[PAGE 1]                                      IN THE LAND OF THE LIVING DEAD




                      -------------------------------       
                     [      I N  T H E  L A N D      ]
                     [                               ]
                     [             O F               ]
                     [                               ]
                     [  T H E  L I V I N G  D E A D  ]
                     [                               ]
                     [        An Occult Story        ]
                     [                               ]
                     [              BY               ]
                     [                               ]
                     [ P R E N T I S S   T U C K E R ]
                      -------------------------------    








                         THE ROSICRUCIAN FELLOWSHIP
                         International Headquarters
                                Mt. Ecclesia
                                 P.O Box 713
                       Oceanside, California, 92054, USA 





[PAGE 3]                                       IN THE LAND OF THE LIVING DEAD


                              TABLE OF CONTENTS

Chapter I
   A Visit to the Invisible Planes...................................5

Chapter II
   A Sergeant's Experience after "Passing Out.".....................23

Chapter III
   A Soul Flight....................................................41

Chapter IV
   Back to Earth--A Pretty Nurse....................................57

Chapter V
   The Elder Brother in the Flesh...................................75

Chapter VI
   A Doughboy's Ideas on Religion...................................88

Chapter VII
   Helping a Slain Soldier to Comfort his Mother...................107

Chapter VIII
   A Study of Auras................................................124

Chapter IX
   An Experience with Nature Spirits...............................134

Chapter X
   A Crisis in Love................................................145

Chapter XI
   Light Again.....................................................159




[PAGE 5]                                     A VISIT TO THE INVISIBLE PLANES


                       IN THE LAND OF THE LIVING DEAD
 

                                  CHAPTER I

                       A VISIT TO THE INVISIBLE PLANES



   It all came about from a German high-explosive shell.

   Nothing happens without a cause.   We might say that this story began  in
Germany  when  Gretchen Hammerstein put the finishing touches on  a  certain
high-explosive  shell and with the contact of her fingers filled  the  shell
with  the  vibrations of her hatred for the Americans.   We might  note  the
various  occurrences  which,   each  the  result  of  an  endless  train  of
circumstances,  contributed  to  the fact that  this  particular  shell  was
brought to the German front at just such a time and just such a place.   But
to follow up these lines of happenings, almost infinite in number, would re-
quire an infinitude of patience.

   So  we will take up the history of events when this high-explosive  shell
burst in the American trenches, scattering, besides its material and visible
charge  and fragments,  the hatred for Americans which Gretchen  Hammerstein
had packed into it.

   Jimmie  Westman  was leaning against the trench wall nearest  the  German
line and was peering through the well CAMOUFLAGED peephole which was used in


[PAGE 6]                                     IN THE LAND OF THE LIVING DEAD

watching  the dreary and awful wastes of No Man's Land to guard against  any
surprise attack.   The shell burst within a few feet of him and to the rear,
but Jimmie did not know it.   It was, in fact,  a long time before he  found
out  just what had happened,  and it is of the things which came in  between
the  bursting of the shell and the time when Jimmie was able to  reconstruct
the whole affair,  that I wish to tell.   They were quite remarkable events;
they  produced  a great impression upon Jimmie and  completely  changed  his
ideas of life.

   It was,  as I have said, a long time before Jimmie regained consciousness
after the explosion.   To be exact it was practically three days.   While he
is  lying in that condition of COMA let us take a little look into his  life
and history.

   Jimmie was not born of "poor but honest parents."   His parents were hon-
est  but not poor;  neither were they rich,  but they had given him  a  good
up-bringing and a good education.   He had gone through high school and  was
engaged in the study of medicine when the war broke out.   I say he was  en-
gaged in it.   I like Jimmie and am reluctant to say that he was putting far
more  of  his time into the sports of the gridiron and the diamond  than  he
should have done,  but, nevertheless, that was the case.   He was a specimen
of the clean,  honorable, somewhat careless American boy,  eager to succeed,
eager  to  stand  high  in  work and sport alike, but glamoured to a certain


[PAGE 7]                                     A VISIT TO THE INVISIBLE PLANES

extent by the adulation paid to the prominent athletes in the college  which
he attended.

   However, he was engaged in the study of medicine, partially engaged, per-
haps I should add, and he was really deeply interested in his chosen profes-
sion  although  he had not progressed so far as to be very profound  in  his
knowledge of MATERIA MEDICA.   He had imbibed some of the scientific  spirit
of the lecturers to whom he had listened, and his mind had taken on a rather
skeptical tinge which had given his mother some little worry; still she well
knew that her early teachings were deeply rooted,  and that the character of
her boy was too strong for the scientific skepticism of his surroundings  to
do much more than ruffle the surface of his clean young life.

   But  Jimmie had an inquiring soul, and while the seemingly illogical  and
unscientific  platitudes,  which he heard from the pulpit when he did go  to
church,  produced little effect upon him, yet the objections put forward  by
the  doctors  and students with whom he was associated seemed to him  to  be
also lacking in force and weak in reason.  He was swayed between the two but
controlled  by neither,  though at heart he was inclined to be deeply  reli-
gious as most people are if they have the chance.

   In the first year of his college life the great war began.   It was prac-
tically at the end of the  first  year  just  before the final examinations,


[PAGE 8]                                     IN THE LAND OF THE LIVING DEAD

and  when he went home for the summer vacation the whole country was  seeth-
ing.   Farsighted  ones knew that the war would involve the  United  States.
Jimmie began to think and turned over and over in his mind the state of  the
world,  and  when  he went back to his study in the fall  it  was  with  the
settled conviction that the United States would soon be forced to enter  the
war  and  that he would necessarily be involved.   At that time no  one  had
foreseen the shortage of doctors,  and Jimmie,  feeling sure that the  fight
was a righteous one and that it was his duty to help even though his country
still held back,  during the second year of his medical course enlisted with
the Canadians.  He paid a short visit home first and succeeded in making his
mother and father see the matter in his way,  though it was the hardest task
he had ever attempted.

   It was when he was home on this errand that he got the news of the  death
of an old friend of his.  She had grown up with him and the loss of her dis-
pelled a dream which had half formed in his mind and toward the  realization
of which he had unconsciously been working.

   So he enlisted and was whirled into the great seething caldron of war.

   By the time the United States came in, he  was a war worn veteran of wide


[PAGE 9]                                     A VISIT TO THE INVISIBLE PLANES

experience in spite of his youth, and he sought and obtained a transfer from
the Canadian troops to those of his own country by whom he was welcomed with
enthusiasm.  At the time the shell burst which made so great a change in his
life he was second lieutenant with a good chance of promotion.

   He had not heard the shell,  and as I have said did not know that it  had
exploded,  so was somewhat surprised to suddenly find himself in a  part  of
the  country which he did not know.  It was a wide,  meadowlike  stretch  of
land  sloping gently upward and he was walking leisurely along as though  he
had all the time there was at his disposal.   He was walking up this  gentle
slope,  wondering  a little in his mind because,  as he  remembered  it,  he
should have been at his post in the trench.   Things were a little different
somehow, but just how, he could not for the life of him understand.

   He seemed to be moving with considerable ease,  much more than he was ac-
customed  to,  for the ever-lasting mud of this country did stick  to  one's
boots  terribly  and  it was often hard work to place one  foot  before  the
other.   Now, however, he was stepping along easily and without effort,  but
he did not know where he was going, or where he came from.

   The trench was not in sight but he was walking so entirely without effort


[PAGE 10]                                     IN THE LAND OF THE LIVING DEAD

that it made little difference to him, for he could find it,  doubtless even
though his knowledge of French was quite limited.

   Thank goodness!  he was not behind the enemy lines.

   But stop!

   If  he were behind his own lines and did not know how he got  there,  why
might he not be behind the enemy lines equally without his knowledge?

   His mind was coming back to him more and more.  It was as if he had awak-
ened from a deep sleep and was just coming to himself.

   But if he had been asleep, why did not some of the boys come and wake him
up before the whole line had been pushed forward like this?

   For goodness sake!   where was the trench?  Where was the camp,  the com-
munication  trenches,  the roads,  everything?  Where was this  place,  this
nice, easy meadow sloping gently upwards?

   The line must have gone forward and he had been left behind in his sleep.
That  was  evidently so,  because if the line had gone backwards,  he  would
surely  have been awakened in the retreat; or if not then,  the enemy  would
have waked him up when they took the trenches.   No,  the line had gone for-
ward  and somehow he had not waked up but had evidently walked in his  sleep
to this place, wherever this place might be.

   He could not remember leaving the firing post  where he had been watching


[PAGE 11]                                    A VISIT TO THE INVISIBLE PLANES

through the peephole, but that was a mere detail.  The main thing now was to
find out where the command was and rejoin it.   He could easily find it  be-
cause he knew how to keep his direction by the sun.

   Involuntarily  he looked up.   The sun was not visible,  although it  was
broad daylight and there was no haze apparent.

   Never  before in France had he seen so long a stretch of country with  no
signs of humanity.   Either there were towns and hamlets and farms or  there
was the awful desolation where the enemy had passed,  but this meadow showed
neither the one nor the other.   It was certainly an enormous meadow,  espe-
cially for France.   Put a number of tractors on this place and the dread of
famine  would pass away for there was land enough here to raise food  for  a
kingdom.

   But time was passing and he must hurry;  also he must think of some  kind
of  excuse  for  his  absence,   for  the  captain  was  pretty  strict  and
sleep-walking  might not be taken as a valid reason for being away from  his
post of duty.

   "Why don't you GLIDE."

   "What do you mean by 'glide'?"

   He turned to see who spoke, for he had heard no footsteps and had thought
he was quite alone.   He saw a girl walking along beside him or,  at  least,
moving along beside him, for apparently she was not walking the conventional


[PAGE 12]                                     IN THE LAND OF THE LIVING DEAD

way.  He knew her well, and as he recognized her he felt his face grow pale,
for  the  girl beside him was one who had been a particular friend  of  his.
But  he had been told on his last visit home that she  had--had--well,  that
she had died while he was away at college and just before his return to  say
good-bye  to his parents previous to enlisting.   He must have  been  misin-
formed,  somehow.  He looked at her, edged away just a trifle,  pinched him-
self,  and was quite at a loss just what to do or say.   It must be that she
had not died but perhaps she had been sent to an insane asylum and had  got-
ten  over here to France somehow by mistake;  and here she was talking  non-
sense to him about "GLIDING".

   He glanced at her again.   By jove, she WAS gliding!   For heaven's sake!
Had he gone crazy too?

