y is at your service if you require it."

Mr. Mudge moved towards the chair in question and then hesitated.

"You will promise me not to use the narcotic buttons," he said, before
sitting down. "I do not need them. Also I ought to mention that anything
you think of vividly will reach my mind. That is apparently part of my
peculiar case." He sat down with a sigh and arranged his thin legs and
body into a position of comfort. Evidently he was very sensitive to the
thoughts of others, for the picture of the green buttons had only
entered the doctor's mind for a second, yet the other had instantly
snapped it up. Dr. Silence noticed, too, that Mr. Mudge held on tightly
with both hands to the arms of the chair.

"I'm rather glad the chair is nailed to the floor," he remarked, as he
settled himself more comfortably. "It suits me admirably. The fact
is--and this is my case in a nutshell--which is all that a doctor of
your marvellous development requires--the fact is, Dr. Silence, I am a
victim of Higher Space. That's what's the matter with me--Higher Space!"

The two looked at each other for a space in silence, the little patient
holding tightly to the arms of the chair which "suited him admirably,"
and looking up with staring eyes, his atmosphere positively trembling
with the waves of some unknown activity; while the doctor smiled kindly
and sympathetically, and put his whole person as far as possible into
the mental condition of the other.

"Higher Space," repeated Mr. Mudge, "that's what it is. Now, do you
think you can help me with _that_?"

There was a pause during which the men's eyes steadily searched down
below the surface of their respective personalities. Then Dr. Silence
spoke.

"I am quite sure I can help," he answered quietly; "sympathy must always
help, and suffering always owns my sympathy. I see you have suffered
cruelly. You must tell me all about your case, and when I hear the
gradual steps by which you reached this strange condition, I have no
doubt I can be of assistance to you."

He drew a chair up beside his interlocutor and laid a hand on his
shoulder for a moment. His whole being radiated kindness, intelligence,
desire to help.

"For instance," he went on, "I feel sure it was the result of no mere
chance that you became familiar with the terrors of what you term Higher
Space; for Higher Space is no mere external measurement. It is, of
course, a spiritual state, a spiritual condition, an inner d