"So," said Sanderson, and took his pipe in hand again.



"Ah, NOW," said Clayton, "I can do the whole thing--right."



He stood up before the waning fire and smiled at us all. But I think

there was just a little hesitation in his smile. "If I begin--"

he said.



"I wouldn't begin," said Wish.



"It's all right!" said Evans. "Matter is indestructible. You don't

think any jiggery-pokery of this sort is going to snatch Clayton

into the world of shades. Not it! You may try, Clayton, so far as

I'm concerned, until your arms drop off at the wrists."



"I don't believe that," said Wish, and stood up and put his arm

on Clayton's shoulder. "You've made me half believe in that story

somehow, and I don't want to see the thing done!"



"Goodness!" said I, "here's Wish frightened!"



"I am," said Wish, with real or admirably feigned intensity. "I

believe that if he goes through these motions right he'll GO."



"He'll not do anything of the sort," I cried. "There's only one way

out of this world for men, and Clayton is thirty years from that.

Besides . . . And such a ghost! Do you think--?"



Wish interrupted me by moving. He walked out from among our chairs

and stopped beside the tole and stood there. "Clayton," he said,

"you're a fool."



Clayton, with a humorous light in his eyes, smiled back at him.

"Wish," he said, "is right and all you others are wrong. I shall go.

I shall get to the end of these passes, and as the last swish whistles

through the air, Presto!--this hearthrug will be vacant, the room

will be blank amazement, and a respectably dressed gentleman of

fifteen stone will plump into the world of shades. I'm certain.

So will you be. I decline to argue further. Let the thing be tried."



"NO," said Wish, and made a step and ceased, and Clayton raised

his hands once more to repeat the spirit's passing.



By that time, you know, we were all in a state of tension--largely

because of the behaviour of Wish. We sat all of us with our eyes on

Clayton--I, at least, with a sort of tight, stiff feeling about me

as though from the back of my skull to the middle of my thighs my

body had been changed to steel. And there, with a gravity that was

imperturbably serene, Clayton bowed and swayed and waved his hands



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