Chapter XVI.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 5761, 4 January 1897, Page 1

Chapter XVI.

' QUICKENING THE DEAD. Entering .unnoticed, for the thick carpet deadened every sound,- 1 saw that Doctor' was in a state of intense but. sup-^ pressed excitement. •...•'.'/ The room was a large one, and richly/ furnished. Silken hangings draped ...the lofty windows, and mirrors flashed-^pm/; the walls. It was evidently a home'of ■ luxury ; but alas ! wealth had failed to keep out the presence of death. The doctor stood beside a bed, of costly workmanship, which occupied the centre of the apartment, his arms folded as he gazed intently upon the face, of the dead. . . While I had been watching the children outside in the sunshine, he had been grappling with the Skeleton King for a life, and Death had been victorious. It was a face of rare beauty which lay so white and still .upon the pillow. A girl of eighteen, and with no sign of a long ill- [ ness in the cheekß or upon the brow; her beautiful golden-hued hair had been confined, but a stray lock had broken away, and curled lovingly around her shell-like ear and soft round cheek, from which the bloom of youth had not yet departed.

A nurse was just bending over the corpse with two golden coins in her hands to lay upon the lifeless eyeballs, and close them down for ever. i " No, nurse, not yet !" The voice of the doctor was that of a man in pain, and the woman evidently marked the strange inflexion, for she drew back hurriedly, . At the same moment I noticed {'kneeling by the bedside another youthful figure/ the fair young head bowed down in grief. Just such hair, and such a head as that which lay so still upon the pillow. They, were sisters — only sisters — and nearly of the same age. At this moment the doctor saw me. He gave me a glance of recogr' nition. . { "Nurse," he said, " here is Mr Vernon, who will now Tender me any assistance which, with Miss Mabel's help, I may need. I. am of opinion that life is not entirely extinct. I wish you to go and attend to Mrs Chesterfield, for whom I am much concerned. Tell her that I have called in an assistant, and that we are going to try artificial respiration for half an hour, and that she must not yet regard the case as altogether hopeless. Ask ome of the maids to wait outside the door, within immediate call, and I will send for you at once if 1 need you." ■■ . „ I could see that he wanted us to be alone. • • When she had left the r«pm, he at once' locked the door, and without speaking to me, turned to the bereaved sister. : " Miss Mabel," he said, " there is skill some hope : but as you love your sister I beg of you to endeavour to be calm!.' Very . much will depend now upon you. I am about to take a final attempt. _ It will mean hopeless death for your sister if I

fail ; but if I succeed it will be her restoration." Seldom have I remarked such a change as these few words worked in Mabel Chesterfield, she raised herself from the ground with, eager earnest oyes. "Dpotori" she exclaimed "I will he perfectly calm and composed, and will do anything to assist yott, if there is the slightest hope. Tell me, doctor)" she said imploringly "is it possible that my sister is not dead, jtnd there is still hope ?" The doctor again reassured her ; but I knew — as he did — that the recovery which he referred to was altogether different to that which this eager girl expected. Alas ! it was to be resuscitation at the expense of this sweet girl's spirit. And yet the experiment was magnificent if awful, and offered compensation in this case, which possibly could scarcely under any. other circumstances be equalled. " Will you kindly rest in this easy chair while Mr Vernon attends me " said the doctor, "we will call you when you can be of any assistance. Let me feel your pulse." "Ah! just a little excitement ; let me make a pass or two over you to quieten your nerves.. There now, you feel better. You might go to sleep for a few minutes if you can." I saw that the girl was perfectly passive in his hands, and in a few minutes he had cast her into a deep mesmeric sleep. When he saw this, he turned around to me almost savagely. " Mark Gunnery, it is you who have taught me this 1 but what shall I do if it fails?"

I shall never forget the plaintive upbraiding of these words. It was a crisis in the doctor's life, one of those hours which turn men'B hair whise, and put marks, not only 'upon the body*, but upon the mind and soul, that last eternally. I knew just how the doctor felt, for had I not myself trodden a very similar pathway? On either side of him in that still room there towered the mountains, awe-inspiring and unscalable; in front of him burned the luring beacon-light of hope; but to attain Ms purpose, lie must pass alone through the valley of the shadow — with death on every side of him — a path wltieh few tread without mental agony, and lacerated feet. How little do the great crowds of heedless ones know, of the passionate heart-throbs, and sacrifices and aoul-risks r through which daring scientific explorers have won from nature secrets that have enriched the world.

