“It’s a terrible risk for Reid, too,” he said, “for Reid most of all, for he will be in deep trance; such power of faith as we can exert must defend him first of all.... Yet, we can’t get at Rolls, I tell you, without the medium.... I must, of course, tell Reid everything, and ask him if he will take the risk.... He may refuse, though I don’t think he will, for there’s the courage of a saint in that man.... Then there’s Frank, Frank’s body, I mean. That must be absolutely unconscious when the operation takes place; no human nerves could stand it, nor with that fiend in possession would he consent to it.... Deep, the deepest possible unconsciousness.... By Jove, there’s that new German drug, which appears safe enough, and it certainly produces a sleep that comes nearest of all to death; it seems to stupefy the very spirit itself.... Hyocampine, of course; don’t tell me you haven’t heard of it.... Tasteless too; it’s a good thing that the criminal classes can’t get hold of it.... Well, there we are.... Prayer and faith in an Almighty power.... Lighten our darkness, we beseech Thee, O Lord.... He does too, if our motives are right; that’s one of the few facts we can be quite sure about.... You can run a lot of risks if you utterly believe that.” Suddenly the whole burden of perplexity and anxious thought seemed lifted off his mind. “I’ll go and see Reid to-morrow morning,” he said. “I believe he will consent when he knows all. And you? Do you want to see the end of it? And look on the glory of God? Come if you like, but if you come, you must be strung up to the highest pitch of trust and serenity that you are capable of. Yes, do be here. You believe that all evil, however deadly and powerful, is altogether inferior in calibre and fighting power to good. Also I shall like a friend at my elbow. Perhaps I oughtn’t to urge that as a reason, for I don’t want any personal feeling to influence you. Only come if you want to witness the power of God, not Reid’s, not mine; we are nothing at all except mere mossy channels.” For one moment he paused, and I knew that he was wavering himself, in the weakness of the flesh; but instantly he got hold of himself again. “There’s only one power that _can’t_ fail,” he said. “Hell crashes into fragments against it.” * * * * * Next morning I got a note from Roupert, saying that Reid consented, and asking me to come in to his house punctually at half-past two, if I had decided to be with him. When I arrived I found Roupert and Frank Hampden sitting over their coffee in the study. Hampden had just drunk his. “Isn’t there a home for cats somewhere in Battersea?” he was asking. “I’ll go and find a new one for you, as yours appears to have vanished entirely.” He yawned.