The Soul-Snatcher
_By Tom Curry_
_He began to twist and turn, as though torn by someinvisible force._]
From twenty miles away stabbed the "atom-filtering" rays to Allen Baker in his cell in the death house.
The shrill voice of a woman stabbed the steady hum of the many machinesin the great, semi-darkened laboratory. It was the onslaught of weakfemininity against the ebony shadow of Jared, the silent negro servantof Professor Ramsey Burr. Not many people were able to get to the famousman against his wishes; Jared obeyed orders implicitly and was generallyan efficient barrier.
"I will see him, I will," screamed the middle-aged woman. "I'm Mrs. MaryBaker, and he--he--it's his fault my son is going to die. His fault._Professor! Professor Burr!_"
Jared was unable to keep her quiet.
Coming in from the sunlight, her eyes were not yet accustomed to thestrange, subdued haze of the laboratory, an immense chamber crammed fullof equipment, the vista of which seemed like an apartment in hell.Bizarre shapes stood out from the mass of impedimenta, great stillswhich rose full two stories in height, dynamos, immense tubes of coloredliquids, a hundred puzzles to the inexpert eye.
The small, plump figure of Mrs. Baker was very out of place in thissetting. Her voice was poignant, reedy. A look at her made it evidentthat she was a conventional, good woman. She had soft, cloudy goldeneyes and a pathetic mouth, and she seemed on the point of tears.
"Madam, madam, de doctor is busy," whispered Jared, endeavoring to shooher out of the laboratory with his polite hands. He was respectful, butfirm.
She refused to obey. She stopped when she was within a few feet of theactivity in the laboratory, and stared with fear and horror at thecenter of the room, and at its occupant, Professor Burr, whom she hadaddressed during her flurried entrance.
The professor's face, as he peered at her, seemed like a disembodiedstare, for she could see only eyes behind a mask of lavender gray glasseyeholes, with its flapping ends of dirty, gray-white cloth.
She drew in a deep breath--and gasped, for the pungent fumes, acrid andpenetrating, of sulphuric and nitric acids, stabbed her lungs. It waslike the breath of hell, to fit the simile, and aptly Professor Burrseemed the devil himself, manipulating the infernal machines.
* * * * *
Acting swiftly, the tall figure stepped over and threw two switches in asingle, sweeping movement. The vermillion light which had lived in along row of tubes on a nearby bench abruptly ceased to writhe like somany tongues of flame, and the embers of hell died out.
Then the professor flooded the room in harsh gray-green light, andstopped the high-pitched, humming whine of his dynamos. A shadow picturewrithing on the wall, projected from a lead-glass barrel, disappearedsuddenly, the great color filters and other machines lost theirsemblance of horrible life, and a regretful sigh seemed to come from themetal creatures as they gave up the ghost.
To the woman, it had been entering the abode of fear. She could notrestrain her shudders. But she bravely confronted the tall figure ofProfessor Burr, as he came forth to greet her.
He was extremely tall and attenuated, with a red, bony mask of a facepointed at the chin by a sharp little goatee. Feathery blond hair,silvered and awry, covered his great head.
"Madam," said Burr in a gentle, disarmingly quiet voice, "your manner ofentrance might have cost you your life. Luckily I was able to deflectthe rays from your person, else you might not now be able to voice yourcomplaint--for such seems to be your purpose in coming here." He turnedto Jared, who was standing close by. "Very well, Jared. You may go.After this, it will be as well to throw the bolts, though in this case Iam quite willing to see the visitor."
Jared slid away, leaving the plump little woman to confront the famousscientist.
For a moment, Mrs. Baker stared into the pale gray eyes, the pupils ofwhich seemed black as coal by contrast. Some, his bitter enemies,claimed that Professor Ramsey Burr looked cold and bleak as an iceberg,others that he had a baleful glare. His mouth was grim and determined.
