The age-herald., 1901-12-01
THE ELIXIR OF LIFE.

"Ii want you to look up an old Russian scientist who is living in remote Sus- sex village" Sir Edward said. He Is suspected by his government of all kinds of queer things and I should like to know what he is doing over here"
 Do you think he is plotting against us2" I asked.
 ''I do not know what to think. He is a queer character, that is certain, and it is just as well to know what he is about He is a very learned man and devoted to science. He has helped the Nihilists more than once by his clever inventions, but I am not in a position to say that he has adopted their principles. His work takes money and 1t may have been q question of being handsomely paid; he has the reputation of a miser. If he is really scientist, pure and simple. and nothing more. he may go his own way but that is what I want you to find out for me"
 I went down to Sussex that same night and I discovered the retreat of the old Russian-but the nest was cold the bird had flown. Whether he really was a dangerous political person l shall never know, but he had evidently had some reason for going in great haste, for his personal belongings, including even some papers, were scattered all over the place. The following strange story was one of the documents he left behind him, and it has led me to think that within him science came first, though to satisfy it's demands he may have sold his talents to the highest bidder.
 The document was written in a clear e.. n,r1f f,R1 1kp preserved. I took it up carelessly but I was soon reading the contents with the greatest eagerness
 , ''The great ambition of alchemists of all times has been to discover the un known. The modern worker in science, in spite of repeated failures, still strives, as his predecessors did, to solve the rid dle of Life and Death; to prolong the one and to conquer the other. In short. to produce the magic Elixir Vitae. The man who eventually shall learn this won derful secret will be worshipped as god and his power will exceed that of any monarch who has ever reigned.
 After years of toil long days and nights spent over my stills, retorts, and other appliances, in making myself fla miliar with the hidden knowledge of the old world and the new, I had at length m ade a preparation of which I hoped and expected great things. Then I looked round for a suitable subject for experi- ment. Fate. laughing in her sleeve, put what seemed just what I wanted in my way when had almost begun to despair of finding it.
 q was walking one winter evening up and down outside my house for exercise, for l had been sitting at work all day, when, by the light of crescent moon, I saw something dark lying little ahead of me on the rough, chalky road. It was an old man. who looked like a tramp judging from his wretched appearance He was lying face downward, as though he had fallen from exhaustion, and when I turned him over he was quite uncon- scicus. I felt his pulse: it was beating faintly, but probably the cold and ex- posture would have stilled it before morn ing had I left him lying there.
 ''The day came when I wished that I had.
 As I stood looking down on him, the thought of my waiting Elixir came to me. It was never long absent from my mind. thrilled at what 1t suggested and bent over him, trembling with eagerness. Here, surely, was the very subject I re :. quired! A piece of human wreckage with out a doubt, who had no one to trouble about him, or he would not be lying out on the moors to die of neglect. I might safely take him; was he not mine? Mine by the right of rescue. If he lived he owed 1t to me; therefore, I had the first claim on his life. It might appear to be taking an unfair advantage of an unconscious man. but why should he object? Was not offering him youth and health ir exchange for misery and de- cay?
 I looked around cautiously, but there T . lonely spot; not a sound broke the silence l took the unconscious figure under the arms and dragged 1t slowly and laborious- ly to the house. He mus. have been