Page:All the Year Round - Series 2 - Volume 1.djvu/139

 myself to perform the operation simultaneously: each to project his mind upon that of the other, and not to rest until we have literally exchanged ideas—I mean outward ideas—bodies.

"Has Mr. Stedburn consented to make the attempt?" I inquired.

"He has. And we intend to try it very soon. I do not, however, conceal from myself that the experiment is fraught with some risk, since we may have largely to increase the dose of hatchis. Now, having no near relations of any kind, I have resolved to execute a document, leaving my whole property to Mark Stedburn before we begin the experiment. And to prevent any difficulty, in the event of my decease, arising from ignorant persons who might stupidly attribute it to suicide (for it might look like it), I intend to execute an unconditional deed of gift, instead of a will. If you would act as trustee under this deed I should feel obliged."

Just then the great bell rang, and Mark came in: to my infinite relief.

"Well," he said, "has Mr. Volt told you of his grand discovery?"

"Oh, yes," I returned.

"What do you think of it?"

"I don't know what to think," I replied, raising my eyebrows to imply that I didn't know what to say about it in Mr. Volt's presence.

"You see," said Mark to Mr. Volt, "our friend's mind cannot quite grasp a new and powerful truth all at once. When he has tested it by experience, he will be wiser."

"No doubt," he assented.

Was Mark a believer, too? And were they both mad? As I looked at the two men together: Mr. Volt, plump and full-faced: Mark, thin and pale: it occurred to me that by deluding him into dreamy and speculative studies, Mr. Volt had sucked the life and health out of my friend as if he had been a vampire.

"This is the hatchis," said Mark, bringing me the box again. "Shall he try it, Mr. Volt?"

"Yes, if he will: though its effect, alone, without previous preparation of the body and without the violet vapour, can only be feeble."

I deprecated any trial of the sort.

"Try it," Mark insisted; "I give you my word as a medical man, and as your friend, that I have taken it myself, and that you shall feel no ill-effects from it. I promise that you shall not remain more than ten minutes under its influence. Take the dose Mr. Volt will give you. It is now ten minutes to nine. You shall leave the tower with me at nine punctually."

I consented. Mr. Volt brought a tiny thin spoon, and with it took out a portion of the hatchis, about as big as a hazel nut.

" Now," said he, "during the time you are under the influence of this paste, you will have certain experiences. Decide whether they shall be real or ideal. Real, in the sense of a succession of persistently coherent ideas independent of your own will (for I think I can so far project my mind upon yours as to insure that), or ideal, in the sense of a succession of ideas directed by your own will."

I replied that as I could at any time obtain a succession of ideas directed by my own will, I would elect a succession of ideas produced by his will.

Having seated me on the sofa, he gave me the spoonful of hatchis, looking steadily into my eyes as he did so.

I felt that his eyes hurt me somewhere in my head—I can't tell where—and looking at his leg I saw them grow large, and long, and zig-zaggy, till they flashed away up in the ceiling, and I felt a kind of veil-like misty rain let down before my eyes. I seemed to grow up out of this veil, or through it, and to gaze on the pure blue night sky and the sparkling stars, until quickly I was near them. They loomed, shining, on me, as huge full-orbed planets, and I could hear the whirr and rush they made, as they wheeled past me round their awful orbits until they grew distant and small, and faded into twinkling stars again. Then, looking down, I saw the earth spread out like a dark curtain beneath me, and I heard it yield two great notes like notes of a huge organ: one, harsh and discordant, from the cities that blazed up, a mass of flame and lurid smoke into the peaceful sky—the cry of trouble and unrest: the other, like the quiet murmur of the forest in the night winds. These two went up together to the stars and blended into music. Then I felt a cramping sensation and became oppressed, and, gradually recovering, found myself with Mr. Volt and Mark. I went home with Mark, and supped, and I went to bed and slept it off, and next morning returned to London, and fell into my humdrum life again.

I cannot tell how long afterwards it may have been, but as nearly as I can calculate it must have been at least two months, when I received a letter from Mark, announcing the death of Mr. Volt. The letter stated that, in attempting to carry out their intention of effecting an exchange of bodies, his eccentric friend had unfortunately made a mistake in his dose, which had proved fatal.

I went down to Firworth immediately. The first thing that struck me was the alteration in Mark's appearance. He had become unaccountably plump and sleek, and seemed wonderfully to have improved in health during the past few weeks. Another thing occurred to me as odd, and this gave me pain. Mark appeared strangely anxious to convince me that Mr. Volt was really dead, and not in a long trance produced by "hatchis." Notwithstanding my repugnance, he insisted on taking me to see his friend's body, that I might be assured of the fact. There could be no doubt whatever that Mr. Volt was dead, nor was there any doubt of the fact that he had not come to his death by an overdose of the "hatchis," for the body gave out a most powerful and unmistakable odour of opium. Now, it being the character of that drug to dissipate itself immediately in the system, even when taken to the extent of an ordinary poisoning dose, so thoroughly that it is next to