"No, and yet it wouldn't be quite so bad. But go on—what else?"
"Then I was invited by the 'controls'—so Clarke said—to come up and sit beside the medium, which I did, very loathly. It gave me a keen pang to look down on that lovely creature pretending to sleep, knowing perfectly well that she was planning some deep deception."
"You are bitter. What next?"
"I took a seat beside her, determined to see if she really had a hand in the deception. I thought I could prevent anything happening."
"Did you?"
"No. Everything went on quite as briskly as before, and all the while I thought I could see her arms lying limp along her chair—lovely arms they were, too. She isn't poor, you must understand that, Kate; and that really makes the crime worse, for she has not the usual excuse—she is not doing it for her daily bread."
Kate sat like a judge, "Go on. You seized her, of course?"
"Yes; just when the cone was emitting an old man's pompous harangue I laid my hand on her arm. The horn dropped, the circle rose in confusion, and I came away."
"I expected you'd do that. All sceptics do, I believe. But I want to know all that took place. You're so concise. You say the cone emitted a man's voice. Now, how could—"
"It produced the impression of a man's voice. It is easy to deceive under such conditions. The cone was passed from her hand to Clarke's at the proper moments, and, as you say, there might have been a child—"