e," insisted Miller.

Mrs. Cameron drew a long breath. "Do you mean to say that this 'Katie
King' phantom actually _talked_ with the people in the room? Does Sir
William Crookes say that?"

"Yes. Over and over again he declares that 'Katie King' appeared as real
as any one else in his house. He becomes quite lyrical in description of
her beauty. She was like a pearl in her purity. Her flesh seemed a
sublimation of ordinary human flesh. And the grace of her manner was so
extraordinary that Lady Crookes and all who saw her became deeply
enamoured of her. She allowed some of them to kiss her, and Crookes
himself was permitted to grasp her hand and walk up and down the room
with her."

"How was she dressed?" asked Mrs. Brush.

"There! Now we are getting at the essentials," I exclaimed. "Usually in
white with a turban."

"Did she look like the medium?"

"She was utterly unlike Miss Cook in several physical details. She was
half a head taller, her face was broader, her ears had not been
pierced, and she was free from certain facial scars that Miss Cook bore;
and once when Miss Cook was suffering from a severe cold, Sir William
tested 'Katie King's' lungs and found them in perfect health. On several
occasions he and several of his friends, among them eminent scientists,
saw 'Katie' and the medium together, and at last succeeded in
photographing them both on the same plate, although never with Miss
Cook's face exposed, because of the danger, to one in a trance, from the
shock of a flash-light."

"I don't take any stock in that excuse," said Howard. "But go on, I like
this."

"For months the great chemist brought all his skill to bear on Miss
Cook's mediumship without detecting any fraud or finding any solution of
the mystery. The sittings, which took place in his own library, were
under his own conditions, and he had the assistance of several young and
clever physicists, and yet he could not convict Miss Cook of
double-dealing. The story of the final seance, when 'Katie King'
announced her departure, is as affecting as a scene in a play. She had
said that her real name was 'Annie Morgan,' but that in the spirit world
she was known as 'Katie King.' She came, she said, to do a certain work,
and now, after three years, that work was done, and she must return to
the spirit world."

"What was that work?"

"To convince the world of the spirit life, I imagine. 'When the time
came for "Katie" to take her farewell,' writes