The Beetle: A Mystery
Page 17
CHAPTER XVII
MAGIC?--OR MIRACLE?
The passage into the yard from the electrically lit laboratory was apassage from brilliancy to gloom. The shrouded figure, standing in theshadow, was like some object in a dream. My own senses reeled. It wasonly because I had resolutely held my breath, and kept my face avertedthat I had not succumbed to the fate which had overtaken Woodville. HadI been a moment longer in gaining the open air, it would have been toolate. As it was, in placing Woodville on the ground, I stumbled overhim. My senses left me. Even as they went I was conscious ofexclaiming,--remembering the saying about the engineer being hoist byhis own petard,
'Atherton's Magic Vapour!'
My sensations on returning to consciousness were curious. I foundmyself being supported in someone's arms, a stranger's face was bendingover me, and the most extraordinary pair of eyes I had ever seen werelooking into mine.
'Who the deuce are you?' I asked.
Then, understanding that it was my uninvited visitor, with scantceremony I drew myself away from him. By the light which was streamingthrough the laboratory door I saw that Woodville was lying close besideme,--stark and still.
'Is he dead?' I cried. 'Percy.--speak, man!--it's not so bad with youas that!'
But it was pretty bad,--so bad that, as I bent down and looked at him,my heart beat uncomfortably fast lest it was as bad as it could be. Hisheart seemed still,--the vapour took effect directly on the cardiaccentres. To revive their action and that instantly, was indispensable.Yet my brain was in such a whirl that I could not even think of how toset about beginning. Had I been alone, it is more than probableWoodville would have died. As I stared at him, senselessly, aimlessly,the stranger, passing his arms beneath his body, extended himself atfull length upon his motionless form. Putting his lips to Percy's, heseemed to be pumping life from his own body into the unconscious man's.As I gazed bewildered, surprised, presently there came a movement ofPercy's body. His limbs twitched, as if he was in pain. By degrees, themotions became convulsive,--till on a sudden he bestirred himself tosuch effect that the stranger was rolled right off him. I bentdown,--to find that the young gentleman's condition still seemed veryfar from satisfactory. There was a rigidity about the muscles of hisface, a clamminess about his skin, a disagreeable suggestiveness aboutthe way in which his teeth and the whites of his eyes were exposed,which was uncomfortable to contemplate.
The stranger must have seen what was passing through my mind,--not avery difficult thing to see. Pointing to the recumbent Percy, he said,with that queer foreign twang of his, which, whatever it had seemedlike in the morning, sounded musical enough just then.
'All will be well with him.'
'I am not so sure.'
The stranger did not deign to answer. He was kneeling on one side ofthe victim of modern science, I on the other. Passing his hand to andfro in front of the unconscious countenance, as if by magic allsemblance of discomfort vanished from Percy's features, and, to allappearances, he was placidly asleep.
'Have you hypnotised him?'
'What does it matter?'
If it was a case of hypnotism, it was very neatly done. The conditionswere both unusual and trying, the effect produced seemed all that couldbe desired,--the change brought about in half a dozen seconds was quiteremarkable. I began to be aware of a feeling of quasi-respect for PaulLessingham's friend. His morals might be peculiar, and manners he mighthave none, but in this case, at any rate, the end seemed to havejustified the means. He went on.
'He sleeps. When he awakes he will remember nothing that has been.Leave him,--the night is warm,--all will be well.'
As he said, the night was warm,--and it was dry. Percy would come tolittle harm by being allowed to enjoy, for a while, the pleasantbreezes. So I acted on the stranger's advice, and left him lying in theyard, while I had a little interview with the impromptu physician.