   A merry peal of laughter interrupted his amazement.  It was the old, joy-
ous, hearty laugh of the girl he had known so well.

   By jiminy!   she was laughing at him.  Bewildered?  Well, who wouldn't be
bewildered in such a case?

   Thoughts flash through the mind at times with terrific rapidity,  and the
thoughts  which I am setting down apparently took a long time to occur,  but
in  reality they were almost instantaneous and practically took no  time  at
all; yet they had a logical sequence and seemed to  him  at  the  time to be


[PAGE 13]                                    A VISIT TO THE INVISIBLE PLANES

slow and careful reasoning.

   She was laughing at him!  Ghosts don't laugh.   It is not--not--well,  it
simply  is not done,  that's all.  Everybody knows that ghosts don't  laugh.
And  she was talking to him about GLIDING.   That showed that she was  crazy
and  upheld the insane asylum theory but, and here he glanced again  at  her
feet--she  really WAS gliding.   At least she was not walking by lifting  up
one foot and putting it down again in front of the other.   No she was glid-
ing and laughing at him.

   Besides, ghosts are gloomy, distraught, lovers of darkness and graveyards
and  midnight and mystery and of frightening people.   Yet here was one,  if
she  really  were a ghost,  who was looking at him with a  really  beautiful
face,  happy,  apparently joyous,  and frankly and  unaffectedly  amused  at
him,--at him!

   He remembered her well.  He had known her well.   He had been-er--well to
tell  the  truth--he  had thought that perhaps when he got  started  in  his
profession--oh!   shucks,  he must be dreaming.  He was in France,  had come
over to fight the Kaiser and to make the world safe for democracy,  and that
was a serious job.

   Yet  here  she was laughing at him.  How could such a  mistake  have  oc-
curred?   They had told him all about it.   They had gone over it again  and
again for they knew how he had--cared for her.  Yet they  must  have  made a


[PAGE 14]                                     IN THE LAND OF THE LIVING DEAD

made a mistake.  He had to believe the evidence of his own eyes.

   Dear heart,  but she was pretty now!  She ad been pretty before,  beauti-
ful,  he had thought,  but now she seemed radiant.   Now she was walking and
with that little dancing step which cannot be described but is called "trip-
ping."

   She moved slightly ahead and half turned toward him,  laughing at him  in
such a natural way,  just like her own old self, that he began to laugh too.
Things had seemed pretty serious, but with so much merriment around and such
a  pretty girl mocking him he could not realize that the enemy was  so  near
and that so much human suffering was going on.

   She instantly grew serious as though she had divined his thought.

   "I couldn't help it, Jimmie, you looked so bewildered."

   "I surely am bewildered.  How did you get here, over here in France?  And
why did they tell me that you had--er-gone--" he groped helplessly for a way
to express the thought.

   She answered him with a rippling little laugh at his dilemma.

   "Don't be afraid to say it, Jimmie."

   He WAS "afraid to say it" however and he countered with--

   "How did you get here?"


[PAGE 15]                                    A VISIT TO THE INVISIBLE PLANES

   "I was sent."

   "Look  here,  Marjorie,  don't fool me.   How did you get  over  here  in
France?"

   "Truly,  Jimmie,  I am not 'fooling'; honest Injun, as we used to say,  I
WAS sent, really and truly I was, but I asked to be sent," she added.   "You
see  the others were so busy and there was not much that I could do,  but  I
knew that I could help you and I knew that you would be glad to see me, so I
asked  for permission ad the Elder Brother gave it to me;  he is  always  so
kind to me."

   The insane asylum theory received a new impetus with this statement.  The
"Elder Brother"  must be one of the doctors, but she didn't talk like an in-
sane person.   She was radiantly beautiful now,  far more beautiful than she
had been when he had seen her last, and she was talking rationally,  but who
in the dickens was this "Elder Brother"?  She was an only child.  It must be
the doctor.

   He had been through an insane asylum once with a party of sight-seers and
had not noticed that any of the women inmates were beautiful.   Even if  one
of  them had been pretty,  the expression of the eyes would have offset  any
mere physical prettiness.   But this dancing, gliding,  tripping girl beside
him, with her blue eyes and fair hair, was so bewilderingly, dazzingly beau-
tiful,  and her  eyes  had  not a trace of that fixed stare or lack of focus


[PAGE 16]                                     IN THE LAND OF THE LIVING DEAD

which makes the insane person so terrible to look at.

   And, besides, she COULD glide!  Great Scott!  He had forgotten that.  She
could GLIDE!   How in the dickens could any one GLIDE?   It just couldn't be
done, except on skates--

    "It's easy to glide.  You can do it yourself!"

   "Me!  How did you know what I was thinking of?"

   "Why, I can tell from your aura."

   "My--what?"

   "Aura.  Your aura!  Don't you know you have an aura?"

   "Never  heard of it before.   I got a medal for sharpshooting,  but  they
didn't give me any aura and I know I didn't bring one over with me."

   She danced around in front of him as he walked,  gliding,  tripping,  and
looking  tantalizingly at him first from one side and then from  the  other,
and all the time laughing at him with hat thrilling, tinkling laugh of hers,
so full of merriment and fun.   She was laughing so that she could not speak
for  some  moments.   He did not understand what the joke was,  but  it  was
evidently  a  good one and she was so happy over it and so  pretty  that  he
reached out and took her hand and they danced along together, laughing,  she
at him and he at himself, for the joke he could not understand.


[PAGE 17]                                    A VISIT TO THE INVISIBLE PLANES

   By Jove!  He had forgotten!

   By all the rules he ought to be worn out.   Since the big bombardment had
commenced several days ago he had not known what it was not to be tired; yet
here he was,  dancing along with this pretty girl just as though he were  as
fresh as a daisy.  Ah!  He felt tired now, dreadfully tired;  it just showed
the force of mind over matter that he had forgotten his weariness for an in-
stant  in the joy of this new-found friendship.   He could hardly  drag  one
foot after the other.

   She drew her hand away with that old,  familiar expression of pretense at
anger.

   "You're not tired,  either!   You just THINK you are.   Now make up  your
mind that you're NOT tired!"

   "I can't Marjorie!   I'm awfully tired.   Why I haven't had any sleep for
two nights, and tramping around i that mud and all--why--Marjorie,  a fellow
can't do that for three days not NOT be tired."

   "Now, Jimmie, don't you KNOW you didn't feel at all tired at first?  When
we were walking along and you were wondering how I came to be here, you were
not tired at all because you were not thinking of it,  and now just  because
you  THINK  you  OUGHT to be tired you go and GET  tired.   Let's  sit  down
awhile."

   "It's too damp here for you to be sitting on the ground; you'd catch your
death of cold."

   She laughed at him.


[PAGE 18]                                     IN THE LAND OF THE LIVING DEAD

   "No,  I won't catch my death of cold.  It's quite dry here.   See how dry
the ground is.  Besides I CAN'T catch my death of cold.   There are reasons.
That's  what  I  came to tell you about,  but I don't  know  how  to  begin,
Jimmie."

   He looked at the ground.   It really was perfectly dry,  just as she  had
said.

   "Well, let's sit down, then.  But remember I've got to hurry back and re-
port and so I can't stop but a minute or two.  But what did you come to tell
me about?  And why can't you tell it?  I never knew you to be unable to hold
up your end of the conversation, Marjorie.  What is it you want to tell me?"

   "Oh, Jimmie!  It's hard to tell you.  You won't believe me."

   "Yes,  I will Marjorie.   I'll believe anything you say.   But there  are
some  mighty queer things happening this morning that I don't understand  at
all.  Now, how did you come here?"

   "Just  as  I told you.   I was sent.  But I ASKED to be  sent  because  I
wanted to help you.  And now I don't know how to say it."

   "Who sent you, Marjorie?"

   "The Elder Brother.  Oh, he is so kind and good to me."

   "Who is this 'Elder Brother'--a doctor?"

   She smiled, a little sadly but very sweetly.

   "Do you remember what you  thought  first  when  I  spoke  to you and you


[PAGE 19]                                    A VISIT TO THE INVISIBLE PLANES

looked around and saw who it was?

   "Yes,  I remember what I thought but--but--you don't know what I had been
told."

   "Oh,  yes I do,  for I was there when you were told,  and I saw you  turn
around  and  swallow  something in your throat and I know you  were  told  I
was--was--dead."

   "Yes.   That's just what I was told,  and I believed it because everybody
said it and they took me out and showed me the--the--grave and--and--"

   "Yes, Jimmie dear, I  know all about it for I was there and heard it all,
and  I saw how you went out that night,  way out into the country  and  into
that old lane in which we used to walk, and how you cried and cried when you
thought no one knew.  Yes, I know all about it, Jimmie, for I was there."

   "You!--there!"

   "Yes,  Jimmie,  my dear friend, my dear, DEAR friend.   I was there and I
saw your grief and I put my arms around you and tried to comfort you.  I was
there, for it was true--what they told you--it was TRUE."

   "You were--you are--?"

   "Yes,  dear friend,  I WAS dead.   There!  I might as well say it."   She
smiled through the tears for she was frankly crying now.

   "I might as well use the hateful word.  It  has  to  be used though it is


[PAGE 20]                                     IN THE LAND OF THE LIVING DEAD

untrue--untrue, Jimmie.  We never die.  Neither you nor I are dead.  No!  We
are both more alive than we ever were before for we are one step nearer  the
great  Source  of all life and love,  and I know it is true  for  the  Elder
Brother told me.   He is so great and good and he knows everything,  Jimmie,
and he knows you and all about you and he loves you too,  Jimmie.   I knew I
COULD Help you,  and I have permission to tell you more than is told most of
the  soldiers because you are able to bear more than most of them.   I  know
that  you will believe what I tell you because it is what the Elder  Brother
has told me.   And,  oh!   Jimmie dear, it is nothing to worry about for now
you will be able to do so much more work when you have learned about the war
and the other things and about the Master."

   She  spoke  now with almost a whisper and with awe making  her  beautiful
face even more lovely than it had been.

   "You  will learn about the Master and how we can work for Him and  maybe,
maybe if you work hard for Him,  Jimmie, some day you will see Him.   I  saw
Him once,"  she added proudly;  "I saw Him once at a distance.   I think  He
looked  at  me and I felt so happy that I just danced and sang  for  a  long
time.   But that was before they had let me do any of the war work  that  is
going on here.   They told me at first that the conditions were too terrible
for me to try to help until I got stronger,  but since then they have let me


[PAGE 21]                                    A VISIT TO THE INVISIBLE PLANES

help a little,  especially with the children.  I do love to take the  little
ones when they first come over, so terrified and so frantic, and soothe them
to sleep and work with them until they realize that they are surrounded with
love over on this side and not with that awful hate which has so filled poor
Belgium.   I feel so sorry for the dear little mites.  I have helped in this
way a good deal lately."

