Free Other Worlds by KATHY Page B

Bells themselves had preserved in writing and in family tradition a closer version of the truth. How close we will never know, for Ingram's edition of Richard Bell's diary was not published until almost seventy years after the Spirit's departure. Forty years after that, another member of the Bell family, Dr. Charles Bailey Bell, took pen in hand to write about the "family trouble." It is from these two volumes that I have drawn most of the facts—and fictions—I have narrated this evening, ignoring the wilder tales passed on by persons not directly involved.
    Dr. Bell, a physician and specialist in nervous disorders, was the grandson of John Junior. In 1934 he was sixty-four years old. Since boyhood he had heard tales of the witch from Uncle Hack (formerly Harry), Frank Miles, and other eyewitnesses. As a young man of nineteen he paid a visit to his great-aunt Betsy and listened to her reminiscences. His father, Joel Thomas Bell, son of John Junior, passed on in 1910, but before he died he told Charles about John's philosophical discussions with the Spirit. Dr. Charles must have been steeped in the story for decades. He was convinced that the Spirit would keep its promise to return, and that he would be the one it visited.
    In 1934 he wrote his book, explaining in the introduction why he felt it necessary to publicize matters which the family had kept private so long. He believed the country and the world were in desperate straits. Though this is not an uncommon attitude for conservative old gentlemen to hold, he had some reason for pessimism. The United States was gripped by Depression. Europe was in turmoil. Adolf Hitler was Chancellor of Germany. Godless Communism reigned in Russia. Religion was dying. One might ask how the bizarre antics of a century-old ghost could assist the troubled world, which had problems enough without speculating on the supernatural. Dr. Charles had the answer. In its long and tedious conversations with his grandfather, the Spirit had testified to the divinity of Jesus Christ and the truth of the Christian faith.
    The Spirit's religious views, like its philosophy, are too tedious to bear repetition. Whether they are to be attributed to the good doctor himself, or to his grandfather, or to a combination thereof, I would not venture to say, but I feel sure they did not come from the vulgar raucous thing, whatever it was, that had followed John Bell to his grave singing drinking songs.
    Not that I believe for an instant that Dr. Bell set out deliberately to deceive. But we should note that by the 1930s many of the events the Spirit had predicted so accurately were a matter of history, and that war clouds were gathering again over Europe. The good doctor believed the family Spirit would come to him in 1935. He was disappointed. It came not to him, nor, so far as we know, to any other member of the family. The "Bell Witch" had finally been laid to rest.

THIRTEEN
    When Houdini finished, the air was gray with smoke and the glasses were empty. The stranger, who had displayed signs of increasing restlessness during the last part of the narrative, could contain himself no longer.
    "Why, gentlemen, what a pack of nonsense! It is obvious that the true explanation—"
    "Wait." Fodor wagged an admonishing forefinger. "We will hear your explanation in due course, my dear sir; it is in the hope of obtaining a fresh viewpoint that we did ourselves the honor of inviting you to be present this evening. But, with your permission, we would like to keep you to the last—for a sweet, as it were. Let us first present our own theories of what the Bell Witch really was. Will you go first, Frank? I'll wager most of us can predict what you are going to say. Another naughty little girl, eh?"
    Podmore's thin lips curved. He leaned forward, hands clasped, and began.

FOURTEEN
    Podmore:
    The Naughty Little Girl
     
    First, gentlemen, let me perform a service for all of us and clear away some of the deadwood that has accrued