If no answer be given to the question, this should be repeated with a request that the spirit or spirits will reply by causing the suspended key to move in such a manner as to produce three distinct tinklings--or words to the same general effect in the case of some other signalling apparatus being employed. If there still be silence, it may be concluded either that no spirit is present in the room on that particular occasion, or that no spirit within hearing understands the English language, or that the prevailing temporary conditions do not allow of physical effects being produced on inanimate matter, or that the sitter, by lack of psychic power, is unable to attract the attention of discarnate spirits. If a reply be given, it is not a matter of course for it to take the form requested. Instead of being a tinkling or other specified signal, it may be a rustling, a rap, a tapping, a scratching, a pattering, a sigh, a movement of the air or of some object in the room, a sensation of cold, a sound as of whispering, a faint luminosity, a touch, etc. Hence the necessity for the sitter to be keenly on the alert and completely attentive, while at the same time remaining perfectly tranquil and collected; for some indication of a spirit being present may be given by the latter spontaneously before any word is spoken. When once any sign of communication is observed the sitter should announce the fact and should ask for it to be repeated, and if this be done a signalling code may thereupon be adopted by agreement and a conversation may take place accordingly. If, on the other hand, there be no sign at all during the period of, say, half an hour from the commencement of the sitting, this latter should terminate and the enquirer should renew the attempt on some future occasion. No disappointment need be felt at a negative result, whether at the outset of the experiments or at any particular sitting. Conditions are not always favourable, even with the same sitter and in the same room; and in spite of widely-prevalent ideas and the records of spiritualistic _séances_, it is quite idle to suppose that disembodied souls do, in fact, cater for the arbitrary wishes and personal convenience of human beings. Nothing of the kind can be taken for granted, except, indeed, that matter-void space has its inhabitants just as much as is the case with any matter-occupied locality, and that any room in any house is just as likely to be visited from time to time by discarnate spirits as by living persons.