   Jimmie  had not known what an aura was when the thing was  mentioned  but
now  he saw Marjorie surrounded with a glowing cloud,  a radiating light  of
which she seemed unconscious but of which she was the center.   It made  her
far more beautiful than she had been, and Jimmie shrank back a little, feel-
ing unworthy to be so near one of God's own saints.

   "Since I began this work I haven't danced much," Marjorie continued, "not
nearly  as much as I have today,  for I am so glad to see you and to be  al-
lowed  to come and help you.   It is the first time they have allowed me  to
meet  any  of the soldiers who have come over for it is  a  dangerous  thing
sometimes.   It  needs great strength and wisdom and I have neither,  but  I
have one thing that counts for more, far more."   She turned away and  whis-
pered  the words to herself;  Jimmie was not sure but he thought  the  words
were--"I have love."


[PAGE 22]                                     IN THE LAND OF THE LIVING DEAD

   "Oh, Marjorie!  Do you mean that I am--what we just now said?"

   "Yes, you are, Jimmie, but don't let it worry you for it is really an ad-
vantage.  There are lots of reasons why it is a great thing to be here and I
am going to tell you some of them.  But you are lucky for the Elder  Brother
is coming to meet you."

   "I don't want to meet any Elder Brothers.  I want to talk to you."

   He reached out and took her hand.

   "If  I am dead then you are too and so neither of us has  any  advantage.
I'm sure you don't LOOK dead a bit and I don't FEEL dead.  I can't make head
or tail of it."



[PAGE 23]                                            A SERGEANT'S EXPERIENCE

                                 CHAPTER II

                           A SERGEANT'S EXPERIENCE

   "O Jimmie,  the Elder Brother is coming!  Oh!   Oh!   I'm so glad for  it
must be that he wants to talk to you himself."

   "Well, I wish he'd stay away.  I want to talk to you--"

   "Here he is--"

   Jimmie turned in response to a gesture from Marjorie and saw standing be-
fore him a man,  somewhat past middle age, tall, erect,  and with nothing so
prominent about him as the ability to inspire in others the feeling of being
in the immediate presence of great power.   The man bowed slightly and while
Marjorie and Jimmie were rising, spoke:

   "I know you very well,  Mr.  Westman,  partially through the help of  our
little  friend here,"  and he touched Marjorie's curls gently and  lovingly.
"I sent her to meet you first but we must not tax her strength too  greatly.
I want you to come with me for a while,  and later you may have a long  talk
with her."

   The  newcomer's manner and tone bore such an air of quiet authority  that
Jimmie never for an instant entertained a thought of appeal.   He merely re-
sponded to Marjorie's little graceful gesture  of  adieu  and turned to walk


[PAGE 24]                                     IN THE LAND OF THE LIVING DEAD

beside the man whom Marjorie had called the "Elder Brother."

   They walked for some distance in silence,  a silence which Jimmie thought
it best not to break, for in some way which he could not explain, he felt as
though this man was quite a "big bug" in this country,  and so he walked  on
silently until the man himself might feel moved to begin the conversation.

   Some  rods had been passed in slow pacing before the silence was  broken.
In  the  meantime  Jimmie had cast a furtive glance around to  see  how  far
Marjorie had gone,  but to his surprise she was not in sight at all although
he was sure he could see a couple of miles in any direction.

   "You have had a good rest,"  his companion said at length,  "and it  will
not be too great a tax upon you to map out briefly some of the duties  which
it will be your privilege to attend to in this new life upon which you  have
entered.   But before that I will show you a little of what has happened and
is happening,  and as soon as you are ready for the information I shall show
you  just why this war was allowed to come upon the world and in  just  what
manner your help will be needed.

   "Things  are somewhat different here from what you have  been  accustomed
to,  and I want to call your attention to one thing which Marjorie hesitated
to dwell upon and that is the method of your locomotion.  You do not need to


[PAGE 25]                                            A SERGEANT'S EXPERIENCE

walk in the old way; it is much more convenient and much quicker to progress
by  what Marjorie suggested to you at first--the glide.   We all of us  here
move that way.   It only requires a slight effort of the will and is as such
superior  to walking as walking is to crawling on the hands and  knees.   In
fact  there  is hardly a limit to the speed of the glide and without  it  we
would  find  it  impossible to do the work which has to  be  done  in  these
strenuous times.  Try it."

   At  the  word  he began to glide just as Jimmie  had  seen  Marjorie  do.
Jimmie then made the effort himself and to his surprise found that he  could
move along as he had often done on ice when skating,  only this movement was
the result of an effort of the will and required no exertion of the body  at
all.   He  was as delighted as a child with this newly  acquired  power  and
glided  around like an ice skater cutting the old familiar figure eight  and
other  patterns a number of times before he once more steadied down  at  the
side of his new acquaintance.

   There  is a great deal of the boy in every man just as there is  a  great
deal of the man in every boy,  and Jimmie was frankly more absorbed and  in-
terested  in the possibilities of the glide and i the fact that he  had  re-
sumed  his place at the Elder Brother's side without being in the least  out
of breath or feeling any of the effects which usually follow such  strenuous
exercise, than he was in the tremendous fact that he had  really  and  truly


[PAGE 26]                                     IN THE LAND OF THE LIVING DEAD

crossed  over  the "Great Divide"  and was in the very act  and  article  of
learning what was on the "Other Side of Death."

   Slowing down to the more dignified progress of his guide,  he felt  some-
what  abashed at his exhibition of enthusiasm and began to apologize  in  an
indirect manner.

   "This  gliding business is quite a novelty to me and it seems to be  just
what  I have always wanted to do.   I've dreamed of just that very thing  at
times, and when I once realized that I could actually glide, it was like do-
ing some old, familiar stunt over again."

   "You were not mistaken.  It is an old familiar 'stunt.'"

   "It must be that my ice skating is what made it seem natural to me."

   "No.   It was familiar because you have often glided and you were  really
used  to doing it.   In your sleep you have always spent your time  over  on
this  side.   On most nights you were not actually conscious,  yet you  were
partially aware of what you were doing though you were not able to take  the
memory back with you."

   "Gee!  Well, what do you know about that!"

   "It's an improvement on walking, isn't it?"

  "Well!   I  should  say so.   I'll sure teach it to the  boys  when  I  go
back.--"


[PAGE 27]                                            A SERGEANT'S EXPERIENCE

   He stopped short, realizing that there was no "going back."

   The man's face glowed with sympathy.

   "No,"  he said,  "there is no going back,  but I think that when  I  have
shown  you  that  which lies before you and which is  so  much  grander  and
greater than what lies back of us,  you will not want to go back,  you  will
want with all your heart and soul to go forward.

   "I am going to take you back to the trench where your company is, for one
of  your friends is going to pass over.   As he will not go in the same  way
you  did he will recover consciousness almost immediately and I want you  to
take  charge  of him.   In this way you will learn a good  deal  about  some
phases of what your duties will be later on.

   "And now," he continued, "before you begin actual work, I want to impress
upon  your mind that this war was necessary,  because in no other way  could
the human race be saved from an impending and overwhelming fate.   This fact
does  not in the least excuse those who are responsible for bringing it  on,
but  I speak of it because the great conflict and awful suffering have  made
some think that the powers of good were helpless before the powers of  evil.
This is not so.   God rules over all and as the sparrow cannot fall  without
His knowledge and will,  so no war can be started without His knowledge  and
will; but, as said, this does not excuse those who bring it  on."  His  face


[PAGE 28]                                     IN THE LAND OF THE LIVING DEAD

grew very stern but withal tender, and his eyes had a look in them as though
his  thoughts were far away over the centuries that are to come  before  the
good  which is to result from the great struggle shall have formed its  pat-
tern on the loom of time.

   "Now,"  he resumed,  "we will travel a little faster and you can use that
newly found power of yours, the glide."

   He began to glide as he spoke and moved faster and faster.   Jimmie  kept
gliding  along by his side,  occasionally forgetting and fixing his mind  on
something else,  and when he did this he found that he was apt to stop alto-
gether.   This he explained to himself by saying that walking had become  so
much a second nature to him that he could do it and still think of something
else,  but that gliding was yet new and so he had to center his mind  on  it
all the time.

   The  Elder  Brother moved faster and Jimmie followed him as  well  as  he
could,  though when his companion left the earth and moved through  the  air
Jimmie  was  a  little dubious as to his ability to follow  so  strenuous  a
leader.  Soon, however, he became more and more accustomed to the new sensa-
tion and began to take a little interest in the landscape.   Now he  noticed
that they were passing over a part of the country which was familiar to him,
and in another moment or two he saw that they were nearing the trenches.  He
heard the reports of the great guns and saw the planes flying far above, for


[PAGE 29]                                            A SERGEANT'S EXPERIENCE

he and his guide were again nearing the earth, and I another minute they had
alighted on the edge of that section of the trench where his firing post had
been.

   There it was yet with one of the men of the company in it, and Jimmie mo-
tioned  to his friend that they had better jump down into the  trench  where
they would be safe.   It was not until the Elder Brother smiled at him in  a
quizzical  way  that he remembered the fact that the danger of  bullets  was
over for him, that they could pass through his present ethereal body without
causing discomfort.

   The Elder Brother laid a hand on Jimmie's arm and pointed to a man  some-
what over forty,  in the uniform of a sergeant, who was sitting quietly in a
little dugout smoking a cigarette and looking at an old magazine.   As  they
watched him he threw away the stub of the cigarette, laid down the magazine,
rose slowly, and stepped into the trench.  He walked leisurely to the firing
post,  raised his head to look through the little opening,  and  was  neatly
drilled through the forehead with a rifle bullet.   He stood still for a mo-
ment,  then as the muscles lost their vitality they slowly relaxed,  and the
body  as  slowly leaned against the wall of trench,  quietly  sinking  down.
That  was what the horrified rifleman on duty saw,  but what Jimmie saw  was
that the sergeant quietly stepped out of his body and  stood  there, looking


[PAGE 30]                                     IN THE LAND OF THE LIVING DEAD

at  the  rifleman with a puzzled expression on his face.   Jimmy  needed  no
guide  to  tell him what had happened, and he called to Sergeant  Strew  who
looked up at him and said quietly:

   "Hello,  Jimmie,  glad to see you.  When did you blow in?   I heard you'd
'gone west.'"

