She submitted, and then as he was putting it down on the table the sound of writing was heard within it. He laid his hand on the slates, and still the writing went on! With amazement he realized that both her hands were in sight and in no wise concerned in the writing. The right rested lightly and quietly on the frame of the slate, but the left, which lay on the opposite corner of the table, was quivering throughout all its minute muscles.
Amazed beyond words, excited, breathing deep, with a shudder of nervous excitement running over his entire body, Victor listened to the mystic pencil. "How _do_ you work that?" he asked, in a whisper.
"I don"t know. I have nothing to do with it," she answered; and taking the upper hinge of the slate between her fingers and thumb she slowly raised it.
_And still the writing went on!_
Victor, holding his breath in awe, bent to look within, but as the opening grew wider the writing stopped.
He s.n.a.t.c.hed the slates from the table and studied the lines, which were made up of minute dots. It was all perfectly legible: "_Son. I doubted.
Now I know._"
Victor sank back into his seat and stared speechlessly at the slate and the table. The problem of his mother"s mediumship had taken on new elements of mystery. This physical test brought it into the range of his knowledge and interest. It was no longer a question of her honesty or sanity, it had become a problem in dynamics.
How was that bit of pencil moved? The messages he ignored--they didn"t matter--but the method of their production seemed to eliminate all trickery, conscious or unconscious. Why did his mother"s left hand quiver--and how could that writing shape itself?
His voice was husky with emotion as he said: "Mother, I don"t understand that. You"ve got to tell me how that is done."
She felt the desperate resolution in his voice and she solemnly answered, "My son, I don"t _know_ how it is done."
"But you _must_ know! Who moves that pencil! Your hand quivered all the time."
"Yes, I seem to have some physical connection with it--at times. Other times all that takes place has no more connection with me than the sunlight on the floor. The world is a very mysterious place to me, Victor. I don"t pretend to know anything. I do as I am told."
He fell silent again while his mind reviewed the entire process. Then he burst out, vehemently, on a new line. "I can"t believe my eyes.
You"ve hypnotized me. Mother, for G.o.d"s sake don"t juggle with me--don"t play tricks with me. I won"t stand for it. It hurts me--" He paused, confused, baffled, ready to weep.
"Can you, my own son, accuse me of trickery?" she asked.
"You _think_ you"re honest, mother--but don"t you see you"ve become an _unconscious hypnotist_? It"s your subconscious self deceiving us both.
I don"t know how you do it, but I know it must be a fraud."
"Victor," she said, solemnly, "what this power is you shall have full opportunity to determine, but I say to you that for more than twenty years I"ve been guided by these unseen presences. I"ve tested their wisdom and lived under their care. So far as this message is concerned I accept it. I was confused and frightened yesterday, but this morning I am calm. I shall do as they bid. I shall stay here while you go down into the city and see what you can find to do, and together we will test these voices."
There was a ring of new-found decision in her tone that quite dashed him. He sat dumbly facing her, helpless in a whirl of mental storm. "Is she more cunning than I thought? Is she playing a more complex game than appears?" These thoughts vaguely shaped themselves. Then his filial self answered: "But what has she to gain? She loves me. She has sacrificed herself to keep me at school--why should she deceive me?"
Here again a third conception came to embitter him. He spoke. "You don"t seem to mind my loss of a degree?"
"Yes, I do, Victor. I feel that very deeply, but the higher wisdom of your grandfather resigns me. I cannot tell what is behind it. By his power to read the future he may be preventing some terrible accident, some calamity by fire or water--I have an impression that it is something of that sort."
"_No_," came a whisper from the air.
She turned her face upward, and, listening intently, asked, "What is the reason, father?"
"_Discipline_," the whisper replied.
"He says "discipline," Victor."
"Discipline!" he echoed. "Why should I be disciplined? What have I done?"
"_It is not what you"ve done--it"s what you are to do._"
The Voice did not reply to further questions, and the silence gave out a kind of cold contempt, which cut the boy as he waited.
"Let"s try that slate business again," he said at last. But to this his mother would not consent.
"It"s of no use," she said. "They are gone. There is no "power"
present."
He again faced her with alien, accusing eyes. "When will you try this again?"
"To-night, when you come home."
"Home!" he sneered, looking about. "Do you expect me to call this place home? Do you expect me to hang about this scrubby hole to be disciplined by your Voices?"
The sound of a knock at the door gave her a moment"s respite. "The postman," she explained as she rose to go to the door.
She was gone for several minutes and Victor heard her in friendly conversation with a pleasant male voice. Some way this added to his anger and disgust.
She came back with a letter in her hand which she began at once to open.
"It is from Louise, I mean Mrs. Joyce."
She read it through with smiling face, then said, "Victor, you must be nice to Louise, she has done _everything_ for us."
This brought him to his feet. "I understand all that now. It is _her_ money I"ve been living on--I won"t touch another cent that comes from her. Understand that! I won"t eat another dinner that she pays for."
"Why, Victor, you should not feel that way! What has she done to make you bitter?"
"Nothing. I refuse to live on her charity, that"s all, and I want you to find out just how much I owe her--how much _you_ owe her--for I intend to pay her back every dollar with interest."
"But she considers I"ve already paid her. She feels that I have always given her bounteous return for all her aid."
"I don"t figure it that way," he said. "She"s just amusing herself--"
She interrupted. "Listen to what she says." She read: ""I want to tell you how much I like your son. He is so vivid and so powerful. I"m sorry he is to miss his degree. Can"t you persuade him to go back? I"ll be glad to advance what is necessary--""
"There it is, you see! There"s the rich lady helping a poor relation."
"Wait, son!" she pleaded, and read on. ""I feel that I owe you ten times what you"ve permitted me to do for you.""
"That"s all very nice of her, mother, but I won"t have any more of it."
He pounded out the sentence with his fist.
She looked up at him with mingled fear and pride. "You are exactly like your father as you say that," she declared. "Oh, Victor, my son! If _you_ leave me in anger I shall be desolate indeed. I can"t live without you. Please believe in me--and love me--for you"re all I have on this earth."
His anger died away. He saw her again as she really was, a pale, devoted little saint, with troubled brow and quivering lips, one who had shed her very life-blood for him--to doubt her became a monstrous cruelty.
He put his arms about her and hugged her close. "I didn"t mean to hurt you, mother--but your world is so strange to me. I"ll stay, I"ll do the best I can here; only don"t work this slate trick any more. Don"t sit for any one but me. Will you promise that?"