* * * * *
Yet, with her woman's eyes, Mrs. Baker, looking at the professor's bonymask of a face, with the high-bridged, intrepid nose, the passionlessgray eyes, thought that Ramsey Burr would be handsome, if a little lesscadaverous and more human.
"The experiment which you ruined by your untimely entrance," continuedthe professor, "was not a safe one."
His long white hand waved toward the bunched apparatus, but to her tothe room seemed all glittering metal coils of snakelike wire, ruddycopper, dull lead, and tubes of all shapes. Hell cauldrons of unknownchemicals seethed and slowly bubbled, beetle-black bakelite fixturesreflected the hideous light.
"Oh," she cried, clasping her hands as though she addressed him inprayer, "forget your science, Professor Burr, and be a man. Help me.Three days from now my boy, my son, whom I love above all the world, isto die."
"Three days is a long time," said Professor Burr calmly. "Do not losehope: I have no intention of allowing your son, Allen Baker, to pay theprice for a deed of mine. I freely confess it was I who was responsiblefor the death of--what was the person's name?--Smith, I believe."
"It was you who made Allen get poor Mr. Smith to agree to theexperiments which killed him, and which the world blamed on my son," shesaid. "They called it the deed of a scientific fiend, Professor Burr,and perhaps they are right. But Allen is innocent."
"Be quiet," ordered Burr, raising his hand. "Remember, madam, your sonAllen is only a commonplace medical man, and while I taught him a littlefrom my vast store of knowledge, he was ignorant and of much less valueto science and humanity than myself. Do you not understand, can you notcomprehend, also, that the man Smith was a martyr to science? He was noloss to mankind, and only sentimentalists could have blamed anyone forhis death. I should have succeeded in the interchange of atoms which wewere working on, and Smith would at this moment be hailed as the firstman to travel through space in invisible form, projected on radio waves,had it not been for the fact that the alloy which conducts the threetypes of sinusoidal failed me and burned out. Yes, it was an error incalculation, and Smith would now be called the Lindbergh of the Atom butfor that. Yet Smith has not died in vain, for I have finally correctedthis error--science is but trial and correction of error--and all willbe well."
"But Allen--Allen must not die at all!" she cried. "For weeks he hasbeen in the death house: it is killing me. The Governor refuses him apardon, nor will he commute my son's sentence. In three days he is todie in the electric chair, for a crime which you admit you alone areresponsible for. Yet you remain in your laboratory, immersed in yourexperiments, and do nothing, nothing!"
* * * * *
The tears came now, and she sobbed hysterically. It seemed that she wasmaking an appeal to someone in whom she had only a forlorn hope.
"Nothing?" repeated Burr, pursing his thin lips. "Nothing? Madam, I havedone everything. I have, as I have told you, perfected the experiment.It is successful. Your son has not suffered in vain, and Smith's namewill go down with the rest of science's martyrs as one who died for thesake of humanity. But if you wish to save your son, you must be calm.You must listen to what I have to say, and you must not fail to carryout my instructions to the letter. I am ready now."
Light, the light of hope, sprang in the mother's eyes. She grasped hisarm and stared at him with shining face, through tear-dipped eyelashes.
"Do--do you mean it? Can you save him? After the Governor has refusedme? What can you do? No influence will snatch Allen from the jaws of thelaw: the public is greatly excited and very hostile toward him."
A quiet smile played at the corners of Burr's thin lips.
"Come," he said. "Place this cloak about you. Allen wore it when heassisted me."
The professor replaced his own mask and conducted the woman into theinterior of the laboratory.
"I will show you," said Profes
sor Burr.
She saw before her now, on long metal shelves which appeared to bedelicately poised on fine scales whose balance was registered byhair-line indicators, two small metal cages.
Professor Burr stepped over to a row of common cages set along the wall.There was a small menagerie there, guinea pigs--the martyrs of theanimal kingdom--rabbits, monkeys, and some cats.
