Free Death from a Top Hat by Clayton Rawson Page A

forward, stiffly, and too far.
    Gavigan caught her as she dropped.
    1 His more scientifically acceptable books were: Daughters of Hecate, The Road to Endor — A History of Prophecy, and Studies in Superstition, this last an encyclopedic six volume work that is still the standard authority on the subject.
    2 A colony of 1000 Lemurians (from the Pacific’s even more ancient lost continent of Mu) was reported as late as 1932 to exist on the slopes of Mt. Shasta surrounded by an invisible wall of force that prevents approach by either man or forest fires!
    3 See Montague Summers : The Vampire in Europe, Dutton, 1929, and A Popular History of Witchcraft, 1937; Alexander Cannon: Powers That Be, Dutton, 1936; Hamlin Garland: Forty Years of Psychic Research, Macmillan, 1934; Charles Fort: Wild Talents, Kendall, 1932; Maurice Magre: Magicians, Seers and Mystics, Dutton, 1932; etc.
    And if you really want to go to town, see Harry Price: Short-title Catalogue of the Research Library from 1472 A.D. to the present day, University of London, Council for Psychical Investigation, 1935.

Chapter 7
The Ghost Hunter
Witchcraft is not dead, nor are Satan’s winged hosts entirely banished to the Limbo of Myth. Psychic phenomena have, through the ages, been so intertwined with superstition, mental aberration, and religion, and the issue so clouded by fraudulent imposters, venal quacks, and the clumsy exposés of prejudiced conjurers that Science, engrossed in the mysticism of modern Physics and prostituting itself on the couch of commercial Chemistry, disdains to investigate, afraid that it might—as it would—uncover some shining Truth its materialistic philosophies could not explain.
    Col. Herbert Watrous: A Plea for Psychical Research
    T HE I NSPECTOR PLACED R APPOURT in the armchair, and Quinn, like a well-trained jack-in-the-box, sprang up from his chair and was swiftly at the department’s black suitcase. He brought an ammonia ampoule which he held and broke under her nose. Merlini knelt at her side and began rubbing her wrists. After a moment her eyelids fluttered, and she moaned faintly.
    The Inspector went to the door and stood there talking to Malloy, who was just outside. They spoke in undertones. Pretending to watch Rappourt, I backed in their direction until I was close enough to eavesdrop.
    Gavigan asked, not very hopefully, “Well?”
    Malloy said, “A blank. He doesn’t think so, but he’s hot any too sure. Lousy witness. The over-cautious type.”
    The Inspector seemed to have a card up his sleeve, but apparently didn’t know whether or not it was an ace.
    Rappourt showed signs of reviving, when suddenly her body tensed. Her head jerked and her eyelids flicked back, exposing white eyeballs, no pupil. Her breath was expelled in a long whistling exhalation through clenched teeth.
    Quinn warned, “Hey, Chief. She’s going to throw a fit!”
    Merlini, watching her closely, said, “I think she’s going into a cataleptic trance, Inspector. Fresh air should help. You’d better get her outside.”
    Gavigan eyed her odd behavior with curiosity, and then alarm. “All right,” he said, “see to it, Malloy. Put her in a taxi and have a couple of the boys deliver her back at her hotel. If she’s not out of it by then they’d better get a doctor.”
    Malloy and Brady carried her out.
    When they had gone Gavigan looked at Merlini speculatively, then growled, “What is this trance business, anyway?”
    “I don’t think she wanted to answer any more questions. She does the catalepsy well, don’t you think?”
    “Oh—just an act, huh?”
    “I think so. Chafing her wrists gave me a chance to feel her pulse. Instead of being subnormal, it was excited.”
    “And what was the idea of aiding and abetting her by suggesting that I get her out of here?”
    Merlini spread his hands wide. “What else can you do with a woman like that? Besides, you seemed to have finished with her—and she didn’t seem to want to answer my