“The Ambassador,
New York,
June 20th, 1922.
“My dear Houdini:—
“... No, the Powell explanation, won’t do. Not only is he the one man who would wish to get me, but in the evening, Mrs. M., the lady medium, got, “there is a man here. He wants to say that he is sorry he had to speak so abruptly this afternoon.” The message was then broken by your Mother’s renewed message and so we got no name. But it confirms me in the belief that it was Powell. However, you will no doubt test your powers further.
(Signed) “A. Conan Doyle.”
I had written an article for the New York Sun, October 30, 1922, which gave my views in reference to Spiritualism and at the same time answered the challenge offered by the General Assembly of Spiritualists of New York State. This had been called to the attention of Sir Arthur, who wrote as follows:
“Windlesham,
Crowborough,
Sussex.
November 19, 1922.
“My dear Houdini:—
“They sent me the New York Sun with your article and no doubt wanted me to answer it, but I have no fancy for sparring with a friend in public, so I took no notice.
“But none the less, I felt rather sore about it. You have all the right in the world to hold your own opinion, but when you say that you have had no evidence of survival, you say what I cannot reconcile with what I saw with my own eyes. I know, by many examples, the purity of my wife’s mediumship, and I saw what you got and what the effect was upon you at the time. You know also you yourself at once wrote down, with your own hand, the name of Powell, the one man who might be expected to communicate with me. Unless you were joking when you said that you did not know of this Powell’s death, then surely that was evidential, since the idea that out of all your friends you had chanced to write the name of one who exactly corresponded, would surely be too wonderful a coincidence.