Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1891-11-05

L
True" returned Gerald, 81 am 81
most at the summit of my aspirati
Tomorrow, or perhaps day or two
later, / shall have really brewed that
| colorless liquid we both wot Of
| Tomorrow, or day or two later"
Clyde musingly replied; why, then"
he broke off, Frightening, 1--WE shall
have a grand time together in testing its
| potency"
NO" replied Gerald, with grave de-
NAL.
No? How's that?" came the quick
| question.
Il wish to test its potency, but in a
single way" was Gerald's reply.
"a single way? You mean. ?"
81 mean with complete Difference to
my dead father"
Gerald, how odd of you! Speak
palmer"
Gerald did speak palmer. and some
what at length. Clyde listened with
great heed. At length he said:
Il understand your feelings. There's
something exceeding nice and poetic
| about it
Gerald drew back a little. ''Ah! you
express it too savagely," he said.
"Savagely? You mean realistically.
My dear boy, if it lies in my power
your within shall be gratifed.''
1T is not whim!' asserted Gerald.
holly. ut is"
"A creed, an infatuation, religion
any thing you please. But shall hold
it inviolate if l can"
IF You can! You With your name
and place as physician!'
'Ah. well see. / shall have to go
through high jinlss, no doubt, with
those people at the morgue. Still,
they'll bring you the body of some
drowned person whom they believe to
have committed suicide. And on such
body you alone consent to try this mi
raculous white liquid?'
Il have not called it miraculous" re-
turned Gerald, coldly. THAT is an
adjective of your own coming"
BAH exclaimed Clyde, springing
from the chair in which he sat and let
ting hand fall upon his companlons
arm. You mustn't rebuff me like that.
dear boy. Recollect I'm immensely
with you
'.Ah. know it know it but too
WE'LL" the tears visibly shining in his
Il simply want to pay my fathers
grand idea flor it now seems to me
grand, whether it prove futile or no.
certain kind of allegiance. To try the
elixir on some drowned person would
be precisely what he might, if now
alive, desire and commend. suicide?
you will ask. Yes, a suicide, answer,
and one who has sought self-murder
through drowning. For, as the manu-
script affirms, in the frame of one who
has attempted death by drowning there
will more probably be no organic lesion.
Hence the drug, if effective at all, will
secure it's chief chance of acting at its
best in one who has died this particular
DEATH
Gerald had thus spoken with his
friend only single day preceding the
conversation held between Sylvan and
himself, as recorded, at the bedside of
the latter. All was soon arranged. DIR.
Clyde pulled certain secret professional
wires lin certain ways empowered to do
SO by his position at Bellevue) and on a
certain morning Gerald woke in expec-
tation that the evening would come to
him packed with a prodigious fatality.
His liquid had been perfected, and he
felt certain that even the faintest error
had not crept into its composition. The
tall flask that held it stood on a shelf in
his laboratory. He had discharged his
assistant; the work, for good or evil,
for success or failure, was finished at
last. He scarcely ate a morSel during
the day, and when the darkness of
an autumn evening fell blandly upon
the huge town, he sought the room
which had witnessed his earnest toll,
lit three or four gas-jets, and strove to
engage himself with a book during the
hours that must elapse between then
and the time at which the corpse would
be brought him.
But reading was impossible. He felt |
greatly excited, and yet his nerves were
firm as steel. He had prepared long,
solid table for the reception of the body
when it should appear At intervals he
fixed his gaze upon the dusky and pol
ished surface close at hand. What |
would it presently reveal? Would the |
body be that of man or woman? Had |
he done wrong in requesting Clyde not |
to come? Might not the utter solitude |
which he had proposed to himself as a |
sort of tribute due to the immense seri- |
BUSINESS of his fathers attempt, prove |
sterner than his endurance could meet? |
Just beyond the chamber in which he |
now sat were two others belonging to |
himself. His landlady, kind though |
rather stupid person, had been made |
aware of the strange, dumb guest that |
would arrive at midnight, or little
later; but she had also been led to be-
lieve that perhaps purposes of anatom-
ic dissection were alone the cause of SO
odd an event. The other dodgers in the
house We're quiet folk who would most
probably be fast asleep in their beds by
the time the whole eerie thing occurred.
And SO, restless yet placid, Gerald
waited. Through his open window the
voices of the great darkened city stole.
Every separate noise, from the rattle of
a passing carriage to the far boom of a
steamboat on one of the rivers, clad
itself with audible language. In the
next room there was large clock,
whose tickings had never troubled him
till now. But now they seemed to
vacillate, as it were, between two
spoken sentences-''what a fool and
''wait and see" Finally, though an
noyed at his own weakness, Gerald |
rose, went into that adjoining room,
and stopped the clock.
But he looked at its hands before he
did so. How the time dragged! There