This side receives one door and a portion of the other, thus leaving an opening for a person slyly to creep through. Sometimes, in the circle of investigators, there are five or six confederates. Three of these are placed or seated together. Now, if all in the circle join hands, it seems no one could assist the medium without the fact being discovered; but in the center, one of three confederates, sitting together, releases the hands of his companions, and, in the dark, “cuts up” all the tricks he wishes and returns to the circle again, no one being any the wiser. Of course, if one confederate were seated between two of the skeptics, he would not dare let go his hands; but when a friend is placed each side of him, it makes no difference. A test often used, when everybody, medium included, is sitting at a table, is the wire test. A copper wire is threaded through the shirt sleeve of every male member present, and through the sleeve of the ladies’ dresses, the wire being fastened to the table by staples. When the lights are put out, the spirits “raise Cain” again. It is the medium again. The wire did not go through his shirt sleeves, but through two short extra shirt sleeves, or cuffs, which he wears over the real sleeves. All he has to do is to slip out of these, produce the manifestations, and slip back into the cuffs again. [Illustration: Fig. 41.--Ground Plan of Cabinet.] A test that caused more talk and wonderment than all the rest of the cabinet tricks combined is the chair and net test. The medium enters a very small cabinet, just large enough to contain him when sitting down in a chair. The cabinet is closed by a single door, locked with a padlock, the keyhole of which is sealed; the door is also sealed all around the edges. A fish-net so finely meshed that even the finger of the medium could not be pushed through, is now placed over this cabinet and tacked to it all around the bottom. This miniature cabinet is set in the cabinet proper, and a chair, with the usual bell, tambourine, etc., placed beside it. Doors are closed, and immediately the fun begins. Bells, tambourine, and horns all play together. A sudden fall of the chair and instruments is heard, and the cabinet doors being opened, everything is found strewn about; the smaller cabinet is, however, still found as it was left, with the netting over it and seals undisturbed. Again the large cabinet is closed, and almost immediately it is opened from the inside, and out walks the medium; and the netting on the smaller cabinet is examined once more, and likewise the padlock and seals, everything is found intact. The whole trick depends upon the construction of the smaller cabinet. Fig. 41 represents a ground plan of the apparatus. The floor is not nailed or fastened to the sides. There are four battens or strengthening pieces, one in each corner of the cabinet, running from top to bottom; these are securely fastened to the floor, but not to the sides of the cabinet.