Amos Kilbright | Page 5

I had heard
nothing but the truth, what would happen should she sympathize as
deeply with Amos Kilbright as I did, and then should that worthy man
suddenly become dematerialized, perhaps before her very eyes? No, I
would not tell her--at least not yet. But I must see the spiritualists. And
that afternoon I went to them.
The leader and principal worker of the men who were about to give a
series of spiritual manifestations in our town was Mr. Corbridge, a man
of middle-age with a large head and earnest visage. When I spoke to
him of Amos Kilbright he was very much annoyed.
"So he has been talking to you," he said, "and after all the warnings I
gave him! Well, he does that sort of thing at his own risk!"
"We all do things at our own risk," I said, "and he has as much right to
choose his line of conduct as anybody else."
"No, he hasn't," said Mr. Corbridge, "he belongs to us, and it is for us to
choose his line of conduct for him."
"That is nonsense," said I. "You have no more right over him than I
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 get on in any
sort of business at the present day. He is too old-fashioned. He doesn't
know how we do things in the year eighteen eighty-seven. We put this
subject to work selling tickets just to keep him occupied; but he can't
even do that. But, as a spirit who can be materialized or dematerialized
whenever we please, he will be of the greatest value to us. When a
spirit has been brought out as strongly as he has been it will be the
easiest thing in the world to do it again. Every time you bring one out
the less trouble it is to make it appear the next time you want it; and in
this case the conditions are so favorable that it will be absolute business
suicide in us if we allow ourselves to lose the chance of working it. So
you see, sir, that we have marked out our course, and I assure you that
we intend to stick to it."
"And I assure you," said I, rising to go, "that I shall make it my
business to interfere with your wicked machinations."
Mr. Corbridge laughed. "You'll find," he said, "that we have turned this
thing over pretty carefully, and we are ready for whatever the courts
may do. If we are charged with making away with anybody, we can, if
we like, make him appear, alive and well, before judge and jury. And
then what will there be to say against us? Besides, we are quite sure
that no laws can be found against bringing beings from the other world,
or sending them back into it, provided it can be proved by the subject's
admission, or in any other manner, that he really died once in a natural
way. You cannot be tried for causing a man's death a second