"I must request each one of you," he said authoritatively, "on no account to touch any one of the four legs of this table. I have specially tied tissue paper round each leg in such a way that if any one of you touches it the paper will be soiled or crumpled." "Why did you put a red screen round the lamp, and turn the light down low like that?" asked Riche. "For the same reason that you use a red light when developing a photographic plate," replied Delapine. "Because it is well-known that a white light would spoil the plate. And in the same way the vibrations of white light interfere with the intensely rapid vibrations which produce our phenomena. But hush," he continued in an audible whisper, "I feel the presence of some mysterious force." "Can you perceive anyone besides us, professor?" asked Riche in an awed whisper. "Yes," replied Delapine. "The stranger at my fireside cannot see The forms, nor hear the sounds I hear, He but perceives what Is; while unto me All that Has Been is visible and clear. "Do you suppose for a moment," he continued, "that we are able to be in touch with everything that goes on around us, when all our knowledge of the outside world is obtained through the five kinds of vibrations which reach our senses? I assure you there are a thousand varieties of vibrations of which we are entirely unconscious, but they can be perceived by the soul when it is freed from its earthly environment. Now I will try whether I have the power to move matter by my will. All of you keep your hands lightly touching the table, and do not on any account break the circuit. Each one of you must endeavour to be perfectly convinced of my power." For a few moments nothing happened, then gradually each one felt a tremor run through his fingers, and the table began to heave up and down first on one side and then on the other. "The table seems to be alive," said Renée alarmed. "It moves in spite of all my efforts to keep it still." "Yes," said Marcel, "I have been pressing down with all my might, but it is of no use. Look, look, it is rising up." Slowly, but none the less surely, the table rose bodily, until at last the members of the circle were compelled to stand up in order to keep their hands still resting on it, as ordered by Delapine. "Press, press with all your might," cried Delapine loudly, "and see if you can overcome my will." All pressed heavily in their desire to carry out implicitly every command of the professor, but their efforts were in vain. At last the table rose to such a height that the whole company were compelled to stand on their chairs, but even then their united pressure was of no avail for the table steadily rose above their heads. "Now, Riche, quick," called out Delapine, "take a stereoscopic photograph that all may see that the table is actually suspended in the air above the ground." "Right," said Riche, as he quickly took a couple of snapshots with magnesium flashlight.