Page:Weird Tales Volume 13 Number 1 (1929-01).djvu/59

 hang suspended in the ether like a morning star. My will is greater than any physical force, because I believe in it: I have confidence in my own ability to do whatever I wish. So far, I have conducted myself like an average man because of my desire and not on account of my limitations. Man has a soul, and that ethereal force is greater than any law of nature that he ever thought of, or of any that God ever created. He is purely and totally supreme—if he so desires."

It was after such a challenge to us, and the universe, that our chemist, Bullard, gathered courage to challenge his power. He stated his opinion sharply and to the point:

"I do not believe you."

"What is that to me?" answered the professor.

“Simply this. You make a statement of certain powers that you have. I say that it is not true. Of what good is it to boast if you know that we think you a liar? Can you do these things? If you can, do them for us, and I for one will call you greater than God. Fail to do them, and I brand you as a boasting liar."

The professor looked at the chemist, and we, breathlessly, waited for the blow to fall. But he only laughed.

"You want a sign? A proof? I have thought of just such a thing, and I would have proposed it myself had one of you not asked for it. The thing must be visible to you all, something that I can demonstrate, a thing unheard of, a thing thought by all men to be impossible, and yet I will do it. Listen to me.

"You have all seen the jelly-fish, called the Bishop's Miter. When it is magnified three hundred times under the microscope, it looks like a small balloon with a large opening at one end. It propels its way through the water by the flagellate movement of its cilia. The walls are translucent and transparent. At the top there are two specialized groups of nerve cells which we believe may serve as eyes. The opening at the bottom serves as a mouth. Smaller cells enter there and are absorbed. I describe it to refresh your memory, though all of you have seen it. I will secure one in a hanging drop under the microscope, and then we will attach the camera and cinema to it. We will project the picture on our screen. You will see the Miter move and live; you will observe the cilia move.

"While we have the actual specimen under observation, I will look at it through the microscope. Then I will demonstrate to you that I am not the idle boaster that you think I am. I will perform an experiment that will win for me the name of the greatest scientist that has ever lived."

When he had told us the nature of it we were too much astonished to reply. It seemed evident that the man had become insane. He smiled at us as though we were children.

After waiting for an answer and seeing that we had none to give, he began to prepare the apparatus for the experiment. Finally all was to his satisfaction. After examining several drops of water from our specimen jar, he was able to imprison a Bishop's Miter in the hanging drop under the microscope. He turned on the electricity, and we saw the jelly-fish move upon the screen.

The professor carefully adjusted the apparatus till the organism appeared with more than usual distinctness. We saw the little animal that he had so carefully described to us. We even saw the little projections, which we believed were rudimentary visual organs.

Then Professor Quierling told the cinema operator what he wanted done. He was to take a picture, starting from the time the professor disappeared down the brass tube of the microscope and continuing till he reappeared. No matter what hap-