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The Monster-Maker
by
“Thank you,” he said; “you are the noblest man that lives. May you always prosper and be happy! You are my benefactor, my liberator. Bless you, bless you! You reach down from your seat with the gods and lift me up into glorious peace and rest. I love you–I love you with all my heart!”
These words, spoken earnestly, in a musical, low voice, and accompanied with a smile of ineffable tenderness, pierced the old man’s heart. A suppressed convulsion swept over him; intense anguish wrung his vitals; perspiration trickled down his face. The young man continued to smile.
“Ah, it does me good!” said he.
The surgeon, with a strong effort to control himself, sat down upon the edge of the lounge and took his visitor’s wrist, counting the pulse.
“How long will it take?” the young man asked.
“Ten minutes. Two have passed.” The voice was hoarse.
“Ah, only eight minutes more!… Delicious, delicious! I feel it coming…. What was that?… Ah, I understand. Music…. Beautiful!… Coming, coming…. Is that–that–water?… Trickling? Dripping? Doctor!”
“Well?”
“Thank you,… thank you…. Noble man,… my saviour,… my bene … bene … factor…. Trickling,… trickling…. Dripping, dripping…. Doctor!”
“Well?”
“Doctor!”
“Past hearing,” muttered the surgeon.
“Doctor!”
“And blind.”
Response was made by a firm grasp of the hand.
“Doctor!”
“And numb.”
“Doctor!”
The old man watched and waited.
“Dripping, … dripping.”
The last drop had run. There was a sigh, and nothing more.
The surgeon laid down the hand.
“The first step,” he groaned, rising to his feet; then his whole frame dilated. “The first step–the most difficult, yet the simplest. A providential delivery into my hands of that for which I have hungered for forty years. No withdrawal now! It is possible, because scientific; rational, but perilous. If I succeed– if? I shall succeed. I will succeed…. And after success–what?… Yes; what? Publish the plan and the result? The gallows…. So long as it shall exist, … and I exist, the gallows. That much…. But how account for its presence? Ah, that pinches hard! I must trust to the future.”
He tore himself from the revery and started.
“I wonder if she heard or saw anything.”
With that reflection he cast a glance upon the form on the lounge, and then left the room, locked the door, locked also the door of the outer room, walked down two or three corridors, penetrated to a remote part of the house, and rapped at a door. It was opened by his wife. He, by this time, had regained complete mastery over himself.
“I thought I heard some one in the house just now,” he said, “but I can find no one.”
“I heard nothing.”
He was greatly relieved.
“I did hear some one knock at the door less than an hour ago,” she resumed, “and heard you speak, I think. Did he come in?”
“No.”
The woman glanced at his feet and seemed perplexed.
“I am almost certain,” she said, “that I heard foot-falls in the house, and yet I see that you are wearing slippers.”
“Oh, I had on my shoes then!”
“That explains it,” said the woman, satisfied; “I think the sound you heard must have been caused by rats.”
“Ah, that was it!” exclaimed the surgeon. Leaving, he closed the door, reopened it, and said, “I do not wish to be disturbed to-day.” He said to himself, as he went down the hall, “All is clear there.”
He returned to the room in which his visitor lay, and made a careful examination.
“Splendid specimen!” he softly exclaimed; “every organ sound, every function perfect; fine, large frame; well-shaped muscles, strong and sinewy; capable of wonderful development–if given opportunity…. I have no doubt it can be done. Already I have succeeded with a dog,–a task less difficult than this, for in a man the cerebrum overlaps the cerebellum, which is not the case with a dog. This gives a wide range for accident, with but one opportunity in a lifetime! In the cerebrum, the intellect and the affections; in the cerebellum, the senses and the motor forces; in the medulla oblongata, control of the diaphragm. In these two latter lie all the essentials of simple existence. The cerebrum is merely an adornment; that is to say, reason and the affections are almost purely ornamental. I have already proved it. My dog, with its cerebrum removed, was idiotic, but it retained its physical senses to a certain degree.”