gnawing his nails.

"Perhaps you can explain it, sir?"

"It was supernatural," said Nightspore, in a harsh, muffled voice,
turning away from his questioner.

"I guessed so. It is a familiar phenomenon, but I have never heard
it so loud."

He then went among the guests, reassuring them. By degrees they
settled down, but it was observable that their former easy and good-
humoured interest in the proceedings was now changed to strained
watchfulness. Maskull and Nightspore took the places allotted to
them. Mrs. Trent kept stealing uneasy glances at them. Throughout
the entire incident, Mozart's hymn continued to be played. The
orchestra also had heard nothing.

Backhouse now entered on his task. It was one that began to be
familiar to him, and he had no anxiety about the result. It was not
possible to effect the materialisation by mere concentration of will,
or the exercise of any faculty; otherwise many people could have done
what he had engaged himself to do. His nature was phenomenal--the
dividing wall between himself and the spiritual world was broken in
many places. Through the gaps in his mind the inhabitants of the
invisible, when he summoned them, passed for a moment timidly and
awfully into the solid, coloured universe.... He could not say how it
was brought about.... The experience was a rough one for the body,
and many such struggles would lead to insanity and early death. That
is why Backhouse was stern and abrupt in his manner. The coarse,