He went up to Lord Malvin, and his face was bright and happy.
"It is all right, my Lord," he said, "Rathbone is recovering swiftly.
Miss Poole is with him, and the doctors say, that though they feared for
a short time that his reason would go, they are now quite satisfied that
he will recover. He is sleeping quietly in a private room at Marylebone
Hospital, and Marjorie Poole is sitting by his side holding his hand."
Then Megbie looked at the wreck upon the floor.
"Ah!" he said, "so you have destroyed this horrid thing?"
"Yes," Lord Malvin answered; "I discussed it with Decies, and Decies
went to see the King. It was thought to be better and wiser for the
safety of the commonwealth--for the safety of the world indeed--that Sir
William Gouldesbrough's discovery should perish with Sir William
Gouldesbrough."
"Ah!" Donald Megbie answered; "I felt sure that that was the best
course. It would have been too terrible, too subversive. The world must
go on as it has always gone on. I have thought, during the last few
hours, that Sir William Gouldesbrough was not himself at all. Is it not
possible that he himself might have died long ago, and that _something_
was inhabiting his body, something which came out of the darkness behind
the Veil?"
"That, Mr. Megbie," said Lord Malvin, "is the picturesque thought of the
literary man. Science does not allow the possibility of such sinister
interferences. And now, I am going home. You will realize, of course,
that your supreme services in this matter will be recognized, though I
fear that the recognition can never be acknowledged publicly."
Donald Megbie bowed.
"My Lord," he said, "they have been recognized already, because I have
seen how love has called back a soul into life. I have seen Marjorie
Poole sitting by the bedside of Guy Rathbone. And, do you know, Lord
Malvin," he continued in a less exalted tone, "I never wish to see
anything in my life here more utterly beautiful than that."
"Come," said Lord Malvin, "it is very late; we are all tired and
unstrung."
The two men, arm in arm, the young writer and the great man, moved
towards the door of the laboratory.
The detective inspector stood watching the scene with quiet and
observant eyes.
But Herr Schmoulder surveyed the wreckage of the Thought-Spectroscope,
and as he turned at length to follow Lord Malvin and Donald Megbie, he
heaved a deep Teutonic sigh.
"It was der most wonderful triumph that ever der unknown forces occurred
has been," he muttered.
Then the three men crossed the vast, sombre hall, now filled with
frightened servants and the stiff official guardians of the law, and
went out through the path among the laurel bushes to the gate in the
wall, where their carriages were waiting.
And Donald Megbie, as he drove home through the silent streets of the
West End, heard a tune in his heart, which responded and lilted to the
regular beat of the horse's feet upon the macadam. And the burden of the
tune was "_Love_."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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