e from
Birmingham that supports the view that the germ cures all sickness--then
we are indeed face to face with a strange problem. For how will
immortality affect us as a community? As a community, we live together
on the tacit assumption that the old will die and the young will take
their place. All our laws and customs are based on this idea. We can
scarcely think of any institution that is not established upon the
certainty of death. What, then, if death ceases? Our food supply----"

I was interrupted, while reading, by my servant who announced that a
gentleman wished to see me on urgent business. I laid aside the paper
and waited for him to enter.

My early visitor was a tall, heavily-built man, with strong eyes. He was
carefully dressed. He looked at me attentively, nodded, and sat down.

"My name is Jason--Edward Jason. You have no doubt heard of me."

"Certainly," I said. "You are the proprietor of this paper that I have
just been reading."

He nodded.

"And of sixty other daily papers, Dr. Harden," he said in a soft voice.
"I control much of the opinion in the country, and I intend to control
it all before I die."

"A curious intention. But why should you die? You will get the germ in
time. I calculate that in a month at the outside the whole of London and
the best part of the country will be infected."

While I spoke he stared hard at me. He nodded again, glanced at his
boots, pinched his lips, and then stared again.

"A year ago I made a tour of all the big men in your profession, both
here, in America, and on the continent, Dr. Harden. I had a very
definite reason for doing this. The reason was that--well, it does not
matter now. I wanted a diagnosis and a forecast of the future. I
consulted forty medical men--all with big names. Twenty-one gave me
practically identical opinions. The remaining nineteen were in
disagreement. Of that nineteen six gave me a long life."

"What did the twenty-one give you?"

"Five years at the outside."

I looked at him critically.

"Yes, I should have given the same--a year ago."

He coloured a little, and his gaze fell; he shifted himself in his
chair. Then he looked up suddenly, with a strong glow in his eyes.

"And now?"

"Now I give you--immortality." I spoke quite calmly, with no intention
of any dramatic effect.

The colour faded from his cheeks, and the glow in his eyes increased.

"If I get the Blue Disease, do you swear that it will cure me?"

"O