Page:Amazing Stories Volume 01 Number 07.djvu/91

666 he nevertheless felt at times a desire to seize some convenient bludgeon and smash—smash to atoms these unbelieveable devices which were to bring grief to mankind. At such moments there seemed to ring in his ears the cry,

"Sodom and Gomorrah! There are no righteous here!"

AD he been possessed of an explosive, under the stimulus of his hidden impulse he might have been prompted to sacrifice himself as a martyr for Humanity's sake by reducing the laboratories and occupants into the particles to which the Doctor was so fond of referring. There was no opportunity for this, however, or rather, at best he might be successful in destroying Bridges' laboratory alone, for inflammable material in bulk was stored there.

Johnssen's charges—especially the python and the giant orang—came to mind as Mason pondered on the possibility of using them as active instruments of mischief; but no satisfactory method of employing them as Frankensteins occurred to him. He discarded the idea, for while he might account for the artificial specimens in the zoo, and possibly eliminate Johnssen, there would be left the other laboratories, and the Doctor, Bridges and Stevens with whom to reckon; to say nothing of Suki and either of the watchmen.

Stevens, the youngest of the scientists, was possessed of so many likeable qualities, despite his sacreligious work, that he was a thorn in Mason's conscience when the thought of murder came to him.

But again a voice seemed to cry in Mason's ear,

"Slay! Smight them hip and thigh! Spare not one of the blasphemers!"

Mason began spending much of his time in the electro-physical laboratory, where he came to be accepted by Stevens as a sincere searcher after knowledge, and, as an intimate of his Chief's, entitled to every courtesy and consideration.

Soon Stevens was permitting the older man to assist in some of the work, and as time fled by, and almost a month had elapsed since his arrival. Mason came to acquire a fair working knowledge of the operation of the equipment, without in the least attempting to ascertain the underlying principles.

As each step was checked up here, Stevens would demonstrate to Mason before presenting his findings to the Doctor.

"You know," he once remarked, placing on the laboratory table a live rabbit that had been snared by one of the watchmen, "that what is true of a theorem can often be demonstrated conversely. For instance, if we can create by one method, we should be able to destroy by a diametrically opposite and related method. We have made blood of many varieties with this neo-wave-generator.

"It is equally possible to destroy the blood and tissue elements by reversing the wave polarity by means of this change-over switch.

"This experiment is entre nous, if you please. I don't think the Doctor would altogether approve; but I should like to demonstrate to you what I mean.

"Observe this white rabbit—the fine, shell-like pink of its ears, due to the coursing blood. I am going to use a negative and reversed harmonic for rabbits' blood haemoglobin. Watch!"

With Mason behind him, intent on his slightest action, he closed the circuit with the director focused on the rabbit.

HE loud, metallic screech, now familiar to Mason, commenced and ceased almost instantly, and now the rabbit gained his attention.

To his amazement he saw its pinkish ears grow paler, blanch to an opaque white, to the white of a fish's belly—to leprous white. The animal seemed to shrink slightly, to breath with difficulty, all within the compass of a minute.

"The subject," announced Stevens in a satisfied manner, "is dying of pernicious anaemia. At least, I have employed a ray destructive to haemoglobin—the red blood cells. If you were to take a specimen of this rabbit's blood over to Bridges, he could show you under his microscope that practically all the red blood corpuscles had been destroyed. I'd rather you'd take my word for it and refrain from asking him, as this side line is a little secret of my own."

Not again was Mason permitted to view a demonstration of the powers of the destructive wave; but his eyes wandered often to the wave-changing device on the switchboard of the transmitter, as Stevens busied himself with innumerable tasks.

Another week elapsed, during which time the concerted efforts of the scientists were devoted to a duplication of the various principal cells of the nervous system and brain. They worked with amazing speed and accuracy, did these men.

"It wouldn't do, Gary," Doctor Santurn remarked, "to bring that human ovum to life next month, only to have it turn out an imbecile. I am going to make sure there'll be the nucleus of a sound brain within its cranium after we bring it into being."

Mason smiled, despite the impulse to rend and tear.

He could not, however, look into the Doctor's eyes for fear of disclosing his true feelings, as he murmured false phrases of approbation.

Mason had learned to dissimulate.

ORN and haggard from the conflict of forces which raged within him, the elderly archaeologist gave up all thought of the outer world, his every desire centering on accomplishing the destruction of the work and workers of the Plateau Laboratories.

He almost screamed aloud in horror at the artificial birth of the baby, which took place in Doctor Santurn's main laboratory a month later.

The ovum, which had been subjected to activating treatment under the ray months before, and had been in Johnssen's incubator all this while, was now a full-term foetus and needed but the final exposure to the action of the ray to bring to life a lustily bawling youngster.

Before Johnssen, with almost maternal solici-