* * * * *
The man of science reached in and dragged out a mewing cat, placing itin the right-hand cage on the strange table. He then obtained a smallmonkey and put this animal in the left-hand cage, beside the cat. Thecat, on the right, squatted on its haunches, mewing in pique and lookingup at its tormentor. The monkey, after a quick look around, began toinvestigate the upper reaches of its new cage.
Over each of the animals was suspended a fine, curious metallicarmament. For several minutes, while the woman, puzzled at how thisdemonstration was to affect the rescue of her condemned son, waitedimpatiently, the professor deftly worked at the apparatus, connectingwires here and there.
"I am ready now," said Burr. "Watch the two animals carefully."
"Yes, yes," she replied, faintly, for she was half afraid.
The great scientist was stooping over, looking at the balances of theindicators through microscopes.
She saw him reach for his switches, and then a brusk order caused her toturn her eyes back to the animals, the cat in the right-hand cage, themonkey at the left.
Both animals screamed in fear, and a sympathetic chorus sounded from themenagerie, as a long purple spark danced from one gray metal pole to theother, over the cages on the table.
At first, Mrs. Baker noticed no change. The spark had died, theprofessor's voice, unhurried, grave, broke the silence.
"The first part of the experiment is over," he said. "The ego--"
"Oh, heavens!" cried the woman. "You've driven the poor creatures mad!"
* * * * *
She indicated the cat. That animal was clawing at the top bars of itscage, uttering a bizarre, chattering sound, somewhat like a monkey. Thecat hung from the bars, swinging itself back and forth as on a trapeze,then reached up and hung by its hind claws.
As for the monkey, it was squatting on the floor of its cage, and itmade a strange sound in its throat, almost a mew, and it hissed severaltimes at the professor.
"They are not mad," said Burr. "As I was explaining to you, I havefinished the first portion of the experiment. The ego, or personality ofone animal has been taken out and put into the other."
She was unable to speak. He had mentioned madness: was he, ProfessorRamsey Burr, crazy? It was likely enough. Yet--yet the whole thing, inthese surroundings, seemed plausible. As she hesitated about speaking,watching with fascinated eyes the out-of-character behavior of the twobeasts, Burr went on.
"The second part follows at once. Now that the two egos haveinterchanged, I will shift the bodies. When it is completed, the monkeywill have taken the place of the cat, and vice versa. Watch."
He was busy for some time with his levers, and the smell of ozonereached Mrs. Baker's nostrils as she stared with horrified eyes at theanimals.
She blinked. The sparks crackled madly, the monkey mewed, the catchattered.
Were her eyes going back on her? She could see neither animaldistinctly: they seemed to be shaking in some cosmic disturbance, andwere but blurs. This illusion--for to her, it seemed it must beoptical--persisted, grew worse, until the quaking forms of the twounfortunate creatures were like so much ectoplasm in swift motion,ghosts whirling about in a dark room.
Yet she could see the cages quite distinctly, and the table and even theindicators of the scales. She closed her eyes for a moment. The acridodors penetrated to her lungs, and she coughed, opening her eyes.
* * * * *
Now she could see clearly again. Yes, she could see a monkey, and it wasclimbing, quite naturally about its cage; it was excited, but a monkey.And the cat, while protesting mightily, acted like a cat.
Then she gasped. Had her mind, in the excitement, betrayed her? Shelooked at Professor Burr. On his lean face there was a smile of triumph,and he seemed to be awaiting her applause.
She looked again at the two cages. Surely, at first the cat had been inthe right-hand cage, and the monkey in the left! And now, the monkey wasin the place where the cat had been and the cat had been shifted to theleft-hand cage.
"So it was with Smith, when the alloys burned out," said Burr. "It isimpossible to extract the ego or dissolve the atoms and translate theminto radio waves unless there is a connection with some other ego andbody, for in such a case the translated soul and body would have noplace to go. Luckily, for you, madam, it was the man Smith who waskilled when the alloys failed me. It might have been Allen, for he wasthe second pole of the connection."
