the writing continued a few more seconds before the three taps came indicating its conclusion. The message we found was as follows: "This is a Hungarian book of poems. The last word of page 18 (page 9, line 18) is bunhoseded."
After we had observed that a mistake in the figures had been corrected in parenthesis, I opened the book at page 9, and we found that the last word on line 18 of that page was "bunhodesed." Remarking upon the fact that the last two syllables of the word had been transposed, we asked the "controls" if it was a mistake, and how it had arisen; we received the written reply: "Yes. We have not power to properly read the last word."
As a test experiment I think this may be regarded as a very successful and crucial one; for it is difficult to believe that Mr. Eglinton can have committed to memory the exact position of every word in every book on his bookshelves—containing some 200 books, or more. And it is easy for us to Say with confidence that all his movements were so carefully watched that the slightest attempt on his part to open the book, or even to touch it, would have been detected almost before the attempt was made; and it is a fact that the book was never once touched by him, and could not possibly have had one of its leaves exposed to his view for an instant, let alone page 9 long enough to enable him to count down to the 18th line. Of course the test would have greater value as such had we been able to use a book which we could be certain he had never read; but if this point tells against the result, the fact that by a happy chance my selection caused a Hungarian book of poems to be used should surely counterbalance this evidential flaw to a great extent, and reduce the chances of his having memorised the position of every word in it to a minimum. That I was not forced to take this special book from its being in a particularly handy and prominent position, and that page 9 and line 18 were not "led up to" by Mr. Eglinton is obvious—from the fact that I made my selection without looking at the books; and that the page and line were determined by chance, then and there, as I have described.
