being violent melancholy and depression followed by a terrible
heart-rending longing for Earth. During this stage, at which the
patient undergoes great mental suffering, the optical nerves usually
become affected and everything appears upside down, as if the sufferer
were looking through a lens. It becomes necessary to take large doses
of _Siltagol_, otherwise brain fever may develop.
At the end of two days the sickness left Ralph, but it left him worn
and exhausted physically and he was subject to terrible fits of
depression. At these times the boundless space about him appalled him,
weighing him down with its infinite immensity. The awful stillness
crushed him. Everything seemed dead--dead as was that silent motionless
figure that had been a living laughing creature who had loved him--it
seemed so long ago.
He felt that Nature herself was punishing him for his daring assault
upon her dominions. He had presumed to set the laws of Life and Death
at variance, and this was the penalty, this living death, shut in with
the living dead.
At such times a madness of fear and despair would grip him. He would
fling himself down at Alice's side, his face buried in her cold inert
hand, and sob like a child in his loneliness and agony of spirit.
When this had passed he would return to his state of lethargy, sitting
hours at a time staring moodily at the floor. Gaunt, hollow-eyed and
listless, he seemed more mad than sane.
And yet, the tremendous will-power of the man came into evidence when,
within forty-eight hours' distance of Earth he threw off his blinding
lethargy, and made himself ready, mentally and physically, for his last
fight for Alice's life.
He had drawn close enough to Earth now to use the Radio apparatus,
and soon he was in hourly communication with his laboratory. He gave
his instructions clearly and definitely, and he soon had assurance
that everything that could possibly be done for the dead girl had been
carefully arranged.
Ralph's flyer landed on top of his tower sixty-nine days after his
departure. He was greatly impressed at the sight of the flags of the
city at half mast. The town itself was very still. There were no
aeroflyers, no vehicles in motion in the streets. Business was at a
standstill for ten minutes after Ralph landed. Thus the world expressed
its deep sympathy.
Within a few minutes Alice had been placed on an operating table in
Ralph's laboratory, and 16K 5+, the world's greatest surgeon, who had
been summoned, was in readiness. Ralph was placed on an operating table
to the right of Alice. To the left lay Cléose, a beloved cousin of
Alice.
In a few seconds Alice's arteries had been opened and the Radium-K
Bromide solution was drawn off. A quantity of warm, distilled water,
containing antiseptic salts was then pumped through her blood vessels
by two assistants. During this time the surgeon had opened the large
arteries of both Ralph and Cléose, and had introduced a flexible glass
tube into each. In a short time the blood of Ralph and Cléose began
flowing rapidly through these tubes into Alice's blood vessels.
Simultaneously a third assistant administered oxygen to Alice, while
a fourth commenced to excite her heart rhythmically by means of
electrical current.
The brain was stimulated energetically at the same time by means of the
powerful F-9-Rays, and while Ralph and Cléose grew paler and paler as
their blood flowed out into Alice's body, the latter began to acquire
color by degrees, though there was no other sign of life. After enough
blood had been taken from the two, the surgeon closed their arteries;
and, while Cléose had fainted during the ordeal, Ralph, weakened as he
was, remained conscious by sheer force of will.
The surgeon 16K 5+, asked Ralph if he did not think it would be better
for him to be removed to another room, but Ralph refused so vehemently,
despite his terribly depleted strength, that he was allowed to remain.
He asked to be raised slightly higher that he might watch the work of
restoring Alice to life, and this request too, was granted.
Almost two hours had passed since Alice had first been laid upon the
operating table, and still there was no sign of life. The suspense
became well-nigh unendurable, not only to Ralph, but to the workers as
well.
Was she lost after all?
Was he fated never to see her alive again?
The great surgeon and his assistants were working desperately. Every
conceivable means was used to revive the inanimate body, but all was
to no avail. As attempt after attempt failed the faces of the men grew
graver. A tense silence prevailed throughout the laboratory, broken
only by the surgeon's sharp low instructions from time to time.
It was then, when the tide of hope was at the lowest ebb, that Ralph
beckoned one of the assistants to his side. Though unable to speak
above a whisper, so weak was he, he managed with difficulty to convey
his meaning to the man, who sprang to the side of the surgeon and in a
low voice gave him Ralph's message.
Ralph had sent for a Hypnobioscope, the head pieces of which they
fastened to Alice's temples. They brought a number of rolls and from
them Ralph chose one of the world's most beautiful love stories.
It was the last trench in his desperate combat with Nature. It was the
supreme effort. It was the last throw of the dice in the game between
Science and Death, with a girl as the stakes.
Ralph knew that if the brain was at all alive to impressions, the
effect of the story would stimulate it to voluntary action.
As the reel unrolled, Ralph fixed his burning eyes on the closed ones
as though he would drive by the very force of his will the impressions
coming from the Hypnobioscope deep into her brain.
Then, while they watched, with bated breath, the slight body on the
operating table quivered almost imperceptibly, as the water of a still
pool is rippled by a passing zephyr. A moment later her breast rose
gently and fell again, and from the white lips came the suggestion of a
sigh.
When Ralph saw this, his strength returned to him, and he raised
himself, listening with throbbing heart to the soft breathing. His eyes
glowed with triumph. The battle was won. His face was transfigured. All
the agony, the heart-breaking foreboding of the past weeks passed from
him, and a great peace settled upon his soul.
The surgeon sprang to catch him as he dropped, unconscious.
* * * * *
About a week later Ralph was admitted by the nurse to the room where
Alice lay, regaining her strength. He was still weak, himself, from the
loss of blood. Alice had just awakened, and at his step, she turned her
lovely face eagerly toward him. Her cheeks were faintly tinged with the
delicate pink of the seashell, her eyes were bright with the soft glow
of health.
She beckoned to him smiling into his eyes, and he knelt down beside
her, taking her hands in his own, and holding them close. She moved
her lips and he bent his head close to them, so that her gentle breath
fanned his cheek.
"I can't talk very loud," she whispered. "My lungs and vocal chords are
not strong yet, but the nurse said I might speak just a few words. But
I wanted to tell you something."
"What is it, my darling?" he asked tenderly.
She looked at him with the old sparkle of mischief in her dark eyes.
"Dearest," she said, "I have just found out what your name really
means."
Ralph twined a little tendril of her hair around one of his fingers.
"Yes?" he asked with a quizzical smile.
"Well, you see," and the lovely color deepened to rose, "your name is
going to be my name now, so I keep saying it over to myself--"
"My darling
ONE TO FORESEE FOR ONE!"
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