Francis Worcester Doughty

“ It was a groan—it seemed to come from behind Maurice. If he heard he showed it by no sign.
“But she is here, George. More than that you have seen her, you have talked with her. George, you cannot comprehend it—it is incomprehensible. My wife is within me. We are two souls in one body. Heavens! Only think of it! If we ever do get home they will clap me into a lunatic asylum as sure as fate. Oh George, George! Would to gracious I had listened to the advice of Mirrikh and been content to wait until death released us both, and we could meet in the spirit world.” ”

“ Just then I thought I heard a groan again, but as before Maurice paid no heed.
“You see we can’t both make my physical brain act at once George,” he continued. “When I take control my individuality is in the ascendant and that gives me my natural expression and lets me talk to you as I am talking now, but when she takes hold I am obliterated, pushed out of existence for the time being, as it were. Then my face becomes transfigured until it looks almost like hers, she tells me, and she can only talk to you in her own language; but we neither of us seem able to fully control the body ”

“ Mirrikh told me that it was madness, but I listened to the advice of another, an over-enthusiastic fellow who claimed to have lived double on Jupiter. You see it’s very common for man and wife to occupy one body on Jupiter, and——”
“Stop!” I interrupted. “I beg you will stop! Whatever you may know about these matters you will do well to keep to yourself. Later, perhaps, you and I may talk them over, but what we want now is to devise some plan to get you out of your desperate fix?”
“Exactly, but what can be done? Merzilla must either have a body or remain inside of me.” ”

“ It cannot be, even allowing——”
“Even allowing I’m sane! Out with it. No, it is not exactly that! It is a sort of brain pressure. I feel like a man whose hat is too tight for him; as though a lump of iron was on my head. ”

“ When I try to move I cannot control my limbs. With my poor girl it is even worse, for when she takes control, the very air seems to stifle her and your voices sound hideous. She is furiously jealous about Walla too. ”

“ I could not have interfered had I tried, and the next I knew Maurice was sitting down again with Walla crouching upon the sand.
“George! George!” he called. “Arouse yourself old fellow. Merzilla says that God has ordained the sacrifice—that it will come in the natural order of events and by no act of mine.” ”