this medium than was his wife. Perhaps Mrs. Vandam was a bit
jealous--I don't know. But she, too, had an interest in
spiritualism, though he was much more deeply influenced by Mrs.
Popper than she.

"Here's the strange part of it. The old man believes so
thoroughly in rappings and materialisations that he constantly
keeps a notebook in his pocket in which he records all the
materialisations he thinks he sees and the rappings he hears,
along with the time and place. Now it so happened that on the
night Mrs. Vandam was taken ill, he had retired--I believe in
another part of the house, where he has a regular seance-room.
According to his story, he was awakened from a profound sleep by
a series of rappings. As was his custom, he noted the time at
which they occurred. Something made him uneasy, and he said to
his 'control'--at least this is his story:

"'John, is it about Mary?'

"Three raps answered 'yes,' the usual code.

"'What is the matter? Is she ill?'

"The three answering raps were so vigorous that he sprang out of
bed and called for his wife's maid. The maid replied that Mrs.
Vandam had not gone to bed yet, but that there was a light in the
library and she would go to her mistress immediately. The next
moment the house was awakened by the screams of the maid calling
for help, that Mrs. Vandam was dying.