Roger Seaton was a man of many philosophies. He had one for every day
in the week, yet none wherewith to thoroughly satisfy himself. While
still a mere lad he had taken to the study of science as a duck takes
to water,--no new discovery or even suggestion of a new discovery
missed his instant and close attention. His avidity for learning was
insatiable,--his intense and insistent curiosity on all matters of
chemistry gave a knife-like edge to the quality of his brain, making it
sharp, brilliant and incisive. To him the ordinary social and political
interests of the world were simply absurd. The idea that the greater
majority of men should be created for no higher purpose than those of
an insect, just to live, eat, breed, and die, was to him preposterous.
"Think of it!" he would exclaim--"All this wondrous organisation of our
planet for THAT! For a biped so stupid as to see nothing in his
surroundings but conveniences for satisfying his stomach and his
passions! We men are educated chiefly in order to learn how to make
money, and all we can do with the money WHEN made, is to build houses
to live in, eat as much as we want and more, and breed children to whom
we leave all the stuff we have earned, and who either waste it or add
to it, whichever suits their selfishness best. Such lives are
absolutely useless,--they repeat the same old round, leading nowhere.
Occasionally, in the course of centuries a real Brain is born--and at
once, all who are merely Bodies leap up against it, like famished
wolves, striving to tear it to pieces and devour it--if it survives the
attack its worth is only recognised long after its owner has perished.
The whole scheme is manifestly unintelligent and ludicrous, but it is
not intended to be so--of that I am sure. THERE MUST BE SOMETHING ELSE!"
When urged to explain what he conceived as this "something else," he
would answer--
"There has always been 'something else' in our environment,--something
that stupid humanity has taken centuries to discover. Sound-waves for
example--light-rays,--electricity--these have been freely at our
service from the beginning. Electricity might have been used ages ago,
had not dull-witted man refused to find anything better for lighting
purposes than an oil-lamp or a tallow candle! If, in past periods, he
had been told 'there is something else'--he would have laughed his
informant to scorn. So with our blundering methods of living--'there is
something else'--not after death, but NOW and HERE. We are going about
in the darkness with a candle when a great force of wider light is all
round us, only awaiting connection and application to our uses."
Those who heard him speak in this way--(and they were few, for Seaton
seldom discussed his theories with others)--convinced themselves that
he was either a fool or a madman,--the usual verdict given for any
human being who dares break away from convention and adopt an original
line of thought and action. But they came to the conclusion that as he
was direfully poor, and nevertheless refused various opportunities of
making money, his folly or his madness would be brought home to him
sooner or later by strong necessity, and that he would then either
arrive at a sane every-day realisation of "things as they are"--or else
be put away in an asylum and quietly forgotten. This being the
sagacious opinion of those who knew him best, there was a considerable
flutter in such limited American circles as call themselves "upper"
when the wealthiest young woman in the States, Morgana Royal, suddenly
elected to know him and to bring him into prominent notice at her
parties as "the most wonderful genius of the time"--"a man whose
scientific discoveries might change the very face of the globe"--and
other fantastically exaggerated descriptions of her own which he
himself strongly repudiated and resented. Gossip ran amok concerning
the two, and it was generally agreed that if the "madman" of science
were to become the husband of a woman multi-millionaire, he would not
have to be considered so mad after all! But the expected romance did
not materialise,--there came apparently a gradual "cooling off" in the
sentiments of both parties concerned,--and though Roger Seaton was
still occasionally seen with Morgana in her automobile, in her
opera-box, or at her receptions, his appearances were fewer, and other
men, in fact many other men, were more openly encouraged and
flattered,--Morgana herself showing as much indifference towards him as
she had at first shown interest. When, therefore, he suddenly left the
social scene of action, his acquaintances surmised that he had got an
abrupt dismissal, or as they more brusquely expressed it--"the game's
up"!
"He's lost his chance!" they said, shaking their heads forlornly--"And
he's poorer than Job! He'll be selling newspapers in the cars for a
living by and by!"
