"He might be dead," replied the other calmly. The tremor of a positive
sensation shivered in the air about us.
"Then isn't that the best way to cure the fool--the brute--?" thundered
the clergyman, half rising to his feet.
"Certainly it would be an easy and undiscoverable form of murder," was
the stern reply, spoken as calmly as though it were a remark about the
weather.
Maloney collapsed visibly, and I gathered the wood over the fire and
coaxed up a blaze.
"The greater part of the man's life--of his vital forces--goes out with
this Double," Dr. Silence resumed, after a moment's consideration, "and
a considerable portion of the actual material of his physical body. So
the physical body that remains behind is depleted, not only of force,
but of matter. You would see it small, shrunken, dropped together, just
like the body of a materialising medium at a seance. Moreover, any mark
or injury inflicted upon this Double will be found exactly reproduced by
the phenomenon of repercussion upon the shrunken physical body lying in
its trance--"
"An injury inflicted upon the one you say would be reproduced also on
the other?" repeated Maloney, his excitement growing again.
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