Still another scheme used with a pair of hinged slates is to have a hole through both frames at one end and locking them with a padlock. In working this the pins are pushed out of the hinges and the frames, moving easily on the shackle of the padlock, permit the medium to write on the inside of the slates without difficulty, afterwards fastening the slates together again by simply replacing the pins in the hinges. A method of concealing an extra slate is to have it a trifle smaller than the rest and then hidden in some convenient place, say the seat of a chair. A large slate is first examined and laid on the chair. Later it is picked up with the extra one under it. Sometimes the extra one is hidden under the edge of a rug on the floor and worked in the same way. At other times it is hidden on the medium’s body and slipped under a large slate when the medium stands with his right side on a line with the sitter’s vision. An entirely different method is employed to some extent by mediums who are very rapid and interesting talkers. Throughout the seance the medium walks nervously about the room, keeping up a continual flow of conversation. He passes two slates to the sitter for examination. A third, the same size, with a previously written message on one side, being concealed in a large pocket inside the breast of his coat. While the slates are being examined he walks about the room sometimes behind and sometimes in front of the sitter, tapping him on the shoulder to emphasize his remarks. As soon as the slates are examined he takes them and, passing behind the sitter, places them on his head and asks him to hold them there and at the same time continuing his walk and talk. Of course when the slates are examined there is a message on the inside of one of them. When the medium steps behind the sitter with the slates in his hand he quickly changes the slate with a message which he has hidden for one of the blank ones. This is no more bold or difficult than many mediumistic tricks but it requires a particularly fluent conversationalist to successfully produce the needed amount of misdirection when the slates are switched. Women mediums effect a similar exchange sometimes by the aid of a special pocket in the dress.