hands. Some of
these devices were concealed in an adjoining room and watched by other
attendants. One little touch early in Bottazzi's account impressed me
deeply. A little electric motor was used to furnish power for the lamps
and other apparatus, and Bottazzi, in speaking of it, says: 'At the
moment when the phenomena to be registered began to manifest, the
circuit was closed, _and suddenly in the complete silence of the night
the feeble murmur of the motor was heard_.' I thrill to the action of
that faithful little material watch-dog. Ghosts and hobgoblins could not
silence or affright it. After all, matter is both persistent and bold."

"But not sovereign," defiantly called out Brierly; "the psychic
dominates it."

"We shall see. Bottazzi declares in italics that Paladino neither put
her hand into t