He paused, but, as no one spoke, he went on again.  “It is really not as simple as that,” he said.  “To stop now, in view of the evidence we intend to place before the Club, is to leave in all our minds certain suspicions that may be entirely unjust.  On the other hand, to go on is very possible to place us all in a position where to keep silent is to be an accessory after a crime.”

He then proceeded, in orderly fashion, to review the first sitting and its results.  He read from notes, elaborating them as he went along, for the benefit of the women, who had not been fully informed.  As all the data of the Club is now in my possession, I copy these notes.

“I shall review briefly the first sitting, and what followed it.”  He read the notes of the sitting first.  “You will notice that I have made no comment on the physical phenomena which occurred early in the seance.  This is for two reasons:  first, it has no bearing on the question at issue.  Second, it has no quality of novelty.  Certain people, under certain conditions, are able to exert powers that we can not explain.  I have no belief whatever in their spiritistic quality.  They are purely physical, the exercise of powers we have either not yet risen high enough in our scale of development to recognize generally, or which have survived from some early period when our natural gifts had not been smothered by civilization.”

And, to make our position clear, that is today the attitude of the Neighborhood Club.  The supernormal, as I said at the beginning, not the supernatural, is our explanation.

Sperry’s notes were alphabetical.

(a) At 9:15, or somewhat earlier, on Monday night a week ago Arthur Wells killed himself, or was killed.  At 9:30 on that same evening by Mr. Johnson’s watch, consulted at the time, Miss Jeremy had described such a crime. (Here he elaborated, repeating the medium’s account.)

(b) At midnight, Sperry, reaching home, had found a message summoning him to the Wells house.  The message had been left at 9:35.  He had telephoned me, and we had gone together, arriving at approximately 12:30.

(c) We had been unable to enter, and, recalling the medium’s description of a key on a nail among the vines, had searched for and found such a key, and had admitted ourselves.  Mrs. Wells, a governess, a doctor, and two policemen were in the house.  The dead man lay in the room in which he had died. (Here he went at length into the condition of the room, the revolver with one chamber empty, and the blood-stained sponge and razorstrop behind the bathtub.  We had made a hasty examination of the ceiling, but had found no trace of a second shot.)