Part 22 (1/2)

A hush of consternation fell upon those about the table.

”Your pet.i.tion,” said the Emperor, ”cannot be granted.”

”Then,” I said, speaking with studied emphasis, ”I cannot proceed with the work of extracting protium.”

An angry cloud gathered on the face of Eitel I. ”Herr von Armstadt,” he said, ”the t.i.tle and awards which have just been conferred upon you are irrevocable. But if you decline to perform the duties of your office those duties can be performed by others.”

”But others cannot perform them,” I replied. ”The demonstration I conducted was genuine, but the formulas I have given were not genuine.

The true formulas for my method of extracting protium are locked within my brain and I will reveal them only when the pet.i.tion I ask has been granted.”

At these words the Emperor pounded on the table with a heavy fist. ”What does this mean?” he demanded of the Chemical Staff.

”It is a lie,” shouted the Chief of the Staff. ”We have the formulas and they are correct, for we saw the demonstration conducted with the ingredients stated in the formulas which Armstadt gave us.”

”Very well,” I cried; ”go try your formulas; go repeat the demonstration, if you can.”

The Emperor, glaring his rage, punched savagely at a signal b.u.t.ton on the arm of his chair.

Two palace guards answered the summons. ”Arrest this man,” shouted His Majesty, ”and keep him in close confinement; permit him to see no one.”

Without further ado I was led off by the guards, while the Emperor shouted imprecations at the Chemical Staff.

~2~

The place to which I was conducted was a suite of rooms in a remote corner of the Royal Palace. There was a large bedroom and bath, and a luxurious study or lounging room. Here I found a case of books, which proved to be novels bearing the imprint of the Royal Level.

Despite the comfortable surroundings, it was evident that I was securely imprisoned, for the door was of metal, the ventilating gratings were long narrow slits, and the walls were of heavy concrete--and there being no windows, no bars were needed. Any living apartment in the city would have served equally well the jailor's purpose; for it were only necessary to turn a key from without to make of it a cell in this gigantic prison of Berlin.

The regular appearance of my meals by mechanical carrier was the only way I had to reckon the pa.s.sing of time, for it had chanced that I had forgotten my watch when dressing for the audience with His Majesty. I wrestled with unmeasured time by perusing the novels which gave me fragmentary pictures of the social life on the Royal Level.

As I turned over the situation in my mind I rea.s.sured myself that the secrecy of my formulas was impregnable. The discovery of the process had been rendered possible by knowledge I had brought with me from the outer world. The reagents that I had used were synthetic substances, the very existence of which was unknown to the Germans. I had previously prepared these compounds and had used and completely destroyed them in making the demonstration, while I had taken pains to remove all traces of their preparation. Hence I had little to fear of the Chemical Staff duplicating my work, though doubtless they were making desperate efforts to do so, and my imprisonment was very evidently for the purpose of permitting them to make that effort.

On that score I felt that I had played my cards well, but there were other thoughts that troubled me, chief of which was a fear that some investigation might be set on foot in regard to Marguerite and that her guardians.h.i.+p of the library of forbidden books might be discovered. With this worry to torment me, the hours dragged slowly enough.

I had been some five days in this solitary confinement when the door opened and a man entered. He wore the uniform of a physician and introduced himself as Dr. Boehm, explaining that he had been sent by His Majesty to look after my health. The idea rather amused me; at least, I thought, the Emperor had decided that the secrets of my brain were well worth preservation, and I reasoned that this was evidence that the Chemical Staff had made an effort to duplicate my work and had reported their failure to do so.

The doctor made what seemed to me a rather perfunctory physical examination, which included a very minute inspection of my eyes. Then he put me through a series of psychological test queries. When he had finished he sighed deeply and said: ”I am sorry to find that you are suffering from a disturbed balance of the altruistic and the egotistic cortical impulses; it is doubtless due to the intensive demands made upon the creative potential before you were completely recovered from the sub-normal psychosis due to the gas attack in the potash mines.”

This diagnosis impressed me as a palpable fraud, but I became genuinely alarmed at the mention of the affair at the potash mines. I was somewhat rea.s.sured at the thought that this reference was probably a part of the record of Karl Armstadt, which was doubtless on file at the medical headquarters, and had been looked up by Dr. Boehm who was in need of making out a plausible case for some purpose--perhaps that of confining me permanently on the grounds of insanity. Whatever might be the move on foot it was clearly essential for me to keep myself cool and well in hand.

The doctor, after eyeing me calmly for a few moments, said: ”It will be necessary for me to go out for a time and secure apparatus for a more searching examination. Meanwhile be a.s.sured you will not be further neglected. In fact, I shall arrange for the time to share your apartment with you, as loneliness will aggravate your derangement.”

In a few hours the doctor returned. He brought with him a complicated-looking apparatus and was followed by two attendants carrying a bed.

The doctor pushed the apparatus into the corner, and, after seeing his bed installed in my sleeping chamber, dismissed the attendants and sat down and began to entertain me with accounts of various cases of mental derangement that had come under his care. So far as I could determine his object, if he had any other than killing time, it was to impress me with the importance of submitting graciously to his care.

Tiring of these stories of the doctor's professional successes with meek and trusting patients, I took the management of the conversation into my own hands.

”Since you are a psychic expert, Dr. Boehm, perhaps you can explain to me the mental processes that cause a man to prize a large bank credit when there is positively no legal way in which he can expend the credit.”