all the same, no matter where he is."

"I will have no man made over to me," said I, "and Mr. Kilbright being
his own master, can do with himself what he pleases; but, as I said
before, I shall protect him, and do everything in my power to thwart
your schemes against him. And you must remember he will have other
friends besides me. He has relatives in this town."

"None but old Mr. Scott, at least so far as I know," said Corbridge,
"and he need not expect any help from him, for that ancient personage
is a most arrant disbeliever in spiritualism."

And with this remark he took his leave.

That very afternoon came to me Amos Kilbright, his face shining with
pleasure. He greeted me warmly, and thanked me for having so kindly
offered to give him employment by which he might live and feel under
obligations to no man.

I had promised nothing of the kind, and my mind was filled with
abhorrence of such men as Corbridge, who would not only send a person
into the other world simply to gratify a scientific curiosity or for
purposes of profit, but would rehabilitate a departed spirit with all
his lost needs and appetites, and then foist him upon a comparative
stranger for care and sustenance. Such conduct was not only mean, but
criminal in its nature, and if there was no law against it, one ought to
be made.

Kilbright then proceeded to tell me how happy he had been when Corbridge
informed him that his dematerialization had been indefinitely postponed,