king from one to the other.

Neither of us found anything to reply.

"To say that the brute has awakened in a man is not a mere metaphor
always," he went on presently.

"Of course not!"

"But, in the sense I mean, may have a very literal and terrible
significance," pursued Dr. Silence. "Ancient instincts that no one
dreamed of, least of all their possessor, may leap forth--"

"Atavism can hardly explain a roaming animal with teeth and claws and
sanguinary instincts," interrupted Maloney with impatience.

"The term is of your own choice," continued the doctor equably, "not
mine, and it is a good example of a word that indicates a result while
it conceals the process; but the explanation of this beast that haunts
your island and attacks your daughter is of far deeper significance than
mere atavistic tendencies, or throwing back to animal origin, which I
suppose is the thought in your mind."

"You spoke just now of lycanthropy," said Maloney, looking bewildered
and anxious to keep to plain facts evidently; "I think I have come
across the word, but really--really--it can have no actual significance
to-day, can it? These superstitions of mediaeval times can hardly--"

He looked round at me with his jolly red face, and the expression of
astonishment and dismay on it would have made me shout with laughter at
any other time. Laughter, however, was never farther from my mind than
at this moment when I listened to Dr. Silence as he carefully suggested
to the clergyman the very explanation that had gradually been forcing
itself upon my own mind.

"However mediaeval ideas may have exaggerated the idea is not of much
importance to us now," he said quietly, "when we are face to face with a
modern example of what, I take it, has always been a profound fact. For
the moment let us leave the name of any one in particular out of the
matter and consider certain possibilities."

We all agreed with that at any rate. There was no need to speak of
Sangree, or of any one else, until we knew a little more.

"The fundamental fact in this most curious case," he went on, "is that
the 'Double' of a man--"

"You mean the astral body? I've heard of that, of course," broke in
Maloney with a snort of triumph.

"No doubt," said the other, smiling, "no doubt you have;--that this
Double, or fluidic body of a man, as I was saying, has the power under
certain conditions of projecting itself and becoming visible to others.
Certain training wil