(Here, from Part 1 below, a Ghost with a talking lizard on his shoulder is met by an bright Angel who offers to silence the tormenting lizard by killing it. The Ghost is arguing with the Spirit as to why the lizard should be spared and done away with at some later day.)
"Get back! You're burning me. How can I tell you to kill it? You'd kill me if you did."
"It is not so."
"Why you're hurting me now."
"I never said it wouldn't hurt you. I said it wouldn't kill you."
"Oh, I know you think I'm a coward. It's not that, really.....let me run back to the bus and go home and get an opinion from my own doctor. I'll get back to you the first moment I can."
"This moment contains all moments."
"Why are you torturing me? And jeering at me?.......If you really wanted to help me, why didn't you just kill the damned thing without asking me---before I knew? It would have been all over by now if you had."
"I cannot kill it against you will. It is impossible. Have I your permission?" The Angel's hands were almost closed on the Lizard but not quite.
Then the Lizard began chattering to the Ghost so loud that even I could hear what it is saying....."Be careful, He can do what he says. He can kill me. One fatal word from you and He will. Then you'll be without me forever and ever! How could you live? You'd only be a sort of ghost, not a real man as you are now. He doesn't understand......Isn't what I give you better than nothing? And anyway, I promise to be good now. I've gone too far in the past, but now I promise I won't ever do it again."
The Angel said to the Ghost again, "Do I have your permission to kill this Lizard?"
"I know it will kill me."
"No, it won't. But supposing it did?"
"You're right. It would be better to be dead than to go on living with this creature."
"Then may I kill it?"
"Damn and blast you! Go on, can't you? Get it over. Do what you like!" bellowed the Ghost: but ended whimpering "God help me. God help me."Next moment the Ghost gave a scream of agony such as I never heard on Earth. The Burning One closed his crimson grip on the reptile: twisted it, while it bit and writhed, and then flung it, broken-backed, on the turf.
"Ow! That's done for me," gasped the Ghost, reeling backwards.
For a moment I could make out nothing distinctly. Then I saw, between me and the nearest bush, unmistakeably solid but growing every moment solider, the upper arm and the shoulder of a man.
Then brighter still and stronger the legs and hands of the man grew. The neck and golden head materialised while I watched, and if my attention had not wavered I should have seen the actual completing of a man---an immense man, naked, not much smaller than the Angel.
What distracted me was the fact that at the same moment something seemed to be happening to the Lizard. At first I thought the operation had failed. So far from dying, the creature was still struggling and even growing bigger as it struggled. And as it grew it changed. Its hinder parts grew rounder. The tail, still flickering, became a tail of hair that flickered between huge and glossy buttocks.
Suddenly I started back, rubbing my eyes. What stood before me was the greatest stallion I have ever seen, silvery white but with mane and tail of gold. It was smooth and shining, ripled with swells of flesh and muscle, whinneying and stamping with its hoofs. At each stamp the land shook and the trees dindled.
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