Sir Charles and Dr. Vernet darted off. Sir Charles returned with a
glass bench, which he placed upon the floor at Fulton's feet, and upon
which Fulton immediately stepped. Dr. Vernet stopped beside a distant
table and began to pull out something that looked like a cylinder from
the side of a huge wooden box. We heard the rapidly intermittent
clicking sound of the working battery at once.
"Stop!" shouted Fulton.
I saw the patient's legs twitch and draw up half way to his stomach,
and his arms spasmodically jerk.
This was repeated a dozen times in as many seconds, but gradually the
motions ceased.
"Awaken him!" commanded Dr. Fulton.
Sir Charles applied a small phial to the patient's nostrils. After a
while the poor fellow turned his head aside as though unconsciously
trying to escape a torture. But the phial followed him remorselessly,
and presently he moaned. Sir Charles at once removed the spring wedge
from his mouth. His teeth clicked, shut, and he uttered a heartrending
gurgling groan.
"More battery!" shouted Fulton. "Softly, softly!"
The patient's muscles jerked again, but less violently than before. He
tossed and turned his head, trying vainly to escape the phial; thus for
a moment, then of a sudden his eyes opened and he gazed about him.
"Stop battery!" cried Dr. Fulton. "Marion, come here!"
The girl left her lover and hurried forward. She stooped over the
patient and looked into his eyes. "Ah, my poor fellow!" she murmured
soothingly in English, "you are awake at last, I see. It is all over
now--all over--nothing more to fear now. Soon you will be well and
strong. Stronger than you have ever been in your life before--for you
are cured."
He looked up at her with a dull, vacant stare, then uttered a little
gasp of pain, for Dr. Fulton had plunged the hypodermic needle in his
arm.
The injection's effect was miraculous. Within three minutes his face
flushed crimson, his dull eyes brightened, and he actually attempted to
sit up. Marion, however, gently pressed him back, but she allowed his
head to rest upon her arm.
"I--I--feel fine!" he gasped.
"Hush!" said Marion; "you must not talk. You must be very good and keep
still, for that is the only way you can get better."
Sir Charles Venner pressed a glass into her hand.
"Try and drink this," she proceeded. "It is not medicine, only a little
brandy and water. Ah! that's right. You'll do splendidly now. There, my
boy, shut your eyes, and try to sleep. You'll soon sleep, and you'll
wake well and strong."
The poor lad obeyed her, and he seemed to sleep immediately, but
Marion's prophecy was not fulfilled. He never opened his eyes again.
For a long hour we watched him, the hearts of us all racked with
anxiety. Every few minutes Dr. Fulton injected some drug into his arm,
and by degrees the full force of the battery was applied. But all in
vain.
"He is dead!" said Dr. Fulton at last, stepping dejectedly from the
glass stool. "Turn off the battery, Vernet, please."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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