"A curious intention. But why should you die? You will get the germ in time. I calculate that in a month at the outside the whole of London and the best part of the country will be infected." While I spoke he stared hard at me. He nodded again, glanced at his boots, pinched his lips, and then stared again. "A year ago I made a tour of all the big men in your profession, both here, in America, and on the continent, Dr. Harden. I had a very definite reason for doing this. The reason was that--well, it does not matter now. I wanted a diagnosis and a forecast of the future. I consulted forty medical men--all with big names. Twenty-one gave me practically identical opinions. The remaining nineteen were in disagreement. Of that nineteen six gave me a long life." "What did the twenty-one give you?" "Five years at the outside." I looked at him critically. "Yes, I should have given the same--a year ago." He coloured a little, and his gaze fell; he shifted himself in his chair. Then he looked up suddenly, with a strong glow in his eyes. "And now?" "Now I give you--immortality." I spoke quite calmly, with no intention of any dramatic effect. The colour faded from his cheeks, and the glow in his eyes increased. "If I get the Blue Disease, do you swear that it will cure me?" "Of course it will cure you." He got to his feet. He seemed to be in the grip of some powerful emotion, and I could see that he was determined to control himself. He walked down the room and stood for some time near the window. "A gipsy once told me I would die when I was fifty-two. Will you believe me when I say that that prophecy has weighed upon me more than any medical opinion?" He turned and came up the room and stood before me. "Did you ever read German psychology and philosophy?" "To a certain extent--in translations." "Well, Dr. Harden, I stepped out of the pages of some of those books, I think. You've heard of the theory of the Will to Power? The men who based human life on that instinct were right!" He clenched his hands and closed his eyes. "This last year has been hell to me. I've been haunted every hour by the thought of death--just so much longer--so many thousand days--and then Nothing!" He opened his eyes and sat down before me. "Are you ambitious, Dr. Harden?" "I was--very ambitious." "Do you know what it is to have a dream of power, luring you on day and night? Do you know what is to see the dream becoming reality, bit by bit--and then to be given a time limit, when the dream is only half worked out?" "I have had my dream," I said. "It is now realized." "The germ?" I nodded. He leaned forward. "Then you are satisfied?" "I have no desires now." He did not appear to understand.