“I’d like to see how you do all this,” Henderson remarked, and at that Downing rose to his feet.
“You shall. It’s essential you should know what to do in case anything happens to me. Come into the lab.”
For nearly two hours the pale-eyed surgeon watched, mutely, the transmutation of uranium into Vonium. Unaccustomed to this branch of science, the giant vacuum tube in which the stuff was created, the humming of power, and the glowing electrodes and numberless electrical contacts held him fascinated.
“There it is!” Downing exclaimed at last, and pointed to the newly-created metal, visibly glowing, pressed immovably against the upper walls of the vacuum-tube. “Tomorrow I shall devise how to make boots.”
“And what of your operation?” the surgeon asked presently. “How long did the specialist give you?”
“A week at the most.” The inventor smiled dryly. “I can do a lot in a week, my friend—and then I shall entrust my body and brain to your capable hands. Between that time and now I will find how to harness Vonium and will write down a full formula, just in case anything happens to me. If anything goes wrong with me—you are to use and perfect the invention. You understand?”
“Yes,” Henderson said, and looked away into the tube. He felt unable to meet his friend’s steady grey eyes.
“I’m not leaving you a white elephant,” Downing resumed presently, as he switched off the various power-machines. “Three representatives of the Federated Alliance Engineering were here yesterday; they saw the possibilities of Vonium and offered me twenty million dollars for the formula. Naturally I turned it down.”
“You turned down twenty million dollars!” the surgeon breathed dazedly.
“Yes, because it is worth at least three time as much… Still, the offer was made, and I suppose it is still open for anybody who takes Federated the formula—thieves included! If the invention should fall into your hands, don’t let Federated have it for anything less than sixty million. Improve on it first. Promise me that!”
“I’ll do what I think is wisest, Downing—be assured of that.”
“All right,” the inventor smiled. “And now, if you’ll pardon me, I must get on with my work. Don’t think me discourteous, but—”
“I quite understand, Downing; I’ll be getting along. When anything important turns up let me know right away. I’ll keep a date open for your operation…”
“Splendid. Goodbye, Henderson.”
Doctor Henderson returned to his home to find a visitor waiting. Grumbling to himself at the presence, presumably, of a patient at so late an hour, he gave instructions for him to be sent into the surgery.
“Good evening, Doctor,” was the visitor’s greeting, and there was a hint of menace in his tone. Henderson looked up with a start; he knew the voice. When he beheld the man’s face he realised that he had seen it before, and not under pleasant conditions, either.
“So it’s you Holroyd!” Henderson murmured, essaying affability. “Well, what can I do for you? What’s your ailment?”
“The lack of one hundred thousand dollars, Doctor,” Holroyd answered grimly. “I’ve given you three opportunities to pay that sum, money which you owe me on gambling losses, and so far you’ve ignored me. I’m a just man, Henderson; I’ve refrained so far from ruining your reputation, but I’m not standing for it much longer. See?”
“Meaning what?” The surgeon’s pale eyes were malignant.
“Pay me the sum you owe—within fourteen days—or else I’ll expose you. It won’t look pretty, Henderson! World’s greatest brain surgeon’s double life—gambling under an alias; owing enormous sums to various people. Known to every gaming house, under a different assumed name each time!”
“You’re a fool. My private life won’t affect my profession. I shall still be the world’s greatest surgeon!”
“Yes?” Holroyd sneered. “You do other things besides gamble, Doctor. Drinking for instance. Oh. I know you take powerful emetics to rid yourself of the stuff before you ever attempt a case, but who’s going to trust themselves again under your knife, knowing that?”
“And where do you expect I’ll get one hundred thousand?” Henderson snapped. “Even to a man of my position that is a considerable sum.”
“I don’t care where you get it—but do it in fourteen days. Either pay me or I’ll revenge myself. The latter course won’t pay my debts for me, of course, but will appease me somewhat Goodnight!”
