ying bird might do. More and more quiet
the movements became, till at length all was still. Then the erect
head sank gently down, until it rested upon the breast, and the body
swayed, and slipped by easy stages from the stone to the floor, where,
as it turned over and lay prone upon the face, a long-drawn sigh
escaped, and Barnes lay as one dead. The Doctor gazed silent,
satisfied, yet as though awed by his own work. Then he lost himself in
reverie.

"And this thing is a man. A strong healthy body encasing a powerful
will. Yet where now is that will? What has become of the soul that
tenants this shell, which now seems empty, dead. Escaped, gone, and at
my bidding! 'He sleeps, he is not dead,' says the scientist. What wily
excuses men make for their ignorance. If he sleeps, he is dead, for
sleep is death, different only because there is an awakening. Yet in
the true death is there not an awakening? All analogy cries out 'Yes!'
Now this man sleeps, and I have made him thus temporarily dead. Except
at my bidding there can be no awakening on this earth. Then if I do
not bid him rise, am I a murderer? The law would say so. The law! The
law! Pah! The law that says that, is but a written token of man's
ignorance. For if I leave him here, he still must awaken. And who can
say that if I leave him to awaken in another world he might not thank
me so much, that his spirit in gratitude would become my attendant
guardian, until his foolish fellow-men, having hanged my body to a
gibbet, by a rope, should send my soul into eternity beside him. My
soul! Have I a soul? Yes! and not yet is it prepared to pass beyond
the limit of this life. No, despite the laws, and the minions of the
laws, I will live to reap the harvest which my great ancestor has
garnered here. So this fellow must be awakened and restored to his
place amongst his kind! Will it be safe? I have made his mind a blank.
But will it so remain? His will is strong. He offered more resistance
than any upon whom I have tried my power. Had I not first numbed his
brain by twisting it into knots, I doubt that I should have controlled
him. So if I release him, to-morrow in his waking senses he will
perceive that several hours of his life are as a blank. He will
realize that during that time something must have occurred that he has
forgotten, and all his energy will be aroused to force remembrance.
There is a vivid danger should he recall his experience, before my
trial occurs and en