   "Hello,  old fellow,"  said Jimmie, "I just came out and brought a friend
of mine."

   He turned to the Elder Brother and said:

   "I'd  introduce you to my friend,  Sergeant Strew,  sir,  if I knew  your
name."

   Sergeant Strew seemed to evince no great surprise that Jimmie should have
come out to the firing line in such a manner,  bringing a friend with him as
though the front trench were a visiting place,  nor did the unusual  circum-
stance  strike either of them as at all out of the ordinary.   It  is  often
thus with those who have recently passed over and who had not had their pow-
ers of observation and reason trained. The sergeant knew as a matter of fact
that Jimmie was dead,  or at least he had been told so and had no reason  to
doubt the fact.  Yet when Jimmie appeared alive and well and apparently com-
fortable, the sergeant merely accepted the fact without any hesitation.  Had
he seen Jimmie,  however,  before the sniper's bullet severed the connection
between  his  physical and vital bodies, the case would have  been  entirely
different.


[PAGE 31]                                            A SERGEANT'S EXPERIENCE

   Jimmie's very respectful mode of addressing the Elder Brother,  too,  was
indicative  not  only of the atmosphere or aura of dignity and  power  which
surrounded the Elder Brother but showed the fact that these auric vibrations
were not impeded by the physical body, hence were a thousand times more  po-
tent than would have been the case on the physical plane.  Jimmie knew noth-
ing  of mental vibrations and had not the slightest idea that the  cause  of
his attitude lay outside of himself,  but of the fact of this respectful at-
titude he was aware,  and he promptly  set it down to his own good  upbring-
ing.

   The name which was given I may not divulge,  but in its place I will sub-
stitute one, and say that the Elder Brother gave the name of CAMPION.


   The introduction over, the Elder Brother said:

    "Jimmie, come to me in about an hour and bring your friend."

   "All right,  sir,  but my watch has stopped and I will have to guess  the
time.   And where will I find you, sir?"

   "I will send for you when the time comes."

   The  Elder Brother apparently made a step from the bottom to the  top  of
the  trench and moved off toward the rear.   The sergeant yelled to him  and
jumpted  to  interfere but Jimmie caught him by the arm.   Strew  turned  on
Jimmie--

   "Stop him!  Call him back!"


[PAGE 32]                                     IN THE LAND OF THE LIVING DEAD

   "Never mind him,"  Jimmie shouted, "listen to me--"

   "All right,  Lieutenant, if you say so.  But jiminy!  I'm glad to see you
again.   Say!   did you notice the way that friend of yours took  the  whole
height of the trench at one step?  Some man, that!"

   "He certainly is."

   "This'll  be great news for the boys to find you're all right again.   We
heard that you got killed three days ago.  I'm mighty glad to find it was  a
mistake.  But where have you been all this time?"

   Jimmie  had come up at a time when there was a lull in the fighting,  and
Sergeant  Strew's was the only casualty at the time.   The sergeant  was  so
busy  looking at and talking to Jimmie that he had not noticed the group  of
men gathered about his dead body, and Jimmie was at a loss just how to break
the news to him gently.  He had never had such a job to do before--

   "Well you see,  Sergeant,  the funny part about it is that what you heard
was true."

   "What was true?"

   "Why, that I got killed."

   "you got hit on the bean, that's what's the matter with you."

   "No, I didn't either.  I'm giving you the true dope.  I got killed."

   "Jimmie, go back and tell the doc to fix your noodle.  You've  got  a bad


[PAGE 33]                                            A SERGEANT'S EXPERIENCE

case of 'bats in your garret.'  I might have known it was like that or you'd
never have brought that spry old gent out here with you which you very  well
know  is  against all the regulations even if you are a  lieutenant,  and  I
don't see how in thunder he ever got so far, past all the officers."

   "Well, you see, it's this way, Sergeant, lots of men get killed and never
know what's happened to them."

   "Yes,  an' some think they're killed when nothing has happened.  Why,  if
you'd  been killed don't you see you would be a ghost now,  and then how  in
the  dickens  could  I see you and be talking to you?   It  can't  be  done,
Jimmie.  You're just as much alive as I am."

   "That's  true,  too,  Sergeant,  but if you'll look behind you  a  moment
you'll see that you're just as dead as I am."

   Jimmie  pointed past him to the dead body which had been laid out on  the
boards  at the bottom of the trench ready to be taken to the rear if  things
kept quiet after dark,  and the sergeant turned and looked.   He looked long
and  quietly.   He walked over and stood beside the body and  looked  at  it
carefully.   He spoke to the sentry in the firing post;  when no answer  was
made he spoke again, more sharply, and then walked over and shook the man by
the shoulder, or attempted to shake him, but  finding  that  his  hand  went


[PAGE 34]                                     IN THE LAND OF THE LIVING DEAD

through  him he gave up the attempt,  turned back to Jimmie,  and said in  a
matter of fact way:

   "I guess you're right, Jimmie.  I've cashed in."

   Jimmie  looked  at Sergeant Strew and Sergeant Strew  looked  at  Jimmie.
Neither knew what to say.  The situation was a novel one,  and though Jimmie
might have found words with which to offer comfort to a friend who had  lost
some dear one,  yet even that task would have been hard; but when it was the
friend himself who had died and the one who sought to offer comfort was also
dead, the situation began to assume something of the comical.  Jimmie smiled
a little.  Things were too serious to laugh about, yet there was the element
of humor and that very fact of itself struck him as funny, for humor and the
life after death had seemed to him before this as being as far apart as  the
poles.   No one had ever connected the two to his knowledge.   The sergeant,
however, was very grave.

   So  it's come at last,  he said, partly to himself and partly to  Jimmie.
"It's come at last and it's not nearly anything like I thought it would  be.
Say!"   he looked at Jimmie, "You have been over here for three days and you
ought to be feeling at home kinda by this time; where are they?"

   "Where are what?"

   "Why,  heaven,  though I guess us fellers wouldn't go there just at first
anyhow; but where's all the things the parsons  talk  about,  hell  and  the


[PAGE 35]                                            A SERGEANT'S EXPERIENCE

devils an'  the other things?  This is just like where we were before an'  I
don't see much difference except that yap, Milvane,  couldn't hear me when I
spoke to him;  but what does a feller do here?  Do we go an' hunt for a harp
to play on or do we go on fighting or what?   'Spose a lot of German  ghosts
come along, what are we to do?"

   "Darned if I know, said Jimmie to whom the idea was new.

   "Well,  I  don't know what we can do but I bet I can  lick  any  blankety
blank German ghost that ever lived."

   Jimmie  felt a peculiar sensation.   He had never been a profane boy  and
his  worst expletive had usually been the mild word "darn."   Stronger  than
this he seldom spoke but now that the sergeant used a few words of what  the
majority  of  the company would have classed as swearing,  that is  as  REAL
GENUINE  swearing,  Jimmie felt a sensation almost akin to pain.   It was  a
mixed feeling, not physical pain and yet much like it; it was much more than
mere  repugnance to something he formerly would not even have  noticed.   He
remembered the Elder Brother's request and wondered if the hour was up,  and
if  it was,  whether he ought to take this friend of his into  the  somewhat
awesome presence of that strange man.  His doubts were solved for him by the
sudden appearance from nowhere of a laughing little child  who  came dancing


[PAGE 36]                                     IN THE LAND OF THE LIVING DEAD

up to him, singing in a semi-chant as children often do:

   "Come along, Jimmie, the Elder Brother wants you."

   Jimmie turned to the sergeant who was attempting to interfere with a sol-
dier busily engaged in removing the ammunition belt from the sergeant's dis-
carded body.

   "Come on, Sergeant, Mr. Campion wants to see us."

   "T'hell with your friend.   Look at this gutter snipe here trying to  rob
me of all my cartridges an'  he knows blame well I got all my tobacco in one
of them pockets an' I'm responsible fer that belt.  Drop it,  gol darn you!"
This last was addressed to the soldier at whom and through whom the sergeant
swung a right hand blow that would, under former circumstances,  have almost
felled an ox, but the soldier paid no attention to it.  The sergeant was in-
articulate with rage.

   Jimmie  had to stop a minute to get the situation clear in his own  mind,
and then with a laugh he interposed between the fuming sergeant and the  un-
concerned robber,  who was not a robber at all but merely a soldier  obeying
his orders.

   "Come out of  it,  Sergeant!  You're  dead!  Get  me?  You're  dead!  You


[PAGE 37]                                            A SERGEANT'S EXPERIENCE

can't hurt that guy.  Come along with me.  You're dead!"

   The sergeant stepped back a pace, looked at Jimmie with a puzzled expres-
sion on his face for a moment and scratched his head.

   "Danged if I ain't," he said thoughtfully, "I forgot that."

   "Sure."   Jimmie smiled at him.  "And what good would your tobacco do you
anyhow?  You can't smoke now."

   The  sergeant  stopped  short and straightened with a  jerk,  looking  at
Jimmie, his eyes growing wide with horror.

   "Ain't that hell?"

   Again  Jimmie felt that painful feeling surge over him at the  sergeant's
words, and again he doubted the advisability of taking this profane soldier,
brave and honorable though he knew him to be, before the Elder Brother,  who
was,  as  Jimmie  had "sized him up" something in the nature  of  a  "Gospel
Sharp"  or "Sky Pilot."  The army seldom used the word MINISTER,  and Jimmie
had  fallen into the army vernacular.  What would this friend of  Marjorie's
think  if Sergeant Strew should forget himself and casually utter an  exple-
tive?

   Again  the little child with the smiling face danced before his eyes  and
repeated the message.


[PAGE 38]                                     IN THE LAND OF THE LIVING DEAD

   "Come along, Jimmie, the Elder Brother wants you."

   This time Jimmie determined to obey.

   "Come along, Sergeant, it's orders that I've got to bring you with me."

   The sergeant came along,  pensively, muttering to himself something about
tobacco  and the utter uselessness of any locality or state of  being  where
the  solacing  weed could not be smoked.   Nevertheless,  he followed  in  a
preoccupied  manner,  climbing out of the ditch after Jimmie and  then  ner-
vously looking around as though just remembering that the sight of him might
excite Fritz into starting a bombardment.

   "Don't worry," Jimmie said, noticing the sergeant's apprehension,  "Fritz
can't see you and if he could he couldn't hurt you.   You're just as dead as
you can get."

   "That's right,  I never thought of that.   I aint got used to the idea of
being dead yet."

