CHAPTER V
FACING THE UNSEEN WORLD
“MY LORD,” said Professor X, speaking with the solemnity of a great physician, “do not forget that in carrying out your singular wish I agree to do so only out of necessity.”
The strange tone and the look which accompanied it made Lord Ewald start. A slight tremor of premonition passed over him. He glanced keenly at his host, wondering if he was in possession of his faculties. for the words that he had just uttered passed all intelligence.
But, in spite of this feeling, an irresistible magnetism had come from the professor’s last words. The young Englishman had a presentiment of an imminent miracle.
Taking his gaze from the inventor’s face, his glance traveled over the various objects strewn about. Under the brilliant light given off by the lamps these marvels of scientific discovery assumed disturbing configurations. The laboratory took on the appearance of a magic grotto.
Lord Ewald was aware that most of his host’s discoveries were still unknown to the world. The professor’s real character, constantly paradoxical to his reputation, surrounded him, in Lord Ewald’s eyes, with an intellectual halo, as he stood in the center of the wonders to which he belonged. To the young guest his host was like the inhabitant of a superelectrical, a supernatural, realm.
After a few moments he felt himself won over by a blending of sentiments, curiosity and amazement, and with these there was a new feeling, a new hope. The vitality of his being was augmented.
“You seem amazed,” the professor remarked. “It is merely a matter of trans-substantiation. I have already made some tests, and I am well satisfied witlymy experiments so far.”
He paused a moment, and then demanded brusquely:
“Do you accept the proposition?”
“Are you speaking seriously?”Lord Ewald countered.
“Certainly!”
“Then I’ll give you carte blanche,” said Lord Ewald, with a sad little smile, which was, however, already a trifle worldly.
“Very well,” said the professor, glancing at the electric clock which hung over the door, “I will commence, then, for time- is precious, and I need three weeks.
“It is now eight thirty-five. Twenty-one days from now, at this same hour, Alicia Cleary will stand before you, not only transformed, not merely a delightful companion, with a mind of the highest intellectual type, but reclothed in a phase of immortality.
“In fact, this dazzling creature will no longer be a woman, but an angel—not only a woman, but the beloved—not the cold Reality, but the Ideal.”
“What an extraordinary statement!”his lordship exclaimed.
“Oh, I will show you how it will be brought about,” said the professor. “The result will be so marvelous in itself that the apparent disillusions of its scientific analysis will fade away before the sudden and profound splendor of the achievement.
“So, if only to reassure you that I am absolutely sane, and that I am in full possession of my faculties, for I can see from your look that you have your doubts upon this matter, I will take you into my secret this very evening.
“But we must get back to work right now. Where is Miss Cleary now?”
“At the opera.”
“What is the number of her box?”
“Number seven.”
“Did you tell her that you were coming down here to see me alone this evening?”
“No. It would have been of such small interest to her that I did not think it necessary.”
“Has she ever heard of my name?”
“Perhaps, but she would have forgotten it.”
“So much the better—that is important.”
While he was speaking the professor walked over to the phonograph, which was connected to the telephone. Glancing for a moment at the record, he adjusted the needle to a certain spot and started the instrument.
“Are you there, Martin?” the instrument cried out with the professor’s voice.
There was no reply.
“I bet the rogue has thrown himself down on my lounge and gone to sleep,” remarked the scientist, smilingly.
Shutting off the machine, he took up the receiver of a perfected microphone, adjusted it to the ear, and observed:
“Ah, it is just as I thought. He has had his nightcap and has gone to sleep. He is snoring loudly enough.”
“Where is this person to whom you wish to speak?”inquired Lord Ewald.
“He is in my office in the city—about twenty-five miles from here.”
“And you can hear a person snoring at that distance?”
“If he snored like this fellow,” said the professor, laughing, “I could hear him at the North Pole. Strange, isn’t it? If you were to tell a fairy story like that to a child, it would say: ‘That is impossible,’ and yet it is possible.
“In the near future, no one will be astonished to hear voices and sound from a great distance. I predict this. Now, I am going to give this fellow something that will tickle him.”
As he spoke, he applied the hooded mouthpiece of another piece of apparatus to the transmitter of the telephone.
“Let us hope that this won’t scare the horses on the street,” he muttered as he set it in motion.
“Are you there, Martin?” the instrument shouted.
