They did not reach to the dignity of respectable sleight-of-hand; and I could go on endlessly multiplying these farces, which are so continuously and disgustingly played upon the public for just what money they will bring and nothing more; for who ever saw a Spiritualist that went about the world bringing ministering spirits from heaven to earth for the good such materializations might do? And further, who ever saw a Spiritualistic medium, preacher or lecturer that did not make his religious faith, assumed or otherwise, yield him his living, and provide him his luxuries besides?

CHAPTER XXVII

After the Seance. – Daddy, the "Accommodation Husband." – The two fascinating Swindlers in Council. – Miss Evalena's European Career. – How the Millionaire Brewer was baited and played with. – A Bit of Criminal History. – A choice Pair. – Mrs. Winslow's Aspirations and Resolves.

IT appeared that Miss Evalena Gray and Mlle. Leveraux, and their male companions, or affinities, did not reside at No. 19 West Twenty-first street, but in more modest quarters farther down-town; and after the assemblage had dispersed, the two Misses, an attendant or two, a tall, gaunt, meek-looking fellow, whom the no longer angelical Evalena called "Daddy," and a very fascinating young man called in the advertisements W. Sterling Bischoff, manager, were gathered in the front parlor previous to being driven home, when W. Sterling said quickly, and as if suddenly recollecting something which it would not be profitable for him to forget:

"See here, Gray; 'most forgot. Here's a note sent over from the Fifth Avenue. None of your larks now!"

The person addressed so familiarly as Gray was none other than the interesting Evalena, who, putting her languor aside, and snatching the note from the "manager," said:

"Give it here, now! I'll lark if I like, and you won't hinder."

"But there's Mr. Gray," persisted the manager, nodding towards the meek, gaunt man, whose lips seemed to move, though he ventured no remark.

"Oh, Daddy don't mind, do you, Daddy?"

"Daddy" was Miss Evalena Gray's husband, but was under such peculiarly good spiritual "control" that he merely smiled a sickly smile and murmured that he believed not.

Miss Gray proceeded to examine the note without waiting for the timid Mr. Gray's opinion, and suddenly exclaimed:

"Gracious! I'm going right over there!"

"What for?" inquired Bischoff anxiously, while Mr. Gray's lips pursed into the form of an unspoken inquiry; "man or woman, eh?"

"None of your business!" she answered promptly. "Here, Leveraux, help me on with my wrappings. You drive home. A friend of mine that I haven't seen for all the last three years is stopping over there, and wants to see me. I may stay all night. If I shouldn't want to, I'll order a carriage and come down in an hour or two."

The three, who were elegantly supported by this woman's juggleries, seemed to realize that there was no use of opposing her; and without knowing whether it was a man or woman she intended visiting at that hour of the night, went gloomily home, while a few minutes later Miss Gray, unannounced, and at the unseasonable hour of eleven o'clock, was knocking at the door of Mrs. Winslow's room.

In a moment more, though Mrs. Winslow was on the point of retiring, and was in that easy déshabillé in which women love to wander about, doing a hundred unmentionable and unimportant things before getting into bed for good, Miss Gray was pushing her lithe form through the cautiously opened door, and at once unlimbered her tongue and her reserve; the result of which, as noted by my operative, showed the eminent vulgarity of the two female frauds, and illustrated the fact that whatever pretensions they might make, their conversation alone would serve to discover the inherent and low vileness of their character.

"Oh, you dear old fraud!" said Evalena, entering, after Mrs. Winslow had virtuously given herself sufficient time to ascertain that there was no evil-minded man at the door, and had gladly admitted her visitor; "if you've got any other company, of course I won't come!"

Mrs. Winslow laughed knowingly, and then told her visitor how really glad she was to see her. She was sincere in this, and sincerity, even in a bad cause, is a redeeming feature.

"Well, well, you rascal," continued Miss Gray in a jolly, rollicking sort of a way, "couldn't wait until to-morrow. Where have you been, what have you been doing, and how are you, anyhow? Come, now, tell me all about yourself!"

Saying this in a kind of a rush of excitement, Miss Gray settled herself in a corner of the luxurious sofa, pulled her feet under her to get a more comfortable position, and like an interested philosopher, waited for and listened to the narrative which comprised many of the facts I have given; but instead of telling the whole truth, only gave that part of it which made her appear to have been eminently successful in her swindling operations, and showed life with her to have been floating calmly upon one continuous, peaceful stream.

"And now, Evalena," said Mrs. Winslow, rounding off her story with a great flourish over what she was to make out of Lyon, whom she described as still madly in love with her, "where have you been, and what have you been doing since I saw you at Chardon?"