   He drew his hand across his forehead wearily,  then gave a gasp of dismay
as  he felt the hole in his head and took his hand away covered with  blood.
He  felt gingerly of the place where the snipers had drilled him.   "Say,  I
better go an'  get this fixed up.  This is a bad place to get hit.   I might
have got--it's a wonder it didn't--"

   He stopped short and looked at Jimmie wistfully.  The wound had evidently
startled him in a way, for the fact was that in spite of the evidence he had


[PAGE 39]                                            A SERGEANT'S EXPERIENCE

not yet realized that he was dead.   Often it takes a long time to realize a
thing  which we know and admit readily as a mere statement of  fact.   While
the  sergeant knew that he was dead,  yet he had not realized it nor had  he
learned  to co-ordinate his thoughts with what he knew to be the truth,  and
the old impulse to get a wound "fixed up" before any complications could set
in was too strong to be shaken off.

   Jimmie  did  not know and so could not explain to the sergeant  that  the
blood  with  which  his hand was covered was merely the result  of  his  own
firmly fixed idea that there ought to be blood where there was such a  large
wound.   Subconsciously the sergeant felt that if he were dead and a  ghost,
then it would follow that a ghost could not bleed.  Yet he was bleeding, for
was not his hand covered with blood?  So,  partly by conscious and partly by
subconscious  methods he reached the point where he doubted whether he  were
really  dead of not.   Theories were thrown to the winds.   The wound was  a
practical and compelling fact.

   "Say,  Jimmie,  I've got to go an' get this fixed up.  I'll come an'  see
your fried some other time.  I gotta go before this gets worse."

   It was,  indeed,  a ghastly wound,  not only where the bullet had entered
the forehead but much more so where it had come out at the back of the  head
for there the wound  was  much  larger.  Jimmie  realized  the  necessity of


[PAGE 40]                                     IN THE LAND OF THE LIVING DEAD

getting it "fixed up," but then the thought flashed across his mind--WHERE?

   Merciful and devoted as the Red Cross was,  there was yet no hospital  he
knew  of,  where a man who could not be seen could be treated for  a  deadly
wound of which he had already died.

   "Where you goin' to, Sergeant," he asked, "where do you think you can get
that thing fixed up?  Don't you know that's what killed you?"

   "Don't they have no hospitals over here?" demanded the sergeant.   "Where
do ghosts go when they get hurt?"

   "They don't get hurt."

   "The dickens they don't!  I'm hurt, aint I?  If I don't get this fixed up
somehow I'm liable to--to--"

   "To what, Sergeant?  Come to life again?"                     

   "Darn you, Jimmie.  This thing hurts like the dickens.  It's a wonder you
wouldn't  flag a stretcher bearer or an ambulance or somethin'   instead  of
standin'  there grinnin'  like a durn fool.   Of course they have ambulances
over here.  Naturally they would."



[PAGE 41]                                     IN THE LAND OF THE LIVING DEAD

                                 CHAPTER III

                                A SOUL FLIGHT

   "No, there are no ambulances, Sergeant, but I will take you where you can
have your wound attended to."

   Jimmie turned to see who it was that had spoken and was somewhat startled
to  see  the Elder Brother standing quietly with just the faint trace  of  a
smile on his lips.

   "Please come with me, both of you.

   Both followed as a matter of course, It never occurred to either to ques-
tion that gentle voice,  which for all its gentleness seemed to carry a note
of finality and authority.

   "Take his hand,  Jimmie," said the Elder Brother, at the same time grasp-
ing the sergeant by the other arm.  Jimmie did as he was told and was amazed
to find himself traveling rapidly.  In a few minutes they "lit" as he after-
wards  described  it,  and he found they were on a level lawn  some  hundred
yards  distant from an enormous building of the old Grecian style of  archi-
tecture,  constructed  with huge symmetrical columns  topped  by  Corinthian
capitals,  and with a peculiar irridescence or glow surrounding  the  entire
structure.  Jimmie was not sure at first, whether he actually saw this;  in-
deed, he did not see it continuously,  and  Sergeant Strew, who seemed to be


[PAGE 42]                                     IN THE LAND OF THE LIVING DEAD

just coming out of a dream, apparently did not see it at all.

   They passed,  still hand in hand across the lawn and up the rows of steps
which  surrounded the building and wound their way between what seemed  end-
less rows of columns until the Elder Brother opened a door and motioned them
before him into a room.

   He,  himself,  followed and having closed the door,  turned  to  Sergeant
Strew who was apparently faint from loss of blood.

   "And now,  Sergeant, you must forgive me for having waited so long before
attending to your injury."

   He  opened a little cupboard and took from one of the shelves  within,  a
small vial filled with a dark colored substance of much the same consistency
as vaseline.

   "Now,  Sergeant,  on this side of the veil we can accomplish results  far
more rapidly than on the side you have just left,  and you will find that if
you will do as I say,  your wound will be entirely healed without even leav-
ing a scar."

   He stood in front of the sergeant, smeared a little of the dark substance
on his own finger, and said:

   "Please stand perfectly still, Sergeant, and concentrate your mind on the
way your forehead looked before you were wounded.  Think  of it that way and


[PAGE 43]                                                      A SOUL FLIGHT

imagine that the wound was never made."

   He  touched the sergeant's forehead lightly with the finger on which  the
dark  substance was smeared.   The sergeant closed his eyes and screwed  his
face  into what he thought was the right expression for one who was  concen-
trating.

   The  Elder  Brother  removed  his hand  and  to  Jimmie's  amazement  the
sergeant's  forehead  was  as  clean  and  smooth  as  the  forehead  of   a
child--smooth,  that is,  except for the wrinkles produced by his extraordi-
nary  facial  contortions  in  trying to obey the Elder Brother's command to
"concentrate."

   "Well! Well!" said Jimmie.

   Sergeant Strew opened his eyes.

   "Your wound's all gone, as though it had never been there at all."

   "Thasso?"  He felt gingerly and inquiringly of his forehead.

   "Doctor, I sure have to hand it to you for a first class doc.  You'd make
a fortune in the States.  Gee!  But you must be a crackerjack!"

   The Elder Brother smiled.

   "You did it yourself,  my friend.   It was your own imagination and  will
power, not my skill, which healed you."

   Sergeant Strew looked rather mystified and furtively felt of his forehead
as though in doubt of the permanence  of  any  change  wrought  by  his  own


[PAGE 44]                                     IN THE LAND OF THE LIVING DEAD

imagination, but the wound was still healed and he gave a little sigh of re-
lief.

   "Whew!" he said, "If I'd only known how to do that before!"  He turned to
the Elder Brother:  "You really mean that I healed myself?"

   "Exactly  that.   You healed yourself,  and the stuff I  smeared  on  was
merely to help you concentrate.   If you had had your arm blown off and  had
come  over with only one arm you could have replaced your arm with  as  much
ease as you have healed this wound.  Matter on this side of the veil is won-
derfully amenable to the power of the will, and the task which I wish to set
you about at once is that of meeting your comrades when they pass over, qui-
eting  them and showing them how to heal their wounds and also drawing  them
away from the battle lines.

   "For those who pass over, the war has ended, and it is their duty as well
as their privilege to help,  not by fighting,  but by getting others to stop
fighting  and to begin to turn their thoughts away from the earth plane  and
towards the great future and the tasks and duties which it holds."

   "But suppose the enemy makes a raid?   What shall I do?   How can I  help
fighting?"

   "By  simply  refusing to fight.   You are not now on the  physical  plane
where you could be compelled to fight.  The Germans cannot hurt you even  if


[PAGE 45]                                                      A SOUL FLIGHT

they do make a raid and surround you.  All you have to do is to obey orders;
ignore  the Germans unless you can speak German,  in which case it  is  your
duty to help them to stop fighting and to heal their wounds just as much  as
it is your duty to help your own comrades.

   "And  remember that while you are doing this work you are doing the  work
of the Master,  and the power and the strength of the Master are with you so
that  nothing can hurt you.   Only if you disobey orders and let your  anger
rise and attempt to injure anyone--only then could you be hurt.   To put  it
shortly--obey orders and you are perfectly safe even if your work takes  you
into the middle of the whole German army.  Disobey or let your passions lead
you  into hatred and anger and you will not be safe even if alone on an  is-
land in the Pacific Ocean.  Do you understand?"

   The  Elder  Brother drew himself up as if he were a soldier  standing  at
"attention."  The sergeant was much impressed and clicked his heels together
as he saluted, saying,

   "Your orders shall be obeyed, sir."

   "Just a moment, Sergeant."

   The Elder Brother stood very still for a moment, apparently thinking.  He
had stood in this attitude for about a minute when the door opened and a man


[PAGE 46]                                     IN THE LAND OF THE LIVING DEAD

in the uniform of a Canadian soldier entered.

   "You called, sir?"

   "Yes.   Please  go with Sergeant Strew and show him how we do  our  work.
You would not be called into active service so soon,  Sergeant,"  the  Elder
Brother went on,  addressing our friend, "but the Germans are about to start
another drive and a great many on both sides will be killed; and we need all
our workers and many more.   I am sure that you will do what you can to help
those  whom you can influence to quit the fighting and turn their  attention
to other things, now that they are on this side of the veil."

   Sergeant Strew and the Canadian saluted and went out.

   What  happened  to the sergeant and the manner in which he  was  inducted
into  the work of the great band of invisible helpers who are striving  with
might and main to avert a grave disaster to the world, Jimmie learned later.
It was replete with adventure and many terrible things,  also some that were
almost comic, but that is not really a part of this narrative.

   The Elder Brother stood for a moment lost in thought after the  departure
of Sergeant Strew, and Jimmie watched him, waiting for him to speak.   After
a few minutes Jimmie broke the silence himself.

   "You spoke of my having certain duties, too, sir?"

   "Yes.  But yours are different from those of the  sergeant.  You  are  to


[PAGE 47]                                                      A SOUL FLIGHT

learn  as  much as possible because the field of your activity will  not  be
here.  You are going back."

   "Back?"

   "Yes.   You  were not killed but only stunned,  and when the  right  time
comes  you will be sent back to work in your own body again on the  physical
plane.   There it will be your great and high privilege to tell,  so far  as
lies in your power,  the wonderful things which will be shown you and taught
you here."

   "But if I am not dead,  then is not all this a dream?   And Marjorie told
me I was dead.  Did I only imagine I saw Marjorie?"

