“That will not do at all,” said Mrs. Colesworthy.  “It will be very long to postpone their happiness; and besides, if that German gets hold of Mr. Kilbright while he is still unmarried, he will snap him up, or rather, blow him out in no time.”

“I thought we had persuaded ourselves,” I said, sadly, “that no one could have any real power of dematerialization.”

“So we had,” said she, “but that sort of persuasion does not always last.”

The result was that we did nothing but hope for the best.  But we could not blame ourselves, for, really, there was nothing else to do.  I had given up all idea of endeavoring to put Mr. Corbridge and his associates under legal restriction, because if they had power to do the evil we feared, they could do it in one place as well as another, and no court could determine when, how, or by whom Mr. Kilbright had been dematerialized.

The day before the wedding-day the German doctor arrived in our town; and, having heard this, I went immediately to the hotel where Mr. Corbridge and his party were staying.  The spiritualistic manager was not glad to see me, and frankly said so.

“I had hoped,” he remarked, “that you had concluded to keep out of this thing.  It is no concern of yours; you can be of no possible good to anybody; and the wisest thing you can do will be to drop it.”

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.”