Evening star., 1922-02-19

or murder We had not been the best
of friends was a teacher of chemistry
In a high school, while he was famous
physicist and research worker. Perhaps
the fact that We pursued kindred bents
fostered the rift between us. At all
events, / disliked him actively. and he
affected to treat me with disdain and
contempt.
You remember. of course. the way IN
which James Nevill departed this world.
He was found in his laboratory. terribly
choked and mangled. Attached to the
event was an element of mystery which
aroused not only Chicago. but the entire
country. I am about to explain his
death for the first time, though with no
hope that any one will believe me-yet.
Some day. perhaps. they will do SO.
In brief, his housekeeper and the police
found the body of James in lis iabora-
tory, which was securely fastened from
the inside. He had constructed this lab
oratory on the north side Of the city,
near the lake. The walls were unbroken
to a height of ten feet. For five feet
further there were windows. in con-
tinuous line around the room. ingeni-
ously operated from below. Over the
room was a skylight. Whoever hao
been in the room must have left by
window-and yet no man could nave
reached one Of those windows from the
floor without piling up stools and other
things In such way that they would
have remained to betray his exit. The {
was nothing of the sort. The workbench
was bolted to the floor in the center OF
tne large room. How my cousin had
come to his terrible end-an end all too
plainly at the hands of an assassin
was the mystery, and a mystery it has
remained to this day.
1 succeeded to Ralph's estate, which
was considerable, and for the first time
in my life found myself in position to
do some research work on my own ac-
count. Upon the day after the funeral !
entered the laboratory and my first
thought was naturally one of inquiry as
to what line of work my cousin had
been engaged upon when he passed
away.
THE laboratory. a room thirty feet
square, was the essence of neatness.
Although it was crowded with every sort
of machine and apparatus. the place
was neat as a pin. Everything was in
order. A scratch pad attached to the
workbench showed the last notes of my
cousin.
All about the place I found growing
things The more I investigated the
more my curiosity and amazement was
whetted. Here was a row Of plant or
ganisms in various stages; here were a
few Of the living cultures which my
cousin had created. and whose creation
had brought him fame. Here was a
graduated system Of life. in fact. rang
ing from amoeba to three large rats in a
cage.
Those rats! I can see the brutes yet.
Rats? No: monsters! When I looked
into that cage I was nauseated. Those
rats, all three of them. possessed human
hands!
This is not quite correct Their fore
feet were, in effect, shaped like the fore
feet Of monkey, but the resemblance
to human hands was enough to turn my
stomach. Within ten minutes I had
painlessly killed those rats. Yes. con-
fess it! I am not enough Of devotee
of science to plunge Into maelstrom Of
fearful and horrible .facts-facts like
those which prevailed in the laboratory
of my dead cousin.
Still shaken, carefully inspected the
whole system of living organisms. of
which the rats had formed the only ami
NAL representatives. Now 1 discovered
that every single specimen was in some
Hay abnormal. went farther: l
stayed in that room until midnight, ex-
amining these specimens and the rows
upon rows of bacterial cultures. In
these latter. even, found strong evil
dences of awful tampering.
Worn out by all this, my nerves on
edge from the tension under which had
labored, finally did the obvious thing
examined the scratch pad on the work
bench, together with a few crumpled
sheets retrieved from the waste basket.
I found nothing coherent, but from dis
jointed notes 1 made out the following
data: James Nevin had been working
along the lines of cellular energy; more
particularly upon the possibility Of
TRANSMISSION of such energy. A note
upon bony tissues indicated that he had
found this subject hopeless at present,
but It was apparent that he had been
more successful with certain transfu-
sions of living cells from one host to
another. Among his papers I found
nothing to give further light on all this
except a receipted bill, dated nearly a
year previously. This bill showed that
ne had purchased two small monkeys
The only trace of those monkeys now
evident in his laboratory was in the rat
cage.
UNFORTUNATELY for science, per-
faps. I have no flair for this sort of
work. To meddle with the ways Of
creation is not. to my mind, research
work; it is blasphemy. Accordingly, 1
sealed up what notes I could find and
stored them away. The outfit of living
organisms and cell cultures. which
would have required constant c.re. I
destroyed, although did make notes of
my own upon each individual case, seal
ing these with my cousins papers.
These labors carried me far through
the night. 1t was night of horror to
me, yet the work of destruction had to
be done 1t was perhaps an hour before
dawn when had finished. To restore
my nerves 1 lighted cigarette and ap-
preached the one thing in the place
which / had not yet examined-a small.
square packing case wilich stood in one
corner. 1t was marked 'Phonograph ;
Handle With Care" I wondered, nat
lrally what on earth my cousin had