West High School - Occident Yearbook (Columbus, OH)

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THE OCCIDENT 29 boss. Yassuh, boss, he done been con- jured. He just swole up an' die. He was trembling so violently that we had to take the lamp from him, and Rollins just got possession of it in time. Even as his hand closed over it, the un-- happy Janvrin collapsed over the dog and lay motionless on his face. We dragged him around to the cabin and dosed him with the usual antidote, but it soon became obvious that his trouble was not malaria. Rollins grabbed the pillows from his own bed, and put them under J anvrin's head, and for a time we stood looking at him, unable to explain the semi-coma into which he had fallen. Only the fellow's eyes moved, and they were distended with fear. Suddenly Rollins had an idea and after thrashing about in some trash in the corner he lugged out a microscope case. You're a bacteriologist, he said. Perhaps you can throw some light on this. Something queer about that dog, you know-watch Janvrin till I come back. I heard him stride around to the out- house, and presently he returned with a glass slide in his hand, and on it was some thin, serous fluid. Breathlessly we fixed up the instrument and clipped the glass under the objective. You look, he said. I did so, but saw nothing. Touch it up with some iodine, I su ested gg - While I hung in suspense over the eyepiece, he hunted on the shelves, and all at once under my gaze the field of the microscope rushed up a brilliant yellow-and in it were countless mi- crobes. Rabies '? jerked out Rollins. I-I don't know, I stammered. I never saw anything like it in my life. It's certainly not rabies. And it's too globular for the fevers ..... It looks like strings of beads. Here, look at the things! Good Heavens! exclaimed Rollins after a single glance. He left the instru- ment to gaze on Janvrin in a kind of sick wonder. The man was quite still and remained an inert mass of suffer- ing. I don't know what's the matter with him, Rollins kept repeating. It's the same thing that got the dog. He turned away abruptly and made an effort to speak calmly. We've got to identify it, he said. It may be I don't know all the possi- bilities of those lamps of mine. Things have been happening right along that I can't explain. Are you sure you don't know the things ? Never before saw the germ, I as- sured him. You were rather a microbe shark, eh! That must mean tnat it's some- thing outside scientific experience. I should say it was. He became thoughtful. You remember, he said, there was that woman in Paris, I forget her name. She was a pupil of Pasteur. She used ultra-violet rays on the anthrax germs, and changed them into an entirely new germ, producing a new disease. The new bacillus didn't look like anthrax, and when they inoculated some guinea pigs with the stuff, it didn't give them anthrax. They died of something else. You mean Madame Labardere? when a light broke upon me. That sounds like it. It was all in one of the magazines. No doubt 1 should have screened those rays. I've always had-doubts. The colored man stirred jerkily, and all at once he was on his feet, pointing at Rollins with a queer contorted ges- ture. His eyes were starting from their sockets, and he mumbled mean- ingless sounds. Pretty soon he reeled toward the door. You stav here. Janvrin. com- manded Rollins. You've got nothing but a dog bite. The man lurched toward the door and waved his hand vaguely. He never, he said thickly. Bus- tah ain't bite me. You-all conjured me. I ain't gwine stay wid you-all no longer. And he set off across the clearing, running and staggering, until the darkness swallowed him. It will pass, said Rollins. He'll be all right in the morning and then he'll come back. But I could see that he was striving to reassure himself against his fears.

