"No!" exclaimed Gran'pa. "Why should we lie to them? Within the next
twenty-four hours this business is finished as far as I'm concerned.
If the unrejuvenated like to go gland-hunting on their own, they're
welcome to any information we can give them. That is an idea quite
worth mentioning."
We had now reached the sanatorium, and adjourned the discussion until
we had refreshed ourselves with food and drink. During the meal Sally
Rebecca and Stringer arrived, looking rather hot and tired after their
twenty-four-hour train journey. Their appetites, however, appeared to
be much keener than usual, so they joined us immediately.
Feeling much brighter after our meal, we left Molly and Sally in charge
of the matron and proceeded to the gymnasium, where Gran'pa was to
deliver his eagerly-awaited speech.
Gran'pa, looking very spruce and cheerful, headed the procession, and
as we filed in through the narrow doorway a low murmur of hope and joy
rose from the assembled multitude. The noise increased in volume until
at last it broke into wave upon wave of cheers.
Under happier circumstances, it would have been a scene to make one's
heart glow with pride. Seventy-nine of the Club's members were there in
all stages of dress and undress--a fine, well-nourished, brown-skinned,
clean-shaven, athletic-looking gathering of hale old men, with a
total of well over 5,000 years to their credit! The contrast, when
one compared this with the inaugural meeting at Battersea, was indeed
startling. Gone was the bushy assortment of whiskers, the array of bent
backs, the staccato accompaniment of coughings, the throaty undertone
one usually associates with excited old men. Sun, fresh air, colloidal
potashes, and plenty of physical jerks had already produced marvellous
results. Would that we could have gone still further, and wrought a
miracle by providing a sufficiency of the little glandular engines of
complete youth. . . .
One by one, we mounted the platform which had been erected for the
occasion, bowed and then sat down.
So we faced one another, the Saviours, the Saved--and the Lost. . . .
Gran'pa took from one of his pockets a handful of little red beans
and, from another, a much smaller supply of white ones. He placed them
in two separate heaps on the table in front of him and, from the way
some of the old people behaved, I believe that they were under the
impression that these objects were the actual glands! In any case, the
uproar became more deafening than ever!
Standing up, and raising a hand for silence, Gran'pa began speaking in
his clear, steady voice.
"Gentlemen," he said, with dramatic simplicity, "the hour is at hand."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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