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We heard the creak and grate of a cab pulling up next door. There was anargument about the fare, and the cabman grumbled hoarsely down thestreet. The green-yellow cloud still swirled faintly over the table,dull elsewhere, but glowing into a dim luminosity in the direction ofthe medium. It seemed to be piling itself up in front of her. A sense offear and cold struck into my heart. It seemed to me that lightly andflippantly we had approached the most real and august of sacraments,that communion with the dead of which the fathers of the Church hadspoken.
“Don’t you think we are going too far? Should we not break up thisséance?” I cried.
But the others were all earnest to see the end of it. They laughed at myscruples.
“All the powers are made for use,” said Harvey Deacon. “If we _can_ dothis, we _should_ do this. Every new departure of knowledge has beencalled unlawful in its inception. It is right and proper that we shouldinquire into the nature of death.”
“It is right and proper,” said the voice.
“There, what more could you ask?” cried Moir, who was much excited. “Letus have a test. Will you give us a test that you are really there?”
“What test do you demand?”
“Well, now—I have some coins in my pocket. Will you tell me how many?”
“We come back in the hope of teaching and of elevating, and not to guesschildish riddles.”
“Ha, ha, Meester Moir, you catch it that time,” cried the Frenchman.“But surely this is very good sense what the Control is saying.”
“It is a religion, not a game,” said the cold, hard voice.
“Exactly—the very view I take of it,” cried Moir. “I am sure I am verysorry if I have asked a foolish question. You will not tell me who youare?”
“What d
oes it matter?”
“Have you been a spirit long?”
“Yes.”
“How long?”
“We cannot reckon time as you do. Our conditions are different.”
“Are you happy?”
“Yes.”
“You would not wish to come back to life?”
“No—certainly not.”
“Are you busy?”
“We could not be happy if we were not busy.”
“What do you do?”
“I have said that the conditions are entirely different.”
“Can you give us no idea of your work?”
“We labour for our own improvement and for the advancement of others.”
“Do you like coming here to-night?”
“I am glad to come if I can do any good by coming.”
