“I do,” I replied firmly. “I doubt no longer; I believe it all.”
“What is this? What is this?” cried the Doctor. “Something I have not heard?”
“Tell him, George.”
I related my experience with Walla in the courtyard at Psam-dagong; of course I did not tell the Doctor of the warning spoken against himself.
“And do you claim to have controlled Walla’s spirit at that time?” he asked of Maurice.
“Oh no!”
“What then?”
“I controlled her brain, her lips. I merely spoke through her physical organs. How her spirit was disposed of I know no more than you do.”
“And did you know what you were doing; were you conscious of speaking with George?”
“Certainly.”
“Supposing yourself to be in Mars at the time?”
“Not supposing—being in Mars at the time. Such things are common enough there. Mental telegraphy is there universally practiced and its operators as well recognized as an ordinary telegraph operator here. I desired to speak with George, and Mirrikh took me to one of those persons, that is all. The first thing I knew I was speaking with George and heard him speak to me.”
“But tell me, Maurice,” I said; “has the question of distance anything at all to do with it?”
“Nothing whatever. It is simply a question of spiritual influx. If you desire to speak with a person at a distance, you must have a medium or operator at each end of the line, and either know the person yourself or find some one who does know him. If I am en rapport with you, it would be just as easy for a professional human telegrapher to assist me to address you at a distance of ten million miles as ten; while for me to attempt to converse with one with whom I was not en rapport, would be impossible at a distance of ten feet”
“By Jove! It would be a deuced good idea if you could strike up a communication with Mirrikh and get from him a letter of safe conduct out of this infernal country!” exclaimed the Doctor. “Eh, Maurice? What do you think of that?”
