A Case of Spirits Read Online Free PDF Page A

forthcoming lecture at University College Hospital?’
    ‘Certainly I did,’ said Probert. ‘It’s the sort of thing that comes up naturally in conversation.’
    ‘Of course, sir. Let’s return to Mr Brand. I believe he’s making quite a reputation as a medium. He’s much in demand, from what I understand.’
    ‘The whole of London will soon be clamouring to see him,’ said Probert. ‘And no wonder. He is the most promising member of his profession since D. D. Home. I had the greatest difficulty engaging him for my series of experiments. We have only got him next Saturday thanks to an outbreak of scarlet fever at Lady Millmont’s. He restricts his engagements to two a week because of the strain on his vital powers.’
    ‘Yet he is quite young, I understand,’ said Cribb.
    ‘Twenty-two, but communicating with the spirits takes a dreadful toll of a man, whatever his age. And Brand is not robust. He is quite humble in origin, the son of a Blackheath cabman, I am told, and he has the under-nourished look of the less fortunate class. It would not surprise me if he died young.’
    ‘Nor me,’ added Mrs Probert. ‘It would be a judgment.’
    ‘Where did you first meet him?’ Cribb inquired.
    ‘At Miss Crush’s house in Eaton Square,’ said Probert.
    ‘Ah, yes. The first seance. And was that just as successful as yours, sir?’
    ‘I’m bound to admit that it was. Some of those round the table even spoke of witnessing a materialisation, a spirit hand hovering in the air, but I missed it myself. All the audible phenomena were present. It was because they so impressed me that I invited Brand to my own house for a programme of seances on scientific principles. Naturally I invited Miss Crush, my hostess, as well.’
    ‘Did you invite any other members of her party?’
    ‘Brand, of course. Nobody else. The others at Kensington were neighbours of Miss Crush, the Bratts.’
    ‘I beg your pardon, sir.’
    ‘The Bratts, I said. Sir Hartley Bratt and his wife and daughter. Sir Hartley is ninety years of age and wouldn’t want to drive as far as Richmond even if I asked him. He has a suspect heart.’
    ‘At ninety, that’s not surprising,’ said Cribb. ‘I shouldn’t think communing with the spirits would be good for him either.’
    ‘On the contrary. He is a confirmed spiritualist. Most of his friends have passed over and keeping in touch gives him an interest in life. Well, Policeman, we seem to have ventured a long way from my stolen Etty, unless you are proposing to arrest Sir Hartley Bratt. What conclusions have you reached?’
    ‘Only one of any note, sir. For the present I’m assuming a connection between the thefts of your Etty and Miss Crush’s Royal Worcester vase. Each took place a matter of days after a seance at the house in question. Now lifting a picture ain’t quite the same thing as lifting a vase, I’ll admit, but it might be of significance that the thief in each case had the chance of taking something more valuable, and missed it.’
    ‘That’s very pertinent, now you mention it,’ said Dr Probert.
    ‘If it is significant, sir, the list of guests at those two seances is crucial to my inquiry. From what you tell me there was one person, and one only, who attended both seances, apart from Miss Crush and yourself.’
    ‘Brand,’ said Mrs Probert from her place under the palm. ‘Peter Brand, the medium.’

CHAPTER
3
    Pray do you find guests criticize your wine,
    Your furniture, your grammar, or your nose?
    Then, why your ‘medium’? What’s the difference?
    MISS CRUSH WAS MORE observant of rank than Dr Probert. ‘Sergeant,’ she said, as Cribb was announced by the maid. ‘Such excitement! Do come in, Sergeant, and let me look at you.’
    He took two short steps into the room—short not from shyness, but because a rosewood table, circular in shape, barred his way. At the centre was a tall Copeland vase containing pink chrysanthemums a little past their prime. From where he