"I shall bring Raymond to his father when he comes to see you.... He is so jolly, every one loves him; he has found heaps of his own folks here,and he is settling down wonderfully. Do tell his father and mother.... He spoke clearly to-day.... He doesn't fight like the others, he seems so settled already. It is a ripping thing to see one boy like this. He has been sleeping a long time, but he has spoken to-day....
"If you people only knew how we long to come, they would all call us."
[Capitals indicate large and emphatic writing.]
On the 23rd, during Lady Lodge's call, Mrs. Kennedy's hand wrote what purported to be a brief message from Raymond, thus:—
"I am here, mother.... I have been to Alec already, but he can't hear me. I do wish he would believe that we are here safe; it isn't a dismal hole like people think, it is a place where there is life."
And again:
"Wait till I have learned better how to speak like this.... We can express all we want later; give me time."
I need hardly say that there is nothing in the least evidential in all this. I quote it only for the sake of reasonable completeness, so as to give the history from the beginning. Evidence comes later.
Next day, 24 September 1915, the ladies went for an interview with Mrs. Leonard, who knew no more than that friends of Mrs. Kennedy would accompany her. The following is Lady Lodge's account of the sitting:—