CHAPTER V
The Trial Subject
Neville was still at the microscope when Gilmour appeared at the study door, and he was too deeply occupied in his work to be aware of Arnold's presence, until the latter walked up to the desk and stood looking down at him, cutting off the light. Then he glanced up and sat back as if he had been shot, for he looked into a face that almost froze the blood in his veins!
Gilmour was bending over the desk, his body hunched and stiff as though it laboured under a mighty load. The skin was drawn tight upon his face; it seemed as though his skull was showing through, and his eyes burned and held in them all the hate in hell.
The Professor breathed deeply.
"Why did you do it, you swine?" asked Gilmour in a very low voice.
The scientist's mouth twitched, the aid of wisdom left him, his eyes turned slightly, and he suddenly became a mad old man. There was a pause. They looked at each other Then Neville laughed, a long thin laugh of triumph.
"Why did I do it?" he repeated, and cackled. "Why ask me that?" he screamed, his insane mirth turning to fury. "Did you think I was going to sit back and let you rob me of her? You fool I Don't you know that I've watched over her and loved her all these years, and dreamt and worked for the Seventh Serum and a son? Pah! you idiot! Do you think any fool could come and claim her? Dictate to me, threaten me just because he thought he loved her? So do I. And she's my child. Had she been a boy, I would never have been troubled by stupid oafs and idiotic love! A son I wanted to carry on my work, pile fame upon fame and put our name amongst the mighty!"
Neville's face was white with passion. "But nature cheated me," he shouted, "and gave me a useless daughter, to be robbed of by fools like you, had I not spent half my life prying into her secrets. I vowed I would have a son, and now I've got one. See, with my brain I cheated Nature and robbed you-the robber. Now go, young man. You have never been in my scheme of things, and there are many more women to share your foolish love!"
The old man stopped, breathless and exhausted with his emotion. Gilmour maddened him; he thought the younger man was making an unreasonable fuss over nothing. To Neville the matter was not anything out of the ordinary. He had spent too long dreaming of it. It was only the achievement of his work. He wished to sit back and enjoy watching the results. Arnold Gilmour was done with, an irritation ended. He had explained to him. The fellow could not love a man; he must understand and clear out decently.
But in the gaining of his desire, Neville had sacrificed more than half his lifetime; he had lost his sanity!
Gilmour had listened to the professor in silence, seeming to be unaware of the old man's rantings. But at the last few words, he grinned mirthlessly and moved around the desk.
"No," he said, very softly, two inches from the scientist's face. "You're wrong; there's only one girl for my 'foolish' love."
Then the storm burst; Gilmour's body trembled with fury and Neville quailed before him, for Arnold's wrath seemed of the gods and outraged Nature. Like the elements unleashed, it swept around the room. It battered Neville down into his chair and lashed into the very windows of his soul, plumbing his innermost depths. It uprooted all his senses, stripped him of all reason-overwhelming him with a blind panic and fearful terror.
"You madman," Gilmore cried, his voice almost a scream of contempt. "Look at me; see, I'm almost as mad as you are -driven mad with what you've done. You swine, to think that you could take a soul, banish it from heaven and earth! It wasn't yours to tamper with; Jeanette had given herself to me, to me only, and now you've murdered her and left that creature whom you call your son, Oh, you may have got away with it all right, but you forgot something, you mad old fool," he snarled. "You forgot me, and my love for her!" Gilmour's voice dropped to a whisper. "Listen, Nature is going to trick you like she did before, because you are going to bring jean back to me."
"That I'll never do," muttered the old man viciously.
"Yes you will, Neville," hissed Gilmour. "If you don't, I'm so mad now that I'm going to kill you. See, just like this; oh, it's so easy."
With the grin of an imbecile, Gilmour brought his hand up and his fingers encircled the Professor's throat. Neville's eyes bulged with terror, but he could offer no resistance, for he was hypnotized by a madness greater than his own.