"But," she began faintly, "how can this mad experiment have anything todo with saving my boy?"
He waved impatiently at her evident denseness. "Do you not understand?It is so I will save Allen, your son. I shall first switch our egos, orsouls, as you say. Then switch the bodies. It must always take thissequence; why, I have not ascertained. But it always works thus."
Mrs. Baker was terrified. What she had just seen, smacked of theblackest magic--yet a woman in her position must grasp at straws. Theworld blamed her son for the murder of Smith, a man Professor Burr hadmade use of as he might a guinea pig, and Allen must be snatched fromthe death house.
"Do--do you mean you can bring Allen from the prison here--just bythrowing those switches?" she asked.
"That is it. But there is more to it than that, for it is not magic,madam; it is science, you understand, and there must be some physicalconnection. But with your help, that can easily be made."
* * * * *
Professor Ramsey Burr, she knew, was the greatest electrical engineerthe world had ever known. And he stood high as a physicist. Nothinghindered him in the pursuit of knowledge, they said. He knew no fear,and he lived on an intellectual promontory. He was so great that healmost lost sight of himself. To such a man, nothing was impossible.Hope, wild hope, sprang in Mary Baker's heart, and she grasped the bonyhand of the professor and kissed it.
"Oh, I believe, I believe," she cried. "You can do it. You can saveAllen. I will do anything, anything you tell me to."
"Very well. You visit your son daily at the death house, do you not?"
She nodded; a shiver of remembrance of that dread spot passed throughher.
"Then you will tell him the plan and let him agree to see me the nightpreceding the electrocution. I will give him final instructions as tothe exchange of bodies. When my life spirit, or ego, is confined in yourson's body in the death house, Allen will be able to perform the feat ofchanging the bodies, and your son's flesh will join his soul, which willhave been temporarily inhabiting my own shell. Do you see? When theyfind me in the cell where they suppose your son to be, they will beunable to explain the phenomenon; they can do nothing but release me.Your son will go here, and can be whisked away to a safe place ofconcealment."
"Yes, yes. What am I to do besides this?"
Professor Burr pulled out a drawer near at hand, and from it extracted afolded garment of thin, shiny material.
"This is metal cloth coated with the new alloy," he said, in a matter offact tone. He rummaged further, saying as he did so, "I expected youwould be here to see me, and I have been getting ready for your visit.All is prepared, save a few odds and ends which I can easily clean up inthe next two days. Here are four cups which Allen must place under eachleg of his bed, and this delicate little director coil you must takeespecial pains with. It is to be slipped under your son's tongue at thetime appointed."
* * * * *
She was staring at him still, half in fear, half in wonder, yet shecould not feel any doubt of the man's miraculous powers. Somehow, whilehe talked to her and
rested those cold eyes upon her, she was under thespell of the great scientist. Her son, before the trouble into which hehad been dragged by the professor, had often hinted at the abilities ofRamsey Burr, given her the idea that his employer was practically anecromancer, yet a magician whose advanced scientific knowledge wascorrect and explainable in the light of reason.
Yes, Allen had talked to her often when he was at home, resting from hislabors with Professor Burr. He had spoken of the new electricitydiscovered by the famous man, and also told his mother that Burr hadfound a method of separating atoms and then transforming them into aform of radio-electricity so that they could be sent in radio waves, todesignated points. And she now remembered--the swift trial andconviction of Allen on the charge of murder had occupied her so deeplythat she had forgotten all else for the time being--that her son hadinformed her quite seriously that Professor Ramsey Burr would soon beable to transport human beings by radio.
"Neither of us will be injured in any way by the change," said Burrcalmly. "It is possible for me now to break up human flesh, send theatoms by radio-electricity, and reassemble them in their proper form bythese special transformers and atom filters."
Mrs. Baker took all the apparatus presented her by the professor. Sheventured the thought that it might be better to perform the experimentat once, instead of waiting until the last minute, but this ProfessorBurr waved aside as impossible. He needed the extra time, he said, andthere was no hurry.
