een yourself in that barrel, and crawling out,"
he said.

We reached Mrs. Dane's, to find that Miss Jeremy had already arrived,
looking rather pale, as I had noticed she always did before a seance.
Her color had faded, and her eyes seemed sunken in her head.

"Not ill, are you?" Sperry asked her, as he took her hand.

"Not at all. But I am anxious. I always am. These things do not come for
the calling."

"This is the last time. You have promised."

"Yes. The last time."

X

It appeared that Herbert Robinson had been reading, during his
convalescence, a considerable amount of psychic literature, and that
we were to hold this third and final sitting under test conditions. As
before, the room had been stripped of furniture, and the cloth and rod
which formed the low screen behind Miss Jeremy's chair were not of her
own providing, but Herbert's.

He had also provided, for some reason or other, eight small glass cups,
into which he placed the legs of the two tables, and in a business-like
manner he set out on the large stand a piece of white paper, a pencil,
and a spool of black thread. It is characteristic of Miss Jeremy, and of
her own ignorance of the methods employed in professional seances, that
she was as much interested and puzzled as we were.

When he had completed his preparations, Herbert made a brief speech.

"Members of the Neighborhood Club," he said impressively, "we have
agreed among ourselves that this is to be our last meeting for the
purpose that is before us. I have felt, therefore, that in justice to
the medium this final seance should leave us with every conviction of
its genuineness. Whatever phenomena occur, the medium must be, as
she has been, above suspicion. For the replies of her 'control,' no
particular precaution seems necessary, or possible. But the first seance
divided itself into two parts: an early period when, so far as we could
observe, the medium was at least partly conscious, possibly fully so,
when physical demonstrations occurred. And a second, or trance period,
during which we received replies to questions. It is for the physical
phenomena that I am about to take certain precautions."

"Are you going to tie me?" Miss Jeremy asked.

"Do you object?"

"Not at all. But with what?"

"With silk thread," Herbert said, smilingly.

She held out her wrists at once, but Herbert placed her in her chair,
and proceeded to wrap her, chair and all, in a strong network of fi