"Which men?" he asked.
"It is suggested that you and your friend, Mr. Nicholl,shall do so. There is a bedroom next door."
Poor Linden was marched off between them in a manner which reminded him unpleasantly of his prison experiences. He had been nervous before, but this ordeal and the overpowering presence of Challenger made him still more. He shook his head mournfully at Mailey when he reappeared.
"I doubt we will get nothing to-day. Maybe it would be wise to postpone the sitting," said he.
Mailey came round and patted him on the shoulder, while Mrs. Linden took his hand.
"It's all right, Tom," said Mailey. "Remember that you have a bodyguard of friends round you who won't see you ill-used." Then Mailey spoke to Challenger in a sterner way than was his wont. "I beg you to remember, sir, that a medium is as delicate an instrument as any to be found in your laboratories. Do not abuse it. I presume that you found nothing compromising upon his person?"
"No, sir, I did not. And as a result he assures us that we will get nothing to-day."
"He says so because your manner has disturbed him. You must treat him more gently."
Challenger's expression did not promise any amendment. His eyes fell upon Mrs. Linden.
"I understand that this person is the medium's wife. She should also be searched."
"That is a matter of course," said the Scotsman Ogilvy. "My wife and your daughter will take her out. But I beg you, Professor Challenger, to be as harmonious as you can, and to remember that we are all as interested in the results as you are, so that the whole company will suffer if you should disturb the conditions."
Mr. Bolsover, the grocer, rose with as much dignity as if he were presiding at his favourite temple.
"I move," said he, "that Professor Challenger be searched."
Challenger's beard bristled with anger.
"Search me! What do you mean, sir?"
Bolsover was not to be intimidated.
"You are here not as our friend but as our enemy. If you was to prove fraud it would be a personal triumph for you -- see? Therefore I, for one, says as you should be searched."
"Do you mean to insinuate, sir, that I am capable of cheating?" trumpeted Challenger.
"Well, Professor, we are all accused of it in turn," said Mailey smiling. "We all feel as indignant as you are at first, but after a time you get used to it. I've been called a liar, a lunatic -- goodness knows what. What does it matter?"
"It is a monstrous proposition," said Challenger, glaring all round him.
"Well, sir," said Ogilvy, who was a particularly pertinacious Scot. "Of course, it is open to you to walk out of the room and leave us. But if you sit, you must sit under what we consider to be scientific conditions. It is not scientific that a man who is known to be bitterly hostile to the movement should sit with us in the dark with no check as to what he may have in his pockets."
"Come, come!" cried Malone. "Surely we can trust to the honour of Professor Challenger."
"That's all very well," said Bolsover. "I did not observe that Professor Challenger trusted so very much to the honour of Mr. and Mrs. Linden."
"We have cause to be careful," said Ogilvy. "I can assure you that there are frauds practised on mediums just as there are frauds practised by mediums. I could give you plenty of examples. No, sir, you will have to be searched."
"It won't take a minute," said Lord Roxton. "What I mean, young Malone here and I could give you a once over in no time."
"Quite so, come on!" said Malone.
And so Challenger, like a red-eyed bull with dilating nostrils, was led from the room. A few minutes later, all preliminaries being completed, they were seated in the circle and the seance had begun.
But already the conditions had been destroyed. Those meticulous researchers who insist upon tying up a medium until the poor creature resembles a fowl trussed for roasting, or who glare their suspicions at him before the lights are lowered, do not realize that they are like people who add moisture to gunpowder and then expect to explode it.