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My professional instincts now came to the front. “That would be murder,” I said, “and nothing less.”

“So I myself told them,” he continued, “for I had come to the determination that I would choose to finish out the life I had broken off so suddenly. But they paid little heed to my words and continued their experiments. But, as I have told you, their efforts were without avail, and they have ceased to make further trial of dematerialization. As, of course, it would be impossible to keep a full-grown man for any considerable length of time secluded and unseen, they judged it wise to permit me to appear as an ordinary human being; and having no other use to which they could put me, they set me to selling tickets for them, and in this business I have fared so badly that I shall restore to them these that are left, and counsel them to seek another agent, I being of detriment to them rather than profit. What may then happen I do not know, for, as I told you, I am not my own master.”

“I do not understand you,” I said. “If you have been, in this unparalleled manner, restored to your physical existence, surely you are free to do as you please. What these spiritualists have done for you was done by accident. They intended you no benefit, and they have no claim upon you.”

“That is true,” he said, with a sigh, “but they have a hold upon me. It was but yesterday that they informed me that, although, so far, they had failed to restore me to what they call my normal spiritual existence, they had every reason to believe that they soon would be able to do so. A psychic scientist of Germany has discovered a process of dematerialization, and they have sent to him for his formula. This, in a short time, they expect to receive, and they assure me that they will not hesitate to put it in force if I should cause them trouble. Now, sir,” he continued, and as he spoke there was a moisture about his eyes, “I am very fond of life. I have been restored to that mortality from which I was suddenly snatched by the cruel sea, and I do not wish to lose it again until I have lived out my natural term of years. My family is one of long life, and I feel that I have a right to fifty more years of existence, and this strong desire for the natural remainder of my life is that which gives these men their power over me. I was never a coward, but I cannot but fear those who may at any moment cause this form, these limbs, my physical state and life, to vanish like a candle-flame blown out.”

My sympathies were now strongly aroused in behalf of the subject of these most extraordinary conditions. “That which you fear must not be allowed,” I said. “No man has the right to take away the life of another, no matter what plan or method he may use. I will see the spiritualists, and make it plain to them that what they threaten they cannot be allowed to do.”

The man arose. “Sir,” he said, “I feel that I have truly found a friend. Whatever may happen to me, I shall never forget your kindness to a very stranger.” He held out his hand, and I stood up by him and took it. It was as much a flesh and blood hand as my own.

“What is your name?” I asked. “You have not yet told me that.”

“I am Amos Kilbright, of Bixbury,” he answered.

“You have not revisited your native place?” I said.

“No,” he replied, “I much desire to do so, but I have no money for a journey, even on foot, and I doubt me much if those men would suffer me to go to Bixbury.”