ercepted him.

"Heh! my worthy master," he said, taking the old man by the sleeve, and
leading him down the road with him. "There is something that I have to
say to you, and it is easier for me to say it now, when the good beer is
humming in my head, than at another time."

"What is it, then, Fritz?" the physiologist asked, looking at him in
mild surprise.

"I hear, mein Herr, that you are about to do some wondrous experiment in
which you hope to take a man's soul out of his body, and then to put it
back again. Is it not so?"

"It is true, Fritz."

"And have you considered, my dear sir, that you may have some difficulty
in finding some one on whom to try this? Potztausend! Suppose that the
soul went out and would not come back. That would be a bad business. Who
is to take the risk?"

"But, Fritz," the Professor cried, very much startled by this view of
the matter, "I had relied upon your assistance in the attempt. Surely
you will not desert me. Consider the honour and glory."

"Consider the fiddlesticks!" the student cried angrily. "Am I to be paid
always thus? Did I not stand two hours upon a glass insulator while you
poured electricity into my body? Have you not stimulated my phrenic
nerves, besides ruining my digestion with a galvanic current round my
stomach? Four-and-thirty times you have mesmerised me, and what have I
got from all this? Nothing. And now you wish to take my soul out, as you
would take the works from a watch. It is more than flesh and blood can
stand."

"Dear, dear!" the Professor cried in great distress. "That is very true,
Fritz. I never thought of it before. If you can but suggest how I can
compensate you, you will find me ready and willing."

"Then listen," said Fritz solemnly. "If you will pledge your word that
after this experiment I may have the hand of your daughter, then I am
willing to assist you; but if not, I shall have nothing to do with it.
These are my only terms."

"And what would my daughter say to this?" the Professor exclaimed, after
a pause of astonishment.

"Elise would welcome it," the young man replied. "We have loved each
other long."

"Then she shall be yours," the physiologist said with decision, "for you
are a good-hearted young man, and one of the best neurotic subjects that
I have ever known--that is when you are not under the influence of
alcohol. My experiment is to be performed upon the fourth of next month.
You will attend at the physiological laborat