Mr Scarletti's Ghost (29 page)

‘Do they have any success?' asked Mina eagerly, wondering if she could engage the services of such a person.

‘None at all,' said Richard with a cheerful shrug, ‘the mediums simply say that their accusers are themselves mediums and hiding their powers either knowingly or unconsciously under the guise of conjuring. And, of course, the dispute only adds to the fame of all concerned.'

‘I wish someone would expose Mr Home,' said Mina, with some feeling. ‘He is little more than a thief.'

‘He is a slippery fellow and no mistake, but a clever one, and therefore very rich,' said Miss Gilden. ‘But even if he was shown to be a fraud it would make no difference.'

Plates of hot soup were brought to the table, and they all ate, although Mina had less appetite than her companions.

‘Have you ever seen the Davenport brothers?' asked Miss Gilden.

‘I have read of them,' said Mina. ‘They sit inside a cabinet and make musical instruments fly about and have a trick with a coat.'

‘Some five or six years ago a watchmaker called Maskelyne witnessed one of their performances, saw how their tricks were done, and promised that he could do them as well. He and his friend Cooke constructed their own cabinet, advertised an exhibition and did all the Davenports' tricks and more, but in full light. They have since gone into the conjuring business themselves.'

‘But the Davenports still command an audience,' said Mina. ‘They were in London in 1868.'

‘Oh yes, Mr Maskelyne did them no harm at all,' said Nellie. ‘Just because their tricks could be performed by conjuring does not prove to the spiritualists that this was how the Davenports actually performed them. And the public wants, indeed prefers, to believe that they are communing with the spirits of the dead. It makes the evening more exciting.'

‘Would you be willing,' asked Mina, hesitantly, ‘to go to one of Miss Eustace's séances and observe how she carries out her tricks? There are some things I think I can guess. I believe she clothes herself as her spirit guide by untying her hands and having some means of changing her garments very quickly.'

‘Undoubtedly,' said Miss Gilden. ‘Tell me, is there much hymn singing at her séances?'

‘Oh yes, Professor and Mrs Gaskin make a very great thing of it; they wish to be thought of as holy.'

Miss Gilden laughed her little bell-like laugh. ‘Religion is no more than another disguise. Remember, everything has two faces. When something is shown to you openly and its purpose explained, it really has another secret one. I am sure that Miss Eustace asked very particularly for the hymn singing, as proof of the godliness of her endeavours. The true effect is, of course, to create noise, to conceal any sounds she might make such as the rustling of silk as she slips out of her costume.'

‘Something you did not require,' said Mina.

‘Ah, well,' said Miss Gilden archly, ‘I have my own methods, which, of course, I cannot describe. My experience is of the stage, where we do not perform in darkness, and neither does our audience sing hymns. I will certainly attend one of Miss Eustace's assemblies, but I do not feel it would be appropriate for me to reveal how she accomplishes her feats.'

Mina was disappointed, but felt she must accept this. Although Miss Gilden might have regarded Miss Eustace as a rival, she would also have seen her as a member of the same profession. Theatre people living on the borders of respectable society had formed their own circle where they would be freely accepted, and assist fellow members in times of difficulty. To reveal the professional secrets of another would have been an act of betrayal, not only of an individual but a class.

The soup plates were cleared, and their steaks and potatoes arrived. Richard, looking pleased at the free and friendly conversation between his sister and his mistress, attacked his meal heartily while Mina and Miss Gilden ate with more decorum.

‘Have you never thought,' said Miss Gilden, ‘of going on the stage yourself?'

Mina was shocked by that question, not so much by the idea that she might enter the theatrical profession, but the thought that she might be in demand as some kind of novelty for audiences to stare at. Miss Gilden sawed neatly at her steak with no idea that she might have said anything disturbing, and Mina realised that for her, such displays would not be unusual. ‘I am not at all sure what I might do upon the stage,' she said. ‘I am certain that no one would part with money to hear me sing or see me dance.'

‘But you may personate a child very convincingly,' said Miss Gilden, ‘and you have a good speaking voice. If there is no role already written for you I am sure one could be done. Could you dress as a boy? You would be a great success as Tiny Tim.'

Richard gave a concerned glance at his sister, unsure of how she might react, but Mina could only laugh. Used to the pointing fingers of children, or pitying stares of adults who quickly turned away, or the embarrassed whispers of miraculous cures, she had not encountered anyone who was so bold as to comment unashamedly on the practical applications of her unusual appearance.

‘Thank you,' she said, ‘but my energies are directed another way.'

‘Mina writes stories for children,' said Richard, hastily.

For a moment Mina regretted that she had not yet revealed the nature of her endeavours to her own brother, but reflected that if she did so his lack of caution might lead to unwanted disclosures.

‘I accept,' said Mina to Miss Gilden, ‘that since I am not of the theatre you will not reveal Miss Eustace's secrets to me, but would you be able to comment on whether what she does is a manifestation of the supernatural or conjuring tricks?'

‘I can do that without seeing her,' said Nellie, calmly. ‘It is the latter. But I am curious to see her, all the same.'

‘The rapping noises for example?' said Mina, hoping that by addressing specifics she might draw out more information. ‘I recall that at the first séance I attended, Miss Eustace was bound to a chair, but the noises were all about the room; the walls, the floor, even the ceiling.'

‘There are a hundred ways in which that can be done,' said Miss Gilden, ‘whether the medium is bound or not.'

‘Tilting of tables?' Mina persisted.

‘One of the easiest tricks there is. A child could do it.'

‘And making the table rise up from the ground without touching it? Without anyone touching it. It left the floor completely, I saw it myself.'

Miss Gilden paused and looked reflective. ‘Ah, now that is interesting. Was Miss Eustace alone at the table or was she part of a circle?'