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28 Tl-IE I followed his eyes and saw that the dog, despite its utter exhaustion of the afternoon, was up on all feet, stretch- ing and straining at the rope, which strangled it cruelly. Its eyes were as large as dollars and foam flecked its mouth. It bit at the rope and snapped at the furniture around it and as Rol- lins drew near, it failed to distinguish him in its agony, slashing about indis- criminately. Get out of the way there and open the door, commanded Rollins. I can't see the poor beast choke to death. I'm going to cut the rope. Look out that he don't get you, I warned. That's not distemper, you know. That's rabies. Rabies nothing! Can't you see he's holding his head right over a pan of water? It was so. But if it was not rabies, what in the name of common sense was it? I gave Rollins a wide berth as he dragged his tortured beast from the room. His negro J anvrin followed him to the outhouse. When Rollins returned he said that the beast apparently suf- fered no longer. I don't know what was wrong, un- less he was afraid, he said. But what was he afraid of? He's seen the same thing a dozen times. And yet he's no coward. Once he came mighty near burning his inquisitive nose against the furnace. Outside in the shed J anvrin shut off the motor and its chug-chugging ceased abruptly. More slowly the whir of the dynamo died away, to leave us in the silence of the swampland. Then the negro came back after some water and food for the dog, and proceeded to the outhouse to make the creature com- fortable. We scraped off and collected several ounces of gold from the hot mouth of the furnace-and Rollins declared it was gold of the purest composition. After a brief visit to the outhouse he returned reassured and became talkative once more. He ran his fingers through the glittering mass on the table and I noticed that he trembled occasionally with suppressed emotion. Glorious stuff, he exclaimed. Those old fellows who have been pre- OCCIDEN T tending all down the ages to despise gold were really philosophical because they couldn't be rich. Or if they were rich, what they were despising was not gold, but life itself. For gold is the breath of life, Carney. There lies all existence-liberty, health, friendship, love, security, and all the ardent devel- opment of manhood-all wrapped up in this magic pile. It's the passport to joyous activity, enterprise, society, knowledge, and service. Is there any- thing so pitiful as a penniless lover? His materialism gave me an odd feeling. You couldn't have bought a sound pair of lungs, you know, I reminded him. But that's precisely what I did. A never-to-be-suificiently-blessed relative died and left me-what amounted to a. double handful of gold, Carney. Or I should be coughing my last cough in Brooklyn by this time. Now, how about it '? He chuckled boyishly at my discom- fort. 'Better than silver or gold. ' he quoted. There was a big leak in old Solomon's philosophy when he said that. Gold is freedom and power. And what else is life? Come, Mister Biolo- gist! I'll cast this stuff into an ingot since you saw it made. The one you re- fused will make a nice ring and things for Hilda. I was not in sympathy with his phil- osophy and I suppose the incident of the dog had rasped me a little for this last idea irritated me beyond my pa-- tience. He seemed so self-confident. sitting there on the edge of the table piling up the gold. What I might have said I don't know, for at that moment the man J anvrin burst into the room. Bustah, boss, he gabbled. Dat dawg, suh, he done died. He-all done- turn red an' die, boss. We trooped around to the outhouse, and it was as the colored man had said. What remained of Rollins's companion was not pleasant to contemplate. The colored man muttered snatches of prayer, and the lamp shook in his hand, as he held it over the animal. 'Tain't nachrul, he repeated per- sistently. He done been conjured,

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3U THE OCCIDENT The dog didn't recover, I said doubtfully. It was coma, then frenzy, you know-then the end. Don't you think we ought to catch that fellow and do something for him? There's a medi- cine chest on the yacht that's pretty complete. But, objected Rollins, the trouble is, what to do? Formaldehyde, I suggested. We might spray him, and the cabin, too. It would be safer. , He's a mile away by this time, Rollins replied, dully. s But even as he spoke there came across the clearing such sounds of raging agony as I hope never to hear again. Rollins rushed to the door, and stared out into the night. The noise seemed to come from several points at once. Finally the terrible cries became fainter and died away in the distance among the cypresses. Rollins turned to me, his face twisted with horror. That's it! he said. It's the rays from those lamps. They've changed whatever microbe was in the air into something that attacks man. Good Heavens! I've been transmuting germs as well as metals, Carney. I sat down and stared at him, the fear of the unknown upon both cl' us. He wiped his forehead with a hand that trembled. I never dreamed-, he began, and stopped short. There was an abrupt change in his manner and a curious glint in his eyes. After all, he said, Hit will settle one thing. I asked what he meant. Didn't you hear what Janvrin said? The dog never bit him. It means that the accursed bacillus is air borne. It means that the cabin is full of them. It means that we're breath- ing countless millions of the-spores at this minute. The formaldehyde, I cried, and leaped to my feet in blind haste. The next moment I was sprawling on the cabin floor. He had been watching for the move and had cleverly thrown me when I tried to rush past him. When I regained my feet, he had the shotgun from the corner and was covering me. There's only one of us for that for- maldehyde, he said, when I cursed him. Get back there or I'll blow your roof off. There was a look in his eyes that told me he would do it, too. I sat down and swore at him foolishly, tried to argue, and cursed some more. I was com- pletely unstrung and the sense of that invisible foe permeating the cabin, that slew so swiftly and cruelly, finished me by depriving me of the power of speech. I said it would be a fight, whis- pered Rollins tersely. We'll stay here and see who's the stronger. The best man wins. His face was ghastly in its pallor. Huge beads of perspiration trickled down his forehead, and the muzzle of the gun wavered. But every time I stirred it ceased abruptly to waver, and I saw that at that distance he could not miss. He breathed in quick gasps. Was it imagination that made my throat burn and my own breath come tight and fast? Rollins laughed, a ter- rible, crackling laugh. I win, Carney, he cried hoarsely. It's got you. I can see it in your face. And I can stand it longer than you can. We waited, greedily watching each other for signs of weakness. Soon the trembling in his limbs compelled him to sit down, but he still covered me, resting the gun on the table. With a thrill of hope, I realized that he trem- bled more than I did. But I was afraid if he noticed it, he might shoot anyway. He was crazy enough. The blood was singing in my ears, and it was not diflicult to appear worse than I was. I simulated the tremors of the negro, and Rollins cried in triumph. I win! he cried again. He was suffering under the strain and I achieved further contortions in which I strove to imitate those of the wretched Janvrin. Rollins fell into the trap. He rose unsteadily, and in order to wipe his brow he laid the gun on the table. He snatched clumsily at it the next mo- ment, but before he could reach the door I had carried the wire screen away with me, and had gained the other side of the clearing. He swore at me horribly, clutching