   "No.   You really saw Marjorie and talked to her;  also,  you are  really
over  here now,  because it is not necessary that one die in order  to  come
over to this country.  Marjorie was mistaken and very naturally so; the fact
is  that for some little time it was uncertain whether it would be  possible
to re-integrate your etheric body quickly enough.   But your work is  needed
on earth;  you have earned the chance in your former lives and as there is a
very great need,  special help has been given you.  Neither you nor Marjorie
stopped to think that you have no wound."

   "That's right,"   Jimmie said,  "come to think of it I haven't any wound.
I hadn't stopped to think of that before.  And yet I remember that I've seen
lots of dead men on the fields who had no wound."


[PAGE 48]                                     IN THE LAND OF THE LIVING DEAD

   "That  is very true.   they were killed by shell shock,  and that is  the
very  think which NEARLY killed you by driving your vital body out  of  your
physical almost to the point of rupturing the silver cord.  But for the fact
that you are needed and were given extra help, you would be really and abso-
lutely dead,  as you call it;  you would be on this side of the veil with no
chance  of going back.   But because in your past lives you made a start  on
the Path,  took the vow of service, and by your work earned the  opportunity
for more service,  it cam to pass that when your etheric body was driven out
by  the explosion of the shell,  the particles of your vital body were  kept
from  utter disruption;  and when the time comes for you to go back  to  the
physical  body which is even now lying in a hospital back of the lines,  you
will  be helped to take with you the memory of what you have seen  an  heard
here so that you can work to better advantage.   In your sleep you have fre-
quently seen and talked with Marjorie,  and you have had many gliding  trips
with her in your dreams.  But this time you were quite different,  and it is
no wonder that she was mistaken."

   "But  I have never dreamed of her,  sir;  it has always been one  of  the
great regrets of my life."

   "Yes!   Although you never dreamed of her, yet you and she met often  and
had  many long trips together,  for during sleep we are generally away  from
our bodies in Dreamland, though very few are able to take back the memory of


[PAGE 49]                                                      A SOUL FLIGHT

their visits to this land of the living dead, and those who are beginning to
be  able  to do so,  take back, quite often,  only distorted  and  mixed  up
memories.   One of the things I hope you will soon learn to do when  you  go
back is to carry your consciousness through."

   "You say it can be done?"

   "Indeed yes; it is far easier than it would seem and especially for souls
that  are well advanced.   In fact it is a constant wonder to me  that  more
people are not able to do it.   You have earned the privilege of doing  this
during  your last two or three lives,  and it will not be a  very  difficult
task for you to acquire the ability."

   "My last two or three lives?  What do you mean by that?  Do you mean that
I have lived before?"

   "Exactly."

   "Where?"

   "On  earth.   And your last life was spent not so very far from where  we
are now, that is, it was in southern Europe."

   "But  I always thought that when one died,  he died;  and that he  either
went to heaven or to--to the other place."

   "No!  The scheme of human evolution is far greater and grander than that.
And  it  is because it is so much more complex,  and because  of  the  great
amount of work to be done and the fact that you can be of great usefullness,


[PAGE 50]                                     IN THE LAND OF THE LIVING DEAD

that you are to be helped to go back.  But first I want you to take a little
trip with me."

   He  beckoned  to Jimmie,  who followed him outside and took his  hand  in
obedience to a gesture.   There as a period of rapid traveling during  which
Jimmie caught only faint glimpses of the parts of the earth over which  they
flew,  and before a minute had elapsed they stood in a poorly furnished room
where  a  woman sat sewing by a small table while two little  children  were
playing  on the floor beside her.   As she sewed,  the tears dropped  slowly
down her cheeks though she made no sound,  only occasionally looking towards
the table where lay an open letter.

   The Elder Brother stood very quietly in a corner.   His grave face showed
the pity which he felt,  while Jimmie moved towards the table and glanced at
the letter.  It was the terse, formal, Government announcement that Henry L.
E.--had been mortally wounded in battle.

   Instinctively  he drew back in respect for a grief so great.   As he  did
so,  a man in uniform entered through the closed door and stood  there,  his
hands outstretched towards the woman, who paid no attention to him.   In his
tunic,  just over the heart there was a little round hole, and the tunic was
stained with blood.


[PAGE 51]                                     IN THE LAND OF THE LIVING DEAD

   "O  Emma,"  the newcomer broke the silence:   "Emma!"  he cried,  with  a
little break in his voice.

   The woman did not answer,  but she seemed a little uneasy and raised  her
head as though listening for some expected or hoped-for sound.  The youngest
child crept on all fours towards the man in uniform, uttering little gurgles
of  welcome which with a few months more practice might have developed  into
the familiar "Daddy."

   With a sob the woman caught up the child; "No,  no,  dear!   Daddy hasn't
come yet.  He hasn't come yet!"

   "The  baby sees him,"  said the Elder Brother to Jimmie,  "but the  woman
does not,  and perhaps it is just as well.  When she goes to sleep tonight,"
he  said,  turning to the man in uniform and touching him on the arm,  "When
she goes to sleep tonight she will leave her body and will be with you until
she wakes in the morning.   Then you will remember but she will not.   Every
night you will be ale to meet her and talk to her,  and so you can help  her
to bear the burden.   In the meantime remember that your separation is  only
temporary  and that you will see her and be with her and the children  every
night when they are asleep.  You see, your parting is only temporary,  after
all.  She has much the heavier burden to bear."

   The man in uniform held out his hand.


[PAGE 52]                                     IN THE LAND OF THE LIVING DEAD

   "Thank you, Mister.  You've taken a heavy load off my mind."

   The  Elder Brother motioned to Jimmie and together they left by  the  now
familiar  glide,  passing through the wall as though it had not been  there.
Outside they found themselves in the environs of a large city, and the Elder
Brother  chose  a  shaded side street, and moved  along  it  slowly,  almost
walking.  Not many people were on the street, and those they met paid no at-
tention to them,  evidently not seeing them.  It caused Jimmie no little ex-
ertion at first to dodge pedestrians as they walked unconcernedly along  the
pavement.   The Elder Brother,  however, paid no attention to the people any
more than they minded him, and walked right through them with as little con-
cern as though they had been mere shadows.   Jimmie watched him,  then tried
it  himself and found to his relief that it caused him no  inconvenience  to
walk  through  a person on the street, and that it was the  only  reasonable
thing to do.

   "I have shown you a little of the suffering caused by the war," the Elder
Brother  said  at length,  "not that you did not already know about  it  but
merely  to  bring home to you the fact that the greater part  of  the  agony
caused by the conflict arises from the idea that death means a complete  and
probably permanent separation.  In spite of the fact that most people  would
tell you, if you asked,  that they firmly believe in a future life, the fact


[PAGE 53]                                                      A SOUL FLIGHT

remains that few of them believe in it to the point of realization.

   "Death they can see and one half of it they think they understand, but as
to  the  life beyond they are more or less uncertain.   If they  could  only
know,  not as a theory but as a fact, that they are spirits,  children o the
Great Father in heaven, and as such can no more die than He can, and if they
could only realize that this life is not the only one on earth, but that hu-
manity  lives again and again in constantly improving bodies  and  surround-
ings,  also that their progress is ever onward and upward,  it could be much
accelerated and they could be spared much suffering by thus working with the
Great  Law.   If they could only realize that they make their own  troubles,
and that the misfortunes which they bear are not the visitations of a capri-
cious deity but the results of their own disobedience to His Will (as  shown
in His great and just laws),  either in their present life or in their  past
lives,  and that just in proportion as they obey His moral law and  practice
the mode of conduct which Christ, the Great Master,  laid down,  just so far
will they spare themselves suffering and fit themselves to be helpers in the
great work of uplifting their fellows."

   He ceased speaking,  his face glowing with light, and as Jimmie noticed a
nimbus or cloud of irridescent beauty and faintly flushing colors  surround-
ing him, there recurred to his mind an old verse which he had heard as a boy


[PAGE 54]                                     IN THE LAND OF THE LIVING DEAD

somewhere:

   "How bright these glorious spirits shine."

   "It is now nearly time for you to return,"  the Elder Brother  continued,
"and I cannot talk with you much more, so I will keep my promise and let you
have a little time with Marjorie.  But before we part I want to impress upon
you that when you have recovered and are able to be about,  I would like you
to call on me in Paris."

   He mentioned a street and number.

   "But  I  thought--I thought you were--er--I thought you  had--you  see  I
thought you lived here altogether."

   The Elder Brother laughed.

   "No,  indeed.   I am still in the flesh,  and when you are well enough  I
shall  meet you in Paris and that will be one of the guarantees to you  that
all this is not a dream but a reality."

   He began to travel rapidly,  and Jimmie, following in obedience to a ges-
ture of command,  soon found himself on the same gently sloping meadow where
he had first recovered consciousness.

   "Marjorie  will soon be here and I will leave you to her.   She will  ex-
plain some things to you,  but you are not to look upon this meeting as  our
last  nor on this as your only introduction to the land of the living  dead.
Your introduction to spiritual things has come in a  different  manner  than


[PAGE 55]                                                      A SOUL FLIGHT

usual,  but it is not a gift,  for you have earned it,  and it will be  your
duty to work TEN TIMES HARDER from now on."

   "He'll do it, too, won't you, Jimmie?"

   Marjorie  who  had  come up unnoticed, stood smiling in  front  of  them.
Jimmie grasped her hand and smiled too.

   "Yes indeed, I will, sir."

   "Good-bye, the, for a while."

   Jimmie looked for Marjorie to say good-bye to the Elder Brother,  but  to
his surprise they were alone.

   "I've  heard that you are to go back, and I'm so glad for it  means  that
you will be able to work on both sides of the veil at once.  O Jimmie, how I
envy you your chances to work!"

   The rest of Jimmie's conversation with Marjorie,  while of absorbing  in-
terest to themselves, does not particularly concern our story,  and it would
be an abuse of our clairvoyant privileges to set it down.   Jimmie spoke  of
his  disappointment in the fact that he had not been shown the great  sights
which  had  been promised him nor given any instructions as  to  the  "word"
which he was to do.

   Marjorie  reassured him,  and so absolute was her faith in the wisdom  of
the  Elder Brother and so positive her assurances that Jimmie's doubts  were
set at rest.

   His  eyes  had  been  growing  heavier  and  heavier  and an overpowering


[PAGE 56]                                     IN THE LAND OF THE LIVING DEAD

drowsiness  began  to steal upon him for which he tried  to  apologize,  but
Marjorie  only smiled at him.   His last recollection was the sight  of  her
standing there,  a faint glow surrounding her and a smile on her face as she
said.

   "You're going back!"

   Then darkness seemed to cover all the Land of the Living Dead.



