r sheep, I heard strange and shocking
noises from the laboratory. Strict as was the embargo which kept me
outside the door, I burst in, only to be seized in a suffocating grip. Of
a sudden I realised that I was being embraced. The doctor flourished a
hand above my head and jigged with ponderous steps. The dismal noises
continued to emanate from his mouth. He was singing. I wish I could give
you a notion of the amazement, the paralysing wonder with which.... No,
you did not know Dr. Schermerhorn: you would not understand....

"We polkaed into the open. There he cast me loose. He stopped singing and
burst into a rhapsody of disjointed words. Mostly German, it was--a
wondrous jumble of the scientific and poetic. 'Eureka' occurred at
intervals. Then he would leap in the air. It was weird, it was
distressing. Crazy? Oh, quite. For the time, you understand. If any of us
should suddenly become the most potent individual in the world, wouldn't
he be apt to lose balance temporarily? One must make allowances. There was
excuse for the doctor. He had reached the goal.

"'Percy, you shall be rewarded,' he said. 'You haf like-a-trump-card stuck
by me. You shall haf riches, gold, what you will. You are young; your
blood runs red. With such riches nothing is beyond you. You could the
ancient-tombs-of-Egypt explore. It is open to you such collections-as-
have-never-been-gathered to make. What shall it be? Scarabs? Missals?
Prehistoric implements? Amuse yourself, _mein kind_. We shall be able the-
bills-with-usurious-interest to pay. What will you haf?'

"I said I'd like a vacation, if convenient.

"'Presently,' he replied. 'There yet remains the guardianship to be
perfected. Then to-a-world-astonished-and-respectful we return. To-night
we celebrate. I play you a rubber of pinochle.'

"We played. With the greatest secret of science resting at our elbows, we
played. The doctor won; my mind was not strictly on the game. In the
morning the doctor sang once more.... I shall never hear its like again.
Was it a week, or a month, after that?... I cannot remember. I fancy I was
excited. Then, too, there was something in the atmosphere about the
laboratory ... I don't know; imagination, possibly. Once we had a little
manifestation: the night that the Nigger and Slade were terrified by the
rock fires. Days of excitement and pleasant work, with the little volcano
grumbling more sulkily all the time ... I have spent worse days.

"Such indiffere