“Why are you not in your body?” he asked.
This time there came a whisper just audible.
“I can’t, I can’t,” he said. “Someone is there; someone terrible. For God’s sake, help me!”
The white agonized face grew more convulsed.
“I can’t bear it,” it said.... “For God’s sake, for God’s sake!...”
I looked away from that face for a moment to the hearthrug where a sudden noise attracted my attention. Fifi was sitting bolt upright looking eagerly upwards, and the noise I heard was the pleased thumping of her tail.
Then she came cautiously forward, still gazing at the image which an hour before had driven her frenzied with rage and terror, uttering little anxious whinings, seeking attention. Finally she held out a paw, and gave the short whisper of a bark with which she demands the notice of her favourites.... And if I had been inclined to doubt before, I think that I would now have been convinced that here in some inscrutable manifestation was the true Frank Hampden.
Once more Roupert spoke.
“I will do all that man can do, Frank,” he said, “and by God’s grace we will restore you.”
The figure slowly faded; some of it seemed withdrawn back into the medium, some to be dispersed in the dusk. Before long Reid’s breath again grew quick and laboured, as he passed out of trance, and then drenched with sweat he came to himself.