CHAPTER XXXII.
THE FLASHLIGHT PHOTOGRAPH.
Twilight was deepening over the hills and already the valleys were inshadow when Edward reached Ilexhurst. He stood for a moment looking backon the city and the hills beyond. He seemed to be laying aside a sweeterlife 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 aclouded life was inevitable? There was no escape from fate.
In the east the hills were darkening, but memory flashed on him ascene--a fair-faced girl, as he had seen her, as he would always seeher, floating upon an amethyst stream, smiling upon him, one handparting the waters and over them the wonders of a southern sunset.
In the wing-room Virdow and Gerald were getting ready for an experimentwith flashlight photography. Refusing to be hurried in his scientificinvestigations, Gerald had insisted that until it had been proven that aliving substance could hold a photographic imprint he should not advanceto the consideration of Virdow's theory. There must be brain picturesbefore there could be mind pictures. At least, so he reasoned. None ofthem knew exactly what his experiment was to be, except that he wasgoing to test the substance that envelopes the body of the bass, themicopterus salmoides of southern waters. That sensitive plate, thinnerthan art could make it, was not only spoiled by exposure to light, butby light and air combined was absolutely destroyed. And the difficultyof 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 hadcarefully compounded during the day. Virdow saw in it the silveryglimmer of magnesium. What the combined element was could not bedetermined. This compound reached only a third of the distance up theside of the glass. The jar was then stopped with cork pierced by acopper 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 smallhooded lantern, whose powerful reflector was lighting one end of theroom, bade them follow him.
Virdow and Edward obeyed. With a rapid stride Gerald set out acrossfields, through strips of woodlands and down precipitous slopes untilthey stood all breathless upon the shore of the little lake. There theyfound the flat-bottom bateau, and although by this time both Edward andVirdow had begun seriously to doubt the wisdom of blindly following sucha character, they resigned themselves to fate and entered.
Gerald propelled the little craft carefully to a stump that stood updistinct against the gloom under the searchlight in the bow, andreaching it took out his pocket compass. Turning the boat's headnorth-east, he followed the course about forty yards until at the leftthe reflector showed him two stakes in line. Here he brought the littlecraft to a standstill, and in silence, which he invoked by lifting hishand 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 andinserted in the water, examined the bottom of the lake twelve feetbelow. Long and patient was the search, but at last the others saw himlay aside his glass and let the boat drift a few moments. Then verygently, only a ripple of the surface marking the action, he lowered theweighted jar until the slackening wire indicated that it was upon thebottom. He reached out his hand quickly and drew the battery to him,firmly grasping the cross-handle lever. The next instant there was arumbling, roaring sound, accompanied by a fierce, white light, and theend of the boat was in the air. In a brief moment Edward saw the slenderform of the enthusiast bathed in the flash, his face as white as chalk,his eyes afire with excitement--the incarnation of insanity, it seemedto him. Then there was a deluge of spray, a violent rocking of the boatand the water in it went over their shoe-tops. Instantly all was inkyblackness, except where in the hands of the fearless man in the sternthe lantern, its slide changed, was now casting a stream of red lightupon the surface of the lake. Suddenly Gerald uttered a loud cry.
"Look! Look! There he is!" And floating in that crimson path, with smallfishes rising around him, was the dead body of a gigantic bass. Liftinghim carefully by the gills, Gerald laid him in a box drawn from underthe rear seat.
"What is it?" broke from Virdow. "We have risked our lives and ruinedour 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 thegrasses in this lake, or the whole film destroyed. If the outlines arethere then there is no reason why the human brain, infinitely moresensitive and forever excluded from light, cannot contain the picturesof those twin cameras--the human eyes." He turned the boat shoreward andseizing his box disappeared in the darkness, his enlarged pupils givinghim the visual powers of a night animal. Virdow and Edward, even aidedby 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 thelittle door to the cabinet. The sound of trickling water was heard.
At that instant a smothered half-human cry came from within, andtrembling violently, Gerald staggered into the room. They took hold ofhim, fearing he would fall. Straining their eyes, they both saw for aninstant only the half-developed outlines of a human profile extendedalong the broad side of the fish. As they watched, the surface grew intoone tone and the carcass fell to the floor.
Gazing into their faces as he struggled for freedom, Gerald cast offtheir hands. The lithe, sinewy form seemed to be imbued at the momentwith the strength of a giant. Before they could speak he had seized thelantern and was out into the night. Without a moment's hesitation,Edward, bareheaded, plunged after him. Well trained to college athleticsthough he was, yet unfamiliar with the grounds, it taxed his bestefforts to keep him in sight. He divined that the wild race would end atthe lake, and the thought that on a few seconds might hang the life ofthat strange being was all that held him to the prolonged and dangerousstrain. He reached the shore just in time, by plunging waist deep intothe water, to throw himself into the boat. His own momentum thrust itfar out upon the surface. Gerald had entered.
With unerring skill and incredible swiftness, the young man carried theboat 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 asblack as midnight.
Edward slipped off his shoes, seized the paddle and waited for a soundto guide him. It seemed as though nothing human could survive thatprolonged submergence; minutes appeared to pass; with a groan of despairhe gave up hope.
But at that moment, with a gasp, the white face of Gerald burst from thewaters ten feet away, and the efforts he made showed that he wasswimming with difficulty. With one mighty stroke Edward sent the boat tothe swimmer and caught the floating hair. Then with great difficulty hedrew him over the side.
"Home!" The word escaped from Gerald between his gasps, but when hereached the shore, with a return of energy and a total disregard of hiscompanion, he plunged into the darkness toward the house, Edward thistime keeping him in view with less difficulty.
They reached the door of the wing-room almost simultaneously and rushedin side by side, Gerald dripping with water and exhausted. He leanedheavily against the table. For the first time Edward was conscious thathe carried a burden in his arms. In breathless silence, he with Virdowapproached, and then upon the table Gerald placed an object and drewshuddering back. It was a half life-size bust of darkened and discoloredmarble, and for them, though trembling with excitement, it seemed tohave no especial significance until they were startled by a cry so loud,so piercing, so heartrending, that they felt the flesh creep upon theirbones.
Looking from the marble to the face of the young man they saw that thewhiteness of death was upon every feature. Following the direction ofhis gaze, they beheld a silhouette upon the wall; the clear-cut profileof a woman, cast by the carved face before them. To Edwar
d it was anoutline vaguely familiar; to Virdow a revelation, for it was Edward'sown profile. Had the latter recognized it there would have been atragedy, for, without a word after that strange, sad, despairing cry,Gerald wrenched a dagger from the decorated panel, and struck at his ownheart. It was Edward's quickness that saved him; the blade made but atrifling flesh wound. Seizing him as he did from the rear he was enabledto disturb his equilibrium in time.
"Morphine," he said to Virdow. The latter hurried away to secure thedrug. He found with the pellets a little pocket case containing morphinepowders and a hypodermic injector. Without a struggle, Gerald laybreathing heavily. In a few minutes the drug was administered, and thencame peace for the sufferer. Edward released his hold and looked abouthim. Virdow had moved the bust and was seated lost in thought.
"What does it mean?" he asked, approaching, awed and saddened by hisexperience. 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 itsoutlines upon the wall, "you do not recognize it, but the profile isyour own!"