She glanced about the room, and her eye took in the giant switches ofcopper with their black handles; there were others of a gray-green metalshe did not recognize. Many dials and meters, strange to her, confrontedthe little woman. These things, she felt with a rush of gratitude towardthe inanimate objects, would help to save her son, so they interestedher and she began to feel kindly toward the great machines.
* * * * *
Would Professor Burr be able to save Allen as he claimed? Yes, shethought, he could. She would make Allen consent to the trial of it, eventhough her son had cursed the scientist and cried he would never speakto Ramsey Burr again.
She was escorted from the home of the professor by Jared, and going outinto the bright, sunlit street, blinked as her eyes adjusted themselvesto the daylight after the queer light of the laboratory. In a bundle shehad a strange suit and the cups; her purse held the tiny coil, wrappedin cotton.
How could she get the authorities to consent to her son having the suit?The cups and the coil she might slip to him herself. She decided that amother would be allowed to give her son new underwear. Yes, she wouldsay it was that.
She started at once for the prison. Professor Burr's laboratory was buttwenty miles from the cell where her son was incarcerated.
As she rode on the train, seeing people in everyday attire, commonplaceoccurrences going on about her, the spell of Professor Burr faded, andcold reason stared her in the face. Was it nonsense, this idea oftransporting bodies through the air, in invisible waves? Yet, she wasold-fashioned; the age of miracles had not passed for her. Radio, inwhich pictures and voices could be sent on wireless waves, wasunexplainable to her. Perhaps--
She sighed, and shook her head. It was hard to believe. It was also hardto believe that her son was in deadly peril, condemned to death as a"scientific fiend."
Here was her station. A taxi took her to the prison, and after a talkwith the warden, finally she stood there, before the screen throughwhich she could talk to Allen, her son.
"Mother!"
Her heart lifted, melted within her. It was always thus when he spoke."Allen," she whispered softly.
They were allowed to talk undisturbed.
"Professor Burr wishes to help you," she said, in a low voice.
* * * * *
Her son, Allen Baker, M. D., turned eyes of misery upon her. His ruddyhair was awry. This young man was imaginative and could therefore sufferdeeply. He had the gift of turning platitudes into puzzles, and hishazel eyes were lit with an elfin quality, which, if possible, endearedhim the more to his mother. All his life he had been the greatest thingin the world to this woman. To see him in such straits tore her veryheart. When he had been a little boy, she had been able to make joyappear in those eyes by a word and a pat; now that he was a man, thematter was more difficult, but she had always done her best.
"I cannot allow Professor Burr to do anything for me," he said dully."It is his fault that I am here."
"But Allen, you must listen, listen carefully. Professor Burr can saveyou. He says it was all a mistake, the alloy was wrong. He has not comeforward before, because he knew he would be able to iron out the troubleif he had time, and thus snatch you from this terrible place."
She put as much confidence into her voice as she could. She must, toenhearten her son. Anything to replace that look of suffering with oneof hope. She would believe, she did believe. The bars, the great massesof stone which enclosed her son would be as nothing. He would passthrough them, unseen, unheard.
For a time, Allen spoke bitterly of Ramsey Burr, but his mother pleadedwith him, telling him it was his only chance, and that the deviltryAllen suspected was imaginary.
"He--he killed Smith in such an experiment," said Allen. "I took theblame, as you know, though I only followed his instructions. But you sayhe claims to have found the correct alloys?"
"Yes. And this suit, you must put it on. But Professor Burr himself willbe here to see you day after to-morrow, the day preceding the--the--"She bit her lip, and got out the dreaded word, "the electrocution. Butthere won't be any electrocution, Allen; no, there cannot be. You willbe safe, safe in my arms." She had to fight now to hold her belief inthe miracle which Burr had promised. The solid steel and stone dismayedher brain.