[PAGE 57]                                     IN THE LAND OF THE LIVING DEAD

                                 CHAPTER IV

                        BACK TO EARTH--A PRETTY NURSE

   A  sensation  of falling;  great swirling masses of darkness,  felt,  not
seen;  the  impression of rushing through space at dizzy speed,  alone,  now
head  first,  now feet foremost,  utterly helpless to control  the  terrific
plunge,  yet with it all not uncomfortable nor particularly  uneasy,  merely
curious to know the result of this unguided and precipitate excursion; dimly
conscious of a lessening of the darkness and speed,  a gradually  increasing
glow  of twilight with no particular source and disclosing nothing  in  par-
ticular.   Aeons of time were passing;  a final appearance of the  sun  seen
dimly through clouds and fog, and little by little a clearing of the vision.
Ages passed and the clouds became lighter and more rosy; a final slow change
of  the sun into the glint of daylight on a swinging incandescent globe  and
the rosy clouds into a white ceiling and walls.   Nothing more was  visible.
A shadow fell upon the wall,  and across the range of vision moved what  ap-
peared to be the head of a young goddess wearing the uniform cap of the  Red
Cross.


[PAGE 58]                                     IN THE LAND OF THE LIVING DEAD

   She looked a little like Marjorie. . .Who was Marjorie?   He tired to re-
member.  The name came to him easily,  Marjorie--Marjorie--who was Marjorie?

   Who was he,  himself?   Jim,  Jimmie--who was Jimmie?   Where did he come
from?   Familiar  name!   they called him Jimmie.   They?   Who?   Who  were
"they?"  Marjorie called him Jimmie.

   Who was that girl in the Red Cross cap who looked a little like Marjorie?
She had stopped and was looking at him.  No, she was not Marjorie.  Marjorie
was much prettier and Marjorie had a soft glow of light about her.  Marjorie
had seemed to be so much more ALIVE than this girl and Marjorie glowed  with
light.   This  girl didn't glow.   Probably not her fault.   Naturally,  few
girls could glow like Marjorie--he smiled.

   What was it that Marjorie had called it?  Oh yes, an aura--aura.

   The girl in the Red Cross cap was smiling at him now but she didn't  glow
like Marjorie.   Still she had a sweet smile.  She as a nice girl.   He knew
it.  But she ought to glow.  He would speak to her.

   A  Red  Cross nurse,  passing on her rounds among her patients,  saw  one
without  a wound,  who had lain unconscious for days,  suffering from  shell
shock,  and whom they had been unable to rouse.   As she glanced at him  she
was  surprised and pleased to see that his eyes were open and that he showed


[PAGE 59]                                      BACK TO EARTH--A PRETTY NURSE

consciousness.   He was watching her and his lips were moving  feebly.   She
stepped  to his side and bent her head until her ear was close to his  lips.
Then, only, she could faintly hear his words.

   "You're not glowing.  Where's your aura?"

   The mystified nurse stroked his forehead gently as she straightened up, a
great  surge of pity for this poor human wreck of battle sweeping over  her.
His lips moved again, and again she bent to listen.

   "'Scuse me.  My mistake.  You've got it."

   "Got to sleep now, you're very much better."

   She laid her hand on his head for a few moments,  and then as his regular
breathing showed that he had followed her direction,  she moved away on  her
rounds.   Later,  in making her report to the head nurse she  remarked  that
number  32 had regained consciousness but was apparently a little "off,"  as
he had asked foolish questions about why she did not glow and where her aura
was.

   "What is an 'aura'?"  she asked the head nurse.   "It seems to me that  I
have heard the word somewhere."

   "I don't know, child.  I don't think there is any such thing.   He's just
out of his head."

   Jimmie  awoke from his sleep some hours later with his head fairly  clear
as  to  outward impressions but very confused as to other things.   He  went
back  over  his  experiences  with  Sergeant  Strew,  the Elder Brother, and


[PAGE 60]                                     IN THE LAND OF THE LIVING DEAD

Marjorie.   They were vivid and distinct and he could remember almost  every
word,  especially  Marjorie's but how did he come to be here and  where  was
"here?"   There were no hospitals in the ordinary meaning of the  term  over
there,  yet he was in a hospital.   Also the nurse walked and did not glide,
as she had bent over him when he first awoke and had touched his forehead so
soothingly she had seemed to glow--yes,  he remembered that she had all of a
sudden been enveloped in a cloud of faint purple.   He had said something to
her at the time but he could not remember now what it was.   He didn't  care
particularly.   It  was  enough just to lie here quietly and  not  think  at
all--not  more  than he had to,  anyhow.  This place might or might  not  be
heaven, but it certainly was very comfortable.

   The nurse again stopped at his side.  He smiled up at her,  too  comfort-
able and entirely satisfied to do more than smile.   But she was a competent
young woman and did not approve of nurses smiling at patients or patients at
nurses.  She wanted to know how he felt and what his temperature was and in-
sisted  on shaking up his pillow and generally rousing him in a gentle  way.
But  he didn't care.   Who could be annoyed by the attentions of a  goddess?
Now that he was aroused enough to talk, he would find  out where he was.  He


[PAGE 61]                                      BACK TO EARTH--A PRETTY NURSE

would  go  about it diplomaticallly so that she would not know what  he  was
trying to find out.   He spoke,  and she was glad to hear his voice so  much
stronger.

   "Why don't you glide?"

   Poor fellow!   His voice was stronger but evidently his mind was  wander-
ing.  Still one can often accomplish a great deal by humoring such cases, so
she answered:

   "Why,  don't  you know that we're not allowed to dance in here,  and  be-
sides,  no one glides now.  The only dances we have are the waltz and two or
three other dance steps, but the glide is out of date."

   He looked at her, puzzled.  Maybe it wasn't heaven.  Maybe it was--no--it
couldn't be.  her face was too sweet and altogether wholesome for that.

   "Tell  me--say--"  She bent down in sympathy at sight of so strong a  man
lying  so helpless,  in expectation of some piteous revelation of  shattered
reason.

   "Where'm I at?"

   The  revulsion of feeling was too much for her and she laughed  outright.
When she could stop laughing long enough  to talk she answered his question.

   "You're  in  the American Hospital at Paris,  France,  and  it's  certain
you're ever so much better--that is, all except your grammar."

   Again,  in watching her,  he saw that wave of color surround her  like  a
glow of purple light and he needed no words to  tell  him  that  though  she


[PAGE 62]                                     IN THE LAND OF THE LIVING DEAD

might  not  glide nor know what an aura was,  yet she was a true  sister  to
those compassionate ones who spend their time in helping others even as  the
Master does.   He knew, though he knew not how he knew, that such a glowing,
pulsing,  gentle radiance cannot be counterfeited by any art, skill,  knowl-
edge,  or power, however great.  Nothing can produce it but purity,  kindli-
ness,  love,  and service.  So he was satisfied for the time and lay back on
his pillow and in a few seconds was asleep.

   It  was a whole day later before he awoke again,  this time in  the  full
possession of his senses and memory,  and when the nurse of the kindly  face
and  the beautiful aura made her rounds, she met a look of full  recognition
which told her at a glance that Jimmie's mind was entirely restored.

   "Good morning,"  she said smiling,  "how's my shell shocked patient  this
morning?  Still suffering from dislocation of grammar?"

   Jimmie grinned, "What did I say to you yesterday?"

   "Oh, nothing much.  You were naturally a little light headed and you said
some  queer things.   You asked me why I didn't dance and where my aura  was
and why I didn't glow.  By the way, what is an aura?  Is there such a thing,
or did you just imagine the word?"


[PAGE 63]                                      BACK TO EARTH--A PRETTY NURSE

   "I don't know that I can tell you just what an aura is.   I've heard  the
word and I think I know what it means.  I'll tell you about it."

   Three days later Jimmie was allowed to go out for a walk.   He felt prac-
tically well and very hungry but had to promise that if allowed to go out he
would not buy anything to eat.

   "I don't know whether I can trust you or not,"  the doctor had said;  "it
may be better for Miss Louise to go with you."

   "I  think very likely it would," said Jimmie thoughtfully.   "I think  it
would be much better."

   Miss  Louise did not seem averse to a little walk when the  doctor  asked
her  if she would take her patient out for a stroll,  and in  fact  appeared
rather  proud of the tall young lieutenant in his newly cleaned and  pressed
uniform from which all traces of the trench mud had been removed in the hos-
pital laundry.

   "Which  way shall we go?"  she asked as they passed out of  the  hospital
gate.

   "Do you know where the Rue de la Ex is?"

   "No, but we can ask."

   They  asked.   He asked in the best trench French,  and she asked with  a
charming little hesitation in her accent and a most bewitching interrogatory
raise  of her eyebrows,  but neither of them could make anything of the  an-
swers they received.  The replies were hidden in such a torrent of verbosity


[PAGE 64]                                      BACK TO EARTH--A PRETTY NURSE

and gesticulation that they were left no wiser than before.

   "I know what's the trouble," said Jimmie after the eighth or ninth native
had left them in a maze of waving hands and shrugging shoulders.

   "Oh, what is it?  I'm so mortified about my French!"

   "Why it's all your fault."

   "My fault?" her eyebrow went up in a distracting arch, "why?"

   "Why, these natives take a look at you and get so excited they can't talk
sense.  I don't blame them either."

   "Well I like that!  Am I as bad looking as that?"

   "I  didn't say you were bad looking.   I said they looked at you and  got
excited."

   "Well!  That's just the same as saying I'm bad looking.  Thank you,  Mis-
ter Lieutenant James Westman for your kind opinion."

   "Fishing!"

   "What do you mean, 'fishing'?"

   Jimmie saw his mistake and was afraid.  He had not realized how much  her
good opinion meant to him,  and now that it was in danger he was  distinctly
nervous.

   "Why, you know, Miss Louise, just what I mean.  If you don't I'm going to
tell you.  I mean just this--say! you won't get made if I tell you?"


[PAGE 65]                                      BACK TO EARTH--A PRETTY NURSE

   "Why I'm mad now--quite mad.   You said I am so ugly that nobody can look
at me without getting excited."

   "No,  I didn't either,  and I'm going to tell you now whether you get mad
or not.  What I mean is that you are so pretty that when anyone looks at you
he just naturally--just--"

   "Just what?"

   "Just naturally loses his head, that's what.  That's just what I do every
time I look at you.  Now get mad, if you want to."

   Silence.

   "Are you mad?"

   More silence.

   "Are you?"

   Her  head was averted but as he bent to listen he thought he  caught  the
words,

   "Not very."

