The age-herald., 1901-12-01
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.. BY DEREK vANE. =.

terrible may be the power of the accumu- lated knowledge and evil of years when given fresh life in a young body. That is what made this man different from other men. His brain, too, was the brain of age-if 1t had not always been feeble his intellect dull and slow the animal side of his nature was fully developed with no heart or mind to keep it in check Frankeinsteins monster had no such horror as this. My Elixir Vitae was only half a success. To make length of years desirable in most cases the mind must be newly created as well as the body.
 Meanwhile, I had this existence on my hands.
 Fortunately my will was strong enough as yet to control him; he might snarl and show his teeth but at a look from me he would slink away like a whipped cur, though the next hour 1t would all happen over again. I was his master yet, but how long should be so? I was no match for him physically; 1t was only the greater mind that swayed the lower Perhaps. being my creation, he was in A way my creature and gave me some thing of a dogs obedience. But he was a vicous brute, not to be trusted mo- ment when my eye was off him At any instant, If l gave him the chance, he might turn and rend me.
 I could discover nothing about him. not even his name. There had been no papers on him. or anything to betrav his identity, and he either could not or would not give me the slightest informa- ton. Only from his manner of speaking and from his habits and ways I inferred that he had been born and bred in the upper classes, and l imagined that he had reduced himself to the condition in which I found him by a long course of dissipation. if not of crime think his memory was to a great extent a blank, though, as a result of his former existence, his every thought and act were instinctively evil. The life I had re- newed for him would be merely a con tinuance of what it had been when he fell senseless at my door, only far worse by reason of the fresh youth and vigour he could put in it.
 1 did not wish anyone in the village to see him and I had kept him shut up for two days, only leaving the house with him at night, when he roamed over the desolate moors like a young animal set at liberty, and I followed, faint and exhausted, but not daring to let him out of my sight Then he grew more fierce and restless and the strain on my physical strength was almost more than I could bear. Something must be done; I could not go on like this I lay awake all one night thinking and by morning l had made up my mind. We would go to London. In the great city l might be able to loose the horrible incubus I had rashly fastened on my life chance might rid me of him without any active assistance on my part. Then l could return to my solitude and when l had prepared fresh supply of the Elixir I would anonunce my discov- cry to the world.
 l hired small furnished house in Edg- were Road, close to the Marble Arch, and l established myself there with my con- papion l hinted that be was not very strong in his intellect, which would ac- count for his burst; of noisy merriment and other eccentricities. relics of the lat ter end of his old life when he must have fallen very low. He had been quite willing i.r in with my nlans, and as I had engaged a compartment tn ourselves ir the train. we had been scarcely seen to- gether until we reached Lcndon Then, partly from cnriosity-for he interested me still as en experimert-and partly from fear, I kept him close to my si6e at first.
 The evening we arrived I took him out into the brillia,;tly-liShted streets of the West End. 1 shal. never forget his face. Fortunately, he was too overwhelmed to say much or to mako himself conspicuous, ''e ebS iiSil ifl HIS eyes was I'laL or exile who lcoks on honie again. He St emed 10 recognize things instinctively no doubt all tlis had been familiar ia him long aga. He revelled Tn the noise. the glare. in sll tha wealth and profu- sicn. in all the dirt and degradation of the London streets. Nc sight was too sordi., to interest him, no misery too great to move him to brutal laughter. He mixed in the crowd like a fiend, rejoicing in everything evil
 In a few days I gathered confidence. I let him go out alone when and where he would. I had come away in the hone of shaking him off I must not lose any chance through foolish nervousness I could not be made responsible for him in any way. But, though he might be absent all day and until late into the night. he always returned before morn- ing. l would lie awake listening hop ing that this time he had gone for good
 but sooner or later, I would hear his hateful steps on the stairs. The very sight of him was becoming repellent to me an we rarely exchanged a word I wondered why he came back so persist ently, whether he saw that I was eager to be rid of him and so-full, as he was of a mocking malice-he chung the closer? Or whether, where I was, repre- sented home to him? It might be that the part had played toward him crea- ted bond between us, to which he un- consciously yielded.
 l hesitated at taking the last step, at making my own escape and deliberately deserting him. Besides, I had an un- comfortable presentiment that he would track me out wherever I went.
 Matters were in this state when one night he returned earlier than usual I was still downstairs reading. He opened the door noisily, lurched across the room, and flung himself down in a chair. I looked up. Had he been drinking? It was no uncommon thing for him to come home in a state of wild exhilaration, though I had never known him to lose control of himself It seemed as though his magnificent strength could cope with any excess. I met his eyes fixed on me with lowering, evil look: the look of creature who hates yet fears.
 l gazed back at him steadily. There