elawny said:

"And I have told Margaret, so we all know!" Then, turning to the
Doctor, he asked:

"And am I to take it that you, knowing all as we know it who have
followed the matter for years, wish to share in the experiment which we
hope to make?" His answer was direct and uncompromising:

"Certainly! Why, when this matter was fresh to me, I offered to go on
with it to the end. Now that it is of such strange interest, I would
not miss it for anything which you could name. Be quite easy in your
mind, Mr. Trelawny. I am a scientist and an investigator of phenomena.
I have no one belonging to me or dependent on me. I am quite alone,
and free to do what I like with my own--including my life!" Mr.
Trelawny bowed gravely, and turning to Mr. Corbeck said:

"I have known your ideas for many years past, old friend; so I need ask
you nothing. As to Margaret and Malcolm Ross, they have already told me
their wishes in no uncertain way." He paused a few seconds, as though
to put his thoughts or his words in order; then he began to explain his
views and intentions. He spoke very carefully, seeming always to bear
in mind that some of us who listened were ignorant of the very root and
nature of some things touched upon, and explaining them to us as he
went on:

"The experiment which is before us is to try whether or no there is any
force, any reality, in the old Magic. There could not possibly be more
favourable conditions for the test; and it is my own desire to do all
that is possible to make the original design effective. That there is
some such existing power I firmly believe. It might not be possible to
create, or arrange, or organise such a power in our own time; but I
take it that if in Old Time such a power existed, it may have some
exceptional survival. After all, the Bible is not a myth; and we read
there that the sun stood still at a man's command, and that an ass--not
a human one--spoke. And if the Witch at Endor could call up to Saul
the spirit of Samuel, why may not there have been others with equal
powers; and why may not one among them survive? Indeed, we are told in
the Book of Samuel that the Witch of Endor was only one of many, and
her being consulted by Saul was a matter of chance. He only sought one
among the many whom he had driven out of Israel; 'all those that had
Familiar Spirits, and the Wizards.' This Egyptian Queen, Tera, who
reigned nearly two thousand years before Saul, had a Fami