Thus adjured Charles again placed his hands on the board, and they sat in another hopeful silence.
This time the silence was of such long duration that even Mrs. Bosanquet began to feel sleepy. But just as she had decided that her arms were aching too much, and she had better suggest a postponement of the seance, the board moved quite an inch across the paper underneath it.
"Peter, you pushed!" Margaret said.
"I swear I didn't!"
"Sh!" Mrs. Bosanquet begged.
Once it had started the board seemed to grow quite energetic, and began to describe circles, and make jerky darts in every direction.
"It keeps on leaving me behind," Charles complained. "There it goes again! Now I've lost it."
"Charles, you must keep your hands on it!" Mrs. Bosanquet told him.
"I can't; it doesn't seem to like me."
"It's all jolly fine," Peter remarked, as the board made a dash to one side, "but it can't be writing! It keeps going backwards."