Evening star., 1898-10-29

celebrated Mrs. Piper It was one Of these
messages, the one written with her left
hand, that Mr.. Vincent now had before
MN 1t consisted of eight words written
diSconnectedly: George Bessel trial
excavn... Baker St.. help. starvation. =
CurIously enough, neither DR.. Paget nor the
TWO other inquirers who were present had
heard of the disappearance of Mr. Bessel-
the news of it appeared only in the evening
papers of Saturday-and they had put the
message aside with many others of a vague
anu anu enlgmatlcal sort that Mrs. Bullock has
from time to time delivered.
When DR.. Paget heard Mr. Vincent's
| story he gave himself at once with great
energy to the pursuit of this clew to the
| discovery of Mr.. Bessel. 1t would serve
no useful purpose here to describe the in
| qulries of Mr.. Vincent and himself: suffice
II that the clew was a genuine one and
that Alr. Bessel was actually discovered by
its aid.
He was found at the bottom of a detach-
ed shaft which had been sunk and abandon
ed at the commencement of the work for
the new electric railway near Baker street
station His arm and leg and two rios
We're broken. The shaft is protected hv a
| boarding nearly twenty feet high and over
this, incredible as ii seems Mr. Bessel, a
stout, m1ddle-aged gentleman must have
| scrambled in order to fall down the shaft
lie was saturated in COLA oil and the
smashed tin lay beside him, but luckily
the flame had been extinguished by his fail
ANA his madness had passed from him AL
tosetner. But he was, of course, terribly
enfeebled. and at the sight of his rescuers
ne gave way to hystericaI weepine
In view of the deplorable state of his fiat
he was taken to the house of DR. Hattou in
upper Baker street Here he was subjected
10 sedatiVe treatment and ANYTHING thai
might recall the violent crisis through
Whlch ne mad passed was carefully avoided.
Buf on the second day he volunteered a
statement "
Since that occasion Mr.. Bessei has at
| several times repeated this statement-to
inySet among other people-varying the
aGtalIs as the narrator of real experiences
almdys aIstty5,, uoes, put never by any chance
ccntradicting himself in any particular,
And the statement he makes is in sub
stance as follows:
In order to understand it clearly it is
~ nJtSassIS 10 90 PACK TO his experiments
with Mr. Vincent before his remark a BILE
attack. Mr.. Bessers first attemnts ~
seH-proJection, in his experiments with
MI vincent. were, as the reader will re-
member, unsuccessful. But through all
OF them he was concentrating all his DOW
er and will upon getting out of the body
willing it with all my might" ne saws
AT last, almost against expectation came
success. And Mr.. Bessel asserts that he
being alive did actually by an effort Of
will leave his body and pass into some
place or state outside this world.
Ihe release was. he asserts, instanta-
feous AT one moment l was seated
In my chair. with my eyes tightly shut
! my hands gripping the arms of the chair
doing all l could to concentrate nv mind
on Vincent, and then l perceived mvseIf
outside my body-saw my body near me
but certainly not containing me- with the
fands relaxing and the head droopins
forward on the breast
Nothing shakes him in his assurance
o. that release, and he describes in a
quite matter-of-fact way the new sensa-
ton he experienced. He felt he had be-
come lmpalpable. SO much ne had ex-
Iected, but he had not expected to find
himself enormously large So however
ii would seem he became 'sI was a great
eIoud-if / may express it that way-an-
chored to my body. 1t appeared to me
at first IS If / had discovered a greater
self, of which the conscious being in my
brain was only little part 1 saw the
Albany and PiccaGilly and Regent street
and all the rooms and places in the houses.
very minute and very bright and distinct
spread out below me like a little city seen
nom balloon Every now and then
vague shapes like drifting wreaths of
smoke made the vision little indistinct,
but at first / paid little heed to them.