PRISONERS.
Thus, then, were the tables turned upon us. We were locked up,
prisoners--actually the Sacred College, prisoners--in the House of Life
itself, and the Great Secret was probably by this time in the hands of
the Rebels, to whom the Arch Traitor had no doubt given it, as he had
proposed to do when we arrested him. Lost to us forever! What would
become of the College when the Great Mystery was lost to it? Where
would be its dignity? Where its authority?
The first question--we read it in each other's eyes without asking
it--was, however, not what would become of our authority, but of
ourselves. What were they going to do with us? They had killed the
unfortunate John Lax solely because he stood up manfully for the
College. What could we expect? Besides, we had fully intended to kill
the Rebels. Now we were penned up like fowls in a coop, altogether
at their mercy. Could one have believed that the Holy College, the
Source of Health, the Maintainer of Life, would ever have been driven
to its House, as to a prison, like a herd of swine to their sty; made
to run head over heels, tumbling over one another, without dignity
or self-respect; shoved, bundled, cuffed, and kicked into the House
of Life, and locked up, with the promise of instant Death to any who
should endeavor to escape? But did they mean to kill us? That was the
Question before us. Why should they not? We should have killed the
Arch Physician, had they suffered it; and now they had all the power.
I confess that the thought of this probability filled my mind with
so great a terror that the more I thought of it the more my teeth
chattered and my knees knocked together. Nay, the very tears--the
first since I was a little boy--came into my eyes in thinking that
I must abandon my Laboratory and all my Researches, almost at the
very moment when the Triumph of Science was well within my grasp, and
I was ready--nearly--to present Mankind at his last and best. But
at this juncture the Assistants showed by their behavior and their
carriage--now greatly wanting in respect--that they looked to us for
aid, and I hastily called together the remaining Fellows in the Inner
House.
We took our places and looked at each other in dismay which could not
be concealed.
"Brothers," I said, because they looked to me for speech, "it cannot
be denied that the Situation is full of Danger. Never before has the
College been in danger so imminent. At this very instant they may be
sending armed soldiers to murder us."
At this moment there happened to be a movement of many feet in the
nave, and it seemed as if the thing was actually upon us. I sat down,
pale and trembling. The others did the same. It was several minutes
before confidence was so far restored that we could speak coherently.
"We have lived so long," I said, "and we have known so long the
pleasure of Scientific Research, that the mere thought of Death fills
us with apprehensions that the common people cannot guess. Our superior
nature makes us doubly sensitive. Perhaps--let us hope--they may not
kill us--perhaps they may make demands upon us to which we can yield.
They will certainly turn us out of the College and House of Life and
install themselves, unless we find a way to turn the tables. But we may
buy our lives: we may even become their assistants. Our knowledge may
be placed at their disposal--"
"Yes, yes," they all agreed. "Life before everything. We will yield to
any conditions."
"The Great Secret has gone out of our keeping," I went on. "Dr.
Linister has probably communicated it to all alike. There goes the
whole Authority, the whole Mystery, of the College."
"We are ruined!" echoed the Fellows in dismay.
"Half a dozen of our Fellows have gone over, too. There is not now a
Secret, or a Scientific Discovery, or a Process, concerning Life, Food,
Health, or Disease, that they do not know as well as ourselves. And
they have all the Power. What will they do with it? What can we do to
get it out of their hands?"
Then began a Babel of suggestions and ideas. Unfortunately every plan
proposed involved the necessity of some one risking or losing his
life. In the old times, when there were always men risking and losing
their lives for some cause or other, I suppose there would have been
no difficulty at all. I had been accustomed to laugh at this foolish
sacrifice of one's self--since there is but one life--for pay, or for
the good of others. Now, however, I confess that we should have found
it most convenient if we could have persuaded some to risk--very likely
they would not actually have lost--their lives for the sake of the Holy
College. For instance, the first plan that occurred to us was this. We
numbered, even after the late defections, two hundred strong in the
College. This so-called "Army" of the Rebels could not be more than
seventy, counting the deserters from the College. Why should we not
break open the doors and sally forth, a hundred--two hundred--strong,
armed with weapons from the laboratory, provided with bottles of nitric
and sulphuric acid, and fall upon the Rebel army suddenly while they
were unprepared for us?
This plan so far carried me away that I called together the whole of
the College--Assistants, Bedells, and all--and laid it before them. I
pointed out that the overwhelming nature of the force we could hurl
upon the enemy would cause so great a terror to fall upon them that
they would instantly drop their arms and fly as fast as they could run,
when our men would have nothing more to do but to run after and kill
them.
The men looked at one another with doubtful eyes. Finally, one impudent
rascal said that as the Physicians themselves had most to lose, they
should themselves lead the assault. "We will follow the Suffragan and
the Fellows," he said.
I endeavored to make them understand that the most valuable lives
should always be preserved until the last. But in this I failed.
The idea, therefore, of a sortie in force had to be abandoned.
It was next proposed that we should dig a tunnel under the Public Hall
and blow up the Rebels with some of the old explosives. But to dig a
tunnel takes time, and then who would risk his life with the explosive?
It was further proposed to send out a deputation of two or three, who
should preach to the Rebels and point out the terrible consequences of
their continued mutiny. But this appeared impracticable, for the simple
reason that no one could be found to brave the threat of Captain Carera
of death to any who ventured out. Besides, it was pointed out, with
some reason, that if our messengers were suffered to reach the Rebels,
no one would be moved by the threats of helpless prisoners unable to
effect their own release. As for what was proposed to be done with
electricity, hand-grenades, dynamite, and so forth, I pass all that
over. In a word, we found that we could do nothing. We were prisoners.
Then an idea occurred to me. I remembered how, many years before, Dr.
Linister, who had always a mind full of resource and ingenuity, made
a discovery by means of which one man, armed with a single weapon
easy to carry, could annihilate a whole army. If war had continued in
the world, this weapon would have put an immediate stop to it. But
war ceased, and it was never used. Now, I thought, if I could find
that weapon or any account or drawing of its manufacture, I should be
able from the commanding height of the Tower, with my own hand, to
annihilate Dr. Linister and all his following.
I proceeded, with the assistance of the whole College, to hunt among
the volumes of Researches and Experiments. There were thousands of
them. We spent many days in the search. But we found it not. When we
were tired of the search we would climb up into the Tower and look out
upon the scene below, which was full of activity and bustle. Oh! if we
could only by simply pointing the weapon, only by pressing a knob, see
our enemies swiftly and suddenly overwhelmed by Death!
But we could not find that Discovery anywhere. There were whole rows of
volumes which consisted of nothing but indexes. But we could not find
it in any of them. And so this hope failed.
They did not kill us. Every day they opened the doors and called for
men to come forth and fetch food. But they did not kill us.
Yet the danger was ever present in our minds. After a week the College
resolved that, since one alone of the body knew the Great Secret,
that one being the most likely to be selected for execution if there
were any such step taken, it was expedient that the Secret should be
revealed to the whole College. I protested, but had to obey. To part
with that Secret was like parting with all my power. I was no longer
invested with the sanctity of one who held that Secret: the Suffragan
became a simple Fellow of the College: he was henceforth only one of
those who conducted Researches into Health and Food and the like.
This suspense and imprisonment lasted for three weeks. Then the
Rebels, as you shall hear, did the most wonderful and most unexpected
thing in the world. Why they did it, when they had the House of Life,
the College, and all in their own hands, and could have established
themselves there and done whatever they pleased with the People, I have
never been able to understand.