It was Nell who depressed the stud that expressed
In flaming, electric flood
The current that boils its way through the coils
Of a menavisal hood.
There was silence at first, then the silence burst
In a moment of horror fraught,
As Doug MacNeer's voice babbled clear
In fragments of tortured thought.
"_I don't understand ... I can't move a hand ...
Head aches, and my brain is on fire....
Stars ... Nelly ... Oh, Lord!_" Thus Dougal's thoughts poured
In words through the webwork of wire.
"_Must be a mistake ... I can't be awake
The orbit of Ceres is reckoned
At three-oh-oh-ten...._" Nell stepped forward then.
"O.Q., Gurk--let up for a second!"
The shimmering died, and to Dougal she cried,
"MacNeer, all we want to know
Is: _Where is the gold?_ As soon as you've told
We promise to let you go."
"I've told you already," gasped Doug, unsteady,
"You're wrong if you think I'm rich--"
Nell's scarlet mouth curled. "Fool! Liar!" she snarled;
She viciously closed the switch.
Once again sallow flame trembled hot through the frame
Of the _menavise_; once again
Electrical stresses probed deep the recesses
Of Dougal's tormented brain.
"_The torments of hell--but I never can tell ...
A man must fight to the end ...
My eyes--I've gone blind ... my head ... and my mind ...
If I only ... could only ... bend...._"
It is better to not reveal just what
Things Dougal said and did
In the hour or more that followed, for
Such secrets are better hid.
He babbled of dreams, and hopes and schemes,
And names long lost in the past;
He spoke of flight through the endless night,
And of cosmic reaches vast.
But never he told of wealth or gold,
Though now he was growing weak;
Till finally the girl turned to her churl
Lips set, and as marble bleak.
"He's stalled long enough!" she rasped. "He's tough,
And he's held out for more than an hour;
But I'm going to get that secret yet,
If I have to turn on full power!"
Gurk shook his head, and warningly said,
"I wouldn't attempt it, Nell!
'Twould be of no use, an ounce more juice
Would blister his mind to hell.
He's weak as a cat; if you try that--"
He frowned--"After all that he's had,
Another degree of power would be
Sufficient to drive him mad!"
"That's up to him!" cried Nell, and grim
Of eye she approached the side
Of Doug MacNeer, and, "Listen here,
You obstinate fool!" she cried,
As she pressed the key to the last degree,
"You know very well you told
Me you'd found all the gold that a man could want
--Now, answer: _Where is that gold?_"
The _menavise_ flamed, the battered and maimed
Hulk standing before them jerked
As the blistering pain seared Dougal's brain,
MacNeer's lips horribly worked....
And across the tomblike expanse of the room
His feeble answer carried:
"... _lonely as hell ... must ask sweet Nell ...
It's time I was getting married...._"
"_I think that she ... and I could be ...
So happy ... a golden prize....
But ... Oh, the pain!_" And he screamed again,
The light died out of his eyes.
And Nell stood aghast, to have seen at last
The terrible answer bare:
The gold of his dream was the glorious stream
Of her own bright yaller hair!