The San Francisco call., 1895-10-13

side of the couch, took me in her arms
and instead of chiding me held me close,
kissed me again and again and assured me
over and over that 1 had been merely
dreaming and that Rupert must be alive
and well.
This did not reassure me. at once be.
came violently i'll. Did not know that
my friend was dead? Had not seen him
lying stark and livid on the floor? And [
could not bear to lose him-I could not
give him up.
Rupert had been of an exceedingly in
genious turn of mind, and electricity had
been always an absorbing study with him.
L knew as well as he that the refusal of his
parents to indulge his bent and force him
to become surgeon would go for nothing;
that his heart was in electricity, that he
would devote his life to it in spite of all,
and that he might make wonderful dis
coveries in time. Hence, when l found
him IN Charleston conducting his electri-
cal studies and experiments in secret was
not at all surprised. For this purpose he
had fitted up laboratory in an old aban-
doned warehouse, where there was no dan
ger of discovery. And there he lay dead
in this hidden place. Through the grief
that 1 suffered over his death was thrust
an infinite pity for the anxious waiting,
hopeless searching and unending anguish
of his parents.
The next day after his death, feeling
somewhat better, took up pen to write
his parents and inform them of what had
occurred and where the body might be
found, when it suddenly flashed upon me
| L. IL L. L.
may not be with him? If my conscious
ness can leave my body and instantly
traverse the space separating New Orleans
and Charleston, why may it not find him
whithersoever he has gomez" The atmos-
pheric condition was not suitable for the
attempt that day; but on the following
day rare good fortune blessed me-the day
was right, but to my dismay 1 failed COM
pletely. Instead of finding Rupert, though
my will SO to do seemed all-powerful,
discovered myself somewhere else. Where
I was and what I saw are matters irrele-
want to this account and accordingly..I
omit them but Rupert was not there, nor
anywhere in the universe, L thought, nor
could I even GO to the place where had
left his body to the rats that swarmed in
the warehouse; and then the temptation
to believe that the ending of this life is the
end of all assailed me with tremendous
force.
1t would have become a conviction but
for an extraordinary happening. Just as
was about to drag myself back to con
sciousness I gave closer heed to peculiar
sensation which had frequently felt since
Rupert's death and had never felt before
1 had been conscious of it, faint though il
was, but ascribed it to the sadly shaker
state of my nerves. But when 1 finally
forced myself to seize and analyze it
realized that it was something new
strange and portentous. I shall not de
scribe it nor explain the process, mental o.
otherwise. by which l reached the conclu
sion that the soul of Rupert lived and tha
it's intelligence and activity were ham
pered by some terrible force, the nature O
which could not conceive.
This led me into a profound and ex
haustive train OF reasoning upon waking
but as not one person in ten Thousand
could understand it, and as it would b,
very long and complicated and 1 mus
obey your injunction, omit it altogether
l will say only that I started overland TO
Charleston the following day, making al
the haste that the generous cooperation o
my parents and abundant money will
which they supplied me could accomplish
Arriving at Charleston [ went straight
way to the warehouse where my friend
body lay. But was it there still? Nearl