“(Another change of tonality in the raps, followed by C. R.’s signal—Professor Richet’s grandfather.)
“C. R. ‘Quelque force mauvaise m’empêche de vous parler.’ (Confusion for some time; raps of various tonalities and in great number resound on the woodwork of the foot of the medium’s bed—we were holding the seance in his room by Chappe’s express desire.)
“Chappe: ‘Je ne veux pas qu’on se serve de cette chambre.’
“Observer: ‘Why?’
“Chappe: ‘Parce que Meurice y couche.’
“Observer: ‘Where shall we go then?’
“Chappe: ‘Où vous voudrez.’
“This was not by any means the first time we had held a seance in M. Meurice’s room, no objection had ever been made to this proceeding before, which, in fact, had been recommended by Chappe.
“It was impossible to obtain another sign of any nature whatsoever. Professor Richet, Mrs. Stephens, and I went out of the room, leaving Dr. Maxwell and the medium alone. We had scarcely left when the latter, it appears, turned to Dr. Maxwell and said: ‘I see Professor Richet tearing up some printed matter and burning it. I think it is the bad influence Chappe was speaking about.’
“We three alone, commenting upon these messages, laid stress upon the excuse of ‘bad influences,’ and thought it was probably one of Chappe’s tricks to avoid working, when it did not suit him to work. But suddenly Professor Richet remembered a piece of newspaper which he had put into his inner breast coat-pocket early that same morning, and on which was the name of a man who had been drowned the previous week—drowned before our eyes. This event had left a great impression on us all, every one had made strenuous efforts to save the man, and the medium in particular had striven hard to restore life. Professor Richet, coming across the man’s name in a newspaper, had cut it out, and put the slip into his pocket-book, for reference sake, in case the phenomena should turn upon the drowned man. No one was near or could possibly have seen Professor Richet do this; he also took the precaution of destroying the paper from which he had taken the announcement.