"And I fell down, and I--I--couldn't get up."
"H----" the board stopped; then went on, "Heart failure."
"I thought so!" exclaimed Shelby; "there aren't any wild animals up there in----"
"Heart gave out," the board spelled, moving rapidly now. "Couldn't make the boys hear. Could only gurgle in my throat. Couldn't shout. So I died."
"Do you believe it?" asked Carly, her big, brown eyes solemn and serious.
"Yes, I do," said Shelby. "It's highly probable, anyway. Go on, Peter, tell us something else."
Whether Shelby "believed" or not, he was deeply interested, and his breath came faster as he saw the revealing letters spell various messages.
Both performers watched the four hands as the board moved under them. And, the most intense scrutiny could discover no voluntary movement or assistance to the uncanny instrument.
Many messages were of slight importance, and then came a sudden, "I say, Shelby, why don't you marry Carly?"
The girl gasped, then smiled, but Shelby looked up, dumbfounded.
"Oh, Carly," he said, "if you only would!"
"Hush!" she reproved him. "I'll put the board away if you do such things! You know you pushed it that time!"
"I didn't, Carly, truly--word of honor, I didn't! I'd no idea what was coming! Oh, Carly, darling, I love you, and--dear, whether Peter sent that message or not--won't you--can't you----"
They had risen, casting aside the board, and Shelby took her hands in his. "Dearest," he said, "I wanted to tell you, but I was waiting--for--for Peter's sake. Now--he wants it! So, dear heart--my little girl--won't you----"
It was doubtless owing to Benjamin Crane's attitude regarding his son's death that the home did not present more the aspect of a house of mourning. Both Crane and his wife were not only resigned to Peter's fate, but they seemed positively happy in what they believed to be continued communion with his spirit.
As Mrs. Crane said, "When Peter was a child the gypsies said he would go away and be lost, but he would return to us. He has done so, he is doing so--why should we grieve? He tells us he is happy and contented in his new sphere of existence, therefore, we are, too."
"That's all very well," Carlotta Harper would respond, "but I don't look at it that way at all. I want my Peter Boots back again in the flesh. I'm not contented at all with a lot of spirit talk communicated through a paid medium!"