The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1890-12-28
THE SEATTLE ACKNOWLEDGMENT DECEMBER 2s 1890

not decide: she had not the look of one
who even heard him, apart from needing.
There was deafness of unconceru IN her
features more stolid to him than stone.
One day all the ghosts had withdrawn
their grim shapes, and lie found himself
living with clear intellect. though strength
less frame. Georgina entered, and he saw
her start q little as she bent her gaze upon
him.
you're better,n he heard her say, as II
she we're talking of the weather having inn
proved from rain TO sunshine. "But you
must not speak: YOU must not try TO speak.
The doctor forbids it." He did not try to
speak He had begun to try to think of
his beloved flask again. It might work
maryels I'm him, though, OF course, its tight
with his disease must end in final defeat.
Still. he wanted to do certain thing re-
garding it. He yearned TO enshrine the
formula of its creative process in sort OF
last will and testament for his eldest son,
Sylvan He wondered, as he lay there,
mute and stirless, who ''the doctor" was.
and whether she had not called In his old
friend, Ross Thorndyke.
Presently he found this true. As Thorn
dyke stood at his bedside Ga fair, tall: stall
wart man of his own age) Maynard feebly
stretched forth one hand.
The young doctor took it, but at once
comm andingly, though softly, said:
'You mustn't speak, Egbert. I'll get
you paper and pencil, old fellow, if there's
any thing you must tell me. But it's a
great deal better for you not TO bother
your head about anything in life for the
next i've days at least"
II wish that you WOULD bring me,n May
nard was presently writing, sthe large
flask of white liquid which you will find
in my study"
Thorndyke left the room and was gone
good while. My dear Egbert," he said.
on returning, 81 can find no trace of the
flask of which you speak Could it pos
him with quick negative he lifted into
sharp evidence several phials which he had
brought from the laboratory.
Maynard had absolute confidence in
Ross Thorndyke. They had been warm
friends at Cambridge, and in n manner had
continued so ever since. Two qualities
In the young physician had always won
his devout respect: Thorndyke had a
crystal reasoning power and veracity
of robust vigor. To be at once so
lucid-minded and so honorable was in it
self passport into Maynard's admiration.
II wish l could keep Ross up more than |
do he had often unused, land not let him
his marriage, Maynard had smoked good
many social pipes in the company of his
friend, though latterly they had seen less
and less of each other as the big hum and
hustle of London had seemed to slip sep
aratively between them. While he now
heard DR.. Thorndyke speak, an expression
OF pain touched Maynard's hueless face.
He had swiftly suspected his wife of du-
plicity; he could not refrain from the be-
lief that she had served him horrid and
stealthy trick.
But his brain at present thoroughly
clear, saw the futility of attempting either
accusation or remonstrance. The will-to-
live was strong in him. Ii such peril mem
aced speech, he would strive to preserve
silence. By gesture and a meaning
movement Of the features he showed DR..
Thorndyke that be would impose no
further search. Resolving to live on
through the preservation of silence, he
suffered the next three days untold
fortunes. Mentally he was vitality itself:
physically he was almost a complete fall
ure of fiber and nerve. Georgina would
come into his room and perform the offices
of nurse with careful exactitude. Now
and then she brought the boys in to
stand at his bedside and let him
clasp their hands. Sylvan would
be very. gentle and demure;
Gerald would sometimes press his warm,
plump cheek against the chill and thin
paternal hand, and show with trembling
lips and fearful eyes the depths of his pity
and regret. DR.. Thorndyke would drop in
twice day, always ordering continued
silence by the elevation of his forehnger,
and always muttering, as well, words of
sympathy mixed with cheer. Meanwhile
Maynard still suffered beyond words, and
at last, one evening, he determined to
suffer no longer in just this same horrible
way. He might be called upon TO endure
fresh miseries, but at least they would be
of new and less CHASTITY kind. His wife
had left him; the candles were lit in his
small bedchamber; he was qnite alone; it
ha rplx c+a 10 e foko To
felt much stronger than at any time since
his wakening 10 consciousness.
After slowly quitting his bed and stand
ing erect on the door he felt better still. 4
dressing gown lay on near chair, and he
hastily ensheathed his form in its folds
The room was cold, and he longed for slip
pers yet could ind none. Soon ceasing
the quest for them he gided into the outer
hall, carrying with him box of wax Ia
pers which he had snatched exultantly
from the mantel.
To gain his dark laboratory was but the
work of minute. To light its gloom took
even less time. There he was, grit by the
old scene of his toll and yearning. With
gaze that shot from corner to corner of the
well-known room, he sought for his lost
flask. Nowherei He scented, like some
heavy and repulsive smell, the treachery OF
his wife. Soon he gave up searching.
What If at any moment some new illness
Srlppeu MIN anu bDerc was MS desk.
paper, pens, ink were on it, Just as of old
To write out the full recipe of that incom-
parable drug would not take more than
twenty minutes at the most.
He seated himself before the desk and
began TO write. This was message-per-
haps dying message-to his son, his ED.
est boy, Sylvan. He knew Just how to
frame the whole formula; he had thought
it all out while prone there in his speech
less torture. What tne steadiness his
hand hadl How his pen darted along the
paperi After all, was he so Ill as Ross
Thorndyke had thought? Two pages al
ready-four, five, six; why, in a little
while everything would be told. And
such vengeance on his thieving wife
who had dared 10 call this wondrous rape
from the locked vaults of science an insult
10 Omnipotencei Never mind, /" he kept
saying 10 himself, ''if do fail to recover
the drug. Sylvan will get this. I'll make
Ross Thorndyke swear he'll give it him
when he's nve-and-twenty. And I'll put
q letter inside il, too-if my strength holds
out, if don't die here before l can fully
bequeath to my eldest boy this peerless
prize
He did put short letter inside the
larger document. Then, lighting on an
envelope of more than common size, he
placed both within il and thrust the pack
age thus made into pocket of his gown.
Scarcely had he done this before the sound
of step reached him from the outer hall.
Ii was his wife 5; he recognized il. Rising
he quietly fronted her as she entered the
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