   It  was Jimmie's nature to be carried away by his enthusiasm when he  was
greatly interested in a subject and he was carried away now.

   "And I'll tell you more and you can get mad if you want to,  just as  mad
as you like.   I know I've no right to say it,  but I thinking it and I  say
you're  the  prettiest  and sweetest and the nicest  and  the  dearest  girl
in--in--"   before  Jimmie's  memory  flashed  the  picture  of  that  other
girl--dancing, tripping, airy, gliding, glowing Marjorie,  golden  Marjorie,


[PAGE 66]                                     IN THE LAND OF THE LIVING DEAD

sweet-voiced gentle Marjorie, and he hesitated in his speech.   Was he true,
he wondered.   His conscience smote him a little.  Was it right to make love
to two girls?  He faltered.  "In France," he ended lamely.

   Louise  noted the falter in his voice.  She did not know whether she  was
in  love with this man or not.   She had not tried to analyze her  feelings,
but she had thought that she was going to hear a proposal,  and she was dis-
appointed.   This falter in his voice was too much of an anti-climax in  his
somewhat fiery speech,  and while she did not understand,  yet she was at  a
loss  how to explain in any other than the ordinary way;  clearly he  had  a
sweetheart at home.  Gently she disengaged herself from his grasp and slowly
turned towards him.

   "I--I--think I'd better go now, Mr. Westman."   There was just the faint-
est trace of a catch in her voice.

   "Louise!  Oh Louise!  Don't think that of me.  I know what you are think-
ing of, but it's all a mistake, dear.  Won't you listen to me?

   She  hesitated,  provoked that he had tried to make love to her while  he
had a sweetheart in America, yet unwilling, too,  to break with him entirely
until she was sure that there was no misunderstanding.

   "Well Mr. Westman, what do you wish to say?"

   "I say you're the sweetest girl in the world!

   "In France, you mean?"


[PAGE 67]                                      BACK TO EARTH--A PRETTY NURSE

   "No, in the whole wide world."

   "Are you sure?  Don't you mean in France?"

   "No!  I'm sure, and I mean anywhere!"

   "How about the girl back home?"

   "There isn't any!"

   She looked at him meditatively at first, then with a little touch of con-
tempt in her glance.   He saw it and began to realize that his situation was
desperate.   Like  a flash of light the realization came upon  him  that  he
loved this girl and must not lose her.  He MUST not.

   "Then why did you stammer so just now?"

   "I'll  tell you and you'll understand everything.   Please listen to  me,
won't you?"

   "I'm listening now but i'm not hearing very much."

   "Well, I can explain all about it as we walk back."

   "Oh,  I don't know,  Mr.  Westman, I'm not sure that I care to waste time
over  things that have to be 'explained.'  I think you are strong enough  to
take care of yourself now, and I have an errand I want to do anyhow, so I'll
leave you here and hurry along."

   She  left  him in spite of his protests,  and turned down a  side  street
while  Jimmie,  loitering on the corner,  watched her in the hope  that  she
might relent and turn or look back.  But he watched in vain.

   Sadly  he turned toward the hospital.   There as nowhere else for him  to
go.  He did not care to visit a club or Y.M.C.A. for  he  was  too  sore and


[PAGE 68]                                     IN THE LAND OF THE LIVING DEAD

hurt to mix in a crowd of soldiers.  He wanted only to be alone and to think
up something to say to her that would change her mind.   Suddenly the  Elder
Brother's words recurred to him:

   "Your introduction to spiritual things has come in an unusual way, but it
is  not a gift for you have earned it, and it will be your duty to work  TEN
TIMES HARDER from now on."

   He  saw now that he had wholly forgotten his promise and the great  work,
whatever that might be, that was contained in the magic word "duty."  He had
somehow  carelessly  come to look upon his wonderful experiences as  upon  a
dream.   He had started out to find the address given by the  Elder  Brother
and had calmly let everything go, in order to make love to a girl!  Oh,  but
such  a pretty girl!   Thus he justified himself.   This was  undoubtedly  a
tangle.   He was in love with two girls,  both beautiful and sweet and alto-
gether lovely,  but one on earth and one in--in--well, say in Paradise.   He
could marry only one.   Would that offend the other?   Would Louise  believe
him when he told her of his other love and would she be jealous or not?   He
thought,  or at least he hoped, that she cared for him,  but such a story as
his would be hard for her to believe.

   Oh!  the thought just struck him.  The Elder Brother could straighten out
this tangle providing there  really  were  such  a  man.  He  did  not know,


[PAGE 69]                                      BACK TO EARTH--A PRETTY NURSE

himself, whether be believe his memory or not, and it HE had any doubts, how
could he expect Louise to believe?   Was there an Elder Brother,  or was his
great  adventure  but another cloud of the stuff that dreams  are  made  of?
Stupid!   There was proof--sure proof--if he could only find it--proof  that
would  convince even Louise no matter how skeptical she might  be.   Hurrah!
He would put his dream to the test and proof which the Elder Brother himself
had suggested, and in doing so he would prove it to himself and to Louise at
the same time.

   Some French children playing in the street were astonished to see a lieu-
tenant of "Les Amis" strolling slowly along the pavement break suddenly into
a run as if his very life depended upon his speed.

   Louise had not yet returned to the hospital when Jimmie forced himself to
saunter leisurely in at the gate,  but he determined to lose no  opportunity
and sat down in an easy chair to wait for her.

   Louise came in,  feeling repentant for her exhibition of tempter.   After
all,  Jimmie was suffering from shell shock and such patients are not always
fully responsible for their actions.   Her vigorous walk by herself had done
her  good,  an the brisk circulation which it had induced had made her  more
charitable by sweeping some of the cobwebs from her brain;  and  also it had


[PAGE 70]                                     IN THE LAND OF THE LIVING DEAD

brought  the roses to her cheeks,  though of course she was unaware  of  the
fact.

   Jimmie  sprang  from his chair as she entered or at least he  would  have
sprung if he could.   As it was he got up a quickly as possible and came  to
meet her,  and whether or not there are such things are auras and whether or
not  Louise would have recognized one if she had seen it,  the fact  remains
that before Jimmie could speak a word she knew that every atom of his  being
was vibrant with apology and inquiry,  reminding her of nothing so much as a
big,  playful,  lovable puppy in an agony of endeavor to please.   Could she
refuse to speak to him for a few minutes?  No, of course she would hear what
he had to say, though he must hurry for she went on duty in half and hour.

   And so Jimmie, who had made up his mind that the only way was to tell her
exactly how matters stood, led her out into the little garden where a recre-
ation ground had been made for the convalescent patients,  and there  poured
into  her  ears the story of his adventures from the time he  found  himself
walking along the meadow until he finally awoke in the hospital.   She  lis-
tened with interest, especially when he spoke of Marjorie.

   "And so you see,"  he explained,  "how very important it is that I should
find that address, because if there is such a street and  such  a number and


[PAGE 71]                                      BACK TO EARTH--A PRETTY NURSE

if there is a man named Campion living there,  then it will prove the  truth
of all that I have told you and he will be able to help me out and  convince
you that the story is true."

   "There is no need of that, Mr. Westman, because whether or not the things
you  have told me really happened does not affect your truthfulness at  all.
I believe every word you have said and I think it wonderful.   How I  should
like to see some of those beautiful colors you speak of.  And Marjorie, too;
he must be a dear!"

   Jimmie's  heart throbbed violently at the joyful revelation that she  ac-
cepted  his  story as true and consequently forgave him for his  loyalty  to
Marjorie.  It was evident that Louise did not believe in the actual truth of
his account, but so intense and earnest had been his manner in narrating his
experience  that,  though she considered the whole story the  figment  of  a
brain suffering from shell shock,  she was firmly convinced that HE believed
it.   That was all she really cared about,  for it explained his  hesitation
and accounted for his loving another girl as well as herself,  a thing which
she  could in no wise have forgiven except for the fact that the other  girl
was merely a creature of the imagination and had not existence in reality.


[PAGE 72]                                     IN THE LAND OF THE LIVING DEAD

   "Louise!  Say, Louise!"

   "Well?"

   "Gee!   I'm glad we've had this talk.  You know I've been afraid you were
made at me."

   "So I was.  I thought you were trying to flirt with me while all the time
you had a sweetheart back home."

   "I don't blame you.  But now that you know all about it,  you've forgiven
me, haven't you?"

   Why, Mr. Westman, how absurd!  There was nothing to forgive."

   "But  I  believe when you though I had a sweetheart at home you  cared  a
little bit or else you wouldn't have got mad.   Say!   Louise!"  he dwelt on
the word, pronouncing it lingeringly.  "Louise--"

   "Well?"

   "Don't  you  think  maybe,  after a while,  after you know  me  a  little
better--"

   "Well?"

   "Don't you think--maybe--perhaps--you might come to care a little more?"

   Silence.  He took her hand as she turned her face away.

   "Couldn't you?"

   "Maybe--"


[PAGE 73]                                      BACK TO EARTH--A PRETTY NURSE


   The  next day Jimmie sought and obtains permissions for another walk  and
for Louise to accompany him,  which he assured the doctor was a necessity on
account of the dizzy spells which might seize him at any time.   The  doctor
demurred at first and kindly offered to send an orderly with him or  another
convalescent soldier who would not be subject to "spells," but Jimmie's con-
sternation  was so evident that the doctor,  being very human and  a  kindly
enough man, gave the necessary permission and then disgusted Jimmie by show-
ing a quite superfluous anxiety in the matter,  through an alleged fear that
the "spells" might be the result of heart disease.

   Louise  and Jimmie had studied the map of Paris in the meantime  and  had
found that there actually was a Rue de la Ex,  but this proved nothing,  for
he might have heard the name somewhere and the subjective mind with its won-
derful memory might have brought that particular name out of all the rubbish
with which it was loaded and have presented it to his shell shocked imagina-
tion.   Jimmie knew,  or thought he knew,  a great deal about the subjective
mind and carefully explained the matter to Louise as they walked along,  but
it  is a question as to whether his somewhat technical language  enlightened
her to any great extent.   Even if it did it must be confessed that her  in-
terest in the mysteries of the subjective mind was not particularly intense.


[PAGE 74]                                     IN THE LAND OF THE LIVING DEAD

   Before  a certain house in the Rue de la Ex they halted.   The house  was
there, but that proved nothing.  The front door was in an arched passage way
which  led to an inner courtyard.   They rang the bell.   A rattling of  the
door announced that someone inside was in the act of opening it.   The  next
few moments would decide the matter.


                             --- END OF FILE ---

