Page:Weird Tales Volume 3 Number 3 (1923-03).djvu/25

24 story. Here I am—do with me as you will. Life holds nothing more for me, now that—Marjorie—is—gone!"

RUCE'S voice trembled with emotion and broke as he mentioned the name of the girl he loved.

I leaned across the table, and gazed searchingly into the eyes of the abject figure that slouched dejectedly in the big chair. Then I rose, put on my hat and coat, crossed to Bruce, who had buried his head in his arms and was shaking with silent sobs.

"Bruce!"

Malcolm Bruce raised his eyes.

"Bruce, listen to me. Are you sure Marjorie Purdy is dead?"

"Am I sure that—" His eyes widened at the suggestion, and he sat erect with a sudden start.

"Exactly," I went on, "Are you positive that the ashes in that jar were the ashes of Marjorie Purdy?"

"Why—I—see here, Prague! What are you driving at?"

"Then you're not sure. You saw the girl's hat and coat in that chair, and in your state of mind you jumped at conclusions. 'The ashes must be those of the missing girl The Professor must have made away with her' and all that. Come now, did Van Allister tell you anything—"

"I don't know what he said. I tell you I went berserk—mad!"

"Then you come along with me. If she's not dead, she must be somewhere in that house, and is she is there, we're going to find her!"

On the street we hailed a taxi, and in a few moments the butler admitted us to Van Allister’s home. Bruce let us into the laboratory with his key. The door of the workshop was still ajar.

My eyes swept the room in a comprehensive survey. At the left, over near the window, was a closed door. I strode across the room and tried the knob, but it refused to yield.

"Where does that lead?"

"Just an anteroom, where the Professor keeps his apparatus."

"All the same, that door's coming open," I returned, grimly. Stepping back a pace or two, I planted a well-directed kick upon the door. Another, and still another, and the frame-work around the lock gave way.

Bruce, with an inarticulate cry, sped across the room to a huge mahogany chest. He selected one of the keys on his ring, inserted it in the lock, and flung back the cover with trembling hands.

"Here she is, Prague—quick! Get her out where there's air!"

Together we bore the limp figure of the girl into the laboratory. Bruce hastily mixed a concoction which he forced between her lips. A second dose, and her eyes slowly opened.

Her bewildered glance traveled around the room, at last resting on Bruce, and her eyes lighted with sudden, happy recognition. Later, after the first few moments of reunion, the girl told us her story:

"After Malcolm went out, this afternoon, the Professor sent word to me to come into the workshop. As he often summoned me to do some errand or other, I thought nothing of it, and to save time, took my hat and coat along. He closed the door of the little room, and, without warning, attacked me from behind. He overpowered me, tied me hand and foot. It was needless to gag me. As you know, the laboratory is absolutely sound-proof.

"Then he produced a huge Newfoundland dog he had secured from somewhere or other, reduced it to ashes before my very eyes, and put the ashes in a glass jar that was on a tabourette in the workshop.

“He went into the anteroom and, from the chest where you found me, took out the glass casket. At least, it seemed a casket to my terror-stricken eyes! He mixed enough of his horrible liquid to fill it almost to the brim.

"Then he told me that but one thing remained. That was—to perform the experiment upon a human being!" She shuddered at the recollection. "He dilated at length upon what a privilege it would be for anyone to sacrifice his life in such a manner, for such a cause. Then he calmly informed me that he had selected you as the subject of his experiment, and that I was to play the role of witness! I fainted.

"The Professor must have feared some sort of intrusion, for the next I remember is waking inside the chest where you discovered me. It was stifling! Every breath I took came harder and harder. I thought of you, Malcolm—thought of the wonderful, happy hours we had spent together the last few days. I wondered what I would do when you were gone! I ever prayed that he would kill me, too! My throat grew parched and dry—everything went black before my eyes.

"Next, I opened them to find myself here—with you, Malcolm," her voice sank to a hoarse, nervous whisper. "Where—where is the Professor?"

Bruce silently led her into the workshop. She shivered as the coffin of glass came within her range of vision. Still silently, he crossed directly to the casket, and, taking up a handful of the soft, white ashes, let them sift slowly through his fingers! 



OHN MARSHALL, Syracuse bird specialist, offers the latest “sure cure” for nervous disorders. His remedy is goldfish. Marshall advances the theory that the sight of a goldfish swimming calmly around in its tiny bowl is a certain remedy for nervous ills.

Not only that. The finny fish will induce thought and contemplation. It is also a guaranteed remedy for insomnia, and hospitals are among the largest purchasers of goldfish, Marshall says.

If you are unable to think, Marshall recommends a goldfish treatment. Place the fish in your parlor window. Seat yourself beside the bowl and watch the leisurely travels of the radiant swimmer. A soothed, relaxed condition will ensue. Contemplation will produce ratiocination, and—lo!—the patient has a genuine thought.

The same process applied to insomnia will produce sleep on the heels of the soothed, contemplative feeling, Marshall claims.

The goldfish, incidentally, is displacing all other rivals for leadership of the pet kingdom. With the approach of winter, dogs, the open-season kings of pet demand, are less and less sought, and the pet lover's desire turns toward canaries, macaws and parrots, but particularly to goldfish. 