Henderson blinked as the surgery door slammed; he bit his thin underlip slowly. “One hundred thousand dollars! I knew that blow would fall sooner or later—and I’ve got to find it, too! And to think that that fool Downing turns down twenty million for the love of his art. Twenty millions! By heaven, I just wonder…” He paused, lighted a cigar and gave himself up to meditation…
Three days later Henderson was summoned by an urgent phone call to Downing’s home. He found the inventor jubilant when he joined him in his laboratory.
“Well, Henderson, I’ve done it!” Downing pointed to a pair of military trench-boots, possessing enormously thick soles of lead.
In the leg-part of each boot reposed a small dial face, marked from zero to maximum, whilst a delicate needle pointed to the latter reading. In each heel there appeared to be a small electric motor, connected to the boot-soles by wires, and controlled by long cables lying, at the moment, on the floor and terminating in hand sprocket-levers.
Quietly Henderson studied these details. The thought of twenty million dollars was in his brain; then he looked up.
“Well, they seem all right,” he said perfunctorily. “What have you done?”
“First I created Vonium as usual, but equipped my tube with a slide on the top so that the stuff could be released when made. Over the gap left by the moving slide I placed a box of lead, bottomless, and not unnaturally the stuff shot into it. I had, however, created a quantity large enough to lift me into the air, with the result that I would have been jerked to the ceiling had I not released my hold. The stuff hit the ceiling and stopped there, inside the lead box. Then arose the problem of how to control the stuff, which I solved by a remarkably simple means.
“The y-rays of Vonium, those responsible for this curious non-gravitational effect, are blocked entirely by sufficient thickness of lead and the stuff instantly falls to the ground. It appears, though, that when this happens, the Vonium inside the box fixes itself in the dead centre of the box, equally repulsed from all four side walls. See?”
Henderson nodded. “What then?”
“I fixed a lead sheath on the bottom of the box—by the simple expedient of standing on step ladders and reaching up to it—and when this was done, the y-rays cut off, the box dropped to the floor. From then on it was only a matter of fixing the lead sheath base so that all or little of the y-radiations could be emitted at will. I accomplished this by means of a shutter and a small electric motor attached to the side of the box. Later I made two motors and put them in the heels of those boots there, and two boxes also which I rivetted to the boot-soles. From the motors I lead the contact wires, at the end of which, held in the hand—one hand for one boot—are notched levers, which move the shutters in the sole-boxes. Naturally, the more radiations there are being emitted the higher you’ll go. When you’ve reached a certain height you’ll stay in mid-air. Then you can walk about in the air at that height. Close the shutter very slowly, and down you come to earth again. Very simple and efficient.”
“Apparently so,” Henderson agreed, “but I don’t quite see how you balance in the air. What is to prevent you turning circles round a kind of central axis—the boots?”
“The lead plays a three-fold part. One, it controls the power of the y-rays; two, it stops them entering the flesh and mortifying it, and three, its enormous weight keeps the body upright, just as do divers’ boots. In air one is like a ship with a heavy keel—quite impossible to turn turtle.”
Downing crossed over to the boots and began putting them on. “I’ll de
monstrate to you.”
Before he laced them he pointed to the two small dials in the leg portions.
“These show when the Vonium is losing its efficiency and therefore is no longer safe,” he explained. “A very necessary attachment. It would be rather awkward to be five hundred feet up and find the Vonium giving out. As Vonium loses its weight by radiation, these meters here show, on the principle of a spring balance, when the weight of Vonium inside the boxes has touched zero. That means replace with more Vonium, of course. At the moment, as you see, there is a considerable amount of life left in the present charge of Vonium—enough for a few weeks, anyhow. However, here’s the demonstration.”
Downing quickly laced the boots up, stood up, and grasped the control-levers of the heavily insulated wires leading to the motors controlling the sole-shutters.
“Watch!” he bade impressively, and gently pressed the pincer-like levers towards each other, in either hand. Almost instantly he began to rise smoothly and irresistibly towards the high laboratory roof, pausing finally in mid-air ’twixt ceiling and floor, the notched levers fixing themselves in the small ratchets provided for the purpose. Then, without hardly any trace of clumsiness, he began to walk forward, albeit ponderously, but none the less certainly.