The glib tongue of the marvellous Physical Spiritual Medium began at once, and she rattled away at a terrible rate.

"Well, I've got the same husband – "

"Oh, pshaw!" interrupted Mrs. Winslow half contemptuously.

"But he's such a dear, good old fool that I can't throw him over. Why, I can make him shrink from six feet two to two feet six by just looking at him! Money couldn't hire such a devoted servant anywhere. He'll do just anything I tell him; and if I want him out of the way for a few days," she continued with a comical wink, "I just give him a fifty-dollar bill and say: 'Daddy, you don't look well; take a run into the country, and I'll write for you when I want you!' He goes away then with his face about a yard long. But he goes; and he never made a rumpus in his life!"

"Oh, that's quite another thing," said Mrs. Winslow, evidently relieved to know that Miss Gray had had so good a reason for living so long a time as three years with the same man.

"Yes, he's what I call an 'accommodation husband.' He accommodates me, and I – " here Miss Gray sighed piously – "accommodate myself!"

"Exactly," remarked Mrs. Winslow, beginning to appreciate the pleasant nature of such an arrangement.

"Well," resumed the marvellous medium, "we went all through the Ohio towns giving exposés; went out through Chicago, and then down to St. Louis. But the exposé business didn't pay. We found that people would pay more money to be humbugged than to learn how some other person might be deluded!"

"Every time!" tersely observed Mrs. Winslow.

"So at St. Louis we resolved to become Spiritualists."

"The very best thing you could have done!" said Mrs. Winslow approvingly.

"And at Quincy," resumed Evalena, "we blossomed out. Oh, but didn't the papers go for us, though! – called us everything."

"D – n the newspapers, anyhow!" exclaimed Mrs. Winslow in a burst of indignation over her own wrongs.

"Oh, no, no, no! that won't do. Make huge advertising bills. That's better – much better. That's what we did, and we made big money too. By and by we came on here to New York, made a huge show, took in a vast pile, and then went to Europe. Oh, that's the only way to do it!"

"Yes," said Mrs. Winslow with a deep sigh. "I have often felt the want of that peculiar tone which going to Europe gives one."

"Well, we did have a gay time, though," said Miss Gray in a dreamy way, as if ruminating over her conquests; "and at Venice – oh, that delicious, ravishing, dreamful Venice! – I bilked a swarthy nobleman from the mountains out of five thousand dollars. At Rome I did a swell American out of everything he had. At Vienna, a Hungarian wine-grower fell, and I trampled upon him as his brutes of peasants beat out the grapes in vintage-time. At Berlin a German student killed himself for me; and at St. Petersburg I fooled the Czar himself. But when I got back to London I got better game than him."

"Bigger game than the Czar? Oh, my!" exclaimed Mrs. Winslow, thinking how she had wasted her sweetness on two detectives like Bristol and Fox.

"Well, bigger game this way," pursued little Miss Gray, reasoning it out slowly. "This Spiritualistic business can only be played on low, ignorant people ordinarily. Get the recognition of so big a man as one of the wealthiest brewers in Great Britain, and then, if Miss Gray has money and can open sumptuous parlors in so fashionable a vicinity as Madison Square, and can own a quarter of a column of the New York papers every day, Miss Evalena Gray's fortune is made. Do you see?"

Mrs. Winslow did see, but wanted to know how she had secured such approval.

Her companion looked at her a moment in blank astonishment; then drawing down the corners of her mouth as if protesting against such verdancy on the part of so old a Spiritualistic soldier as Mrs. Winslow, gave a very expressive series of winks, broke into loud laughter, and then suggested that if she wanted anything like that explained it would be no more than fair to order either Krug or Monopolé to help her through so dreary a recital; whereupon the latter did as requested, and after the two had washed down a ribald toast with wine, the angelic Miss Gray continued:

"Well, you see, we came directly from St. Petersburg to London, and got up a big excitement there right off. The Times denounced us, and we replied savagely through the Telegraph at a half-crown a line. We kept this up until all London was engaged in the controversy, and our rooms were constantly thronged."

"What luck!" sighed Mrs. Winslow, sipping her wine.

"By and by the 'nobbies' got discussing the matter at the clubs. We challenged examination by committees everywhere, of course, and one day a batch of M.P.s, clergymen, merchants, and all that, came down upon us. I picked out one man named Perkins – a brewer from the Surrey side, and one of the wealthiest men in all England, and a man of education and standing, too – for game right off."

"Must be lots of fools over in London," remarked Mrs. Winslow, as if she would like to help pluck them.

"Yes," answered Miss Gray, "and millions in this country. We're going to take a run over to Washington this winter."

