The Crack of Doom Read online

  CHAPTER II.

  A STRANGE EXPERIMENT.

  Soon after my arrival in London, I called on Brande, at the address hehad given me in Brook Street. He received me with the pleasantaffability which a man of the world easily assumes, and his apology forbeing unable to pass the evening with me in his own house was a model ofsocial style. The difficulty in the way was practically animpossibility. His Society had a meeting on that evening, and it wasimperative that he should be present.

  "Why not come yourself?" he said. "It is what we might call a guestnight. That is, visitors, if friends of members, are admitted, and asthis privilege may not be again accorded to outsiders, you ought to comebefore you decide finally to join us. I must go now, but Natalie" (hedid not say "Miss Brande") "will entertain you and bring you to thehall. It is very near--in Hanover Square."

  "I shall be very glad indeed to bring Miss Brande to the hall," Ianswered, changing the sentence in order to correct Brande's toopatronising phrase.

  "The same thing in different words, is it not? If you prefer it thatway, please have it so." His imperturbability was unaffected.

  Miss Brande here entered the room. Her brother, with a word of renewedapology, left us, and presently I saw him cross the street and hail apassing hansom.

  "You must not blame him for running off," Miss Brande said. "He has muchto think of, and the Society depends almost wholly on himself."

  I stammered out that I did not blame him at all, and indeed mydisclaimer was absolutely true. Brande could not have pleased me betterthan he had done by relieving us of his company.

  Miss Brande made tea, which I pretended to enjoy in the hope of pleasingher. Over this we talked more like old and well proven friends than mereacquaintances of ten days' standing. Just once or twice the mysteriouschord which marred the girl's charming conversation was touched. Sheimmediately changed the subject on observing my distress. I saydistress, for a weaker word would not fittingly describe the emotion Ifelt whenever she blundered into the pseudo-scientific nonsense whichwas her brother's favourite affectation. At least, it seemed nonsense tome. I could not well foresee then that the theses which appeared to bemere theoretical absurdities, would ever be proven--as they havebeen--very terrible realities. On subjects of ordinary educationalinterest my hostess displayed such full knowledge of the question andease in dealing with it, that I listened, fascinated, as long as shechose to continue speaking. It was a novel and delightful experience tohear a girl as handsome as a pictorial masterpiece, and dressed like acourt beauty, discourse with the knowledge, and in the language, of theoldest philosopher. But this was only one of the many surprisingcombinations in her complex personality. My noviciate was still in itsfirst stage.

  The time to set out for the meeting arrived all too soon for myinclination. We decided to walk, the evening being fine and not toowarm, and the distance only a ten minutes' stroll. At a street crossing,we met a crowd unusually large for that neighbourhood. Miss Brandeagain surprised me. She was watching the crowd seething and swarmingpast. Her dark eyes followed the people with a strange wondering,pitying look which I did not understand. Her face, exquisite in itsexpression at all times, was now absolutely transformed, beatified.Brande had often spoken to me of mesmerism, clairvoyance, and similarsubjects, and it occurred to me that he had used his sister as a medium,a clairvoyante. Her brain was not, therefore, under normal control. Idetermined instantly to tell him on the first opportunity that if he didnot wish to see the girl permanently injured, he would have to curtailhis hypnotic influence.

  "It is rather a stirring sight," I said so sharply to Miss Brande thatshe started. I meant to startle her, but did not succeed as far as Iwished.

  "It is a very terrible sight," she answered.

  "Oh, there is no danger," I said hastily, and drew her hand over my arm.

  "Danger! I was not thinking of danger."

  As she did not remove her hand, I did not infringe the silence whichfollowed this, until a break in the traffic allowed us to cross thestreet. Then I said:

  "May I ask what you were thinking of just now, Miss Brande?"

  "Of the people--their lives--their work--their misery!"

  "I assure you many are very happy," I replied. "You take a morbid view.Misery is not the rule. I am sure the majority are happy."

  "What difference does that make?" the girl said with a sigh. "What isthe end of it all--the meaning of it all? Their happiness! _Cui Bono?_"

  We walked on in silence, while I turned over in my mind what she hadsaid. I could come to no conclusion upon it save that my dislike for herenigmatic aberrations was becoming more intense as my liking for thegirl herself increased. To change the current of her thoughts and myown, I asked her abruptly:

  "Are you a member of the _Cui Bono_ Society?"

  "I! Oh, no. Women are not allowed to join--for the present."

  "I am delighted to hear it," I said heartily, "and I hope the rule willcontinue in force."

  She looked at me in surprise. "Why should you mind? You are joiningyourself."

  "That is different. I don't approve of ladies mixing themselves up inthese curious and perhaps questionable societies."

  My remark amused her. Her eyes sparkled with simple fun. The change inher manner was very agreeable to me.

  "I might have expected that." To my extreme satisfaction she now lookedalmost mischievous. "Herbert told me you were a little--"

  "A little what?"

