"Very numb, but I"ll be all right in a very short time. My wrists hurt; your thread is very tight. My arms always swell. Please give me a drink of water."
As I held the gla.s.s to her lips I was conscience-smitten to think that for five hours she had been sitting in this constrained position--a martyr to science; but I deferred the moment of her release till Miller had examined every bond. I used a small pair of scissors to cut the thread out of the deep furrows in her wrist, and it took a quarter of an hour of chafing to restore her arms to their normal condition, all of which had a convincing effect upon the doubters.
Miss Brush was indignant. "I think it is a shame the way you have treated your psychic."
"Oh, this is nothing," responded Mrs. Smiley. "I"d be unhappy and uneasy if you didn"t tie me. I"m like the old man"s chickens (you"ve heard the story?): he had moved so much that the chickens, whenever they saw him put a cover on his wagon, would lie down and cross their feet to be tied."
After Mrs. Cameron had taken Mrs. Smiley to the dining-room for a cup of tea, the rest of us remained staring at one another.
"Now, which of us did that?" I asked.
"So far as the psychic was concerned, I don"t see how she could have had any hand in it," said Miller. "But, then, it was all in the dark."
I had to admit that this diminished the value of the experiment. "But now listen," I said: "as we all seem to be suspicious of one another, I propose that we resort to a process of elimination. I shall take "Mitch.e.l.l"s" advice and narrow the circle. Howard, you are a suspect.
You are ruled out of the next sitting."
"Oh no," protested Howard. "That isn"t fair. I did nothing, I swear!"
"You admit being a prestidigitator?"
"Yes, but I had nothing to do with this performance."
"Nevertheless, so far as conclusive proof is concerned, your presence in the circle invalidates it. Now I propose that Mrs. Smiley go to Miller"s house, with no one present but Mr. and Mrs. Cameron and Mr. and Mrs.
Miller. If we secure these same phenomena under Miller"s conditions, we will then readmit one by one the entire membership of the society."
Mrs. Quigg resented being left out, and I pretended surprise.
"I thought from what you had said that these "dark shows" were of no value?"
"The next one ought to have decided value if Professor Miller has any share in the test," she answered, quickly. "I believe in him."
"And not in me? That"s a nice thing to say."
"I mean in his method. He is a cold, calm, merciless scientist. You"re a man of imagination."
"Thank you," said I. "My critics would take issue with you there.
However, if we get anywhere in this campaign we must begin with the smallest possible circle and slowly enlarge it. We hope also to increase the amount of light."
After some further argument, Cameron settled the matter by saying: "Garland is right; and, to show my own scientific temper, I rule Mrs.
Cameron and myself out of the next sitting. That will put the whole problem up to Miller and Garland."
Miller and I walked away to the club together, pondering deeply on the implications of the night"s performance.
"I don"t see how it was done," Miller repeated. "Certainly she did not rise from her chair, not for an instant, and yet to believe that she did not have a hand in what took place is to admit the impossible. You have had other sittings with her, haven"t you? You believe in her?"
"Yes, I think she is sincere, but possibly self-deceived. The fact that she is willing to put herself into our hands in this way is most convincing."
"There is nothing of the trickster about her appearance, and yet I wish she had permitted us to hold her hands to-night."
"Miller," said I, earnestly, "if you"ll go with me into this experimentation with an open mind, I"ll convince you that Crookes and Flammarion are the true scientists. It is the fashion to smile at Flammarion as a romantic astronomer, but I can"t see _now_ that he is lacking in patience and caution. For all his rather fervid utterances, he keeps his head and goes on patiently investigating. He has had more experience than even Crookes or Lombroso. For forty years he has been searching the dark for these strange forces, and yet he says: "We create in these seances an imaginary being; we speak to it, and in its replies it almost always reflects the mentality of the experimenter. Spirits have taught us nothing. They have not led science forward a single step.... I must say that if there are spirits, or beings independent of us, in action, they know no more than we do about the other world"s."
And yet as regards the physical facts of mediumship, he sustains all the investigators. "These phenomena exist," he says."
"Candidly, Garland, what is your own belief?" asked Miller, a few moment"s later.
