Part 47 (1/2)
Dr. Medjora raised the trap-door, which revealed the secret stairway, and started down. Mr. Barnes arose to follow him, saying:
”You are taking me to some secret apartment, Doctor. I will go with you, but this trap must be left open, and I warn you that I am armed.”
”You need no weapons, Mr. Barnes. No danger will threaten you. My purpose in taking you below is entirely different from what you have in your mind.”
At the foot of the stairway he turned aside from the crypt of aesculapius, and led the way into the secret chamber in which the hypnotic suggestion of love had been put into operation. At this time it appeared simply as an ordinary room, the staging and curtains having been removed.
”Be seated, Mr. Barnes,” said the Doctor, ”and listen to me. You are laboring under a misapprehension, or else you have not told me all that you know. A most curious suspicion has been aroused in your mind.
Upon what facts is it based?”
”Perhaps it will be best for me to explain. I must again refer to the fact that your first wife was supposed to have died of diphtheria.
Your second wife falls a victim to the same malady. It is uncommon in adults. This of itself might be but a coincidence. But when I know that, on a given day, I revealed to your wife the truth about Leon, which you had carefully hidden from her for so many years, and when I subsequently discover that Madame was attacked by this disease on the very night following her visit to my office, suspicion was inevitable.”
”As you insist upon going back to that old case, let me ask you how you can suppose that I induced the disease at that time?”
”Just as you have done now. By using the diphtheria bacillus.”
”You forget, or you do not know, that the bacillus of diphtheria was not discovered until Klebs found it in 1883, and the fact was not known until Loffler published it in 1884. Now my wife died in 1873.”
”True, these scientists made their discoveries at the time which you name, but I feel certain that you had antic.i.p.ated them. You are counted the most skilful man of the day, and I believe that you know more than has been learned by others.”
”Your compliment is a doubtful one. But I will not dispute with you. I will grant, for the sake of argument, that your suspicion is natural.
You cannot proceed against me merely upon suspicion. At least you should not do so.”
”My suspicion is shared by another, whose mind it has entered by a different channel.”
”Who is this other?”
”Your son!”
”What do you say? Leon suspects that I have committed a crime? This is terrible! But why? Why, in the name of heaven, should he harbor such a thought against me?” The Doctor was unusually excited.
”He saw you take the culture tube, containing the bacillus, out of the laboratory.”
”You say Leon saw me take a culture tube from the laboratory?” The Doctor spoke the words separately, with a pause between each, as though stung by the thought which they conveyed. Mr. Barnes merely nodded a.s.sent.
”Then the end is at hand!” muttered the Doctor, softly. ”All is ready for the final experiment!” Mr. Barnes did not comprehend the meaning of what he heard, but, as the Doctor walked about the room, back and forth, like a caged animal, seemingly oblivious of the fact that he was not alone, the detective thought it wise to observe him closely lest he might attack him unawares.
Presently the Doctor stopped before the detective, and thus addressed him, in calm tones:
”Mr. Barnes, you are shrewd and you are clever. You have guessed a part of the truth, and I have decided to tell you everything.”
”I warn you,” said Mr. Barnes, quickly, ”that what you say will be used against you.”
”I will take that risk!” The Doctor smiled, and an expression akin to weariness pa.s.sed over his countenance. ”You have said that, in your belief, as early as 1873, I knew of the bacillus of diphtheria, and that I inoculated my wife with it. You are right, but, nevertheless, you are mistaken when you say that she died from that malady. I must go further back, and tell you that the main source of my knowledge has been some very ancient hieroglyphical writings, which recorded what was known upon the subject by the priests of centuries ago. Much that is novel to-day, was very well understood in those times. The germ theory of disease was thoroughly worked out to a point far in advance of what has yet been accomplished in this era. The study required to translate and comprehend the cabalistic and hieroglyphical records has been very great, and it was essential that I should test each step experimentally. About the time of Mabel's death I had discovered the germ of diphtheria, but I found that my experiments with the lower animals were very unsatisfactory, owing to the fact that it does not affect them and human beings in a precisely similar manner. I therefore risked inoculating my wife.”
”That was a hideous thing to do,” ventured Mr. Barnes.
”From your standpoint, perhaps you are right. But I am a unique man, occupying a unique position in the world. To me alone was it given to resurrect the buried wisdom of the past. Even if I had known that the experiment might be attended by the death of my wife, whom I loved dearer than myself, I still would not have been deterred. Science transcended everything in my mind. Death must come to us all, and a few years difference in the time of its arrival is surely immaterial, and not to be weighed against the progress of scientific research. But I was confident that the disease, thus transmitted, would not prove fatal. That is, I was sure that I could effect a cure.”