  "Well, a little--you won't be vexed? That is right. He said alittle--mediaeval."

  This abated my appreciation of her sense of humour, and I maintained adignified reticence, which unhappily she regarded as mere sullenness,until we reached the Society's room.

  The place was well filled, and the company, in spite of theextravagantly modern costumes of the younger women, which I cannotdescribe better than by saying that there was little difference in itfrom that of ordinary male attire, was quite conventional in so far asthe interchange of ordinary courtesies went. When, however, any memberof the Society mingled with a group of visitors, the conversation wassoon turned into a new channel. Secrets of science, which I had beenaccustomed to look upon as undiscoverable, were bandied about like themerest commonplaces of education. The absurdity of individuality and thesubjectivity of the emotions were alike insisted on without notice ofthe paradox, which to me appeared extreme. The Associates werealtruistic for the sake of altruism, not for the sake of itsbeneficiaries. They were not pantheists, for they saw neither universalgood nor God, but rather evil in all things--themselves included. Theirtalk, however, was brilliant, and, with allowance for its jarringsentiments, it possessed something of the indefinable charm whichfollowed Brande. My reflections on this identity of interest wereinterrupted by the man himself. After a word of welcome he said:

  "Let me show you our great experiment; that which touches the high-watermark of scientific achievement in the history of humanity. It is notmuch in itself, but it is the pioneer of many marvels."

  He brought me to a metal stand, on which a small instrument constructedof some white metal was placed. A large number of wires were connectedwith various portions of it, and these wires passed into the side-wallof the building.

  In appearance, this marvel of micrology, so far as the eye-piece andupper portions went, was like an ordinary microscope, but its magnifyingpower was to me unbelievable. It magnified the object under examinationmany thousand times more than the most powerful microscope in the world.

  I looked through the upper lens, and saw a small globe suspended in themiddle of a tiny chamber filled with soft blue light, or transparentmaterial. Circling round this globe four other spheres revolved inorbits, some almost circular, some elliptical, some parabolic. As Ilooked, Brande touched a key, and the little globules began to fly morerapidly round their primary, and make wider sweeps in their revolutions.Another key was pressed, and the revolving spheres slowed down and drewcloser until I could scarcely distinguish any movement. The globulesseemed to form
a solid ball.

  "Attend now!" Brande exclaimed.

  He tapped the first key sharply. A little grey cloud obscured the bluelight. When it cleared away, the revolving globes had disappeared.

  "What do you think of it?" he asked carelessly.

  "What is it? What does it mean? Is it the solar system or some othersystem illustrated in miniature? I am sorry for the misadventure."

  "You are partly correct," Brande replied. "It is an illustration of aplanetary system, though a small one. But there was no misadventure. Icaused the somewhat dangerous result you witnessed, the wreckage notmerely of the molecule of marsh gas you were examining--which anyeducated chemist might do as easily as I--but the wreckage of itsconstituent atoms. This is a scientific victory which dwarfs the work ofHelmholtz, Avogadro, or Mendelejeff. The immortal Dalton himself" (theword "immortal" was spoken with a sneer) "might rise from his grave towitness it."

  "Atoms--molecules! What are you talking about?" I asked, bewildered.

  "You were looking on at the death of a molecule--a molecule of marshgas, as I have already said. It was caused by a process which I woulddescribe to you if I could reduce my own life work--and that of everyscientific amateur who has preceded me since the world began--into halfa dozen sentences. As that would be difficult, I must ask you to acceptmy personal assurance that you witnessed a fact, not a fiction of myimagination."

  "And your instrument is so perfect that it not only renders moleculesand atoms but their diffusion visible? It is a microscopicimpossibility. At least it is amazing."

  "Pshaw!" Brande exclaimed impatiently. "My instrument does certainlymagnify to a marvellous extent, but not by the old device of the simplemicroscope, which merely focussed a large area of light rays into asmall one. So crude a process could never show an atom to the human eye.I add much to that. I restore to the rays themselves the luminositywhich they lost in their passage through our atmosphere. I give themback all their visual properties, and turn them with their full ethericblaze on the object under examination. Great as that achievement is, Ideny that it is amazing. It may amaze a Papuan to see his eyelashmagnified to the size of a wire, or an uneducated Englishman to see acheese-mite magnified to the size of a midge. It should not amaze youto see a simple process a little further developed."

  "Where does the danger you spoke of come in?" I asked with a pretence ofinterest. Candidly, I did not believe a single word that Brande hadsaid.

  "If you will consult a common text-book on the physics of the ether," hereplied, "you will find that one grain of matter contains sufficientenergy, if etherised, to raise a hundred thousand tons nearly two miles.In face of such potentiality it is not wise to wreck incautiously eventhe atoms of a molecule."

  "And the limits to this description of scientific experiment? Where arethey?"

  "There are no limits," Brande said decisively. "No man can say toscience 'thus far and no farther.' No man ever has been able to do so.No man ever shall!"