THE FLASHLIGHT PHOTOGRAPH.
Twilight was deepening over the hills and already the valleys were in
shadow when Edward reached Ilexhurst. He stood for a moment looking back
on the city and the hills beyond. He seemed to be laying aside a sweeter
life for something less fair, and the old weight descended upon him.
After all was it wise to go forth, when the return to the solitude of a
clouded life was inevitable? There was no escape from fate.
In the east the hills were darkening, but memory flashed on him a
scene--a fair-faced girl, as he had seen her, as he would always see
her, floating upon an amethyst stream, smiling upon him, one hand
parting the waters and over them the wonders of a southern sunset.
In the wing-room Virdow and Gerald were getting ready for an experiment
with flashlight photography. Refusing to be hurried in his scientific
investigations, Gerald had insisted that until it had been proven that a
living substance could hold a photographic imprint he should not advance
to the consideration of Virdow's theory. There must be brain pictures
before there could be mind pictures. At least, so he reasoned. None of
them knew exactly what his experiment was to be, except that he was
going to test the substance that envelopes the body of the bass, the
micopterus salmoides of southern waters. That sensitive plate, thinner
than art could make it, was not only spoiled by exposure to light, but
by light and air combined was absolutely destroyed. And the difficulty
of controlling the movements of this fish seemed absolutely insuperable.
They could only watch the experimenter.
Into a thin glass jar Gerald poured a quantity of powder, which he had
carefully compounded during the day. Virdow saw in it the silvery
glimmer of magnesium. What the combined element was could not be
determined. This compound reached only a third of the distance up the
side of the glass. The jar was then stopped with cork pierced by a
copper wire that touched the powder, and hermetically sealed with wax.
With this under one arm, and a small galvanic battery under the other,
and restless with suppressed excitement, Gerald, pointing to a small
hooded lantern, whose powerful reflector was lighting one end of the
room, bade them follow him.
Virdow and Edward obeyed. With a rapid stride Gerald set out across
fields, through strips of woodlands and down precipitous slopes until
they stood all breathless upon the shore of the little lake. There they
found the flat-bottom bateau, and although by this time both Edward and
Virdow had begun seriously to doubt the wisdom of blindly following such
a character, they resigned themselves to fate and entered.
Gerald propelled the little craft carefully to a stump that stood up
distinct against the gloom under the searchlight in the bow, and
reaching it took out his pocket compass. Turning the boat's head
north-east, he followed the course about forty yards until at the left
the reflector showed him two stakes in line. Here he brought the little
craft to a standstill, and in silence, which he invoked by lifting his
hand warningly, turned the lantern downward over the stern of the boat,
and with a tube, whose lower end was stubbed with a bit of glass and
inserted in the water, examined the bottom of the lake twelve feet
below. Long and patient was the search, but at last the others saw him
lay aside his glass and let the boat drift a few moments. Then very
gently, only a ripple of the surface marking the action, he lowered the
weighted jar until the slackening wire indicated that it was upon the
bottom. He reached out his hand quickly and drew the battery to him,
firmly grasping the cross-handle lever. The next instant there was a
rumbling, roaring sound, accompanied by a fierce, white light, and the
end of the boat was in the air. In a brief moment Edward saw the slender
form of the enthusiast bathed in the flash, his face as white as chalk,
his eyes afire with excitement--the incarnation of insanity, it seemed
to him. Then there was a deluge of spray, a violent rocking of the boat
and the water in it went over their shoe-tops. Instantly all was inky
blackness, except where in the hands of the fearless man in the stern
the lantern, its slide changed, was now casting a stream of red light
upon the surface of the lake. Suddenly Gerald uttered a loud cry.
"Look! Look! There he is!" And floating in that crimson path, with small
fishes rising around him, was the dead body of a gigantic bass. Lifting
him carefully by the gills, Gerald laid him in a box drawn from under
the rear seat.
"What is it?" broke from Virdow. "We have risked our lives and ruined
our clothes--for what?"
