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I assured him that I had no intention of dropping it, and that I should do everything in my power to protect Mr. Kilbright.

“Then, again,” continued Corbridge, “there is really no need of giving yourself all this worry. Dr. Hildstein may succeed, and he may not. We have failed, and so may he. He has seen the subject, and has come to a very philosophical and sensible conclusion in regard to him. He will not believe, merely on our assertion, that the man is a materialized spirit. He will proceed with his experiments, and if they fail he will consider that the man is a man, and was never anything else. If they succeed, then he will be quite satisfied that he had a perfect right to dematerialize what we had materialized.”

“Then you really believe,” I said, “that there is a chance that he may fail?”

“Of course there is,” said Corbridge. “I do not know his methods, and there may be nothing in them.”

I had no doubt that this change of tone in Corbridge was intended to produce in me a feeling of security, that they might thus rid themselves of me. But, though I saw through his purpose, the man’s words encouraged me. Of course there must be a good deal of doubt about the German’s powers; and, after all, there might be no cause whatever for our anxieties.

“Now, sir,” said Corbridge, as I left, “if I were you I would trouble myself no more about this matter. If Dr. Hildstein fails, you will still have your man to do your copying, or your surveying, or anything you like. If he succeeds, we are all in the same condition we were a year ago. ‘That subject did not exist at that time; he does not exist at this time;’ that will be all we shall have to say about it.”

“You forget,” I said, severely, “the wife he may leave behind him.”

“I have nothing to say about that,” said Corbridge, rather sharply. “It is a reprehensible business, and I have nothing to do with it.”

I went away without seeing the German doctor, but as I heard he spoke no English, and as I did not know German, an interview with him would have been of no avail.

Neither Mrs. Colesworthy nor myself slept that night; we were so filled with anxious fears. But when the day broke, bright and clear, and I had hurried round to Mr. Kilbright’s lodgings, and had found him as full of life and vigor as I had ever seen him, we were greatly comforted, and ate our breakfasts with fair appetites.

“If it had been a dark and lowering day,” said my wife, “I don’t believe I could have swallowed a mouthful.”

The marriage was to take place at noon, and the happy pair were to start by the first afternoon train for the sea-shore, where they were to spend a week. Mr. Kilbright hated locomotives and railroads almost as much as ever, but he had told me some time before that he intended to conquer this prejudice, if such a thing were possible.

“Being one of you, I must do as you do,” he had said.

The wedding was to be a very simple one. Miss Budworth was to go from her mother’s house to the church, where Mr. Kilbright was to meet her. We insisted that he should dress at our house, where he would find better accommodations than at his lodgings; and we assigned him our best guest-room, where he repaired in very good season, to array himself in his wedding suit.

It was not quite eleven o’clock when I went upstairs to see if I could be of any use to Mr. Kilbright in regard to the conclusion of his toilette. I knocked at the door, but received no answer. Waiting a few moments, I opened it and entered. On the floor, in front of a tall dressing-glass, was a suit of clothes. Not only did I see the black broadcloth suit–not laid out at length, but all in a compact heap–but I saw the shoes and stockings, the collar and cravat; everything. Near by lay a whisk broom.