Sill eyed him keenly. "Do you mean that you quarreled?"
Mrs. Joyce interposed. "I can explain that," she said. "Mrs. Ollnee was my friend. She was what is called a medium. She is the Mrs. Ollnee you may have read about in the papers."
"Ah!" Sill's tone conveyed a mingling of surprise and increased interest. "So you are the son of Mrs. Ollnee?" he said, turning to Victor.
Mrs. Joyce again answered for him. "Yes; he has been away at school; he came home Sunday to comfort and protect his mother; but, unfortunately, he does not accept her faith. He rebelled against her work, and demanded that she give up her Voices. I can understand his wanting her to go away with him, and I can understand also how painful it was to her; but I don't believe that what he said had anything to do with her passing out. She was very frail at best, and has many times said that she expected to leave the body in one of her trances and never again resume her worn-out garment."
"Yes, though not strictly a trance-medium, she did occasionally pass out of the body."
"Certainly; I am Mrs. John H. Joyce, of Prairie Avenue."
His manner changed. "Oh yes. I should have known you, Mrs. Joyce, I have seen you before. What you tell me does not explain the disposal of Mrs. Ollnee's body. She must have gone to her death consciously, as if preparing to sleep. Perhaps she intended only to enter a trance."
Mrs. Joyce started. "She may be in trance now! Have you thought of that, Doctor?"
Victor's heart bounded at the suggestion. "Do you think it possible?" he asked, excitedly.
Sill remained unmoved. "She does not respond to any test, I'm sorry to say. Life is extinct."
The entrance of Doctor Eberly, a tall, stooping man with deep-set eyes and a sad, worn face, cut short this explanation. Eberly was Mrs. Joyce's family physician, and taking him aside she presented the case.
Eberly knew Doctor Sill, and together they returned to Mrs. Ollnee's bedside while Mrs. Joyce kept Victor as far away from their examination as possible.
"There have been many cases of this deep trance, Victor, and we must not permit the coroner to come till we are absolutely convinced that your mother has gone out never to return."
"She must come back," he cried, huskily. "She did so much for me. I want to do something for her."