w the public well, reassuringly
explained that investors were so hopelessly idiotic that a board
composed entirely of burglars would not prevent their investing so long
as the prospectus contained sufficiently impossible promises of profit;
so the ghost of Lord Pimblekin officiated as chairman and assisted in
causing several suicides.

Then the night came for the cracking of his own crib, and he continued
to give vent to a succession of boisterous chuckles every one of which
nearly killed him; only a ghost is a difficult thing to kill. Arrived at
his palatial suburban residence, he directed the burglars to the
outhouse where the ladders were kept; and the three first ascended to
her ladyship's dressing-room where the jewels were. The door between the
dressing-room and her ladyship's bedroom being open, the ghost undertook
to stand over her with a phantom bludgeon to prevent any noise in the
event of her waking. She woke, stared at his lordship, looked at the
burglars at work at her bureau, gazed once more at the ghost with a look
which froze him, murmured "Peter," and sank back with closed eyes.

[Illustration]

Half mad with misery, the ghost directed the burglars to the plate and
other valuables, and then looked on chuckling while they tore the silk
curtains, jumped on her ladyship's favourite violin, ripped the carpet
with a clasp-knife, cut the throat of the pug, and twisted the necks of
the canaries and linnets and doves.

Then they left quietly; and, as the ghost followed them out, he was
conscious of an immaterial form similar to his own standing at his side.
"Come with me," said the form; and they whirled through space until they
arrived in the same court in which sentence had been passed upon him.
The three Mahatmas were still sitting on the bench, and the chief
Mahatma said:--

"Prisoner, your case is one of the worst which it has ever been our
painful task to pass sentence upon. Your reckless disregard of what you
recognised as your duty and of the consequences of your misdemeanours on
the bench render mercy in your case entirely out of place. It is our
duty to give you the benefit of the full seven thousand years to which
you have been sentenced; we will, however, release you on your own
recognisances and allow you to return to earthly existence and again
fill your former judicial sphere, with a view to observing how you go on
for the future. You will be bound over to come up for judgment if called
upo