ere.'

"'All right,' said I, 'then let's go home. I missed my dinner. Since
you see there's no devil here----'

"'I don't see that,' said he, calmly, 'I only see that I haven't found
him yet. If a woman has a cancer, doctor, you don't know it the moment
you shake hands with her, do ye? So with me and my patients. Now
let's think a bit, and if you don't object, I'll call a little
consultation.'

"So he takes a little black book out of his pocket, and actually sits
there reading! I humoured him, and smoked. After a while he looks up,
crosses himself, puts away the book and nods at me contentedly.

"'Now, which room would all of these women use the most, doctor?' says
he.

"'The kitchen,' I said directly, thinking of Mynie and Althea. Then,
'No, no, for Mrs. Mears used this for her consulting-room. But the
parson's wife spent most of her time in her bedroom. Still, the
jeweller's wife didn't--they used the dining-room to sit in. There's
no one room, you see.'

"'Unless they all had the same bedroom,' he suggested quietly.

"'By George, they did, then!' I cried, 'for I gave it to Mynie and
Althea because it was the coolest. I always sleep on the ground floor.'

"'Then we'll try the bedroom, doctor,' says he, and we went up-stairs.
He was a stocky, short little fellow, strong as a bull, with iron-grey
hair, very solid on his feet, yet quick and active, like a thin man.
He sat down in the rocking-chair in the neat, empty bedroom and I
brought in another lamp from across the hall.

"'You don't think you'll need the dark for your materializations,
Father?' I said, half laughing, as I set my lamp on the bureau.

"'No, no, doctor,' he answered, smiling. 'The Church doesn't work in
the dark, you know. We're all for candles, and plenty of 'em.'

"I had to grin at that. He was as quick a man with his tongue as I
ever met.

"Well, we sat there, and sat there, and he shut his eyes and tipped
back and forth in that chair like a woman, and I might as well have not
been there. I mean I was out of his consciousness entirely. Finally I
got nervous and bored.

"'There's nothing here, Father,' I said, rather testily. 'Haven't I
been here hours on end with the parson's wife? Wouldn't I have known
it?'

"He never opened his eyes.

"'Probably not, doctor,' he said pleasantly. 'It's not your job, you
see. You were thinking about her liver.'

"'And you?' said I.

"'Her life everlasting,' said he.

"An