(134) "On the evening of the 18th July, I felt unusually nervous. This seemed to begin [with the occurrence of a small domestic annoyance] about half-past 8 o'clock. When I went to my room I even felt as if someone was there. I fancied as I stepped into bed that someone in thought tried to stop me. At 2 o'clock I woke from the following dream. It seemed like in dissolving views. In a twinkle of light I saw a railway and the puff of the engine. I thought, ' What's going on up there? Travelling? I wonder if any of us are travelling and I dreaming of it.' Someone unseen by me answered, 'No; something quite different - something wrong.' 'I don't like to look at these things,' I said. Then I saw behind and above my head William's upper half reclining, eyes and mouth half shut; his chest moved forward convulsively, and he raised his right arm. Then he bent forward, saying, ' I suppose I should move out of this.' Then I saw him lying, eyes shut, on the ground, flat. The chimney of an engine at his head. I called in excitement, 'That will strike him! ' The ' someone ' answered, ' Yes - well, here's what it was '; and immediately I saw William sitting in the open air - faint moonlight - on a raised place, sideways.

He raised his right arm, shuddered, and said, ' I can't go on, or back, No.' Then he seemed lying flat. I cried out,' Oh! Oh! ' and others seemed to echo, ' Oh! Oh! ' He seemed then upon his elbow, saying, ' Now it comes.' Then, as if struggling to rise, turned twice round quickly, saying, ' Is it the train? the train, the train,' his right shoulder reverberating as if struck from behind. He fell back like fainting; his eyes rolled. A large dark object came between us like panelling of wood, and rather in the dark something rolled over, and like an arm was thrown up, and the whole thing went away with a swish. Close beside me on the ground there seemed a long dark object. I called out,' They've left something behind, it's like a man.' It then raised its shoulders and head and fell down again. The same someone answered,' Yes, sadly.' [?'Yes,' sadly.] After a moment I seemed called on to look up, and said, ' Is that thing not away yet? ' Answered, ' No.' And in front, in light, there was a railway compartment in which sat Rev. Mr. Johnstone, of Echuce. I said,' What's he doing there? ' Answered,' He's there.' A railway porter went up to the window asking,' Have you seen any of -?' I caught no more, but I thought he referred to the thing left behind.

Mr. Johnstone seemed to answer, ' No '; and the man went quickly away - I thought to look for it. After all this the someone said close to me, 'Now I'm a tall dark figure at my head going.' I started, and at once saw William's back at my side. He put his right hand (in grief) over his face, and the other almost touching my shoulder, he crossed in front, looking stern and solemn. There was a flash from the eyes, and I caught a glimpse of a fine, pale face like ushering him along, and indistinctly another. I felt frightened, and called out, ' Is he angry? ' ' O, no.' ' Is he going away? ' Answered, ' Yes,' by the same someone, and I woke with a loud sigh, which woke my husband, who said, ' What is it? ' I told him I had been dreaming ' something unpleasant ' - named a ' railway,' and dismissed it all from my mind as a dream. As I fell asleep again I fancied the 'someone' said,' It's all gone,' and another answered, * I'll come and remind her'.

" The news reached me one week afterwards. The accident had happened to my brother on the same night about half-past 9 o'clock. Rev. Mr. Johnstone and his wife were actually in the train which struck him. He was walking along the line which is raised 2 feet on a level country. He seemed to have gone 16 miles - must have been tired and sat down to take off his boot, which was beside him, dozed off and was very likely roused by the sound of the train; 76 sheep-trucks had passed without touching him, but some wooden projection, likely the step, had touched the right side of his head, bruised his right shoulder, and killed him instantaneously. The night was very dark. I believe now that the someone was (from something in the way he spoke) William himself. The face with him was white as alabaster, and something like this [a small sketch pasted on] in profile. There were many other thoughts or words seemed to pass, but they are too many to write down here.

"The voice of the ' someone ' unseen seemed always above the figure of William which I saw. And when I was shown the compartment of the carriage with Mr. Johnstone, the someone seemed on a line between me and it - above me".