Doctor Henderson stood gazing upwards, astounded at the uncanny aspect his friend presented.
For a while Downing continued his mid-air stroll, then, lowering himself to the floor, he opened the laboratory door and went outside on the lawn. Five minutes later he was on a level with the treetop, presently alighting on the flat roof of his home close to the bedroom window of his manservant, Dawson.
Laughing, he returned to the ground.
“Achievement number one,” he chuckled, unlacing the boots. Later will come the construction of super-cranes, space travel—hundreds of things. Boots like these can be made for workmen on high buildings, thereby dispensing with ladders and clumsy, dangerous scaffoldings. Here.” He wrenched the boots off. “You try them.”
Rather gingerly Henderson put them on, and after one or two unsuccessful efforts, managed to get them under control. He found the air apparently as solid as the ground, and as he went around, accustoming himself, the thought of twenty million dollars rose up and stared him in the face.
At length he returned to earth, both in the literal and abstract sense.
“Suppose one opened the shutters to their fullest extent?” he asked, unlacing the boots.
“In that case one would shoot upwards into space, never to return,” Downing replied. “That won’t happen though; I’ve fixed the levers so they can’t operate to the full… Come along into the lab; I’ve something to tell you.”
Henderson replaced his shoes and obeyed, carrying the heavy boots with him.
“I’m giving those boots to you for the time being,” Downing said quietly. “Until after my operation—which God grant I survive—I’m doing no more work, and in case anything happens to me I want you to keep those boots so you can see how they work.”
“Thanks,” the surgeon said, his mind active.
“I’ve written out the formula for Vonium in invisible ink and also the method of its manufacture, and full directions of how to harness it. The formula itself is inside a massive gold watch, and the watch is in that safe there, on the wall. Heat will bring the invisible ink into view. I have also made a will with my lawyer, which, in the event of my death, bequeaths everything to you. Should you at any time wish to withdraw yourself from the bequest, everything passes to my brother Walter, who is an Australian farmer… The safe there has a combination lock, and Dawson is the only one outside me who knows that combination.”
“Dawson!” Henderson started. “You’re letting your manservant in on this?”
“He’s something more than that—he is, I think, a devoted friend. In withholding the safe combination from you I’m protecting you. Should anything happen to me as the result of your operating on me, and it became known that you knew the safe combination before you operated, it might appear that—forgive me saying this—that you killed me for the sake of the invention. If, on the other hand, you are found to be in ignorance of the combination until after my death, you’ll be absolved from all blame in the eyes of the law. Understand?”
Henderson tried hard not to reveal his displeasure. He inclined his head slowly.
“Thanks for thinking of my reputation, Downing! But why the invisible ink?”
“Dawson does not know I’ve written the formula in invisible ink—nor does he know it is concealed inside a watch. If he chose to act unworthily, which I don’t think he ever would, he’d probably pass over the watch as of no consequence—or, if he probed further and found blank paper inside it, he’d give up the task. That metal Vonium is for your hands alone if mine fail. By the plan I’ve outlined I’m protecting both of you.”
“And if anything happens to you I’m to ask Dawson for the combination?”
“My lawyer will instruct Dawson to give it to you. He understands the circumstances, and will exercise law in the right direction.”
“Well, I must admit you’ve made things secure,” Henderson remarked, though he could not completely disguise the bitterness of his tone. “Since you are ready for your operation I propose to get to work on you tomorrow morning. Be at my home tonight by seven, ready for the preliminaries. I will notify my assistants and have everything in readiness. Naturally, I shall operate on you in my own private theatre, not at the hospital.”
“Seven tonight, then, my friend,” Downing said quietly. “If I die—you must go on.”
“Yes—you have already made that very clear to me. Goodbye till tonight, Downing—and thanks for the boots!”
