ne could doubt your
veracity, Mr. Crane," said Shelby, sincerely, though with a mental
reservation that believing in Benjamin Crane's veracity did not
necessarily mean subscribing to his hallucinations.

Blair's face showed his interest and curiosity, and Benjamin Crane went
on with the tale to a breathlessly absorbed audience.

"It did come about, I've no doubt, because of our talks of Peter; and
also, because we chanced to hear of some neighbors who had wonderful
success with a Ouija Board."

A sudden, involuntary exclamation on the part of Blair was immediately
suppressed by a warning glance from Shelby. It would never do to show
scorn of the Ouija Board and all its works in the presence of this
afflicted couple. If any comfort from its use had reached them or could
reach them, it must be a blessing indeed.

"Yes," Crane said, catching the meaning of the look on Blair's face, "I
know how you feel about such things, but just reserve judgment until you
hear our experiences. We bought a Board, and mother and I tried to use
it alone. We had no success at all. It would spell nothing
coherent,--only meaningless jumbles of letters,--or simply refuse to
move. Of course, you understand, we had no thought that our boy was--was
in any danger,--but we had been told that sometimes living persons
communicated by such means. So we persevered, but we never got a
message."

"Then what happened?" asked Blair, eagerly, seeing from the faces of the
older people that something had.

"Why then," Mrs. Crane spoke now,--"we found somebody to help us. I'd
rather not tell the name,--it was a lady----"

"A medium?" asked Shelby.

"Oh, no! I mean, not a professional medium,--a lady we've known for
years. She had had some experience with the Board, and she tried it with
us. And then,--you tell it, father."

"Then," said Mr. Crane, speaking very seriously, "then we got a message
from Peter. The message said that he had died in the snow."

"What!" cried Shelby, "incredible! When was this?"

"In November."

"Peter died the seventeenth of October."

"Yes, and it was the tenth of November that we had the message."

"Just what did it say?" asked Blair, his eyes wide with amazement.

"It was a little stammering and uncertain, as if hard to get it through.
But the Ouija spelled out Peter's name, and when she--Miss--when the
lady with us asked if it had a message from Peter, it pointed to 'yes.'
Then she tried to get the message. But t