Once when Cartice remarked to her friend, as they sat together awaiting Planchette’s pleasure, that perhaps the disembodied people suffer because of the destruction of their bodies, Prescott sprang upon them in a kind of fury, writing with savage haste: “Do you suffer when you cut your finger-nails and throw away the cuttings? Or when you clip your hair and burn the clippings? The body is of the same character, mere waste material--cast-off clothes.” When asked why he did not always come when they called him and awaited him, he said: “I wish you understood. I come when possible, but I cannot always control the matter.” Sometimes Cartice and Chrissalyn devoted an afternoon to Planchette, but generally with less satisfactory results than when they experimented in the evening. The reason of this they could not fix upon until Prescott gave them a clue. On one such occasion, he said with petulance: “Why do you call us in the broad day, when we can give you more satisfaction at night? Day is your time for action, but night is ours. Life here is the antithesis of life with you. Conditions are reversed.” “May we inquire why you cannot do so well for us in the daytime when you do come?” Mrs. Doring asked, humbly. “Because the vibrations of light are destructive to the power we make use of for purposes of communication with you.” This, then, is a rational explanation of the dark séances so much condemned by persons unacquainted with psychic law, and which, unhappily afford such fine opportunities for knavish deception. “You speak of our calling you. Does it really call you when we sit with the Planchette and ask for you?” “Yes; through a law it would be difficult for you to understand, however carefully I might try to explain it. Even I as yet comprehend it but dimly. Your thought reaches us, for thought is omnipotent in all the universe, and is the finest form of electricity which travels with incredible speed. Your desire is a great force going forth to draw to you what you desire. The law of demand is met by the law of supply throughout all worlds, when it is properly set in motion. Your sitting expectantly, with Planchette as the instrument of communication, makes a magnetic centre, a veritable telegraph office to which we can come and through which we can transmit messages. It is all done under law, and so is everything in the universe. Find out the laws that govern your own being and there is no limit to your powers.” CHAPTER XII. AND THE PROPHET WAS STONED.