However, he was never met engaged in this lucrative way of
business,--he simply turned his back on everybody, Morgana Royal
included, and so far as "society" was concerned, just disappeared. In
the "hut of the dying" on that lonely hill-slope in California he was
happy, feeling a relief from infinite boredom, and thankful to be
alone. He had much to think about and much to do--inhabited places and
the movement of people were to him tedious and fatiguing, and he
decided that nature,--wild nature in a solitary and savage
aspect,--would suit his speculative and creative tendencies best. Yet,
like all human beings, he had his odd, almost child-like moods,
inexplicable even to himself--moods illogical, almost pettish, and
wholly incongruous with his own accepted principles of reasoning. For
instance, he maintained that women had neither attraction nor interest
for him--yet he found himself singularly displeased when after two or
three days of utter solitude, and when he was rather eagerly expecting
Manella to arrive with the new milk which was his staple food, a lanky,
red-haired ugly boy appeared instead of her--a boy who slouched along,
swinging the milk pail in one hand and clutching a half-munched slice
of pine-apple in the other.
"Hello--o!" called this individual. "Not dead yet?"
For answer Seaton strode forward and taking the milk-pail from him
gripped him by the dirty cotton shirt and gave him a brief but severe
shaking.
"No,--not dead yet!" he said--"You insolent young monkey! Who are you?"
The boy wriggled in his captor's clutch, and tried to squirm himself
out of it.
"I'm--I'm Jake--they calls me Irish Jake"--he gasped--"O Blessed
Mary!--my breath! I clean the knives at the Plaza--"
"I'll clean knives for you presently!" remarked Seaton, with a
threatening gesture--"Yes, Irish Jake, I will! Who sent you here?"
"SHE did--oh, Mary mother!" and the youth gave a further wriggle--"Miss
Soriso--the girl they call Manella. She told me to say she's too busy
to come herself."
Seaton let go the handful of shirt he had held.
"Too busy to come herself!" he repeated, slowly--then smiled--"Well!
That's all right!" Here he lifted the pail of milk, took it into his
hut and brought it back empty, while "Irish Jake," as the boy had
called himself, stood staring--"Tell Miss Soriso that I quite
understand! And that I'm delighted to hear she is so busy! Now, let us
see!" Here he pulled some money out of his pocket, and fingered a few
dirty paper notes--"There, Irish Jake! You'll find that's correct. And
when you come here again don't forget your manners! See? Then you may
be able to keep that disgraceful shirt of yours on! Otherwise it's
likely to be torn off! If you are Irish you should remember that in
very ancient days there used to be manners in the Emerald Isle. Yes,
positively! Fine, gracious, lovely manners! It doesn't look as if that
will be ever any more--but we live in hope. Anyway, YOU--you young
offspring of an Irish hybrid gorilla--you'd best remember what _I_ say,
or there'll be trouble! And"--here he made a mock solemn bow--"My
compliments to Miss Soriso!"
The red-haired youth remained for a moment stock-still with mouth and
eyes open,--then, snatching up the empty milk-pail he scampered down
the hill-slope at a lightning quick run.
Seaton looked after him with an air of contemptuous amusement.
"Ugly little devil!" he soliloquised--"And yet Nature made him,--as she
makes many hideous things--in a hurry, I presume, without any time for
details or artistic finish. Well!"--here he stretched his arms out with
a long sigh--"And the silly girl is 'too busy' to come! As if I could
not see through THAT little game! She'd give her eyes to come!--fine
eyes they are, too! She just thinks she'll pay me out for being rough
with her the other day--she's got an idea that she'll vex me, and make
me want to see her. She's right,--I AM vexed!--and I DO want to see
her!"
It was mid-morning, and the sun blazed down upon the hill-side with the
scorching breath of a volcano. He turned into his hut,--it was a dark,
cool little dwelling, comfortable enough for a single inhabitant. There
was a camp-bed in one corner--and there were a couple of wicker chairs
made for easy transposition into full-length couches if so required, A
good sized deal table occupied the centre of the living-room,--and on
the table was a clear crystal bowl full of what appeared at a first
glance to be plain water, but which on closer observation showed a
totally different quality. Unlike water it was never still,--some
interior bubbling perpetually moved it to sway and sparkle, throwing
out tiny flashes as though the smallest diamond cuttings were striving
to escape from it--while it exhaled around itself an atmosphere of
extreme coldness and freshness like that of ice. Seaton threw himself
indolently into one of wicker chairs by the window--a window which was
broad and wide, commanding a full view of distant mountains, and far
away to the left a glimpse of sea.