Mina described what she had seen, and Miss Gilden gave it some thought. Richard ordered another bottle of wine and stared at his pretty companion with open admiration. ‘You see, Nellie is both beautiful and clever!' he announced. ‘Our demonstration was all her invention. But my lips are, of course, sealed.'

‘Not only did the table trick astound us all, but the effect of it was to turn an avowed sceptic into her devoted acolyte,' said Mina.

‘Oh, please explain!' said Miss Gilden eagerly, and Mina told her the story of Mr Clee's conversion, his appearance at her house and his part in the séance at Dr Hamid's.

The steak plates were removed, and Richard called for a list of iced puddings, which he studied with interest.

‘I cannot imagine how the trickery at Dr Hamid's was effected,' said Mina. ‘Obviously I must suspect that Mr Clee was somehow involved as nothing at all happened before he arrived, but both his hands were held fast the whole time. I had hold of one of them myself.'

‘Oh that would pose no difficulty for an adept in the business,' said Miss Gilden. ‘One might easily free a hand to perform tricks while making it appear that both were being held. Everything you have described to me is simplicity itself if the practitioner has had sufficient time to master it.'

‘But he is not an adept, unless he achieved mastery of the art in a few days,' Mina said. ‘Is that even possible?'

‘To learn sleight of hand and have the confidence to carry it off alone, with no confederate, in such a short time?' Miss Gilden shook her head. ‘No, that would surprise me.'

‘Well, that's a conundrum,' said Richard, beckoning the waiter, but Mina, with a sudden flash of understanding, thought that she had the answer, an answer that would explain not only how the lifting of the table had been done but everything else. It was, however, impossible to prove that her idea was right. Denouncing or even plainly demonstrating fraud was, she now saw, no obstacle to the medium and would not deter passionate supporters who clung to their admired favourites and their beliefs. Miss Eustace and her kind remained unassailable.

On the following afternoon Mina was able to study the most recent edition of the
Quarterly Journal of Science
in which its editor, the notable Mr Crookes FRS, had published his own contribution. She could not help but wonder if any other journal would have been so accommodating. The very title, ‘Experimental Investigation of a New Force', seemed to tell the whole of the story she needed to know; nevertheless she read on. Mr Crookes had begun his work fired with a belief in phenomena that he thought were inexplicable by any known natural laws, a position which from the point of view of scientific disinterest seemed to Mina to be a poor one. The most remarkable exponent of this force was, he declared, Mr D.D. Home, and it was on the basis of his extensive work with that gentleman that he was able to affirm so conclusively his belief in that force. The marvels which Mr Home had performed before the astonished eyes of Mr Crookes and other observers, who were friends of his, consisted of extracting a tune from an accordion while holding it in his fingertips at the opposite end to the keys, and later while it was being held by another person, and affecting the weight shown by a spring balance by lightly touching the end of a board to which it was attached.

Mina could not explain how Mr Home performed his tricks, and did not expect to be able to do so. If Mr Home had fooled learned men in front of their faces, she was unlikely to be able to devise an answer. She noticed, however, that Mr Crookes was wont to describe the force as ‘capricious' and that even the miraculous Mr Home was subject to its unaccountable ebbs and flows. This was his explanation for a number of earlier failed demonstrations, Mr Home's power being ‘very variable and at times entirely absent'.

Mr Crookes, thought Mina, was, like Professor Gaskin, too ready to explain away these difficulties in the light of his own prejudices. How likely was it that this supposed force of nature could be present one day and not the next? Did gravity vary from day to day? Did the tide sometimes choose not to appear? She thought not. Mr Crookes, in presenting his own case, had also, however, unintentionally pointed out its flaws. Everything, as Miss Gilden had said, had two faces. Whatever methods Mr Home had used to produce his results, he must have been unable to perform his tricks or chosen not to attempt them when the conditions, which had nothing to do with any supernatural force, were not right. He might even have used those failed attempts to familiarise himself with the equipment and artefacts provided, and learn how he might achieve success in future.

A gentleman called Cox had been present and he had been sufficiently impressed by the phantom accordion and the beam balance trick to suggest that the force used by Mr Home should be given a name. He proposed to call it ‘Psychic Force', and suggested that those in whom it manifested itself should be termed ‘Psychics'. Personally Mina preferred the word ‘charlatan'.

O
ver the next few days Mina's pressing anxiety over her mother was alleviated; that lady had abruptly departed for London to visit her eldest daughter and family, saying that her assistance was needed with a domestic difficulty that she declined to describe. This inevitably created a new anxiety for Mina over her sister Enid, although she could not help wondering if the ‘domestic difficulty' was the robust good health of Enid's husband, the desperately dull but worthy Mr Inskip.

With time on her hands, Mina was able to complete her story of the ghostly orchestra, although the helpful shade that had guided the heroine to freedom had transmuted since her first imagining of the tale from a young girl with long pale hair to a very small lady with a sweet face. Her next literary endeavour had as its heroine a mother who was obliged to assist her daughter in disposing of the corpse of her son-in-law, who had succumbed to a dose of arsenic in his soup.

She composed her story as she exercised, or took gentle walks in the gardens and on the promenade and piers. She didn't mind the crowds or the noise, or the quick stares that flickered away, or even the assumption made by worried onlookers, when she looked over the pier rails into the crashing sea, that she was contemplating ending an unbearable existence, rather than trying to calculate how long a man's body would take to be washed up on shore. It was a harsh ending for Mr Inskip, his mouth full of seaweed and teeth battered by pebbles, and dead, dead eyes. If only, she mused, all difficulties could be addressed so easily, but her thoughts brought her no answers, and she was even tempted to waste sixpence on a visit to Madame Proserpina, but decided against it.