The Pimple refused to admit that he had been up to anything, and called the Commandant “a jealous pig.” Hill immediately winked at me. We let well alone, and stopped our pumping.
We sat down to the spook-board. There had been no time for a special consultation, but this was likely to be our last chance and we must use it.
Moïse wrote down a question without uttering it, and slipped it under the board for the Spook to answer. This was awkward. At previous séances the Spook had shown its power of answering questions in this way. To-day, however, we were not prepared for the test. But I had managed to get a glimpse of one word as he wrote, and that word was suggestive. It was “pardon.”
“No use begging pardon,” said the Spook; “obey and BEWARE!”
Then came a long pause, the glass remaining quite motionless. Moïse grew more and more impatient.
“Please answer what to do,” he said at last.
For at least ten minutes there was no movement in the glass, for I was thinking hard what to say, and could see no light. We told the Pimple that the glass felt “dead,” as if there was no one there. He got more and more highly strung and excited, and kept begging the Control to return. He threw a sheet of paper on to the board and asked the Control to write on it if he would not use the glass. As soon as the paper touched the board, the Control “manifested,” and both Hill and I had our hands simultaneously dragged away from the glass by some invisible force. For some time we tried to get our fingers on the glass again, but were prevented by the invisible agent. The Pimple’s excitement rose to fever pitch as he watched the struggle. We became more and more exhausted, and finally had to rest.
“This is terrible,” said Hill, mopping his brow. “I think we had better chuck it. The Control is poisonously angry, and Heaven knows what he may not do.”
The Pimple begged us to try once more. We did, and got our fingers on the glass without much difficulty. The Spook gave proof of his presence by moving the glass about. The necessary idea had come to us.
“What will you do?” Moïse asked.