* * * * *
The new alloy seemed to interest Allen Baker. His mother told him of theexchange of the monkey and the cat, and he nodded excitedly, growingmore and more restive, and his eyes began to shine with hope andcuriosity.
"I have told the warden about the suit, saying it was something I madefor you myself," she said, in a low voice. "You must pretend the coiland the cups are things you desire for your own amusement. You know,they have allowed you a great deal of latitude, since you are educatedand need diversion."
"Yes, yes. There may be some difficulty, but I will overcome that. TellBurr to come. I'll talk with him and he can instruct me in the finaldetails. It is better than waiting here like a rat in a trap. I havebeen afraid of going mad, mother, but this buoys me up."
He smiled at her, and her heart sang in the joy of relief.
How did the intervening days pass? Mrs. Baker could not sleep, couldscarcely eat, she could do nothing but wait, wait, wait. She watched themeeting of her son and Ramsey Burr, on the day preceding the date setfor the execution.
"Well, Baker," said Burr nonchalantly, nodding to his former assistant."How are you?"
"You see how I am," said Allen, coldly.
"Yes, yes. Well, listen to what I have to say and note it carefully.There must be no slip. You have the suit, the cups and the directorcoil? You must keep the suit on, the cups go under the legs of the cotyou lie on. The director under your tongue."
The professor spoke further with Allen, instructing him in scientificterms which the woman scarcely comprehended.
"To-night, then at eleven-thirty," said Burr, finally. "Be ready."
* * * * *
Allen nodded. Mrs. Baker accompanied Burr from the prison.
"You--you will let me be with you?" she begged.
"It is hardly necessary," said the professor.
"But I must. I must see Allen the moment he is free, to make sure he isall right. Then, I want to be able to take him away. I have a place inwhich we can hide, and as soon as he is rescued he must be taken out ofsight."
"Very well," said Burr, shrugging. "It is immaterial to me, so long asyou do not interfere with the course of the ex
periment. You must sitperfectly still, you must not speak until Allen stands before you andaddresses you."
"Yes, I will obey you," she promised.
Mrs. Baker watched Professor Ramsey Burr eat his supper. Burr himselfwas not in the least perturbed; it was wonderful, she thought, that hecould be so calm. To her, it was the great moment, the moment when herson would be saved from the jaws of death.
Jared carried a comfortable chair into the laboratory and she sat in it,quiet as a mouse, in one corner of the room.
It was nine o'clock, and Professor Burr was busy with his preparations.She knew he had been working steadily for the past few days. She grippedthe arms of her chair, and her heart burned within her.
The professor was making sure of his apparatus. He tested this bulb andthat, and carefully inspected the curious oscillating platform, overwhich was suspended a thickly bunched group of gray-green wire, whichwas seemingly an antenna. The numerous indicators and implements seemedto be satisfactory, for at quarter after eleven Burr gave an exclamationof pleasure and nodded to himself.
Burr seemed to have forgotten the woman. He spoke aloud occasionally,but not to her, as he drew forth a suit made of the same metal cloth asAllen must have on at this moment.
* * * * *
The tension was terrific, terrific for the mother, who was awaiting theculmination of the experiment which would rescue her son from theelectric chair--or would it fail? She shuddered. What if Burr were mad?
But look at him, she was sure he was sane, as sane as she was.
"He will succeed," she murmured, digging her nails into the palms of herhands. "I _know_ he will."
She pushed aside the picture of what would happen on the morrow, but afew hours distant, when Allen, her son, was due to be led to a legaldeath in the electric chair.
Professor Burr placed the shiny suit upon his lank form, and she saw himput a duplicate coil, the same sort of small machine which Allenpossessed, under his tongue.
The Mephistophelian figure consulted a matter-of-fact watch; at thatmoment, Mrs. Baker heard, above the hum of the myriad machines in thelaboratory, the slow chiming of a clock. It was the moment set for thedeed.
Then, she feared the professor was insane, for he suddenly leaped to thehigh bench of the table on which stood one of the oscillating platforms.
