The healer smiled. "From the fourth dimension." Calmly taking up the
folded paper, he opened it. "This is a message to you, young man."
"To me?" Victor exclaimed. "From whom?"
"It is signed 'Nelson.'"
"Let me see it!" demanded Mrs. Joyce.
"What does it say?" asked Victor.
Mrs. Joyce handed it to him. "Read it for yourself. It is from your
grandfather."
He read: "_Your mother is with us, but she will return to you for a
little while. Her work is not yet ended. Your stubborn neck must bow.
There is a great mission for you, but you must acquire wisdom. Learn
that your plans are nothing, your strength puny, your pride pitiful. We
love you, but we must chastise you. Do not attempt to leave the city._
"_NELSON._"
As he stood reading this letter it seemed to Victor that a cold wind
blew upon him from the direction of his mother's body, and his blood
chilled. "This is some of your jugglery," he said, turning angrily upon
Beebe.
"I assure you, no," replied the healer, quietly. "It came from behind
the veil. It is a veritable message from the shadow world. I may have
had something to do with its precipitation, for I, too, am psychic, but
not in any material way did I aid the guide."
The whole affair seemed to Victor a piece of chicanery on the part of
this intruder, and he bluntly said: "I wish you'd go. You can do no good
here. You have no business here."
Beebe seemed not to take offense. "It's natural in you young fellows to
believe only in the world of business and pleasure, but you'll be taught
the pettiness and uselessness of all that. Your guides have a work for
you to do, and the sooner you surrender to their will the better. You
are fighting an invisible but overwhelming power."
He addressed Mrs. Joyce. "This message is conclusive. Mrs. Ollnee, our
divine instrument, has not abandoned the body. Her spirit will return to
its envelope soon." He turned back to Victor. "As for you, young sir,
there is warfare and much sorrow before you. Good-day." And with lofty
wafture of the hand he took himself from the room.
Not till he had passed entirely out of hearing did Victor speak, then he
burst forth. "The old fraud! I wonder how many more such visitors we are
to have? I wish we could take her away from this place."
"We might take her to my house," said Mrs. Joyce, "but I would not dare
to do so without the consent of the doctors."
"Did you see how that man produced that message?"