Free The Link by Richard Matheson Page B

engaged in London, Gladys shared a dressing room with two sisters interested in Spiritualism.”
    The three women reach a deserted area below the stage, among various engines and machinery used for theatre purposes: heating, lighting, trap doors, etc. “Looking for a quiet place to hold a séance, they discovered it in a deserted spot below the stage.”
    CUT TO the three women sitting in a corner of the huge area, their Windsor chairs around a small table, the only sound the soft thudding of the machinery.
    “The first night they sat,” says Robert’s voice, “Feda came through.”
    We see the table rocking, one of its legs tapping out letters of the alphabet. Gladys Leonard watches apprehensively as her two friends speak out and write the letters down.
    Gradually, we hear the VOICE of Feda, a young woman, saying, “I have been watching over Gladys since she was born, waiting for her to develop her psychic powers so that I could put her in a trance and give messages through her.”
    CUT TO Gladys Leonard, older, sitting, now in trance, speaking in a voice dissimilar to hers, saying, “Something big and terrible is going to happen to the world. Feda must help many people through you.”
    “Six weeks after that message was given through Gladys Leonard, World War One began,” says Robert’s voice.
    CUT TO Lenore Piper leaving her house and walking along the street. “No one,” says Robert’s voice, “not even Eusapia Palladino, ever subjected herself so patiently to investigation as did Mrs. Piper. The most elaborate of precautions arranged by such men as William James and Richard Hodgson were taken to guard against outside information influencing her mediumship.”
    We see a man in a dark suit following Mrs. Piper at a distance. “Private detectives were assigned to follow her,” says Robert’s voice.
    CUT TO sitters announcing themselves and being admitted to Mrs. Piper’s home. “Sitters showed up anonymously or used false names,” says Robert’s voice.
    CUT TO Mrs. Piper sitting with a group of people. “She endured endless pain inflicted by investigators to make sure she wasn’t faking trance,” says Robert’s voice. “From needles—” Mrs. Piper jars from trance as WILLIAM JAMES plunges a needle into her right hand.
    Cut. Another sitting. RICHARD HODGSON holds a small bottle to her nostrils, startling her from trance. “—ammonia—” Robert says.
    Cut. Another sitting. William James applies a lighted match to her forearm with equally shocking results. “—lighted matches—” Robert says.
    CUT. Another sitting. Richard Hodgson tickles her nostrils with a feather. “—feathers—” Robert says.
    CUT. Another sitting. William James pinches the entranced Mrs. Piper on the arm. “And pinches,” Robert finishes.
    CUT. Another sitting. “As the years passed by, however,” Robert says, “skeptic after skeptic had to admit that Mrs. Piper got her information by other means than through the physical senses; that, indeed, her ESP was genuine.”
    Mrs. Piper, in trance, speaks in a voice of her control Dr. Phinuit, to a MR. RICH. “A child is here,” she says. “A blood relative. A sister. She is with you constantly. She has much influence over you.”
    “I never had a sister,” says Mr. Rich firmly.
    “I know that you were never told of it,” says Phinuit through Mrs. Piper. “The birth was premature. The child died. Born some years before you were. Go and ask your aunts to prove it.”
    CUT TO Mr. Rich speaking to an aunt, looking dazed, Robert’s voice saying, “On questioning one of his aunts, the sitter, a Mr. Rich, learned that there
had
been a premature child that died—a girl.
He had never been informed of the event;
they saw no reason to. Proving that the information could not possibly have been received by Mrs. Piper through telepathy.”
    Three more sittings seen in brief, Robert’s voice narrating.
    “Mrs. Gibbins was told that one of her daughters was suffering that