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By Root 1049 0

investigator of psychic claims who has contributed so greatly to our understanding of both the physical and psychological aspects of these investigations, knew Doyle personally and had him classified rather well. "Doyle was never wrong, and no one dared to suggest that he could have been mistaken—in anything," Dingwall told me. "He was not accustomed to being doubted." Knighthood did nothing to lessen his authority when the Crown decided to bestow this honor in 1902—not for his creation of Holmes but for his contributions as a historian, notably a vigorous defense of the British Army in South Africa.

England at that time was not yet ready to mature out of the mindset that Queen Victoria had left as her hallmark: the notion that the world was a rather predictable place and that everything was secure and stable. Little girls were always innocent and frivolous. Evil men had heavy brows and wore black. People were forever classified by birth and education. And so it went. It was the tenor of the time.

Holmes himself, though apparently an intellect of huge proportions, could not have survived outside the fictional world that Doyle wove about him. For his deductions to be correct, the consistency of his world was absolutely necessary. People in particular had to conform to type; otherwise Holmes would have been hopelessly wrong. It was just this rather naively invented universe that Doyle imagined into existence and projected about himself, and it accounts in large measure for his fanciful interpretation of phenomena that he came upon only late in life—the wonders of spiritualism.

Doyle lost his son Kingsley in World War I, perhaps another reason for his turn toward spiritualism. In any case—and in common with others of influence—he was drawn to this latest fad, which had been started in America (by two other girls, the Fox sisters) and had taken root firmly in England. It had become a recognized religion under the general term "spiritualism," and it flourished during the war, with so many available spirits to call upon. Doyle became one of its most ardent supporters, and his heir often remarked on the sad fact that he spent some £250,000 in his pursuit of this nonsense.

An excellent and popular author, yes. A great thinker, no. Doyle was dependent on a special, manufactured world for his conclusions to be correct. Such a special world was entirely fictional, for as we shall see, little girls are not always truthful, experts are not always right, and authorities do not always see with unclouded vision.

Putting aside personalities for the moment, let us examine the evidence provided by the five photographs—the five we have been allowed to see, that is. Bear in mind that the data to follow are those given by Edward Gardner. As we shall discover, much of it is wrong. The photos are:

1. Frances and the fairies. Camera: the Midg Quarter. Film: Imperial Rapid. Distance: about four feet. Time of exposure: 1/50 second. Lighting: bright, sunny day. Taken by Elsie in July 1917.

2. Elsie and the gnome. Camera: the Midg Quarter. Film: Imperial Rapid. Distance: about eight feet. Time of exposure: 1/50 second. Lighting: fairly bright day. Taken by Frances in September 1917.

3. Frances and the leaping fairy. Camera: the Cameo. Film: not specified. Distance: three feet. Time of exposure: 1/50 second. Lighting: not specified. Taken by Elsie in August 1920.

4. Fairy offering a posy to Elsie. Camera: the Cameo. Film: not specified. Distance: not specified. Time of exposure: not specified. Lighting: not specified. Taken by Frances in August 1920.

5. Fairies and their sunbath. Camera: the Cameo. Film: not specified. Distance: not specified. Time of exposure: not specified. Lighting: not specified. Taken by Elsie in August 1920.

The Midg was a common box camera. It had an offset viewer and held twelve glass plates in holders. Its widest aperture was f11, its highest shutter speed 1/100 second. The Cameo camera was a smaller bellows type that accepted single glass plates and also a ground-glass viewing plate