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Speaker 1: The Fading Ghost by Willis Knapp Jones. The stranger entered

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my office and dropped wearily into a chair, covering his

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face with his hands. I'm dead, doctor, he groaned. I

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agreed that it was quite a climb from the street

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to my office, but soon, a month or so, I

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expect to move to a ground floor. That will be

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too late. It won't do me any good. Then, No,

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what's your trouble? He stared straight at me as he answered, trouble?

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I have none. Dead people have no troubles, and I've

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been dead half an hour. I committed suicide. I looked

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at him, startled. He was rather pale, I noticed, and

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the brilliant red necktie he was wearing gave the impression

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of a deep and bleeding wound. He seemed very nervous,

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his hands continually stroking the creased trousers of the light

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gray suit he was wearing. I committed suicide, he repeated.

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I shot myself through the heart. He indicated the spot

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with a long, slender finger on one knuckle, of which

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I saw just such a stain as dried blood makes.

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I thought he meant for me to examine him, so

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I arose and took a step toward him. He motioned

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me back. Don't touch me, he commanded. It's no use,

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you can't feel me. I wonder whether you can even

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see me plainly. I'm getting more ethereal all the time.

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I what was I saying? That I couldn't see you,

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but I can plainly? Oh, my clothes, perhaps my coat,

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my necktie. Yes, that red necktie was very much in evidence,

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I agreed, wondering whether he were insane. He seemed to

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read my mind. You think I'm crazy, don't you, doc

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I'm not. My nerves are frazzled, and I thought I

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would go insane when Polly turned me down. But I didn't.

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I know, I didn't. I had my knee tapped and

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have had all sorts of tests. Finally I couldn't stand

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the agony and made an end of myself this afternoon.

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He looked at the clock. Just twenty eight minutes ago

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my soul left my body. I studied him carefully. His

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eyes had none of the stare peculiar to the insane.

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I was near enough to be sure that he was

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not intoxicated. Yet I could not determine just what ailed him.

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Perhaps if he talked longer he would help me to

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diagnose his condition. Tell me about it, I urged. I

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knew you'd be interested. The day I read your book,

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The Dead Survive, I said to myself, I wonder whether

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he ever saw a ghost. Then, just before I snatched

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up my revolver, I looked up your office in the

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telephone book, so that if I did live after death,

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I could come to call on you and tell you

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how correct your assumptions were. So after the shot, and

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I felt myself grow more aerial and ghost like, I

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left my body lying dead on the floor and hurried

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here to speak to you before I became entirely invisible.

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Your book, page one hundred and forty seven speaks of

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the process you call it fading. If you will remember,

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I was becoming more and more confused. He sounded far

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from rational. I knew that I was not dreaming, and

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that this could not be a practical joke. I had

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never seen the Fellow before, yet there was no apparent

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solution as hackwork. I had written a book on spiritualism,

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voicing my belief that death was not the end of everything.

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But I had never expected to have a ghost come

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to my counseling room in the middle of the afternoon.

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To prove it to me. You are sure you were dead?

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I asked in namely. I had to repeat my question

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before he came out of the sort of stupor into

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which he had fallen. Then he jerked himself together. Absolutely sure,

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I stood before a mirror like that one. He pointed

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to the full length mirror beside my instrument cabinet. Oh,

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those knives are so glittering. Do you think I made

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a mistake in using a revolver? Would poison have been easier? Well,

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I'm not an authority on suicide, I had to confess. Still,

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the shot did not hurt. I didn't feel any pain

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at all, just the explos and the momentary vibration. I

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Where was I standing before a mirror? I prompted. Yes.

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I've been having worries love, you know, couldn't sleep at

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night and all. When the thought of suicide came, I

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took my revolver from the bureau drawer, pressed it close

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to my heart, and without waiting a second, pulled the

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trigger and fell dead on the floor. Then I left

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myself lying there and came here. Nobody seemed to notice

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me along the street. Perhaps they can't see me, can't you?

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I nodded, But you said you were lying on the floor. Yes,

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I look back to make sure just before I closed

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the door, remembering your warning on page three hundred and

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forty three against retention of psychic visions. I tested myself carefully,

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but I know my body is there. This is my

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astral sense. It was a terrifying sight. Blood trickling from

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the wound. He suddenly became conscious of the stain on

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his knuckle. He raised his right hand as if to

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wipe the mark away, thought better of it and dropped

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his hand. Terrifying sight, he repeated, It must have been.

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You're the first astral body i've seen. Is there anything

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unusual about your earthly body? I didn't stop to see.

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But would you care to go and look? Yes, indeed

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I had hoped you would. He gave me the address,

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but he refused to accompany me. I'll stay here, he promised.

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I may not last till you get back. I'm fading fast,

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but if I'm entirely a ghost when you return, I'll

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I'll move that paper he pointed to a temperature a

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graph hanging partly over the edge of my desk. But hurry,

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I'll be back in an hour, I promised. I was

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better than my word. Forty minutes later, I puffed up

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the stairs. He was still there, lost in thought. Did

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you find me, he asked immediately, Yes, just as you said,

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lying beside the bureau with a bullet in your heart.

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But I don't understand one thing how I came here.

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That was because I was materialized embodied. Chapter seven of

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your book is entirely right with its assertions. No, that's

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not it. I'm interested in that, of course, and i'd

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appreciate it if you would take off your shirt and

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let me see whether materialized ghosts have the wounds of

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the original body. I'll confess I'm confused. I just realized

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something that completely upsets my theory. He had been about

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to remove his coat, but he stopped. What is that, doctor,

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he asked, the fact that although you are wearing a

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red necktie, your earthly body, exactly like you in every

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other respect, wear's a modest black one. He gave a

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shriek of agony and jumped up, horror depicted on his countenance. Oh, doctor,

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don't tell me that the body was wearing black. Yes, indeed,

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same colored gray suit. And shirt, but a black necktie.

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He sank his face in his hands, and I heard

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a heartbroken moan. Oh, I see it all. What a

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villain I am. It's all the fault of this nervous

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trouble I've been having. I'm not a suicide, then I'm

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a fratricide. I lived with my twin brother, and we

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were dressed exactly alike, except that he did not share

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my love of pretty ties. I have shot my brother

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instead of myself. The End of the Fading Ghost by

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Willis Knapp Jones