Page:Weird Tales Volume 10 Number 2 (1927-08).djvu/101

 on the animals. Perhaps the human body needs a greater percentage of the ether. We've always got to experiment on the human in the last test, you know, harsh as it sounds. Else, how can we know? But I rather fancy that'Doc's hypothesis is pretty nearly correct."

"We're going to believe that, anyway," Whittly asserted positively. "And we're going to strive to forget oUrSelves for a while in taking care of Henry."

"Can't we get him out of the house?"t Cloud suggested. "Wouldn't it be better if Saul didn't see him here when he returns? We can't bury him tonight, but at least we can move him from here. We could take him to your office temporarily. I could go get the car. If Saul came back before we did he wouldn't miss the auto—he never uses it, you know. He'd rather walk, any time."

"Your suggestion may be a good one, but we don't dare act on it." Whittly glanced at Mrs. Blauvette, hesitating, then decided to give them both full cognizance of what was stirring in the town. "I haven't spoken of it to you before, because there was nothing to be gained by it, and because I didn't think there was any real danger. But the town is fanatically incensed over the mystery that surrounds this laboratory. They are threatening to raise a mob, come out here and burn the buildings down. Let alone, I believe such a sentiment will die out of itself—simply wear itself out. But the people are too badly aroused for us to dare taking any chances. Should anyone see us carrying a dead body away from here in the night, the town would be upon us in an hour. No—we 'll have to keep Henry here, but we'll move him into the laboratory for tonight, where Saul won't see him as he comes into the house. And we'll lock that door to keep Saul out of there." Whittly nodded at the door down the hall, the one door which connected the living rooms with the laboratory.

"Good Lord! I didn't know there was any kind of dissatisfaction with us in the town. Does Saul know?" Cloud looked from Whittly to Mrs. Blauvette, startled.

"He does not. Helene knows, but we agreed it was wisest not to tell him. We both thought he had enough to worry about without our adding to it. And then we both believe it will blow over."

"But what's the matter with them?" Mrs. Blauvette asked sharply. "Saul hasn't been bothering them in any way. He has been attending strictly to his own business."

"Yes, that's just it. He's been attending too strictly to his own business," Whittly returned with dry sarcasm. "They want to attend to it for him. They resent his secrecy. You know how people are in the aggregate, how they look on scientific experimenting. They don't understand. They imagine a thousand and one ghastly impossibilities. Granted, the real experiments are nearly always ghastly enough, but they multiply them tenfold."

"Well, why shouldn't Saul keep his work an absolute secret?" Cloud demanded, irritated at the thought of any intrusion on the part of the populace. "It seems to me it was the only thing to do."

"I quite agree with you." Whittly smiled rather grimly. "But the people don't. They think Saul has been up to all sorts of terrible things, and they're about ready to wreck this place. It's a perfectly logical thing to expect, given the mob spirit once aroused and stirred over something they don't understand. But we're giving the matter too much thought entirely and"

"We're going to give it a little more thought," Cloud cut in. "We need to. Somebody is going to meet with an unpleasant surprize if the