 The nature of death and the fate of the human soul after death are riddles to which no man has found a key. But there have been a few restless men who have made investigations in the field, and while they have not learned the answers, their inquiries have borne startling fruit. In April of 1907, the prominent French physician and neurologist, Dr. Henri Baraduque, suffered an unfortunate loss. His son, Andre-Yosef Baraduque, died at the age of 17. On the day after the funeral, Mr. Chavineau, a close friend of the family, came to pay his respects. I know how futile words are at a time like this. It was kind of you to come, Chav. You were with Andre when he died, Marie. Oh, Chav. Why, my dear, I am sorry. It was a stupid question. No. No, it was not stupid at all. Chav, I was not with Andre when he died. Henri would not let me be. What? He kept me out of the room. During the last few hours, he was in there alone with Andre, you see. When Andre went in for the last time, he took a camera with him. When Chavineau saw Marie several months later, he realized that she was a very sick woman. And the month later, the nurse received word that her condition was critical. He wanted once to the Baraduque house. I'd rather you wouldn't come in, Chavineau. Marie is dying. Good Lord. I want to speak to her, Henri. I asked you not to come in. Yes, I know. We heard the decency to permit me to be alone with my wife at the moment of her death. Why, Henri? For the same reason that you wanted to be alone with your son? Are you perhaps planning to set up your camera near the deathbed? Oh, you know about that, do you? Well, yes, since you inquired. Yes, that's exactly what I'm planning. The following day, the newspapers carried the report of the death of Madame Marie Baraduque. Chavineau returned to the Baraduque home. He bluntly denounced the doctor as a heartless and inhuman monster. I'm a scientist, Vino. I wanted a visual record of what happens to the body at the moment of death. And then he had at his friend a series of pictures explaining that he had used specially-sensitized plates. Vino stared at them in amazement and disbelief. Oh, dear. It looks like a sort of misty ball rising from her body. Oh, so it is. If you look here, you'll notice that three such balls appeared. They coalesced into a single group. It remained attached to the body by a cold, a luminous cold, and then at this point the cold broke and the globe floated away. I may be an inhuman monster, Charles, but I think you'll agree that I've made a rather significant discovery. Chavineau may have agreed, but the world did not. Dr. Baraduque's astonishing pictures have been published frequently, but science has refused to take them seriously. Is it because the circumstances under which they were made are so repugnant, so offensive to human decency, that the doctor's integrity is subject to suspicion? Or is it simply because the photographs themselves tell a story that is too disturbing? A story incredible but true.