Henderson picked them up and slowly left the laboratory, his thoughts by no means of the sweetest…
Towards late afternoon, after a day’s hard medical work, Doctor Henderson returned for a brief space to his library. He was surprised to find Dawson, Downing’s manservant, awaiting him. He rose to his feet, as compact and composed as ever.
“Pardon my intrusion, Doctor. But I have something of considerable importance to say to you, regarding my master’s brain operation.”
“Well, Dawson?”
“If you killed him, entirely by circumstances beyond your control, of course—you would be the sole owner of Vonium—by the terms of his will, which I personally witnessed, would you not?”
“How dare you presume to question my ability, Dawson?” Henderson snapped. “If I fail, I fail—it cannot be helped.”
“It would be to your advantage to fail,” said Dawson calmly, never moving a muscle of his saturnine countenance.
“Why, you impudent…”
“It would mean you could pay off the one hundred thousand dollars you owe and so save at least one possible destroyer of your reputation, wouldn’t it?”
“How in hell do you know my private affairs?” Henderson grated out, glaring.
“Albert Holroyd, the man to whom you owe that sum, happens to be my cousin,” the manservant replied, and smiled winterily. “He needs that money badly; quite recently, in the strictest confidence of course, he told me all about you, and about the terms he made with you. But I warn you, Doctor, that my master’s life had better not be the means for you to pay your debts! If, by a—shall we say—professional error?—you kill my master, I will kill you. I hope you understand, sir?”
“And go to the chair for it!” Henderson retorted curtly.
“Oh, no, I am not such a fool, Doctor. I could provide an explanation by outlining your financial difficulties; add to that the worry at killing your devoted friend, which you believed had completely shattered your reputation, and provide suicide as the motive. If you take Mr. Downing’s life, you can count yours as ended too—whether you kill him fortuitously, or otherwise. I know it won’t be an accident, because you have never made an error yet!”
“The human element can always err,” Henderson panted; then cooling again, “Doe
s Downing know you’ve come here?”
“No, sir; he imagines I’m posting an urgent letter to an ailing aunt of mine. Anyhow, please bear in mind what I’ve said. Of course, if you fail and do kill my master your reputation will probably be spoilt in any case; on the other hand that very failure would place a considerable amount of money in your hands, which would make failure well worthwhile. Don’t do it, Doctor—you might find it unpleasant afterwards.”
“Get out of here!” Henderson breathed dangerously. “Get out—before I ’phone Mr. Downing and tell him everything.”
“How very droll, Doctor. You won’t do that, it would ruin your own plans. Good day, sir—and don’t forget!”
The library door closed and Henderson sank down into his chair. He admitted now, quite frankly, that he had intended killing Downing by a slip of the knife, but now that scheme was quashed. Confound Dawson having Holroyd for a cousin! Donning’s invention and at least twenty million dollars on the one hand, but courting death to get it. Disgrace and ruin on the other hand if Downing lived…
Adam Henderson had reason to be worried—but as time passed another scheme formulated in his fertile brain.
When finally he left the library there was a smile on his face, a smile of frozen hardness…
By nine o’clock that same evening, Jarvis Downing was sleeping heavily beneath a narcotic; no ordinary narcotic, but a substance of Henderson’s own invention, capable of reducing the animation of the body to absolute zero by slow degrees, producing complete coldness and apparent death, and at the same time hardening the crystals of the blood so that no bleeding could possibly occur during the actual operation. Then, under the administration of an antidote, after the operation, the patient would return with like slowness to life…
Henderson stood for a while looking at his sleeping friend.
“You shan’t die, Downing,” he murmured to himself. “That would endanger me—but indeed it is good fortune that your brain tumour happens to be on the right frontal lobe. If I make a professional mistake I shan’t kill you; I shall merely destroy every vestige of your memory. The right lobe has no connection with muscular functions, but is entirely connected with the storage of memory impressions. How inconvenient for you if I remove certain cells, along with the tumour, and so destroy your memory but not your powers of perception and conception.”
The John Russell Fearn Science Fiction Megapack Page 8
