eat enough to mere mortals, but what would it mean to us
when we were immortals? Sarakoff had hinted at a new marriage system.
Was such a thing possible? On what factors did marriage rest? Was it
merely a discipline or was it ultimately selfishness?

My agitation increased, and I hurried eastwards, soon entering an area
of riverside London that, had I been calmer, might have given me some
alarm. It must have been about two o'clock in the morning when the
pressure of thoughts relaxed in my mind. I found myself in the great
dock area. The forms of giant cranes rose dimly in the air. A distant
glare of light, where nightshifts were at work, illuminated the huge
shapes of ocean steamers. The quays were littered with crates and bales.
A clanking of buffers and the shrill whistles of locomotives came out of
the darkness. For some time I stood transfixed. In my imagination I saw
these big ships, laden with cargo, slipping down the Thames and out into
the sea, carrying with them an added cargo to every part of the earth.
For by them would the Blue Germ travel over the waterways of the world
and enter every port. From the ports it would spread swiftly into the
towns, and from the towns onwards across plain and prairie until the
gift of Immortality had been received by every human being. The vision
thrilled me....

A commotion down a side street on my right shattered this glorious
picture. Hoarse cries rang out, and a sound of blows. I could make out a
small dark struggling mass which seemed to break into separate parts and
then coalesce again. A police whistle sounded. The mass again broke up,
and some figures came rushing down the street in my direction. They
passed me in a flash, and vanished. At the far end of the street two
twinkling lights appeared. After a period of hesitation--what doctor
goes willingly into the accidents of the streets?--I walked slowly in
their direction.

When I reached them I found two policemen bending over the body of a
man, which lay in the gutter face downwards.

"Good evening," I said. "Can I be of any service? I am a doctor."

They shone their lamps on me suspiciously. "What are you doing here?"

"Walking," I replied. Exercise had calmed me. I felt cool and collected.
"I often walk far at nights. Let me see the body."

I stooped down and turned the body over. The policemen watched me in
silence. The body was that of a young, fair-haired sailor man. There was
a knife between his ribs. Hi