West High School - Occident Yearbook (Columbus, OH)

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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

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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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THE. OCCIDENT 3 I at the doorpost for support. You were blufiingf' he shrieked, you- you?-H The gun dropped from his hand, and I called to him to follow me to the launch. But he only muttered incoher- ent sounds, and finally fell prone across the threshold. It was the first stage of the myste- rious death. I had taken several steps toward the cabin when the recollection of the frenzy that followed brought me to a quick stop. I was a badly scared man and I felt that I could be of no service worth the risk. I wanted to help and yet I burned with resentment against Rollins. I fought a battle with myself and my worse self won. The simple facts of the case are that I turned my back on Rollins and his cabin, and stumbled through the swamps toward the launch. In a short time I felt my pulse re- turning to something near the normal. My breathing become more regular and the assurance that my symptoms were nothing more than the effects of fear filled me with joy. But half way to the river my foot struck something softer than palmetto root. One straining glance and I leaped aside and fied madly from the prostrate form of Rol- lins's man Janvrin. It might have been two minutes or two hours later that I went back to the cabin, thoroughly drenched in the blessed formaldehyde. The light still burned in the cabin, but Rollins had gone, and his gun with him. ,F 'lf PF HF I have recentlv revisited the place after an interval of several months. Except that it is inhabited by wild life, Rollins's cabin has not been disturbed, and it is evident that he did not return. The idea is inevitable that in the agony of his last hours he retained will power enough to shoot himselfg but I have had the vicinity searched without results and it will probably never be known in which brown pool he sought release. Neither have I succeeded in obtain- ing a culture ofthe strange bacillus. They were probably called into brief existence by the ultra-violet rays and died when the rays had ceased. At all events the presence of wild creatures in the cabin would seem to show that it was no longer dangerous. The strangest thing of the whole case, however, is that I found no gold. I found ingots and scraps of a dull gray metal that was very heavy. What it was when it was yellow and glitter- ing, or what it is in its present state I don't presume to say. But it answers every chemical test for lead. MQW Uhr Hiram' sinh Biz wife MARIE OFFENBACHER, '15 In the Vicar of Wakefield Gold- smith has depicted a very entertaining picture of domestic life. The vicar and his wife, the chief characters, are very much alike. Each thot himself superior to everyone else, but in a different way. The pride of the vicar was spiritual, and because of this, he accomplished very little in his parish. His wife thot herself superior to others in a material way. She dressed herself and her daughters better than the people of the surrounding country and in every way endeavored to live beyond the means of the family. But this did not last long. They lost their fortune and became so involved that finally the vicar was com- mitted to the debtor's prison. Thus, the family lost its social position but the vicar, shorn of his self-righteousness and his family of their false pride, be- came an influence they never had been in the days of prosperity.