"My Experiences at the MacDonald Homestead"
by H. B. Whidden

...page 2

On numerous occasions after my first two visits to Caledonia Mills, I was asked:
        “What do you think is behind it all; what caused the fires, and what or who unfastened the cows?”

These and similar questions were put in me, in most cases by persons whom I believed to be sincerely desirous of learning the truth, if possible. Others—the frivolous, jocular type—also asked such questions. My answer invariably was:
       “It is beyond me. The solution of the mystery may be quite simple, but to me it is a very strange affair, and I would not offer a suggestion.”

I visited the homestead in the capacity of a newspaper correspondent. After spending two days and two nights with Detective Carroll in the Macdonald house, I was more mystified than ever. On the second night of our stay we had a new experience. We heard strange noises—absolutely different from anything I had ever heard before from the floor over our heads. And shortly afterwards I distinctly felt a blow on the flat part of my left arm above my elbow. At the time I was satisfied that it was not my imagination, because I had absolute control of myself. This blow was felt distinctly through two shirts, an inside coat, a heavy sweater, a fur-lined overcoat and a new horse-rug, which was covering me.

Instantly I knew that something entirely new and hitherto foreign to me had caused it. Fortunately my mind functioned quickly—in fact instantly—and I sat up. Turning to Carroll, I asked him if he had hit me. I did this simply to satisfy the myself that he had not, because my impression from the very first was that no human hand had caused the blow. He was genuinely surprised. Carroll was in exactly the same position that I had seen him a moment before I felt the blow. In fact, he was in such a position that he could not have touched me or even moved without my knowledge. I turned to Alexander Macdonald, who was on the floor on the other side of me. He was in the same position I had seen him just before and was nearly asleep. He could not have moved or touched me without my knowledge—that is, as in the case of Carroll—without my knowing it.

I asked him if he had hit me. He was surprised, and replied that he has not, and also that he had not even heard the strange sounds which preceded the blow.

Carroll explained that a second or two before I had sat up and asked him if he had hit me, he had felt a pressure on his left fore-arm.