"I am vexed, and I want to see her"--he repeated, speaking aloud to
himself--"Now--WHY? Why am I vexed?--and why do I want to see her?
Reason gives no answer! If she were here she would bore me to death. I
could do nothing. She would ask me questions--and if I answered them
she would not understand,--she is too stupid. She has no comprehension
of any thing beyond simple primitive animalism. Now if it were
Morgana--"
He stopped in his talk, and started as if he had been stung. Some
subtle influence stole over him like the perfumed mist of incense--he
leaned back in his chair and half closed his eyes. What was the
stealthy, creeping magnetic power that like an invisible hand touched
his brain and pulled at his memory, and forced him to see before him a
small elf-like figure clad in white, with a rope of gold hair twisting,
snake-like, down over its shoulders and glistening in the light of the
moon? For the moment he lost his usual iron mastery of will and let
himself go on the white flood of a dream. He recalled his first meeting
with Morgana,--one of accident, not design--in the great laboratory of
a distinguished scientist,--he had taken her for a little girl student
trying to master a few principles of chemistry, and was astonished and
incredulous when the distinguished scientist himself had introduced her
as "one of our most brilliant theorists on the future development of
radio activity." Such a description seemed altogether absurd, applied
to a little fair creature with beseeching blue eyes and gold hair! They
had left the laboratory together, walking some way in company and
charmed with each other's conversation, then, when closer acquaintance
followed, and he had learned her true position in social circles and
the power she wielded owing to her vast wealth, he at once withdrew
from her as much as was civilly possible, disliking the suggestion of
any sordid motive for his friendship. But she had so sweetly reproached
him for this, and had enticed him on--yes!--he swore it within
himself,--she had enticed him on in a thousand ways,--most especially
by the amazing "grip" she had of scientific problems in which he was
interested and which puzzled him, but which she seemed to unravel as
easily as she might unravel a skein of wool. Her clear brightness of
brain and logical precision of argument first surprised him into
unqualified admiration, calling to his mind the assertion of a renowned
physiologist that "From the beginning woman had lived in another world
than man. Formed of finer vibrations and consequently finer chemical
atoms she is in touch with more subtle planes of existence and of
sensation and ideation. She holds unchallenged the code of Life." Then
admiration yielded to the usual under-sense of masculine resentment
against feminine intellectuality, and a kind of smouldering wrath and
opposition took the place of his former chivalry and the almost tender
pleasure he had previously felt in her exceptional genius and ability.
And there came an evening--why did he think of it now, he
wondered?--when, after a brilliant summer ball given at the beautiful
residence of a noted society woman on Long Island, he had taken Morgana
out into their hostess's garden which sloped to the sea, and they had
strolled together almost unknowingly down to the shore where, under the
light of the moon, the Atlantic waves, sunken to little dainty frills
of lace-like foam, broke murmuringly at their feet,--and he, turning
suddenly to his companion, was all at once smitten by a sense of
witchery in her looks as she stood garmented in her white, vaporous
ball-gown, with diamonds in her hair and on her bosom--smitten with an
overpowering lightning-stroke of passion which burnt his soul as a
desert is burnt by the hot breath of the simoon, and, yielding to its
force, he had caught the small, fine, fairy creature in his arms and
kissed her wildly on lips and eyes and hair. And she,--she had not
resisted. Then--as swiftly as he had clasped her he let her go--and
stood before her in a strange spirit of defiance.
"Forgive me!" he said, in low uneven tones--"I--I did not mean it!"
She lifted her eyes to his, half proudly half appealingly.
"You did not mean it?" she asked, quietly.