A few seconds later there was heard the deep voice which had spoken to the professor some time before, but which now was startled and evidently coming from a man who had been suddenly awakened from a sound sleep. The tones seemed to come from out the hat which Lord Ewald held m his hand, which had by chance come in contact with a condensator that was suspended near by.
“What is wrong?”cried the voice. “Is there a fire?”
“There!” exclaimed the professor. “I got him to his feet quick enough.”
Then, going over to the telephone into which he had spoken before, he said:
“Don’t be alarmed, Martin; just a false alarm to awaken you. The warning is only set at eighteen degrees. I am sending you a message which I want you to get off at once by hand.”
“Very well, sir. I am ready.”
The professor tapped off a message in code on the dial plate of a Morse instrument.
“Have you read it?” he asked.
“Yes, sir,” the voice answered. “I’ll take it myself.”
Whether by accident or by a jocular design on the part of the inventor, who had placed his hand on the central control of the laboratory, the voice appeared to rebound from corner to corner on all sides of the immense room. It appeared as if a dozen individuals, faithful echoes of one another, were all speaking at the same time.
“And, Martin,” added the professor, “let me have the reply quickly.
“That is settled,” he said, turning round to face Lord Ewald. “All goes well.”
Then his whole manner changed. He looked at the young man fixedly, and, in a tone that was impressive, he declared:
“My lord, I now have to inform you that we are going to leave the domains of normal life. Together we are to enter a world of phenomena which are as unusual as they are impressive.
“I will endeavor to present you with a key to the riddle. At first we are going to verify—nothing more. You are going to be shown a being, a vision of indefinite mentality. Although her aspect will be familiar, the sight of this being will be enough to give you a great shock.
“You will run no physical risks. However, I feel that it is my duty to warn you that you will need all your coolness, and perhaps much courage, to support you at the first sight of the marvel.”
Lord Ewald regarded the scientist closely, hesitatingly. Then, after a brief pause, he replied:
“Thanks for your warning. I hope that I shall be able to control myself. Let us proceed.”
The professor now became very energetic. Going over to the big French windows, he closed them, drawing together the inside shutters and fastening them securely. He then crossed hurriedly tp the door leading from the laboratory and pushed the bolt.
This done, he closed the switch of a danger signal which flashed an intense red light above the laboratory, giving warning to those at a distance that a dangerous experiment was being conducted, and that any one who came near the laboratory was doing so at the risk of his life.
Raising a lever, he disconnected all of the micro-telephonic inductors, with the exception of the call bell, which connected the laboratory with the city office.
“Now,” said the scientist, “we are almost cut off from the world of the living.”
Seating himself at his table full of telegraphic apparatus, he began to arrange several wires with his left hand while with his right he seemed to be tracing some strange characters, his lips moving constantly, as if he were murmuring some weird incantation.
“Haven’t you a picture of Miss Cleary on you?” he asked, continuing to write.
“Oh, yes,” replied Lord Ewald. “I forgot. I might have shown it to you.”
Taking a small picture from his pocket, he handed it to the professor, saying:
“Here she is—in all her statuesque beauty. Look and see for yourself that I have not exaggerated.”
The professor took the photograph and looked at it.
“She is marvelous!” he exclaimed. “Here certainly is the famous Venus of the sculptor. The resemblance is amazing. You are quite right, she is the Venus de Milo come to life.”
He turned and touched the regulator of a battery near at hand. Immediately there was a flash, as a naming electrical arc jumped across the huge points of a double wire of platinum. With a sizzling crackle it flickered for several seconds, as though it were searching on all sides for a means of escape. .
A blue wire, one end of which was grounded, was near by. The questing arc seized upon it and disappeared.
An instant later a somber, rumbling noise was heard underneath the feet of the two men. It rolled onward, as though it were coming from the bowels of the earth, or indeed from the profound depths of an abyss. One might have thought that ghostly phantoms were shattering a glacial sepulcher and dragging its long-lost occupant back to the surface of the earth.
The scientist, still holding in his hand the photograph, had his eyes fixed on a point in the wall at the other end of the laboratory. His attitude was tense.
The noise, which had continued to ascend to crescendo, suddenly, ceased.
The hand of the master engineer pressed an ebony lever on the table.
“Hadaly!” he called, as if he were summoning some one to appear from the spirit world.