DR. SEWARD'S EXPERIMENT.
Our bodies are only an instrument clever
By which the soul works out a phase of existence--
Each member responds when the soul moves the lever
Unless overcome by abnormal resistance.
Ever since the morning that Lady Van Tyne confided her belief in Maurice
Sinclair's Satanic individuality to her family physician, the remorseful
Dr. Seward was imbued with an undying curiosity to learn more of this
human phenomenon. But the abduction of Stella, coming so suddenly upon
them, made it almost impossible to indulge his interest in that
direction.
Naturally he would not care to mention the subject to the grief tortured
mother, and as to Lady Van Tyne, her excitement rendered her totally
incoherent whenever the subject was broached. Another reason for
sensitiveness on the part of Dr. Seward, when in the presence of Mrs.
Sinclair, may have lain in the knowledge of his guilty secret, the
unburdening of which, would have been to press the dregs of shame to
Lady Van Tyne's lips and pierce the devoted mourner of Archibald
Sinclair where her love and faith were tenderest. Thus it was not until
after the restoration of Stella to her foster mother's arms that the
impatient physician learned ought of the young man in whom he had taken
so unaccountable an interest.
It was now some time after Stella's recovery and Dr. Seward was sitting,
for a brief social call, with Mrs. Sinclair in her pleasant parlor. Dr.
Seward had been a faithful friend for years and now that her darling was
safe, Mrs. Sinclair told him freely of Stella's unfortunate experience
and of the information which she received of her son during her brief
call upon Elizabeth Merril's grandparents.
The old physician was deeply interested in the narrative and made
occasional notes on one of his visiting cards in reference to the
matter. The names of Lawrence Maynard and Elizabeth Merril were heavily
underscored and the card placed carefully in his pocket.
The doctor laid great weight upon the absence of intuitive, motherly
affection in Mrs. Sinclair's case at her son's appearance when she had
clearly explained her feelings to her old adviser, but she only saw in
his rigid cross questioning the life long habit of scientific analysis
and gave little thought to the problem which the physician was trying,
in his clever brain, to solve. More interested than he cared to admit,
Dr. Seward only waited a few days before going to G---- St., as had Mrs.
Sinclair before him.
The aged couple, burdened with sorrow, were only waiting the hour when,
hand in hand, they should enter the dark valley of the shadow of death,
even as they had walked through the many checkered paths of a life of
nearly four score years.
Perhaps it was a mercy that their trusting hearts were spared the actual
knowledge of Elizabeth's fate, as the sweet memory of her childhood and
girlish days was always a solace even in their moments of grief. Could
they have seen her at any time during the year that had now elapsed
since her disappearance, the misery and squalor of her surroundings and
the shame of her one error, would have occasioned their virtuous souls
far more anguish than the awful death which they supposed to have been
her fate. Calmly, and with unvarying precision, the white haired woman
related to Dr. Seward the only crumbs of information it had been her lot
to gain, and from another room she brought a small, oddly shaped vial,
containing a dark brown powder, which she said she had found in his
apartments when her eccentric, young lodger had left.
The vial was without a label and heedful of Mr. Maynard's frequent
warnings the cork had never been removed.
It took but a glance to show Dr. Seward that it was an exact counterpart
of the one found in Stella's room the morning after her abduction, and
placing it carefully in his pocket he took kindly leave of the aged
people, and not wholly dissatisfied with his morning's work, returned
speedily to his private office. It was about three in the afternoon when
he seated himself in his easy chair, and adjusting his glasses prepared
to examine, from a purely analytical standpoint, the brownish powder
contained in the little vial. He held it to the light, but it was
opaque, dull and uninteresting. He shook it, but the agitated particles
fell back as indifferently as possible to their original positions.
Then, true to his vocation, he removed the stopper gingerly between his
first and middle fingers and raised the vial cautiously to a respectful
distance from his nose. The first sniff was entirely non-committal. The
next was a little stronger effort and he thought he detected a faint,
sickish odor.
Shaking the bottle again gently, he drew it nearer and took a bold
inspiration immediately over its contents. Almost instantly his hand
fell to his side; the vial fell upon the heavy carpet, spilling most of
its contents, and these, as they came in contact with the air, ignited
and burnt, while the sickening, penetrating fumes arose like incense and
completely filled the spacious apartment. For one hour by the clock he
sat there, motionless as death, but fully cognizant of all that passed
about him. He longed, with true scientific fervor, to rescue the vial
with its remaining contents, but his members were benumbed and
motionless. He heard the signs of life in and about the house, but was
powerless to raise his voice. He even fancied, in his speculative
manner, that he was experiencing the sensations of a disembodied soul
after the resurrection, and his scepticism regarding spiritualism and
theosophy, was shaken to its very foundation.
There was no terror in the situation and almost from force of long
trained habit, he noted every symptom of his condition with great
precision and detail. He saw the hands move slowly on the clock before
him, and felt the draught from a half closed door blowing softly upon
his back. This trifling matter amused him, coming to his mind, as it
did, in the midst of grave, spiritualistic meditations, and the mental
smile which accompanied the amusement was another proof of the absolute
uselessness of the fleshy body for all demonstrations of like nature.
It seemed strange to him that he had never before realized how useless
an encumbrance the body was, after all. He could see, hear, smell and
think, and his mind conveyed him wheresoever he willed, so that really
only the power of speech was denied him. Suddenly it occurred to him
that speech also was possible, but it must necessarily be a communion of
similar disembodied souls rather than intercourse with ordinary mortals,
and while he was longing with all the zeal of his investigatory nature
for an opportunity to test his mental vocabulary, a tingling sensation
began in his extremities and passed, almost like an electric current,
through all his members. His living death was ended, and concentrating
all his energies, he staggered from the chair.
The fumes from the burning powder were now exhausted, and bending
unsteadily, he secured the half emptied vial and corking it firmly,
concealed it once more in his pocket.
Then touching an electric bell, he sent a peal vibrating through the
house, and a moment later, when the frightened assistant hurriedly
entered, it was only to find the good physician stretched in apparently
dreamless slumber upon the office sofa.