"You may imagine that, now the only being I ever loved has so disdainfully trampled on the affection I offered her, I have no wish to stay on the earth longer than I can help. As I told you, however, the laws of the universe do not permit me to leave my body until the period appointed by God. Although I am now sixty years of age, and my body has been exposed to tortures and privations which would have killed an ordinary man, yet I still live on, and, so far as I can see, there is no probability of my dying for some years. Ardently desiring, however, to cut short my period of earth-life, I sought for some other solution of the enigma besides death. I could not die, and I dare not kill myself, for suicide is terribly punished in the spiritual world as soul-murder, but by means of my communings, while in the spirit, with the inhabitants of distant spheres, I have discovered that if I can obtain a soul willing to inhabit my own body and work out its allotted years, my own soul can leave the world for ever. "This solution perplexed me very much, as I did not know where to find a man who would be willing to leave his own body and incarnate himself in this withered trunk which goes by the name of Dr. Michael Roversmire. "I thought, however, that chance might send me someone willing to do what I wanted, and the garden door was left open by me so that some stranger might be drawn hither by my strong desire for his services. Had it been a burglar, I would have offered him the choice of being arrested for his attempt to rob my house, or of being incarnated in my body, enjoying my income and working out the balance of my life. "Though some weeks have passed, no one came however, but to-night you presented yourself, and I think you will be an excellent subject for my purpose. You have committed a murder, and in your own body are in danger of being hanged. I therefore propose that you should conceal yourself in my frame and work out my allotted span of life, so that my soul can leave the world without sin and mingle for ever with the pure spirits who inhabit the unseen universe. "You see, therefore, that if you are agreeable to my plan, I can secure you from all earthly harm by incarnating your soul in my body. As Adrian Lancaster, to-morrow will see you in prison, and a few weeks, possibly on the scaffold, but concealed in the personality of Dr. Michael Roversmire, you will be able to defy everyone and lead whatever life you desire. "Now I have told you my story you can ask me whatever questions you please, but I think I have put the question plainly before you, and it remains with yourself whether you will accede to my request and incarnate yourself in my body or, as Adrian Lancaster, run the risk of arrest and an ignominious death at the hands of the law." Chapter IV. A Curious Transformation