“I never did see such a kicker,” said Bill. “When I’ve been so considerate, too. Why, you see, Leff, that the chrysalis of attraction in which you move is so cunningly tempered as to swing you in a perfect circle about twenty feet in diameter. So, you see, you are in no sense exposed, as it were, publicly. You are so adjusted as not to be dragged through the roof, over the damp grass, through the sewer pipes nor yet across the clothes-line in the back yard. In thus making you a strictly Private Exhibit I’ve paid the deference due to your profession which you yourself have so disgraced. I wonder, now, Leff, if you haven’t guessed what I’ve been up to all this time?” Alonzo shook his head dejectedly. “No?”--interrogatively. “Well, then,” said Bill--“I’ve just reached the delicate point of practically solving the problem of astral substance; or, of reducing astral substance to visible, tangible, physical substance. And the proof which is necessary depends now only upon the nicety of modern mechanical construction. In short, I believe that I am about to demonstrate that in electro-dynamics lurks the secret of the ‘Soul.’” “But, Bill, I say,--Bill, old fellow. Surely you are not going to experiment on ME? Surely you are going to release me from this uncomfortable situation?” “Why, my dear boy,” said Bill Vanderhook good humoredly, “would you balk such an experiment on the very threshold of success? Permit me to assure you that the performance is only half over and the best of the features are yet to come.” CHAPTER XI. UP AGAINST IT. “But, Bill, Bill, old chum,”--and the Mystic shook like a mold of jelly. “I _must_ away. My body, don’t you know? My body that I am going to need very shortly--is in danger. Even at this great distance I sense the approach of those wild beasts. Pray let me return for a brief time to my studies of the abstract. I’m already away behind in Yog. Release me old boy, release me, I must hence!” “I say, Leff, if I’d let up on you would you swear by the One-Horned-Hair-of-the-Sacred-Rabbit never to show yourself again in Kankakee?” “But, the law--the law”--groaned the erring lover, and he gazed upon his Lady-Bird in an unutterable fashion. “How--are--we--to--get--around--Chemistry? I--we--are not to blame--” “Enough,” snorted Bill Vanderhook. “No more fooling,” and it was now the baseball captain to the front. “But my body,” pleaded Lonnie. “It will be eaten. Do you hear me? It will be eaten, chewed up, and destroyed.” “Well,” said Bill impatiently, “what if it is? What then?” “What then?” cried the Seer excitedly. “Why, don’t you see that I’ll be regularly dead? Just dead, and my body no good to me? Why, don’t you know that I’ll be nothing then but a mere angel? Don’t you know that I’ll be altogether confined to another world? I’ll be a Mystic no longer? Nor be able thus to materialize, and to travel at will--to--”