“Trapping a ghost,” was the laconic answer.
“And if you succeed in trapping it——?”
“Ah, then—science generally leaves its ghosts to take care of themselves. It’s a good rule.”
“You say you are going to trap a ghost: you don’t really mean that,” protested Una.
“Remember, there are two kinds of ghosts. As a scientist I am not interested in the ghosts of the dead. If they exist outside of fairy tales and theology let some one else hunt them. But I am interested in the other and more profitable kind—the ghosts of the living.”
“I don’t understand,” said David.
“It needs explanation. Remember what I said as to the phenomena presented by the dreamer, the hypnotic subject, the dipsomaniac, the narcomaniac. In each of these cases one human mind seems capable of division into two independent halves. And each half seems to forget, or to be ignorant of the doings of its mate. Now, I am hunting for this Ghost of the Forgotten.”
“Sounds romantic,” remarked David. “According to your theory, don’t you need a hypnotized subject—or at least a dipsomaniac—for your experiment?”
“No. The Ghost of the Forgotten lurks in all of us. The man or woman in whom this Ghost is not to be found is exceptional. I doubt if such a being exists—a being whose Book of the Past is as clear, as legible, as his Book of the Present.”
“But, your experiment, Uncle,” demanded Una; “show it to us.”