"Mr. Baxter! Come in, come in; I"m delighted to see you."
Laurie came in without a word, went straight up to the fire-place, and faced about.
"I"m not going to apologize," he said, "for coming at this time. You told me to come and see you at any time, and I"ve taken you at your word."
The young man had an odd embarra.s.sed manner, thought the other; an air of having come in spite of uneasiness; he was almost shamefaced.
The medium impelled him gently into a chair.
"First a cigarette," he said; "next a little whisky, and then I shall be delighted to listen.... No; please do as I say."
Laurie permitted himself to be managed; there was a strong, almost paternal air in the other"s manner that was difficult to resist. He lit his cigarette, he sipped his whisky; but his movements were nervously quick.
"Well, then...." and he interrupted himself. "What are those things, Mr. Vincent?" He nodded towards the second shelf in the bookcase.
Mr. Vincent turned on the hearthrug.
"Those? Oh! those are a few rather elementary instruments for my work."
He lifted down a crystal ball on a small black polished wooden stand and handed it over.
"You have heard of crystal-gazing? Well, that is the article."
"Is that crystal?"
"Oh no: common gla.s.s. Price three shillings and sixpence."
Laurie turned it over, letting the shining globe run on to his hand.
"And this is--" he began.
"And this," said the medium, setting a curious windmill-shaped affair, its sails lined with looking-gla.s.s, on the little table by the fire, "this is a French toy. Very elementary."
"What"s that?"
"Look."
Mr. Vincent wound a small handle at the back of the windmill to a sound of clockwork, set it down again, and released it. Instantly the sails began to revolve, noiseless and swift, producing the effect of a rapidly flashing circle of light across which span lines, waxing and waning with extraordinary speed.
"What the--"
"It"s a little machine for inducing sleep. Oh! I haven"t used that for months. But it"s useful sometimes. The hypnotic subject just stares at that steadily.... Why, you"re looking dazed yourself, already, Mr. Baxter," smiled the medium.
He stopped the mechanism and pushed it on one side.
"And what"s the other?" asked Laurie, looking again at the shelf.
"Ah!"
The medium, with quite a different air, took down and set before him an object resembling a tiny heart-shaped table on three wheeled legs, perhaps four or five inches across. Through the center ran a pencil perpendicularly of which the point just touched the tablecloth on which the thing rested. Laurie looked at it, and glanced up.
"Yes, that"s Planchette," said the medium.
"For ... for automatic writing?"
The other nodded.
"Yes," he said. "The experimenter puts his fingers lightly upon that, and there"s a sheet of paper beneath. That is all."
Laurie looked at him, half curiously. Then with a sudden movement he stood up.
"Yes," he said. "Thank you. But--"
"Please sit down, Mr. Baxter.... I know you haven"t come about that kind of thing. Will you kindly tell me what you have come about?"
He, too, sat down, and, without looking at the other, began slowly to fill his pipe again, with his strong capable fingers. Laurie stared at the process, unseeing.
"Just tell me simply," said the medium again, still without looking at him.
Laurie threw himself back.
"Well, I will," he said. "I know it"s absurdly childish; but I"m a little frightened. It"s about a dream."
"That"s not necessarily childish."
"It"s a dream I had tonight--in my chair after dinner."
"Well?"
Then Laurie began.
For about ten minutes he talked without ceasing. Mr. Vincent smoked tranquilly, putting what seemed to Laurie quite unimportant questions now and again, and nodding gently from time to time.
"And I"m frightened," ended Laurie; "and I want you to tell me what it all means."
The other drew a long inhalation through his pipe, expelled it, and leaned back.
"Oh, it"s comparatively common," he said; "common, that is, with people of your temperament, Mr. Baxter--and mine.... You tell me that it was prayer that enabled you to get through at the end? That is interesting."
"But--but--was it more than fancy--more, I mean, than an ordinary dream?"
"Oh, yes; it was objective. It was a real experience."
"You mean--"
"Mr. Baxter, just listen to me for a minute or two. You can ask any questions you like at the end. First, you are a Catholic, you told me; you believe, that is to say, among other things, that the spiritual world is a real thing, always present more or less. Well, of course, I agree with you; though I do not agree with you altogether as to the geography and--and other details of that world. But you believe, I take it, that this world is continually with us--that this room, so to speak, is a great deal more than that of which our senses tell us that there are with us, now and always, a mult.i.tude of influences, good, bad, and indifferent, really present to our spirits?"