time or other by their treatment in court.

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"Well, I found myself floating among the disembodied spirits in space;
and I became conscious that certain of those in my vicinity were eyeing
me askance and whispering together in a menacing and most disturbing
manner----" At this point the spectre broke down for a moment, and
sobbed audibly, his emotion culminating in the words, "Strike me pink!"
He then proceeded: "You must excuse this emotion--the whole thing has
been too much for me--djeer?----in a most menacing and disturbing
manner. Now and again these threatening spirits would beckon to their
circle certain of those that passed; and these joined them in their
minative demonstrations until, knock me funny! if the whole rabble did
not surround me, covering me with vituperation. I gleaned from the
evidence before me that they were innocent persons who had suffered in
consequence of the inadequate punishments I had dealt out to various
criminals during my judicial career. There was a woman who had been
murdered by her husband after his release from the seven days I had
given him for breaking both her arms and legs; there were seven babies
who had been made away with by another malefactor, in his joy at
escaping with one month for kicking a policeman to death. There were
several hundreds of persons who had succumbed to the practices of a
purveyor of diseased meat to the London markets who was an especial
protege of mine and whom I always--after the most scathing comments on
his villainy--let off with a fine; and so forth.

"These indignant spectres dragged me before three spirits who acted as
judges in those parts, and who, as I understood, had formerly been
Mahatmas when living; and these, after hearing the evidence before the
court, pronounced upon me a most--s'elp me beans!--most terrible
sentence. I was condemned to return to earth as a ghost, and there
remain until the evil consequences of my lapses of duty had fully worked
themselves out. This, they calculated, would amount to a sentence of
about seven thousand years. There was no option of a fine, while my
request for leave to appeal for a mandamus was dismissed with costs. My
sentence also provided that I should be compelled to assist in all the
crimes resulting from my own leniency, and should be powerless to
prevent them by warning the sufferers or the authorities. And,"
concluded the unhappy spectre, sobbing aloud, "here I am, s'elp me!"

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