*Willie Reichel: Occult Experiences, p. 28.
**Victor Gollanez edition, London, 1931.
Realm into which the children were dragged, as if into a vortex. We might have had data of
mysterious disappearances of children, but the parents, who were unaffected by the current,
pulled them back." (p. 27)
Instead of a vortex we find the victims dragged downwards into a hole in the following instance:
"Early in the morning of December 9th, 1873, Thomas B. Cumpston and his wife 'who occupied
good positions in Leeds' were arrested in a railroad station, in Bristol, England, charged with
disorderly conduct, both of them in their nightclothes, Curnpston having fired a pistol. See the
London Times, Dec. 11, 1873. Cumpston excitedly told that he and his wife had arrived the day
before, from Leeds, and had taken a room in a Bristol hotel, and that, early in the morning, the
floor had 'opened', and that, as he was about to be dragged into the 'opening,' his wife had
saved
him, both of them becoming so terrified that they had jumped out of the window, running to the
railroad station, looking for a policeman. In the Bristol Daily Post, Dec. 10, is an account of
proceedings in the police court. Cumpston's excitement was still so intense that he could not
clearly express himself. Mrs. Cumpston testified that, early in the evening, both of them had
been alarmed by loud sounds, but that they had been reassured by the landlady. At three or four
in the morning the sounds were heard again. They jumped out on the floor, which was felt giving
way under them. Voices repeating their exclamations were heard, or their own voices echoed
strangely. Then, according to what she saw, or thought she saw, the floor opened wide. Her
husband was falling into this 'opening', when she dragged him back." (p. 188)
"In the Sunday Express, London, Dec. 5, 1926, Lieut. Col. Foley tells of an occurrence that
resembles the Cumpstons' experience. A room in Corpus Christi College (Cambridge
University) was, in Oct. 1904, said to be haunted. Four students, of whom Shane Leslie, the
writer, was one, investigated. Largely the story is of an invisible, but tangible, thing, or
being,
which sometimes became dimly visible, inhabiting, or visiting, this room. The four students
went into the room, and one of them was dragged away from the others. His companions grabbed
him. 'Like some powerful magnet' something was drawing him out of their grasp. They pulled
against it, and fought in frenzy, and they won the tug. Other students, outside the room, were
shouting. Undergraduates came running down the stairs, and crowding into the room, wrecked
it, even tearing out the oak panelling. Appended to the story, in the Sunday Express, is a
statement by Mr. Leslie - 'Col. Fole has given an accurate account of the occurrence.' " (P.
189.)