. By ; saying this I am not committing myself to any full approval of the doctor's options in the s case referred to. I believe him to be devoted to his profession — a Scientific enthusiast-— and lam persuaded that he honestly believed that in this case jeiid ' justified- the means. My desire •'ss,^iiarrate facts rather than analyse .'jaibtives.' '.'■','' j/H&iiow turned his attention again to the 'hQdjr of the dead girl. He bared her 'bosom; and laid his ear above her heart. There was neither breath nor life. He gently chafed the flesh, and filled the lungs of the corpse wi,th his own breath. ' '"Put another pillow beneath the head," he said to me. "Now you stand and watch, and touch, the lips occasionally with this cordial. Tell me iiumediately of any change you may remark — even the'slightest." He went back once more to the other sister, and there, with my back to the doctor and the living sister, I watched the dead, and listened. "You are still asleep, Mabel," I heard him say. " Yes, doctor," she answered. " Are you strong enough to go and help Gertrude to recover ?" he said.

" I feel as" though I. could do anything doctor which you wisl^ed, and which you helped me to do." " " Are you stronger now ?" he presently asked ; and the tremor of his voice told me of the strain under which ne (Was operating. ' ' • . ■ i " Yes," was the faint response. "Go then to your sister's body, possess it, and .regain there, to sustain it in life during ' hry pleasure ! Do you hear" me, Mabel^^.'.^v-' ..'>.• .

A siijti e^cftped from the lips of the entranced gitV Then I heard her say, " I want to 1 , do it doctor, but the heart is not beating, :the body of Gertreide. is cold and lifeless. lam trying, doctor— -be - patient with me— it is, so' very hard.*' . ' " Put the 'cordial to the lips," said the doctor to me, " chafe the arms again, and rhb the palnis^ of, .the hands." I was too much engrossed with my task to turn around to look at him) but the tone of his voice told me of hi? agony.

■ No doubt the singular constitution of my own being prevdntedthe- horror of !the thing being fully realised b*y myself ; but I was startled a moment afterward, for I heard the doctor again commanding the spirit of Mabel to take possession -of 'Her sister's body, arid'- at that! moment the corpse whose -hands. I chafed— sighed ! "Doctor, don't urge me' any more or I .shall die," was the next thing I ; heard said behind me. . I chafed the arms and "hands and feet with' fresh energy, for now- the eye? had lost their stony vacant starfej-and turning my head, I saw the doctor b|jiide me. His face was suffused with perspiration. " Get me that smelling bottle," hfjfsaid. I realized' at that moment his frightful ■position, as a physician, he was staking everything upon this experiment. It was a question not of onejife, but of two. , : He made a few passes above the reviving body of Gertrude: '" -"Sleep !" he said; "Sleep!— Sleep!".. . . " Lift the other, girl gently up," he said, " and place her upon that couch. Pnt that eider-down coverlet around her. Tell the servant maid outside to have my horse put into the stable for a few hours. And also to bring something to the door for us to eaK They, .'mu^t both sleep until the changed: conditions of their bodies become normal. Be careful to lock the door; no one must, at present, come in." Half an hour afterwards the two y~oung girls were calmly sleeping, thei/^'Nathing being in each case natural, and distinctly heard in the room, and the news soon spread through the . house that Miss Mabel was ill, thvoufh the shock at her sister's supposed death, but that Miss Gertrude, was recovering. The secret of that resuscitation was known ,co'no one, except myself and the doctor. The strain upon him must have been almost at the breaking point. • " 1 have done it " he said to me excitedly, "I have demonstrated it as an actual possible fact, that the spirit of one person may possess, and give life to the dead body of another ; but it is a step in the dark ; a 'scientific exploration of Nature's secrets which asyet we are altogether unprepared for. It is my first, and it will bo my last experiment in reincarnation." My own feeling ' was one of horrified amazement, they were asleep now ; but what of their awakening ! (To be continued.)

People are getting more enlightened every' day. The old-fashioned stylo of physicking one's self up with salts, aauseous pills,, castor oil, &c.', is a thing of the past. Up-to-date folks tnkq up-to-date preparations, such as- Wcod'c Fig Laxative, the Fruit Aperient. It cloaiiscs the system of all impurities, and renews bne vitality of the constitution. Sold everywhere for Is '6d and 2s Gd.— •A British Commander-in-chiof, when on active service, receives .£75 a week.