That this was the living image of Iggy he could not doubt. He was
blinking his eyes. He was talking to someone; that is, his lips moved,
though no sound reached Johnny.
That this was no mere moving picture Johnny knew well enough. That Iggy
was not in the next room, looking in at him, he knew quite as well. Iggy
could never have held the expression of quiet unconcern registered on his
face had he known that any honest person, let alone Johnny, was looking
upon him.
"It's magic!" Johnny exclaimed. At the same instant he knew this was not
true.
"Where is he?" he exclaimed once again.
He leaped for the door. It was locked. It was a massive door. He could
not hope to break it down, even should he desire to do so.
He raced to the window and threw up the sash. It was a quiet, sunshiny
day. There were people passing in the street. To attract their attention
would be an easy matter. But did he wish to do this? Had he a right to do
so?
"You will promise to betray none of our secrets?" the professor had said.
He had promised. The outer air cooled his heated brow. Slowly he turned
about, retraced his steps, then sank down in his chair. He would watch.
That, after all, was what he had been told to do. Perhaps in the end he
would learn a great deal, just watching.
The hour that followed will stand out in Johnny's mind as a vivid memory
as long as Johnny draws a breath. He was looking, he knew beyond the
shadow of a doubt, upon the living image of the one man he most feared
and hated, Iggy the Snake. He was watching his every gesture, every
movement of his lips and eyes; yet he could not touch him nor speak to
him. He could not say to the policeman on the corner, "Officer, this man
is a thief and a murderer! Arrest him!" He did not know even where the
man was. He might, for all he knew, be in the next room or a mile away.
He could only watch.
Watch he did, and that which he saw was well worth his hour of waiting.
But to wait, powerless to act, to sit there biting his lips, clenching
his fists, watching that smiling, grimacing image, that was terrible.
For a long time there was only that face. Smiling, talking, bobbing his
head, Iggy was beyond doubt telling a very interesting story. Once as he
threw back his head his fist came swinging into view.
"As if he were showing how he struck me!" Johnny sprang from his chair.
Then, reluctantly, he settled back.
Well that he did, for a moment later the man in that distorted living
picture partially disappeared and a cardboard box came into view.
"That's it," Johnny muttered, "that's the box I bought, the very one!"
There could be no doubt about that. He could even distinguish the yellow
express label.
But this was not all, not nearly all. The package disappeared. Iggy's
head bent low. Presently he held the metal lamp to view. He was laughing,
was Iggy.
It was strange, sitting there looking on. That laugh was so real, so
uproarious, Johnny felt that he should hear it.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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