t real sorry for Doc, he was so dead earnest about it.

"In a minute Moller opened his jaw and begun to talk. It was all sort of
jerky-like.

"'I'm sailin' through starry fields,' he says, 'explorin' the wonders of
the universe. Why am I called back to earth this way? Doth somebody want
to question me about something?'

"Doc was all worked up. He held onto a chairback, an' he was so shakin'
I could hear the loose chair rungs rattle.

"'Is this Bacon?' he says.

"'It is,' says Moller, his voice jerkin' like a kitten taken with the
fits.

"'Well,' says Doc, like his life was hangin' on what Moller would say,
'did you, or did you not, write Shakespeare's plays?'

"'I did not,' Moller jerked out; 'Shakespeare did.'

"You could hear Doc sigh all over the room, it was sich a relief to his
mind. Doc was awful pleased. He was smilin' all over his face, he was
so pleased to have Bacon own up, an' he turned to ma and me and says,
'Ain't it wonderful!'

"Then Moller come out of his fit an' set still a while, like he had jist
woke up from a long nap. Then he says he's goin' into another trance,
an' if any in the room wants to hold talk with any of their lost friends
or kin, they should ask for them, an' he jerked again, and jerked out
stiff.

"That old back-slider, Pap Briggs, popped up, but Doc was ahead of him,
'cause Pap always has to regulate his store teeth before he can git his
tongue goin', and Doc says, 'I desire to speak with Richard Burbage.'

"I guess Moller didn't now any sich feller. Anyways he jist lay still
an' so Doc says, 'Mebby there's several Richard Burbages. I mean the one
that owned a theater with Shakespeare.' But Richard Burbage didn't feed
like talkin' that evenin'. I reckon Moller didn't know nothin' about
Richard Burbage, and was frightened that Doc would ask him something
that he couldn't answer. There ain't nobody slicker than them fake
fellers. It's their business.

"But Doc was so worked up he would have swallered anything, and I guess
Moller thought he had to make up to Doc for payin' his expenses, so he
says, smilin', 'I see, doctor, you are interested in literature, and
I'll try to get somebody in that line that's willing to talk.' So he
jerked into another trance.

"Purty soon Moller says: 'From the seventh circle I have come, drawn by
the will of somebody that knows and loves me. It's a long way. Billions
of miles off is ny new home, where I spend eternity writin' things that
mak