ssions and
of many talents into a single deadly weapon which he wields for a single
purpose. Herein lay, perhaps, the secret of Unorna's undefined fear of
Keyork and of her still less definable liking for him.

She leaned one elbow on the table and shaded her eyes from the brilliant
light.

"I do not know why I should tell you," she said at last. "You will only
laugh at me, and then I shall be angry, and we shall quarrel as usual."

"I may be of use," suggested the little man gravely. "Besides, I have
made up my mind never to quarrel with you again, Unorna."

"You are wise, my dear friend. It does no good. As for your being of use
in this case, the most I can hope is that you may find me an explanation
of something I cannot understand."

"I am good at that. I am particularly good at explanations--and,
generally, at all _post facto_ wisdom."

"Keyork, do you believe that the souls of the dead can come back and be
visible to us?"

Keyork Arabian was silent for a few seconds.

"I know nothing about it," he answered.

"But what do you think?"

"Nothing. Either it is possible, or it is not, and until the one
proposition or the other is proved I suspend my judgment. Have you seen
a ghost?"

"I do not know. I have seen something----" She stopped, as though the
recollections were unpleasant.

"Then" said Keyork, "the probability is that you saw a living person.
Shall I sum up the question of ghosts for you?"

"I wish you would, in some way that I can understand."

"We are, then, in precisely the same position with regard to the belief
in ghosts which we occupy towards such questions as the abolition of
death. The argument in both cases is inductive and all but conclusive.
We do not know of any case, in the two hundred generations of men, more
or less, with whose history we are in some degree acquainted, of any
individual who has escaped death. We conclude that all men must die.
Similarly, we do not know certainly--not from real, irrefutable evidence
at least--that the soul of any man or woman dead has ever returned
visibly to earth. We conclude, therefore, that none ever will. There
is a difference in the two cases, which throws a slight balance of
probability on the side of the ghost. Many persons have asserted that
they have seen ghosts, though none have ever asserted that men do not
die. For my own part, I have had a very wide, practical, and intimate
acquaintance with dead people--sometimes in very queer p