I evaded him. "I have seen enough to make me believe in Zollner"s fourth dimension, but I don"t. My mind is so constructed that such wonders as we have seen to-night produce very little effect on me. They are as normal to me now as the popping of corn or the roasting of potatoes. As I say, I have demonstrated certain of these physical doings. But as for belief--well, that is not a matter of the will, but of evidence, and the evidence is not yet sufficient to bring me to any definite conclusion; in fact, in the broad day, and especially the second day after I have been through one of these astounding experiences, I begin to doubt my senses. Richet speaks of this curious recession of belief, and admits his own inability to retain the conviction that, at the moment of the phenomenon, was complete. "No sooner is the sitting over than my doubts come swarming back upon me,"
he says. "The real world which surrounds us, with its prejudices, its schemes of habitual opinions, holds us in so strong a grasp that we can scarcely free ourselves completely. Certainty does not follow on demonstration, but on habit." And in that saying you have my own mental limitations admirably put."
Miller plodded along by my side in silence for a few minutes, and then asked, abruptly: "What is the real reason that you keep up the fiction of the "guide" when you don"t believe in him?"
"For the reason that I think Mrs. Smiley honest in her faith, and that to be polite to the "guides" is one of the first requisites of a successful sitting. Suppose the whole action to be terrestrial. Suppose each successful sitting to be, as Flammarion suggests, nothing but a subtle adjustment of our "collective consciousness" to hers. Can"t you see how necessary it is that we should proceed with her full consent?
After an immense experience, following closely Crookes, de Rochas, Lodge, Richet, Duclaux, Lombroso, and Ochorowicz, Maxwell says: "I believe in these phenomena, but I see no need to attribute them to any supernatural intervention. I am inclined to think they are produced by some force within ourselves--""
"Just what does he mean by that?"
"I can"t precisely explain. It"s harder to understand than the spirit hypothesis. He himself admits this, and goes on to say that while he is certain that we are in the presence of an unknown force, he is convinced that the phenomena will ultimately be found orderly, like all other facts of nature. "Therefore, in the critical state of research, the scientific problem, it seems to me, is not whether spiritism be true or false, but whether metapsychical phenomena are real or imaginary. Some future Newton will discover a more complete formula than ours," he prophesies. "Every natural fact should be studied, and if it be real, incorporated in the patrimony of knowledge." He then adds, with the true scientist"s humble acknowledgment of the infinite reach of the undiscovered universe: "Our knowledge is very limited and our experience young.""
"That is good talk," said Miller in reply, "but the question is, Does he really experiment in that condition of mind? An astronomer with his eye to a telescope is a highly specialized and competent being. An astronomer listening to whispers in the dark may be as simple and credulous as a child."
"I grant all that. But I see in it the greater reason why men like yourself should take up the investigation of these illusive and disturbing problems. These phenomena, as Flammarion says, introduce us into uncharted seas, and we need the most cautious and clearest-sighted scientists in this world as pilots. Will you be one of them?"
"You flatter me. As a matter of fact, I"m a very poor sailor," he answered, with a smile.
IV
If there is any one thing true in these manifestations of "spirit power," it is that the psychic is the agent for their production.
Actively or pa.s.sively, consciously or unconsciously, she completes the formula--her "odic force" is the final chemical which permits precipitation. Sometimes her will to produce, her wish to serve, hinders rather than helps. Often when she is most persistent nothing happens.
Sometimes an aching foot or a disturbing thought cuts off all phenomena.
For the best results, apparently, the psychic should be confident, easy of mind, and not too anxious to please.
I approached this sitting at Miller"s house with some fear that it might end in disappointment to him and be a source of chagrin to Mrs. Smiley.
The house was strange, our att.i.tude intensely critical, and she was very anxious to succeed. It would be remarkable, indeed, if under these conditions she were able to meet us half-way. As we walked up the street together I did my best to rea.s.sure her.
"You may trust me fully, Mrs. Smiley," said I; "and Miller, though an inexorable scientist, is a gentleman. I am sure he will not insist on any experiment which will injure your health or give you needless pain.
This is but our second sitting, and I, for one, do not expect you to be at your best."
"I _hope_ we will have good work," she replied, earnestly, "but it is always harder to sit for tests. Tell me about Mrs. Miller. Is she nice?
Will I like her?"
"She is very gentle and considerate; you will like her at once. I am sure she will be a help to you."
Her voice was very sincere as she said: "You don"t know how anxiously I watch the make-up of my circle. It isn"t because I am afraid of sceptics; I have no fear of those who do not believe; but each person brings such diverse influences, and these influences conflict and worry me, and then nothing takes place. I don"t want to disappoint you and your friends, and that may hinder me."
The Millers occupied a modest little house far up-town, and were suburban, almost rural, in their manner of living. The chemist himself met us at the door, and, after greeting us cordially, ushered us into his library, which was a small room at the back of the hall. I observed that it had only one door and two windows, rather high up in the east wall--an excellent place for our sitting.
"So this is the den of inquisition," I began; and turning to Mrs.