An amazed scorn flashed into her face, clouding its former
sweetness--then she smiled coldly, turned away and left him. In a kind
of stupor he watched her go, her light figure disappearing by degrees,
as she went up the ascending path from the sea to the house where gay
music was still sounding for dancers not yet grown weary. And from that
evening a kind of silence fell between them,--they were separated as by
an ice-floe. They met often in the social round, but scarcely spoke
more than the ordinary words of conventional civility, and Morgana
apparently gave herself up to frivolity, coquetting with her numerous
admirers and would-be husbands in a casual, not to say heartless,
manner which provoked Seaton past endurance,--so much so that he worked
himself up to a kind of cynical detestation and contempt for her, both
as a student of science and a woman of wealth. And yet--and yet--he had
almost loved her! And a thing that goaded him to the quick was that so
far as scientific knowledge and attainment were concerned she was more
than his equal. Irritated by his own quarrelsome set of sentiments
which pulled him first this way and then that, he decided that the only
thing possible for him was to put a "great divide" of distance between
himself and her. This he had done--and to what purpose? Apparently
merely to excite her ridicule!--and to prick her humor up to the
mischievous prank of finding out where he had fled and following him!
And she--even she--who had kept him aloof ever since that fatal moment
on the seashore,--had discovered him on this lonely hill-side, and had
taunted him with her light mockery--and actually said that "to kiss him
would be like kissing a bunch of nettles!"--SHE said that!--she who for
one wild moment he had held in his arms--bah!--he sprang up from his
chair in a kind of rage with himself, as his thoughts crowded thick and
fast one on the other--why did he think of her at all! It was as if
some external commanding force compelled him to do so. Then--she had
seen Manella, and had naturally drawn her own conclusions, based on the
girl's rich beauty which was so temptingly set within his reach. He
began to talk to himself aloud once more, picking up the thread of his
broken converse where he had left it--
"If it were Morgana it would be far worse than if it were Manella!" he
said--"The one is too stupid--the other too clever. But the stupid
woman would make the best wife--if I wanted one--which I do not; and
the best mother, if I desired children,--which I do not. The question
is,--what DO I want? I think I know--but supposing I get it, shall I be
satisfied? Will it fulfil my life's desire? What IS my life's desire?"
He stood inert--his tall figure erect--his eyes full of strange and
meditative earnestness, and for a moment he seemed to gather his mental
forces together with an effort. Turning towards the table where the
bowl of constantly sparkling fluid danced in tiny flashing eddies
within its crystal prison, he watched its movement.
"There's the clue!" he said--"so little--yet so much! Life that cannot
cease--force that cannot die! For me--for me alone this secret!--to do
with it what I will--to destroy or to re-create! How shall I use it? If
I could sweep the planet clean of its greedy, contentious human
microbes, and found a new race I might be a power for good,--but should
I care to do this? If God does not care, why should I?"
He lost himself anew in musing--then, rousing his mind to work, he put
paper, pens and ink on the table, and started writing busily--only
interrupting himself once for a light meal of dry bread and milk during
a stretch of six or seven hours. At the end of his self-appointed time,
he went out of the hut to see, as he often expressed it, "what the sky
was doing." It was not doing much, being a mere hot glare in which the
sun was beginning to roll westwards slowly like a sinking fire-ball. He
brought out one of the wicker chairs from the hut and set it in the
only patch of shade by the door, stretching himself full length upon
it, and closing his eyes, composed himself to sleep. His face in repose
was a remarkably handsome one,--a little hard in outline, but strong,
nobly featured and expressive of power,--an ambitious sculptor would
have rejoiced in him as a model for Achilles. He was as unlike the
modern hideous type of man as he could well be,--and most particularly
unlike any specimen of American that could be found on the whole huge
continent. In truth he was purely and essentially English of
England,--one of the fine old breed of men nurtured among the winds and
waves of the north, for whom no labour was too hard, no service too
exacting, no death too difficult, provided "the word was the bond." His
natural gifts of intellect were very great, and profound study had
ripened and rounded them to fruition,--certain discoveries in chemistry
which he had tested were brought to the attention of his own country's
scientists, who in their usual way of accepting new light on old
subjects smiled placidly, shook their heads, pooh-poohed, and finally
set aside the matter "for future discussion." But Roger Seaton was not
of a nature to sink under a rebuff. If the Wise Men of Gotham in
England refused to take first advantage of the knowledge he had to
offer them, then the Wise Men of Gotham in Germany or the United States
should have their chance. He tried the United States and was received
with open arms and open minds. So he resolved to stay there, for a few
years at any rate, and managed to secure a position with the tireless
magician Edison, in whose workshops he toiled patiently as an
underling, obtaining deeper grasp of his own instinctive knowledge, and
further insight into an immense nature secret which he had determined
to master alone. He had not mastered it yet--but felt fairly confident
that he was near the goal. As he slept peacefully, with the still shade
of a heavily foliaged vine which ramped over the roof of the hut,
sheltering his face from the sun, his whole form in its relaxed, easy
attitude expressed force in repose,--physical energy held in leash.
