Amos Kilbright | Page 6

time."
I was not prepared to make any answer on this point, but I went away
with a firm resolution to protect Amos Kilbright in the full enjoyment
of his reassumed physical existence, if the power of law, or any other
power, could do it.
The next morning Mr. Corbridge called on me at my office. "I shall be
very sorry," he said, "if any of my remarks of yesterday should cause
unpleasant feelings between us. We are desirous of being on good

terms with everybody, especially with members of the Society for
Psychical Research. You ought to work with us."
"We do not work with you," I replied, "nor ever shall. Our object is to
search earnestly and honestly into the subject of spiritual manifestation,
and not to make money out of unfortunate subjects of experiment."
"You misunderstand us," said he, "but I am not going to argue the
question. I wish to be on good terms with you and to act fairly and
plainly all around. We find that we cannot make use of the
dematerialization process as soon as we expected, for the German
scientist who controls it has declined to send us his formula, but has
consented to come over and work it on this subject himself. His
engagements will not allow him to visit this country immediately, but
he is very enthusiastic about it, and he is bound to come before long.
Now, as you seem to be interested in this ex-Kilbright, we will make
you an offer. We will give him into your charge until we want him. He
is of no use to us, as he can't tell us anything about spiritual matters, his
present memory beginning just where it broke off when he sank in the
ocean in seventeen eighty-five, but he might be very useful to a man
who was inclined to study up old-time manners and customs. And so, if
it suits you, we will make him over to you, agreeing to give you three
days' notice before we take any measures to dematerialize him. We are
not afraid of your getting away with him, for our power over him will
be 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, and that I had consented to take him into my
service. "It is now plain to me," he said, "that they have no power to do
this thing and cannot obtain it from others. This discardment of me
proves that they have abandoned their hopes."
It was evident that Corbridge had said nothing of the expected coming
of the German scientist, and I would not be cruel enough to speak of it
myself. Besides, I intended to have said scientist arrested and put under
bonds as soon as he set foot on our shores.
"I do not feel," continued Kilbright, "that I am beginning a new life, but
that I am taking up my old one at the point where I left it off."
"You cannot do that," I said. "Things have changed very much, and you
will have to adapt yourself to those changes. In many ways you must
begin again."
"I know that," he said, "and with respect to much that I see about me, I
am but a child. But as