"I would if I had your talent," replied her companion.

"Well," resumed the medium, "I saw Perkins was an easy-going fellow, and I wrote him, saying it was something unusual for me to do, but as the 'spirits'" – here Miss Gray winked very hard at Mrs. Winslow, who snickered – "had revealed to me that he was an arrant unbeliever, but at the same time a fair, honorable man, magnanimous enough to be just – I wished him to make a private investigation."

"'Private investigation's' good!" said Mrs. Winslow, laughing heartily.

"Certainly good for me," continued the little medium in a self-satisfied way. "He came, though, and I gave him my tricks in my best possible style. I pretty nearly scared him to death. Then I let him tie me, and the old man's hands trembled as he put the ropes around my waist and over my bosom. 'Miss Gray,' said he tenderly, 'I shall injure you!' 'Mr. Perkins,' I replied, also tenderly, 'the good spirits will protect me. Pull the ropes tighter!'

"He pulled the ropes tighter and tighter, and finally got me tied. Then he darkened the room and in a few minutes I was entirely free of the ropes of course, and I told him to raise the curtain. As soon as he did so I left, telling him I was ill; and as soon as I could change my dress, came back and sat down with him. I got close to him – as close as I am to you now, Mrs. Winslow – and then, putting my right hand on his knee, and my left hand on his shoulder – "

"Splendid!" interrupted Mrs. Winslow, pouring more wine for the ingenuous Miss Gray, and taking some herself.

"Then," continued Miss Gray, laughing in a peculiarly wicked manner, "I got my face pretty close to his and asked: 'Mr. Perkins, I want you to give me an answer that you are willing to have made public. On your honor as a man, do you not now believe in the genuineness of these spiritual manifestations produced through me?' 'I do,' he said passionately, throwing his arms around me, and – and I don't know what he would have done had not Leveraux entered the room at that supreme moment!"

"Oh, I see!" murmured the other blackmailer.

"Think of it, Mrs. Winslow!" added Miss Gray tauntingly; "think of it! In the arms of a man who can draw his check for a million sterling – and poor little me from Chardon, Ohio!"

"My! but you are a little rascal, though!" said Mrs. Winslow admiringly. "I always knew you'd make an impression somewhere."

"'Leveraux!' said I indignantly, and springing from Perkins's embrace after I had kissed him in a way that set him shaking again, 'if you ever breathe a word of this, or annoy Mr. Perkins in any manner under heaven, I'll kill you! Go!'

"Poor Leveraux knew her cue and replied hotly, 'I'd kill myself before I'd do so disgraceful an act!' and then flounced out of the room."

"What a pair!" exclaimed Mrs. Winslow.

"He thought I was just perfectly splendid after that; kept coming and coming, indorsed me publicly, got wild over me; but I held him at arm's length for months, until I thought the man would really go crazy; and finally – well, you know I told you Daddy was an 'accommodation husband,' and if he hadn't been one after I had tripped up one of the richest men in all England, I would have just hired somebody to have dumped him into the Thames, sure!"

The sparkling flow of Miss Gray's experience was here interrupted by Mrs. Winslow's ordering another bottle of wine, and after the couple had partaken of the same, the spicy narrative was continued:

"But now comes the fun, Winslow. I can't tell you how my rope trick is done. I've got a little addition to it that makes it a regular sensation. It don't hurt me a particle, and allows the strongest men to pull away with all their might."

"I'd give a thousand dollars for it, Evalena," said her friend warmly.

"No good; no good for you," replied Miss Gray, critically looking over Mrs. Winslow's splendid physical completeness. "Fact is, Winslow, you aren't built exactly right for that kind of work. There's too much of you to do the rope trick with eminent success. I played Daddy as my brother, and myself for an innocent, so neatly that Perkins honestly thought he had made a wonderful conquest. He believed it all, for he was one of those honest fools – in fact, came near being too honest for me."

"Why, how?"

"Well, he installed me as his mistress in grand style; but, of course, I insisted in giving seances and compelled public recognition through his public recognition of my 'wonderful spirit-power.' The man was so infatuated that he bored me terribly with his visits. Why, I could hardly get time to attend to business. You know we always have a stock of ropes on hand in the seance-rooms, so that when any one objects to the one I ordinarily use, there are always other ropes at hand that I can use. One night some fellow broke my best rope, and the next day I was carelessly practising with another with my door unsecured. Perkins had been down to Brighton for a week or two, and of course had to rush over to see me the minute he got in London – to give me a 'happy surprise,' I suppose. There I sat when he suddenly bolted into the room and saw the thinness of the whole thing in an instant."

