The Land of Mist by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

So now the nets were set and the pit was dug and the hunters were all / ready for the great quarry, but the question was whether the creature / would allow himself to be driven in the right direction. Had Challenger / been told that the meeting was really held in the hope of putting / convincing evidence before him as to the truth of spirit intercourse / with the aim of his eventual conversion, it would have roused mingled / anger and derision in his breast. But the clever Malone, aided and / abetted by Enid, still put forward the idea that his presence would be a / protection against fraud, and that he would be able to point out to them / how and why they had been deceived. With this thought in his mind, / Challenger gave a contemptuous and condescending consent to the proposal / that he should grace with his presence a proceeding which was, in his / opinion, more fitted to the stone cabin of a neolithic savage than to / the serious attention of one who represented the accumulated culture and / wisdom of the human race.

Enid accompanied her father, and he also brought with him a curious / companion who was strange both to Malone and to the rest of the company. / This was a large, raw-boned Scottish youth, with a freckled face, a huge / figure, and a taciturnity which nothing could penetrate. No question / could discover where his interests in psychic research might lie, and / the only positive thing obtained from him was that his name was Nicholl. / Malone and Mailey went together to the rendezvous at Holland Park, where / they found awaiting them Delicia Freeman, the Rev. Charles Mason, Mr. / and Mrs. Ogilvy of the College, Mr. Bolsover of Hammersmith, and Lord / Roxton, who had become assiduous in his psychic studies, and was rapidly / progressing in knowledge. There were nine in all, a mixed, inharmonious / assembly, from which no experienced investigator could expect great / results. On entering the séance room Linden was found seated in the / arm-chair, his wife beside him, and was introduced collectively to the / company, most of whom were already his friends. Challenger took up the / matter at once with the air of a man who will stand no nonsense.