At the last moment before this booklet goes to press, I am able to insert the fact that Hope’s complete innocence has now been clearly established, and he stands before the world as a man who has been very cruelly maligned, and the victim of a plot which has been quite extraordinary in its ramifications. It was at last found possible to get the cover in which the original packet of plates was wrapped, and on it were found unmistakable signs that it had been tampered with and opened. Thus the deductions made in the text from the evidence already to hand have been absolutely justified, and it is clear that the marked plates were abstracted before the packet reached the Psychic College and two ordinary plates substituted, upon one of which Hope produced an “extra.” The conclusion was reached by the acumen and patience of Mr. Hewat McKenzie, but his results were examined and endorsed unanimously by a strong committee, which included, besides myself, Mr. and Mrs. McKenzie, General Carter, Colonel Baddeley, Mr. Stanley de Brath, Mrs. Stobart, Miss V. R. Scatcherd, Mrs. de Crespigny, Mr. H. C. Scofield and Mr. F. Bligh Bond. It now only remains to find out who is the culprit who has played this cunning trick, and it is not difficult to say that the hand which returned the marked plate through the post is the same hand as that which took it out of the packet. A reward has already been offered for the identification of the person concerned. In the meantime it would be unfair to blame the agents of the S.P.R., who may, while trying to trick Hope, have been themselves tricked. Nothing, however, can excuse them from the charge of culpable negligence in failing to examine the wrappers which so clearly tell the story, and which have been kept so long in their possession. As the matter stands, five persons stand as defendants: Mr. Harry Price, Mr. Moger, Mr. James Seymour, Miss Newton, Secretary of the S.P.R., and Mr. Dingwall, Research Officer of that body. If there is someone else in the background who has tricked them, then it is for them to find out who it is. Their negligence has been such that it is difficult to say what atonement can meet it, and it throws a very lurid light upon some of the so-called “exposures” of the past. As one of the oldest members of the S.P.R., I feel that the honour of that body will not be cleared until they have appointed an impartial committee to consider these facts and to determine what steps should be taken. ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE. _November 14th, 1922._ CHAPTER VII THE GENESIS AND HISTORY OF THE CREWE CIRCLE BY F. R. SCATCHERD Member of the Society for Psychical Research, Co-Editor of the _Asiatic Review_