In an account-book of Mrs. Storie's, on a page headed July, 1874, we find the 18th day marked, and the words, "Dear Willie died," and "Dreamed, dreamed of it all," appended.

The first letter, from the Rev. J. C. Johnstone to the Rev. John Storie, announcing the news of the accident, is lost. The following are extracts from his second and third letters on the subject: -

"Echuce, 10th August, 1874.

"The place where Hunter was killed is on an open plain, and there was consequently plenty of room for him to escape the train had he been conscious; but I think Meldrum's theory is the correct one, that he had sat down to adjust some bandages on his leg and had thoughtlessly gone off to sleep. There is only one line of rails, and the ground is raised about 2 feet - the ground 011 which the rails rest. He had probably sat down on the edge, and lain down backwards so as to be within reach of some part of the train. It was not known at the time that an accident had occurred. Mrs. Johnstone and myself were in the train. Meldrum says he was not very much crushed. The top of the skull was struck off, and some ribs were broken, under the arm-pit on one side. His body was found on the Sunday morning by a herd-boy from the adjoining station".

" August 29th, 1874. "The exact time at which the train struck poor Hunter must have been about 9.55 p.m., and his death must have been instantaneous".

The above corresponds with the account of the inquest in the Riverine Herald for July 22nd. The Melbourne Argus also describes the accident as having taken place on the night of Saturday, the 18th.

The following remarks are taken from notes made by Professor Sidgwick, during an interview with Mrs. Storie, in April, 1884, and by Mrs. Sidgwick, after another interview in September, 1885: -

Mrs. Storie cannot regard the experience exactly as a dream, though she woke up from it.1 She is sure that it did not grow more definite in recollection afterwards. She never had a series of scenes in a dream at any other time. They were introduced by a voice in a whisper, not recognised as her brother's. He had sat on the bank as he appeared in the dream. The engine she saw behind him had a chimney of peculiar shape, such as she had not at that time seen; and she remembers that Mr. Storie thought her foolish about insisting on the chimney - unlike (he said) any which existed; but he informed her when he came back from Victoria, where her brother was, that engines of this kind had just been introduced there. She had no reason to think that any conversation between the porter and the clergyman actually occurred. The persons who seemed to lead her brother away were not recognised by her, and she only saw the face of one of them.

Mr. Storie confirms his wife having said to him at the time of the dream, "What is that light? " Before writing the account first quoted, she had just mentioned the dream to her husband, but had not described it. She desired not to think of it, and also was unwilling to worry him about it because of his Sunday's work. This last point, it will be observed, is a confirmation of the fact that the dream took place on the Saturday night; and " it came out clearly " (Mrs. Sidgwick says) " that her recollection about the Saturday night was an independent recollection, and not read back after the incident was known." The strongly nervous state that preceded the dream was quite unique in Mrs. Storie's experience. But as it appeared that, according to her recollection, it commenced at least an hour before the accident took place, it must be regarded as of no importance evidentially. The feeling of a presence in the room was also quite unique.

Here the difficulty of referring the true elements in the dream to the agent's mind exceeds that noted in some cases (but see pp. 1 71-2). For Mr. Hunter was asleep; and even if we can conceive that the image of the advancing engine may have had some place in his mind, the presence of Mr. Johnstone could not have been perceived by him. But it is possible, of course, to regard this last item of correspondence as accidental, even though the dream was telepathic. It will be observed that the dream followed the accident by about 4 hours; such deferment is, I think, a strong point in favour of telepathic, as opposed to independent, clairvoyance.

1 In conversation with the present writer, Mrs. Storie mentioned that on one other occasion in her life she had had a sort of "borderland" hallucination (see the following chapter); and that this had corresponded, certainly to within a few days, but she did not discover exactly how closely, with the death of another brother in America. She knew him to be delicate, but was not apprehending his death.

To come, however, to less abnormal cases - the following account is from Mr. J. T. Milward Pierce who has a cattle-ranche in Nebraska.

"Blyville P.O., Knox County, Nebraska, U.S.A.

"December 5th, 1885.