Wires led out from this, and Burr sat gently upon it, a strange figurein the subdued light.
Professor Burr, however, she soon saw, was not insane. No, this was partof it. He was reaching for switches near at hand, and bulbs began toglow with unpleasant light, needles on indicators swung madly, and atlast, Professor Burr kicked over a giant switch, which seemed to be thefinal movement.
For several seconds the professor did not move. Then his body grewrigid, and he twisted a few times. His face, though not drawn in pain,yet twitched galvanically, as though actuated by slight jabs ofelectricity.
* * * * *
The many tubes fluoresced, flared up in pulsing waves of violet andpink: there were gray bars of invisibility or areas of air in whichnothing visible showed. There came the faint, crackling hum of machineryrather like a swarm of wasps in anger. Blue and gray thread of fire spatacross the antenna. The odor of ozone came to Mrs. Baker's nostrils,and the acid odors burned her lungs.
She was staring at him, staring at the professor's face. She half rosefrom her chair, and uttered a little cry.
The eyes had changed, no longer were they cold, impersonal, the eyes ofa man who prided himself on the fact that he kept his arteries soft andhis heart hard; they were loving, soft eyes.
"Allen," she cried.
Yes, without doubt, the eyes of her son were looking at her out of thebody of Professor Ramsey Burr.
"Mother," he said gently. "Don't be alarmed. It is successful. I amhere, in Professor Burr's body."
"Yes," she cried, hysterically. It was too weird to believe. It seemeddim to her, unearthly.
"Are you all right, darling?" she asked timidly.
"Yes. I felt nothing beyond a momentary giddy spell, a bit of nausea andmental stiffness. It was strange, and I have a slight headache. However,all is well."
He grinned at her, laughed with the voice which was not his, yet whichshe recognized as directed by her son's spirit. The laugh was crackedand unlike Allen's whole-hearted mirth, yet she smiled in sympathy.
"Yes, the first part is a success," said the man. "Our egos haveinterchanged. Soon, our bodies will undergo the transformation, and thenI must keep under cover. I dislike Burr--yet he is a great man. He hassaved me. I suppose the slight headache which I feel is one bequeathedme by Burr. I hope he inherits my shivers and terrors and the neuralgiafor the time being, so he will get some idea of what I have undergone."
He had got down from the oscillating platform, the spirit of her son inRamsey's body.
"What--what are you doing now?" she asked.
"I must carry out the rest of it myself," he said. "Burr directed mewhen we talked yesterday. It is more difficult when one subject is outof the laboratory, and the tubes must be checked."
* * * * *
He went carefully about his work, and she saw him replacing four of thetubes with others, new ones, which were ready at hand. Though it was thebody of Ramsey Burr, the movements were different from the slow, precisework of the professor, and more and more, she realized that her soninhabited the shell before her.
For a moment, the mother thought of attempting to dissuade her son frommaking the final change; was it not better thus, than to chance thedisintegration of the bodies? Suppose something went wrong, and theexchange did not take place, and her son, that is, his spirit, went backto the death house?
Midnight struck as he worked feverishly at the apparatus, the long facecorrugated as he checked the dials and tubes. He worked swiftly, butevidently was following a procedure which he had committed to memory,for he was forced to pause often to make sure of himself.
"Everything is O. K.," said the strange voice at last. He consulted hiswatch. "Twelve-thirty," he said.
She bit her lip in terror, as he cried, "Now!" and sprang to the tableto take his place on the metallic platform, which oscillated to and frounder his weight. The delicate grayish metal antenna, which, she knew,would form a glittering halo of blue and gray threads of fire, restedquiescent above his head.
"This is the last thing," he said calmly, as he reached for the bigebony handled switch. "I'll be myself in a few minutes, mother."
"Yes, son, yes."
The switch connected, and Allen Baker, in the form of Ramsey Burr,suddenly cried out in pain. His mother leaped up to run to his side, buthe waved her away. She stood, wringing her hands, as he began to twistand turn, as though torn by some invisible force. Eery screams camefrom the throat of the man on the platform, and Mrs. Baker's cries ofsympathy mingled with them.
