“Then that is really all.”

He moved a step away from the fire.  Then he paused.

“By the way, I may as well just tell you our methods.  I shall take my place within the cabinet, drawing the curtains partly across at the top so as to shade my face.  But you will be able to see the whole of my body, and probably even my face as well.  You four will please to sit at the table in the order I have indicated, with your hands resting upon it.  You will not speak unless you are spoken to, or until Mrs. Stapleton gives the signal.  That is all.  You then wait.  Now it may be ten minutes, half an hour, an hour—­anything up to two hours before anything happens.  If there is no result, Mrs. Stapleton will break up the circle at eleven o’clock, and awaken me if necessary.”

He broke off.

“Kindly just examine the cabinet and the whole room first, gentlemen.  We mediums must protect ourselves.”

He smiled genially and nodded to the two.

Laurie went straight across the open floor to the cabinet.  It was raised on four feet, about twelve inches from the ground.  Heavy green curtains hung from a bar within.  Laurie took these, and ran them to and fro; then he went into the cabinet.  It was entirely empty except for a single board that formed the seat.  As he came out he encountered the awestruck face of the clergyman who had followed him in dead silence, and now went into the cabinet after him.  Laurie passed round behind:  the little room was empty except for the piano at the back, and two low bookshelves on either side of the fireless hearth.  The window looking presumably into the garden was shuttered from top to bottom, and barred, and the curtains were drawn back so that it could be seen.  A cat could not have hidden in the place.  It was all perfectly satisfactory.

He came back to where the others were standing silent, and the clergyman followed him.

“You are satisfied, gentlemen?” said the medium, smiling.

“Perfectly,” said Laurie, and the clergyman bowed.

“Well, then,” said the other, “it is close upon nine.”

He indicated the chairs, and himself went past towards the cabinet, his heavy step making the room vibrate as he went.  As he came near the door, he fumbled with the button, and all the lights but one went out.

The four sat down.  Laurie watched Mr. Vincent step up into the cabinet, jerk the curtains this way and that, and at last sit easily back, in such a way that his face could be seen in a kind of twilight, and the rest of his body perfectly visible.

Then silence came down upon the room.

II

The cat of the next house decided to go a-walking after an excellent supper of herring-heads.  He had an appointment with a friend.  So he cleaned himself carefully on the landing outside the pantry, evaded a couple of caresses from the young footman lately come from the country, and finally leapt on the window-sill, and sat there regarding the back garden, the smoky wall beyond seen in the light of the pantry window, and the chimney-pots high and forbidding against the luminous night sky.  His tail moved with a soft ominous sinuousness as he looked.