The sun sank lower, its hue changing from poppy red to burning
orange--and presently a woman's figure appeared on the hill slope, and
cautiously approached the sleeper--a beautiful figure of classic mould
and line, clothed in a simple white linen garb, with a red rose at its
breast. It was Manella. She had taken extraordinary pains with her
attire, plain though it was--something dainty and artistic in the
manner of its wearing made its simplicity picturesque,--and the red
rose at her bosom was effectively supplemented by another in her hair,
showing brilliantly against its rich blackness. She stopped when about
three paces away from the sleeping man and watched him with a wonderful
tenderness. Her lips quivered sweetly--her lovely eyes shone with a
soft wistfulness,--she looked indeed, as Morgana had said of her,
"quite beautiful." Instinctively aware in slumber that he was not
alone, Seaton stirred--opened his eyes, and sprang up.
"What! Manella!" he exclaimed--"I thought you were too busy to come!"
She hung her head a little shamefacedly.
"I HAD to come"--she answered--"There was no one else ready to bring
this--for you."
She held out a telegram. He opened and read it. It was very
brief--"Shall be with you to-morrow. Gwent."
He folded it and put it in his pocket. Then he turned to Manella,
smiling.
"Very good of you to bring this!" he said--"Why didn't you send Irish
Jake?"
"He is taking luggage down from the rooms," she answered--"Many people
are going away to-day."
"Is that why you are 'so busy'"? he asked, the smile still dancing in
his eyes.
She gave a little toss of her head but said nothing.
"And how fine we are to-day!" he said, glancing over her with an air of
undisguised admiration--"White suits you, Manella! You should always
wear it! For what fortunate man have you dressed yourself so prettily?"
She shrugged her shoulders expressively--
"For you!"
"For me? Oh, Manella! What a frank confession! And what a contradiction
you are to yourself! For did you not send word by that Irish monkey
that you were 'too busy to come'? And yet you dress yourself in white,
with red roses, for ME! And you come after all! Capricious child! Oh
Senora Soriso, how greatly honoured I am!"
She looked straight at him.
"You laugh, you laugh!" she said--"But I do not care! You can laugh at
me all the time if you like. But--you cannot help looking at me! Ah
yes!--you cannot help THAT!"
A triumphant glory flashed in her eyes--her red lips parted in a
ravishing smile.
"You cannot help it!" she repeated--"That little white lady--that
friend of yours whom you hate and love at the same time!--she told me I
was 'quite beautiful!' I know I am!--and you know it too!"
He bent his eyes upon her gravely.
"I have always known it--yes!"--he said, then paused--"Dear child,
beauty is nothing--"
She made a swift step towards him and laid a hand on his arm. Her
ardent, glowing face was next to his.
"You speak not truly!" and her voice was tremulous--"To a man it is
everything!"
Her physical fascination was magnetic, and for a moment he had some
trouble to resist its spell. Very gently he put an arm round her,--and
with a tender delicacy of touch unfastened the rose she wore at her
bosom.
"There, dear!" he said--"I will keep this with me for company! It is
like you--except that it doesn't talk and doesn't ask for love--"
"It has it without asking!" she murmured.
He smiled.
"Has it? Well,--perhaps it has!" He paused--then stooping his tall head
kissed her once on the lips as a brother might have kissed her. "And
perhaps--one day--when the right man comes along, you will have it too!"