sed and looked at
him almost in fear. For one instant, the cry of the public that this
man was a wizard flashed across his mind, but in the next he cast it
aside with scorn, and again he said peremptorily.

"I tell you no! It is impossible!"

"Nothing is impossible," said the Doctor, impressively, "if I have
decided in my own mind that it must be. I have never failed in any
purpose of my life, and I will not fail in this. Judge Dudley, listen
to me. I have a claim upon your daughter Agnes, equal to, yea greater,
than your own."

"What!" exclaimed the Judge, more amazed. He sank back in his chair
bewildered. How could this man have a claim upon his child greater
than his own? It was an unsolvable riddle to him.

"You do not comprehend me," said the Doctor, "and to explain myself it
will be necessary for me to speak at some length. Shall I do so?"

"You must do so! After what you have said, I must hear more. Go on!"

"Very well. If at first I seem to speak of matters unconnected with
the subject, bear with me and listen attentively. I shall be as brief
as possible, and yet give you a thorough insight into my meaning. As
you are well aware, men call me a wizard. Now, what is a wizard? The
dictionary says he is a sorcerer, and that a sorcerer is a magician.
In olden times the magicians were of two kinds, evil and good,
accordingly as they practised Black Art, or the reverse; which only
means that they were men endowed with knowledge not shared by their
fellows, and that, armed with the powers thus acquired, they used
their abilities either for evil or for good purposes. Thus, if in this
day of civilization I possess any knowledge in advance of other
scientists, I suppose that I am as truly a wizard, as were the
magicians of the ancients."

"Nonsense!"

"Not at all. I claim to have knowledge which is fully twenty years in
advance of to-day, just as I know that the present generation is but
slowly awakening to truths which were known to me twenty years ago.
But before I speak of what I myself know, let me give you a summary of
the advance which modern science has made in a specified direction.
You have heard of what is commonly called the 'Germ Theory' of
disease?"

"Yes! Certainly!"

"You say yes, and you add certainly, by which latter you mean that it
was folly for me to ask you such a question. Yet how much do you
really know of the great progress which has been made in mastering the
secret causes of human di