"May we all someday find our bells," Joy said with emotion, and I was
delighted to find my wife a girl of such deep sentiment. "Pour me
another."
I did. "Your quotation was wrong, sweetheart," I said. "Don't you mean,
'May we all find our Shangri-La?'"
"Of course. Let's drink to it."
We drank to it and were rudely interrupted by the barkeep who said, "I
hope you got some dough. That stuff ain't water."
I gave him a ten-dollar bill and--with a heavy heart--turned to Uncle
Peter. "Come, Uncle," I said gently. "We might as well get it over
with."
"Get what over with?"
"Our trip to the police station. You must give yourself up of course."
"What for?"
I shook my head sadly. Uncle Peter would never fry. His mind was
obviously out of joint. "For murder."
He looked at Joy. He said, "Oh, my broken test tube! There is no need
of--"
"I know it will be hard for them to convict you without _corpus
delicti_, but you must confess."
"Let's all go over to my laboratory."
"If you wish. You may have one last visit there."
"Excellent--one last visit." He smiled and I wondered if I saw a certain
craftiness behind it.
Cora voiced no objections, seemingly anxious to stay near Uncle Peter.
When we got to his laboratory, he went on through into his living
quarters and took a suit case from the closet.
"What are you going to do?"
"Pack my things."
"Oh, of course. You'll need some things in jail."
"Who said anything about jail? I'm going to Tibet."
"_Tibet!_ Uncle Peter! I won't allow it. You must stay here and face the
music."
"The music is in Tibet, Homer. That's one of the reasons I'm going
there. To a monastery high in Himalayas. There are some wonderful men
there I've always wanted to meet--yogis who have such control over
natural laws that they can walk on water and move straight through solid
walls."
"But, Uncle Peter! If you want to go to Tibet, you should have thought
of it before. It's too late now. You've committed murder."
"Bosh! I haven't killed anyone. The serum I discovered is one of
transition, not murder. It causes the stepping-up of the human physical
structure into an infinitely higher rate of vibration. Two controls are
distilled into it. One is a timer that sets off the catalysis, and the
other is a directive element based upon higher mathematics which allows
the creator of the serum to direct the higher vibratory residue of the
physical form to be put down at any prearranged point on the globe
before the reforming element takes effect."