Our first visitors were Matthews and Price, who came in with the Doc. To them, when they came, I made my long-delayed confession that every “message” obtained through my “mediumship” had been of my own invention, and that not only the Turks but also my friends in the camp had been victimized. It was then, for the first time, that I realized how difficult it is to convince a True Believer of the truth. In spite of what I said, these three, who were all my own “converts,” tried to force me to admit that there was “something in spiritualism,” and that at least some of the messages for which I was responsible were “genuine.” They quoted the incidents of “Louise” and the code-test against me, and when I had explained these Matthews turned on me with, “Well, we have got one thing out of it, anyway! We have proved the possibility of telepathy. For I don’t believe that the show you two fellows gave at the concert could have been a fraud.” In reply Hill picked up a small notebook, and handed it to Matthews.
“There’s the code we used,” he said.
To tell a man that you have been “pulling his leg” and “making a fool of him” for your own ends is a very severe test of friendship, and for our friendship’s sake we had long dreaded this revelation. But we could not go on using these good fellows any longer without a full confession.
“Hill and I hope you can forgive us,” I concluded lamely.
“Forgive you!” cried Price. “I take my hat off to you! If there is anything we can do to help——”
“Count on us,” said Matthews, “we want to be in it.”
“Faith,” laughed the Doc., “I seem to be in it already, though it is little I knew it—an’ I mean to stay in it! From now on you’ve got to tell me everything. I couldn’t sleep o’ nights if you didn’t go on using me.”
And that is how the Submarine Man, and the Sapper, and the Scientist from Central Africa took their generous and gentle revenge.
For the rest the Spook was very thorough. It refused to allow us to wash, or shave, or sweep out our room. It made us infernally rude to many of our visitors. It controlled us into lodging wild accusations against our best friends. It made us refuse to go out, and ordered us to put a notice on our door—
“GO AWAY! WE DON’T WANT TO SEE YOU!”