"What did he see?" asked Mrs. Winslow abruptly.

"You are shrewd, Winslow, but you can't catch me that way; no, no, no! But he did see the whole trick as dear as a June day. Do you think I fainted?"

"Not much," said her companion tersely.

"No; but he nearly did. He reeled and staggered as though he had been struck by a sledge-hammer, and I saw in his face a determination to rush from the room and denounce me to all London. It was make or break with me then, Winslow, and with a bound I got to the door, turned the key, and sent it crashing through a five-pound pane of glass into the street below. Then I just whipped out this little derringer," she continued, producing a beautifully mounted, though diminutive weapon, "just run it right up under his eyes, and backed him into a seat."

"'Great God!' he whimpered, 'I'm undone! I'm undone! – what a very devil you are!'

"My heart did go thumping to see the man used up so; but I had to be rough, and said: 'Yes, I am a devil, Perkins, and you must pledge me your word – yes, you must take a solemn oath before that God you have called upon, that you will never expose me, or I will blow your brains out!'"

"Splendid! splendid!" ejaculated Mrs. Winslow. "Did he do it?"

"I should say he did do it! He got down on his knees and begged like a baby. And do you know, my blood was up so then, and I so despised him for his want of manliness, that I came within an ace of killing the infernal booby!"

"He deserved it!" said Mrs. Winslow sympathetically.

"After I had him nearly scared to death," resumed the marvellous medium, "I began reasoning with him, and, by being excruciatingly tender, convinced him that by exposing me he would gain nothing, but would lose in everything that a man of spirit prided in – honor, social reputation, and business standing, and drew a lively picture of his disgrace at the clubs and in social circles, and of the cartoons which would certainly appear in Punch and the other comic papers; and the result was that I held on to his affection and his purse-strings by compelling him to feel that my detaining him in the room and threatening to shoot him was the only thing which prevented him from rashly ruining both. Altogether, Winslow, I got over two thousand pounds out of him. He wasn't deprived of a first-class mistress while I remained in London, and – and we are so good friends now that every little while I get a splendid remittance from him; and if I ever should want to go back, I could have the very best in all England!"

"Well, well, well!" murmured Mrs. Winslow for the want of something better with which to express her admiration.

"I do think I played it pretty well," resumed Miss Gray; "and I made him swallow it all, too. He really believed everything from the moment I fell into his arms until he caught me with the ropes. I was his spirit-wife – " another hard wink – "and he my only affinity. Leveraux helped me in the whole thing splendidly.

"Who is Mlle. Willie Leveraux?" inquired Mrs. Winslow.

"She is a sister of Ed. Johnson, the 'bank-burster,' and a keen girl, too," answered the medium.

"How did you happen to get hold of her?"

"Well, you see, Ed. Johnson, Mose Wogle, Frank Dean – 'Dago Frank' – and Dave Cummings, with Chief of Police McGillan and Detective Royal, of Jersey City, put up a job on the First National Bank there. McGillan was to keep everybody away from them; and he, or Royal, was to always remain at headquarters to let the boys off if they got nabbed. They played it as plaster-workers – Italians, you know – and began working from a room over the bank down through the ceiling into the vault; but an old scrub-woman about the place got suspicious, and had them arrested one day when both McGillan and Royal happened to be in Philadelphia. They had promised the boys help to break jail, but they failed everywhere; and Willie, thinking to get Johnson off, went to the bank officers and told them the whole story. They promised to help her brother, but said her evidence would have to be corroborated. So she sent for McGillan and Royal, got them into her rooms, then over on Thirty-seventh street, and had a Hoboken official in a closet, with a stenographer, who took all the conversation, which amounted to a complete confession of their complicity. It never did any good, though. McGillan and Royal got the most swearing done, and got clear; while Johnson and the rest of the boys got fifteen years' solitary confinement in the New Jersey penitentiary. It almost broke Willie down; but she is splendid help now."

Mrs. Winslow drew a long sigh, and the two drank again to drown the doleful feelings raised by this recital; for even high-toned and uncaught criminals do not find the contemplation of stone walls and iron bars by any means pleasant and refreshing; and with this lively history of herself and her companions, the "Marvellous Physical Spiritual Medium" called a servant, ordered a conveyance, and was driven home, after having promised to call with her own carriage on the next day; while Mrs. Winslow, after surveying her own magnificent physique as reflected in the pier-glass, muttered:

"I'll make an effort, go to Europe, and, like so many others, win fame too!"

Then with a resolute toss of her head the adventuress plumped into her bed, where, for aught we know, she carried on her vile conquests and miserable villainies in her dreams the whole night long.