"Rats!" Vixley was contemptuous. He took her hand and gave her a little shake. "Is _that_ all? I guess you was hypnotized, Gert, that’s all. That’s what I got this jigger for, only I never thought _you’d_ be one to go off half-cock like that!" "Vixley," she said emphatically, "don’t you be a fool! I see a spirit for the first time in my life, and you can’t make me believe I didn’t. And I know who it was, now. It was Felicia Grant, as I’m a sinner, and she came to warn me about Payson. Oh, you can laugh; I s’pose I would if I was you, but this was the real thing, sure!" She reseated herself on the sofa and put her hands to her eyes. Vixley sat on the arm of the Morris chair and laughed loudly. "Well, well!" he exclaimed, "if that ain’t a good one! Spirit, was it? Well, I guess if it’ll work on Gertie Spoll it’ll work on Payson, all right. Oh, Lord!" She shook both hands wildly, almost hysterical with excitement, the tears flowing. "My God! We can’t go on with Payson now. I don’t dare to. I’m frightened." "Oh, you just got an attack of nerves, that’s all. You’ll get over it and laugh at it. You keep still and cool off." She wagged her head solemnly, unconscious of her hanging hat. "See here, Vixley, you know me! I’m too old a bird to be fooled with fakes—I’ve done too much of that myself. I’ve always claimed that I had clairvoyance, but I lied. I never got that nor clairaudience, no matter how I tried for it, and I’ve had to fake. I’ve had a gift o’ guessing, perhaps, but that’s all. But I swear to God, I got materializing just now. I’ve scoffed at it all my life, but I believe it now. I see her just as soon as you left, standing right over there by the desk, she was, and she turned to me and she says, ’If you persist you will come to harm. Take my advice and don’t you do it!’ and then she faded away. What d’you s’pose it means?" "It means you need a drink," he said, and, walking to the desk, he took out a whisky bottle and poured out a stiff dose. "Them’s the spirits that’ll help you most. You put this down and see how you feel!" She put it away with an impatient gesture. "Oh, you don’t believe it," she cried, "but I see her just as plain as I see you this minute, and I heard her, too. What’ll I do, Vixley? I can’t give up my business, can I? I got to live." "What’s the matter with you? I don’t see as they’s anything to worry about, granted it was a spirit, which it wasn’t one, o’ course." "She said, ’If you persist you will come to harm!’ What else could that mean but Payson? Let’s call it all off, before anything happens." "Bosh! It ain’t likely it meant Payson any more than it did anything else. Why, the thing is as simple as a rattle. Spirits be damned! You leave that to the suckers—with money."