ge it,
he had been more or less biased in his estimates of other evidence by
what he had heard of supernatural communications.

But of this Thorpe hesitated to speak to Julie. For it was her father
who had brought those things about, and while Thorpe had no use for the
whole mediumistic business, he rarely said so to the Crane family.

And the note that purported to be from Peter, he believed a bare-faced
fraud. He couldn't understand it, nor imagine how it had been managed,
but he would not believe that it was the work of the dead Peter Crane.

And so, he submitted helplessly to arrest, for there was no way to prove
his innocence. He had tried "detective work" on his own account, but it
amounted to nothing. The police held that it was an "open and shut"
case, and that Thorpe must have been the murderer.

Benjamin Crane, though all unwilling to condemn Thorpe, was, of course,
greatly swayed by the supernatural messages, and couldn't help his
belief in them. But, for Julie's sake, and to give Thorpe every possible
chance, he had engaged Pennington Wise, and had invited him to stay at
the Crane house while conducting his investigation.

So Wise came, and with him came his queer little assistant, the girl
called Zizi.

There was ample room in the big city house, and the two were treated as
honored guests.

Wise was alert, quick-witted and tactful, but Zizi was even more so. She
made friends with the Cranes at once, and they all admired the odd,
fascinating girl. Small of stature, dark of coloring, Zizi was not
unlike a gypsy, and the mention of this brought about the tale of the
gypsy's prophecy regarding Peter Boots.

"What an interesting story," the girl said, after hearing Benjamin Crane
tell it. "It is wonderful how you dear people bear your loss so
bravely."

"But it isn't really a loss," said Mrs. Crane, "you see, we have our boy
with us continually."

It was only by desperate effort that Zizi kept from laughing, for of all
fads or whims, spiritism seemed to her the worst and most foolish. But
she was there on business, and part of her business was to gather all
the information she could regarding this same spiritism, so she showed
only deep interest and apparent sympathy with their beliefs.

"You do believe in these things, don't you?" Mrs. Crane asked, and,
being thus confronted, Zizi had to answer directly.

"It's hard to say," she replied, "for, you see, I've had so little real
experience. Practica