“I have been,” says Mr. Crookes, “with Miss Fox when she has been writing a message automatically to one person present, whilst a message to another person, on _another_ subject, was being given alphabetically by means of ‘raps,’ and the whole time she was conversing freely with a third person, on a subject totally different from either.... During a seance with Mr. Home, a small lath moved across the table to me, _in the light_, and delivered a message to me by tapping my hand; I repeating the alphabet, and the lath tapping me at the right letters ... being at a distance from Mr. Home’s hands.” The same lath, upon request of Mr. Crookes, gave him “a telegraphic message through the Morse alphabet, by taps on my hand” (the Morse code being quite unknown to any other person present, and but imperfectly to himself), “and,” adds Mr. Crookes, “it convinced me that there was a good Morse operator at the other end of the line, WHEREVER THAT MIGHT BE.”[339] Would it be undignified in the present case to suggest that Mr. Cox should search for the operator in his private principality—Psychic Land? But the same lath does more and better. In full light in Mr. Crookes’ room _it_ is asked to give a message, “ ... a pencil and some sheets of paper had been lying on the centre of the table; presently the _pencil rose on its point_, and after advancing by hesitating jerks to the paper, fell down. It then rose, and again fell.... After three unsuccessful attempts, a small wooden lath” (the Morse operator) “which was lying near upon the table, _slid towards the pencil_, and _rose_ a few inches from the table; the pencil rose again, _and propping itself against the lath_, the two together made an effort to mark the paper. It fell, and then _a joint effort_ was made again. After a third trial the lath gave it up, and _moved back to its place_; the pencil lay as it fell across the paper, and an alphabetic message told us: “We have tried to do as you asked, but _our power_ is exhausted.”[340] The word _our_, as the joint intelligent efforts of the friendly lath and pencil, would make us think that there were _two_ psychic forces present.