"For a photograph upon a living substance! On the side of this fish,
which was exposed to the flashlight, you will find the outlines of the
grasses in this lake, or the whole film destroyed. If the outlines are
there then there is no reason why the human brain, infinitely more
sensitive and forever excluded from light, cannot contain the pictures
of those twin cameras--the human eyes." He turned the boat shoreward and
seizing his box disappeared in the darkness, his enlarged pupils giving
him the visual powers of a night animal. Virdow and Edward, even aided
by the lantern, found their way back with difficulty.
The two men entered the wing-room to find it vacant. Virdow, however,
pointed silently to the red light gleaming through the glass of the
little door to the cabinet. The sound of trickling water was heard.
At that instant a smothered half-human cry came from within, and
trembling violently, Gerald staggered into the room. They took hold of
him, fearing he would fall. Straining their eyes, they both saw for an
instant only the half-developed outlines of a human profile extended
along the broad side of the fish. As they watched, the surface grew into
one tone and the carcass fell to the floor.
Gazing into their faces as he struggled for freedom, Gerald cast off
their hands. The lithe, sinewy form seemed to be imbued at the moment
with the strength of a giant. Before they could speak he had seized the
lantern and was out into the night. Without a moment's hesitation,
Edward, bareheaded, plunged after him. Well trained to college athletics
though he was, yet unfamiliar with the grounds, it taxed his best
efforts to keep him in sight. He divined that the wild race would end at
the lake, and the thought that on a few seconds might hang the life of
that strange being was all that held him to the prolonged and dangerous
strain. He reached the shore just in time, by plunging waist deep into
the water, to throw himself into the boat. His own momentum thrust it
far out upon the surface. Gerald had entered.
With unerring skill and incredible swiftness, the young man carried the
boat over its former course and turned the glare of the lamp downward.
Suddenly he uttered a loud cry, and, dropping the lantern in the boat,
stood up and leaped into the water. The light was now out and all was as
black as midnight.
Edward slipped off his shoes, seized the paddle and waited for a sound
to guide him. It seemed as though nothing human could survive that
prolonged submergence; minutes appeared to pass; with a groan of despair
he gave up hope.
But at that moment, with a gasp, the white face of Gerald burst from the
waters ten feet away, and the efforts he made showed that he was
swimming with difficulty. With one mighty stroke Edward sent the boat to
the swimmer and caught the floating hair. Then with great difficulty he
drew him over the side.
"Home!" The word escaped from Gerald between his gasps, but when he
reached the shore, with a return of energy and a total disregard of his
companion, he plunged into the darkness toward the house, Edward this
time keeping him in view with less difficulty.
They reached the door of the wing-room almost simultaneously and rushed
in side by side, Gerald dripping with water and exhausted. He leaned
heavily against the table. For the first time Edward was conscious that
he carried a burden in his arms. In breathless silence, he with Virdow
approached, and then upon the table Gerald placed an object and drew
shuddering back. It was a half life-size bust of darkened and discolored
marble, and for them, though trembling with excitement, it seemed to
have no especial significance until they were startled by a cry so loud,
so piercing, so heartrending, that they felt the flesh creep upon their
bones.
Looking from the marble to the face of the young man they saw that the
whiteness of death was upon every feature. Following the direction of
his gaze, they beheld a silhouette upon the wall; the clear-cut profile
of a woman, cast by the carved face before them. To Edward it was an
outline vaguely familiar; to Virdow a revelation, for it was Edward's
own profile. Had the latter recognized it there would have been a
tragedy, for, without a word after that strange, sad, despairing cry,
Gerald wrenched a dagger from the decorated panel, and struck at his own
heart. It was Edward's quickness that saved him; the blade made but a
trifling flesh wound. Seizing him as he did from the rear he was enabled
to disturb his equilibrium in time.
"Morphine," he said to Virdow. The latter hurried away to secure the
drug. He found with the pellets a little pocket case containing morphine
powders and a hypodermic injector. Without a struggle, Gerald lay
breathing heavily. In a few minutes the drug was administered, and then
came peace for the sufferer. Edward released his hold and looked about
him. Virdow had moved the bust and was seated lost in thought.
"What does it mean?" he asked, approaching, awed and saddened by his
experience. Virdow held up the little bust.
"Have you ever seen that face before?"
"It is the face of the young woman in the picture!"
"And now," said Virdow, again placing the marble so as to cast its
outlines upon the wall, "you do not recognize it, but the profile is
your own!"