The Pimple decided that, to make sure of not interfering, he had better stay away when the doctor visited us in future. This he did. Naturally, under these conditions it was easier to explain things to the Doc.; his preliminary mistake was soon rectified, and he took the responsibility for keeping us in prison.
From the 2nd of April until the 5th (when the Spook allowed Kiazim to make it known that our solitary imprisonment was ended) we had séances night and day. Indeed from now until we left Yozgad on April 26th we gave the Turks no rest, and I doubt if any Government business was done by the Commandant, Cook, or Interpreter except by the order of the Spook.
The Commandant asked the Spook, before going on to the third clue, to assist in interpreting the two clues already found. Although the Turks had obtained a couple of Armenian dictionaries, the clock-face arrangement of the letters in the first clue foiled their efforts, for they could not tell where the message began and therefore could not use the dictionaries. Further, Armenian has three distinct forms of type, and the two dictionaries in the Commandant’s possession differed both from one another and from the writing of the clue, which was in capitals.
It would have been easy enough for the Spook to say straight out that the clue consisted of two Armenian words meaning “South” and “West,” and as we were in a hurry to get on to the more important task of persuading Kiazim to give us a free trip to the coast, we resented delay. But straightforward answers are not indulged in by Spooks. The Commandant had studied Raymond and knew this. Spooks enjoy puzzling and teasing people over trifles—Sir Oliver Lodge says so—and the other thing is simply “not done” in the spook-world. The simplest answer to the simplest question must be “wropped in mystery.” The Turks expected mystery, and they got it. Perhaps we were gilding refined gold, but it is such caution and attention to detail that makes the difference between the “genuine medium” and the “vulgar fraud.” The reader must not forget that we belonged to the former category, and had to maintain its high standard.
In answer to the appeal for assistance the Spook sent Moïse to fetch a dictionary. He came back with two, and found us starting our lunch of dry toast and tea. He did not notice that it was an hour before our usual lunch time, but sat chatting with us while we ate. I picked up the two dictionaries, glanced at them one after the other in a casual way, and set them down again with the remark that the characters looked like a mixture between Russian and Greek. Then we chatted of cabbages and kings till the last piece of toast was eaten, when we returned to the spook-board.
“Now,” said the Spook, “take a dictionary, Moïse.”
Moïse picked up one of the books and held it out to the spook-board.
“Page 792,” said the Spook.
“Got it,” Moïse answered.
“Oh,” the glass wrote, “if you’ve got it, you don’t require my help any more.”