The explanation of this cryptic statement was not given until we had
completed the final revision of the story. Before I reveal what he had
in mind, I wish to state that which is to me the most convincing proof
of the supernormal origin of the three stories that had been traced,
letter by letter, on our transmission board. That they come through
Mrs. Hays, there can be no doubt whatever. My total lack of psychic
power has been abundantly demonstrated. Mrs. Hays has written much
light fiction; but it is necessary for her to write a story at one
sitting. If it does not come "all in one piece" it is foredoomed to
failure. I know nothing of Mark Twain's habits; but in all the work we
have done for him, the first draft has been rough and vigorous, and
sweeping changes have been made by him while the work was undergoing
revision. In the case of "Jap Herron" some of the most important
changes were made without a rereading of the story, changes that
involved incidents which we had forgotten, and for which I was
compelled to search the original record. When I had substituted these
passages for the ones they were to supplant, I made a typewritten copy
of the entire story and we read it aloud to Mark. Mrs. Hays and I sat
with our finger tips on the planchette so that he could interrupt; but
he made only a few minor corrections. The story had been virtually
rewritten twice, although a few of the chapters, as they now stand, are
exactly as they were transmitted, not so much as a word having been
changed. The only change made in the fourteenth chapter came near the
end, where Mark had suggested a line of dashes or stars to bridge the
break between Jap's leaving his mother and the announcement that his
mother was dead. Forty-eight words were dictated to show what Jap
actually did, in that painful interim, the three sentences being
rounded out by the words, "There, I think that sounds better."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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