“I will tell you this!” exclaimed my wife.  “He was a great deal more than a spirit.  He was a man engaged to be married at twelve o’clock this day.  You may think there is no law that will sweep down on you, but I tell you there is; and before the clock strikes twelve you shall know it.  Do you imagine you have come upon a people who will endure the presence of an ogre? a wretch, who reduces to nothing a fellow human being, and calls it an experiment?  When we tell what you have done—­my husband cannot speak German, but he is a leader in this town, and he supports me in all I say—­when we have told what you have done there will be no need of courts, or judges, or lawyers for you.  Like a wild beast you will be hunted down; you will be trampled under foot; you will be torn to pieces!  Fire, the sword, the hangman’s noose, clubs, and crowbars will not be enough to satisfy the vengeance of an outraged people upon a cold-blooded wretch who came to this country solely for the purpose of perpetrating a crime more awful than anything that was ever known before!  Did you ever hear of lynching?  I see by your face you know what that means.  You are in the midst of a people who, in ten short minutes, will be shrieking for your blood!”

The man’s face changed, and he looked anxiously at me.  I did not know what my wife had been saying, but I had seen by her manner that she had been threatening him, and I shook my uplifted fist.

“Now heed what I say,” cried Mrs. Colesworthy, “if you do not wish to perish at the hands of an infuriated mob; to die a thousand deaths before your vile spirit leaves this world, knowing that, besides the torments you feel, and those which are to come, you will be in the power of men who will bring you back in a half-finished form to make sport at their meetings whenever they feel like it—­”

Drops of perspiration stood on the doctor’s face.  “Stop that!” he cried, throwing up his arm.  “I cannot stand that!  I did not know the subject had such friends!”

“Nothing shall be stopped!” exclaimed my wife, “and everything shall happen unless you immediately sit down at that table, or wherever you do those things, and rematerialize Mr. Kilbright, just as you found him, and into the very clothes that were left lying upon the floor!”

The doctor stepped forward—­his face was now pale—­and addressed himself very deferentially to my wife, totally ignoring me.  “If you will retire,” he said, “I will try; I swear to you that I will try.”

“There is not a minute to be lost,” said Mrs. Colesworthy, “not one second.  And, if as much as a finger-nail is missing, remember what I have told you!”

And with this we quickly left the room.

As we went down the steps of the hotel Mrs. Colesworthy looked at her watch.  “It is twenty-five minutes to twelve,” she said.  “We must get home as fast as we can.”

We hurried along, sometimes almost running.  When we reached our house, Mrs. Colesworthy motioned to me to go upstairs.  She had no breath left with which to speak.  I ran up, and stood for a moment at the closed door of our guest-room.  With my hand on the knob, I was unable to open it.  I heard a step on the stairs behind me, and I opened the door.