have."

"Now then," said Mr. Corbridge, his eyes beginning to sparkle, "I may as
well talk plainly to you. My associates and myself have considered this
matter very carefully. At first we thought that if this fellow should
tell his story we would simply pooh-pooh the whole of it, and let people
think he was a little touched in his mind, which would be so natural a
conclusion that everybody might be expected to come to it. But as we
have determined to dematerialize him, his disappearance would bring
suspicion upon us, and we might get into trouble if he should be
considered a mere commonplace person. So we decided to speak out
plainly, say what we had done, and what we were going to do, and thus
put ourselves at the head of the spirit operators of the world. But we
are not yet ready to do anything or to make our announcements, and if he
had held his tongue we might have given him a pretty long string."

"And do you mean," I said, "that you and your associates positively
intend to dematerialize Mr. Kilbright?"

"Certainly," he answered.

"Then, I declare such an act would be inhuman; a horrible crime."

"No," said Mr. Corbridge, "it would be neither. In the first place he
isn't human. It is by accident that he is what he is. But it was our
affair entirely, and it was a most wonderfully fortunate thing for us
that it happened. At first it frightened us a little, but we have got
used to it now, and we see the great opportunities that this entirely
unparalleled case will give us. As he is, he is of no earthly good to
anybody. You can't take a man out of the last century and expect him to