The Seventh Noon.
by Frederick Orin Bartlett.
CHAPTER I
_The Black Dog_
"The right to die?"
Professor Barstow, with a perplexed scowl ruffling the barbette of gray hairs above his keen eyes, shook his head and turning from the young man whose long legs extended over the end of the lean sofa upon which he sprawled in one corner of the laboratory, held the test-tube, which he had been studying abstractedly, up to the light. The flickering gas was not good for delicate work, and it was only lately that Barstow, spurred on by a glimpse of the end to a long series of experiments, had attempted anything after dark. He squinted thoughtfully at the yellow fluid in the tube and then, resuming his discussion, declared emphatically,
"We have no such right, Peter! You "re wrong. I don"t know where, because you put it too cleverly for me. But I know you "re dead wrong--even if your confounded old theories are right, even if your deductions are sound. You "re wrong where you bring up."
"Man dear," answered the other gently, "you are too good a scientist to reason so. That is purely feminine logic."
"I am too good a scientist to believe that anything so complex as human life was meant to be wasted in a scheme where not so much as an atom is lost. Bah, your liver is asleep! Too much work--too much work! The black dog has pounced upon your shoulders!"
"I never had an attack of the blues or anything similar in my life, Barstow," Donaldson denied quietly. "You "ll propose smelling salts next."
"Then what the devil does ail you?"
"Nothing ails me. Can"t a man have a few theories without the aid of liver complaint?"
"Not that kind. They don"t go with a sound const.i.tution. When a man begins to talk of finding no use for life, he "s either a coward or sick. And--I know you "re not a coward, Peter."
The man on the couch turned uneasily.
"Nor sick either. You are as stubborn and narrow as an old woman, Barstow," he complained.
"Living is n"t a matter of courage, physical or moral. It suits you--it doesn"t happen to suit me, but that doesn"t mean that you are well and moral while I "m sick and a coward. My difficulty is simple--clear; I haven"t the material means to get out of life what I want. I "ll admit that I might get it by working longer, but I should have to work so many years in my own way that there would n"t in the end be enough of me left to enjoy the reward. Now, if I don"t like that proposition, who the devil is to criticize me for not accepting it?"
"It"s quitting not to stay."
"It would be if we elected to come. We don"t. Moreover, my case is simplified by circ.u.mstances--no one is dependent upon me either directly or indirectly. I have no relatives--few friends. These, like you, would call me names for a minute after I "d gone and then forget."
"You "re talking beautiful nonsense," observed Barstow.
"Schopenhauer says--"
"d.a.m.n your barbaric pessimists and all their hungry tribe!"
Donaldson smiled a trifle condescendingly.
"What"s the use of talking to you when you "ll not admit a sound deduction? And yet, if I said you don"t know what results when you put together two known chemicals, you "d--"
There was a look in Barstow"s face that checked Donaldson,--a look of worried recollection.
"I "d say nothing," he a.s.serted earnestly, "because I _don"t_ always know."
For a moment his fingers fluttered over the medley of bottles upon the shelves before him. They paused over a small vial containing a brilliant scarlet liquid. He picked it out and held it to the light.
"See this?" he asked.
Donaldson nodded indifferently.
"It is a case in point. Theoretically I should have here the innocuous union of three harmless chemicals; as a matter of fact I had occasion to experiment with it and learned that I had innocently produced a vicious and unheard-of poison. The stuff is of no use. It is one of those things a man occasionally stumbles upon in this work,--better forgotten. How do I account for it? I don"t. Even in science there is always the unknown element which comes in and plays the devil with results."
"But according to your no-waste theory, even this discovery ought to have some use," commented Donaldson with a smile.
"Well," drawled the chemist whimsically, "perhaps it has; it makes murder very simple for the laity."
"How?"
Barstow turned back to his test-tube, relieved that the conversation had taken another turn.
"Because of the slowness with which it works. It requires seven days for the system to a.s.similate it and yet the stomach stubbornly retains it all this while. It is impossible to eliminate it from the body once it is swallowed. It produces no symptoms and leaves no evidence.
There is no antidote. In the end it paralyzes the heart--swiftly, silently, surely."
Donaldson sat up.
"Any pain?" he inquired.
"None."
Barstow ran his finger over a calendar on the wall. Then he glanced at his watch.
"Stay a little while longer and you can see for yourself how it works.
I am making a final demonstration of its properties."
Barstow stepped into the next room. He was gone five minutes and returned with a scrawny bull terrier scrambling at his heels. The little brute, overjoyed at his release, frisked across the floor, clumsily tumbling over his own feet, and sniffed as an overture of friendship at Donaldson"s low shoes. Then wagging his feeble tail he lifted his head and patiently blinked moist eyes awaiting a verdict.
The young man stooped and scratched behind its ears, the dog holding his head sideways and pressing against his ankles. He looked like a dog of the streets, but in his eyes there was the dumb appreciation of human sympathy which neutralizes breeding and blood. As Barstow returned to his work, the pup followed after him in a series of awkward bounds.
"Poor little pup," murmured Donaldson, sympathetically leaning forward with his arms upon his knees. "What"s his name?"
"Sandy. But he "s a lucky little pup according to you; within an hour by the clock he ought to be dead."
"Dead?"
"If my poison works. It was seven days ago to-night that I gave him a dose."
Donaldson"s brows contracted. He was big-hearted. This seemed a cruel thing to do. He whistled to the pup and called him by name, "Sandy, Sandy." But the dog only wagged his tail in response and snuggled with brute confidence closer to his master. Donaldson snapped his fingers coaxingly, leaning far over towards him. Reluctantly, at a nod from Barstow, the dog crept belly to the ground across the room. Donaldson picked up the trembling terrier and settling him into his lap pa.s.sed his hand thoughtfully over the warm smooth sides where he could feel the heart pounding st.u.r.dily.
From the dog, Donaldson lifted his eyes to Barstow"s back. They were dark brown eyes, set deep below a square forehead. His head, too, was square and drooped a bit between loose shoulders. He smiled to himself at some pa.s.sing thought and the smile cast a pleasant softness over features which at rest appeared rather angular and decidedly intense.
The mouth was large and the irregular teeth were white as a hound"s.
His black hair was cut short and at the temples was turning gray, although he had not yet reached thirty. It was an eager face, a strong face. It hardened to granite over life in the abstract and softened to the feminine before concrete examples of it.
"It is a bit of a paradox," he resumed, "that so harmless a creature as you, Barstow, should stumble upon so deadly an agent. What do you call it?"