One of the audience then blindfolded me, but it was carelessly done, and I could still see the ground at my feet and the nearest edge of the spook-board.
“Are you ready?” Alec asked of the spook-board.
“Yes,” came the answer.
“This is a test,” Matthews explained. “We want to find out what directs the glass to the letters. Previous tests indicate it is not done by the mediums—”(I breathed more freely after that, old chap)—“but it may be caused by one of the spectators unconsciously exercising a sort of hypnotic influence over the mediums—in short by Telepathy. I have prepared a new circle of letters, in triplicate. The original is here, in this room, and will be produced shortly. The duplicate and triplicate are in Little’s room. The triplicate is smaller in size and so constructed as to revolve inside the duplicate. It will be set running by Boyes and Little, who will leave their room before it stops and guard the door. I want to see if the glass can write on the original circle in the code formed by the revolving circle with the duplicate. If it can, it proves that the movement is not controlled, consciously or unconsciously, by any human agency, for nobody knows the code, as there will be nobody in the room when the revolving circle stops.”
Doc. and I put our fingers back on the glass.
“Ha! ha! ha!” It wrote at once.
“You’re laughing,” said Price. “Can you do it?”
“Easy,” said the Spook.
The new circle of letters prepared by Matthews was substituted for the one I knew so well, and word was sent to Little and Boyes to start the code wheel spinning.
“Can you write on this new arrangement of the letters?” Matthews asked.