* * * * *
The mighty motors hummed in a high-pitched, unnatural whine, andsuddenly Mrs. Baker saw the tortured face before her grow dim. Thecountenance of the professor seemed to melt, and then there came a dull,muffled thud, a burst of white-blue flame, the odor of burning rubberand the tinkle of broken glass.
Back to the face came the clarity of outline, and still it was ProfessorRamsey Burr's body she stared at.
Her son, in the professor's shape, climbed from the platform, and lookedabout him as though dazed. An acrid smoke filled the room, and burninginsulation assailed the nostrils.
Desperately, without looking at her, his lips set in a determined line,the man went hurriedly over the apparatus again.
"Have I forgotten, did I do anything wrong?" she heard his anguishedcry.
Two tubes were burned out, and these he replaced as swiftly as possible.But he was forced to go all over the wiring, and cut out whatever hadbeen short-circuited so that it could be hooked up anew with uninjuredwire.
Before he was ready t
o resume his seat on the platform, after half anhour of feverish haste, a knock came on the door.
The person outside was imperative, and Mrs. Baker ran over and openedthe portal. Jared, the whites of his eyes shining in the dim light,stood there. "De professah--tell him dat de wahden wishes to talk withhim. It is very important, ma'am."
The body of Burr, inhabited by Allen's soul, pushed by her, and shefollowed falteringly, wringing her hands. She saw the tall figure snatchat the receiver and listen.
"Oh, God," he cried.
At last, he put the receiver back on the hook, automatically, and sankdown in a chair, his face in his hands.
* * * * *
Mrs. Baker went to him quickly. "What is it, Allen?" she cried.
"Mother," he said hoarsely, "it was the warden of the prison. He told methat Allen Baker had gone temporarily insane, and claimed to beProfessor Ramsey Burr in my body."
"But--but what is the matter?" she asked. "Cannot you finish theexperiment, Allen? Can't you change the two bodies now?"
He shook his head. "Mother--they electrocuted Ramsey Burr in my body attwelve forty-five to-night!"
She screamed. She was faint, but she controlled herself with a greateffort.
"But the electrocution was not to be until morning," she said.
Allen shook his head. "They are allowed a certain latitude, about twelvehours," he said. "Burr protested up to the last moment, and begged fortime."
"Then--then they must have come for him and dragged him forth to die inthe electric chair while you were attempting the second part of thechange," she said.
"Yes. That was why it failed. That's why the tubes and wires burned outand why we couldn't exchange bodies. It began to succeed, then I couldfeel something terrible had happened. It was impossible to complete theBeta circuit, which short-circuited. They took him from the cell, do yousee, while I was starting the exchange of the atoms."
* * * * *
For a time, the mother and her boy sat staring at one another. She sawthe tall, eccentric figure of Ramsey Burr before her, yet she saw alsothe soul of her son within that form. The eyes were Allen's, the voicewas soft and loving, and his spirit was with her.
"Come, Allen, my son," she said softly.
"Burr paid the price," said Allen, shaking his head. "He became a martyrto science."
The world has wondered why Professor Ramsey Burr, so much in theheadlines as a great scientist, suddenly gave up all his experiments andtook up the practice of medicine.
Now that the public furor and indignation over the death of the manSmith has died down, sentimentalists believe that Ramsey Burr hasreformed and changed his icy nature, for he manifests great affectionand care for Mrs. Mary Baker, the mother of the electrocuted man who hadbeen his assistant.
+--------------------------------------+ | BY NO MEANS | | _Miss the Opening Installment of | | the Extraordinary Four-Part Novel_ | | MURDER MADNESS | | _By Murray Leinster_ | | | | _Starting In Our Next Issue_ | +--------------------------------------+
Astounding Stories of Super-Science April 1930 Page 26
