Leadbeater at the time, was very involved with a medium called Mr. Eglinton. One day, while in transe, the medium spoke of Them with the most profound reverence, and said that he had on various occasions had the privilege of seeing Them. CWL at once enquired whether he was prepared to take charge of any message or letter for Them. The medium said that he would willingly do so, and would deliver it when opportunity offered, but he could not say exactly when that would be.

So Leadbeater decided that he would write a letter to one of the Great Masters, and would confide to Eglinton, if his friend and teacher, Mr. Sinnet approved. When he asked his opinion, Sinnett was at once eagerly interested, and advised him promptly to accept the offer of the medium, and see what would happened.

Here is how Leadbeater reports the event:

"Thereupon I went home and wrote three letters. The first was to the Master K.H., telling Him with all reverence that ever since I had first heard of Theosophy my one desire had been to place myself under Him as a pupil. I told Him of my circumstances at the time, and asked whether it was necessary that the seven year of probation of which I had heard should be passed in India. I put this letter in a small enveloppe and sealed it carefully with my own seal. The I closed it in a letter to Ernest (the spirit guide) in which I reminded him of his promise, and asked him to deliver this letter for me, and to bring back an answer if there should be one. That second letter I sealed in the same manner as the first, and then I enclosed that in turn with a short note to Eglinton, asking him to put it in his box, and let me know whether any notice was taken of it. I had asked a friend who was staying with me to examine the seals of both the letters with a microscope, so that if we should see them again we might know whether any one had been tampering with them. By return of post I received a note from Mr. Eglinton, saying that he had duly put the note for Ernest into his box, and that it had already vanished, and further that if any reply should come to him he would at once forward it.

" A few days later I received a letter directed in a hand which was unknown to me, and on opening it I discovered my own letter to Ernest apparently unopened, the name 'Ernest' on the enveloppe being crossed out, and my own written underneath it in pencil. My friend and I once more examined the seal with a microscope, and were unable to detect any indication whatever that any one had tampered with the letter, and we both agreed that it was quite impossible that it would have been opened; yet on cutting it open I discovered that the letter which I had written to the Master had disappeared. All that I found inside was my own letter to Ernest, with a few words in the well-known hand-writing of the latter written on a blank page, to the effect that my letter had been duly handed to the Great Master, and that in the future I should ever be thought worthy to receive an answer Ernest would gladly bring it to me.

" I waited for some months, but no reply came, and whenever I went to Eglinton's scéances and happened to encounter Ernest, I always asked when I might expect my answer. He invariably said that my letter had been duly delivered, but that nothing had yet been said about an answer, and that he could do no more"

(CWL: How Theosophy came to me, pp 29-35)