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donā€™t want anything more to drink!ā ā€”Iā€™ve had too much already!ā€

I paid no heed to what he said. I poured two stiff doses into a couple of tumblers. Without seeming to be aware of what it was that he was doing he disposed of the better half of the one I gave him at a draught. Putting his glass upon the table, he dropped his head upon his hands, and groaned.

ā€œWhat would Marjorie think of me if she saw me now?ā€

ā€œThink?ā ā€”nothing. Why should she think of a man like you, when she has so much better fish to fry?ā€

ā€œIā€™m feeling frightfully ill!ā ā€”Iā€™ll be drunk before Iā€™ve done!ā€

ā€œThen be drunk!ā ā€”only, for gracious sake, be lively drunk, not deadly doleful.ā ā€”Cheer up, Percy!ā€ I clapped him on the shoulderā ā€”almost knocking him off his seat on to the floor. ā€œI am now going to show you that little experiment of which I was speaking!ā ā€”You see that cat?ā€

ā€œOf course I see it!ā ā€”the beast!ā ā€”I wish youā€™d let it go!ā€

ā€œWhy should I let it go?ā ā€”Do you know whose cat that is? That catā€™s Paul Lessinghamā€™s.ā€

ā€œPaul Lessinghamā€™s?ā€

ā€œYes, Paul Lessinghamā€™sā ā€”the man who made the speechā ā€”the man whom Marjorie went away with.ā€

ā€œHow do you know itā€™s his?ā€

ā€œI donā€™t know it is, but I believe it isā ā€”I choose to believe it is!ā ā€”I intend to believe it is!ā ā€”It was outside his house, therefore itā€™s his catā ā€”thatā€™s how I argue. I canā€™t get Lessingham inside that box, so I get his cat instead.ā€

ā€œWhatever for?ā€

ā€œYou shall see.ā ā€”You observe how happy it is?ā€

ā€œIt donā€™t seem happy.ā€

ā€œWeā€™ve all our ways of seeming happyā ā€”thatā€™s its way.ā€

The creature was behaving like a cat gone mad, dashing itself against the sides of its glass prison, leaping to and fro, and from side to side, squealing with rage, or with terror, or with both. Perhaps it foresaw what was comingā ā€”there is no fathoming the intelligence of what we call the lower animals.

ā€œItā€™s a funny way.ā€

ā€œWe some of us have funny ways, beside cats. Now, attention! Observe this little toyā ā€”youā€™ve seen something of its kind before. Itā€™s a spring gun; you pull the springā ā€”drop the charge into the barrelā ā€”release the springā ā€”and the charge is fired. Iā€™ll unlock this safe, which is built into the wall. Itā€™s a letter lock, the combination just now, is ā€˜whisky,ā€™ā ā€”you see, thatā€™s a hint to you. Youā€™ll notice the safe is strongly madeā ā€”itā€™s airtight, fireproof, the outer casing is of triple-plated drill-proof steelā ā€”the contents are valuableā ā€”to me!ā ā€”and devilish dangerousā ā€”Iā€™d pity the thief who, in his innocent ignorance, broke in to steal. Look insideā ā€”you see itā€™s full of ballsā ā€”glass balls, each in its own little separate nest; light as feathers; transparentā ā€”you can see right through them. Here are a couple, like tiny pills. They contain neither dynamite, nor cordite, nor anything of the kind, yet, given a fair field and no favour, theyā€™ll work more mischief than all the explosives man has fashioned. Take hold of oneā ā€”you say your heart is broken!ā ā€”squeeze this under your noseā ā€”it wants but a gentle pressureā ā€”and in less time than no time youā€™ll be in the land where they say there are no broken hearts.ā€

He shrunk back.

ā€œI donā€™t know what youā€™re talking about.ā ā€”I donā€™t want the thing.ā ā€”Take it away.ā€

ā€œThink twiceā ā€”the chance may not recur.ā€

ā€œI tell you I donā€™t want it.ā€

ā€œSure?ā ā€”Consider!ā€

ā€œOf course Iā€™m sure!ā€

ā€œThen the cat shall have it.ā€

ā€œLet the poor brute go!ā€

ā€œThe poor bruteā€™s goingā ā€”to the land which is so near, and yet so far. Once more, if you please, attention. Notice what I do with this toy gun. I pull back the spring; I insert this small glass pellet; I thrust the muzzle of the gun through the opening in the glass box which contains the Apostleā€™s catā ā€”youā€™ll observe it fits quite close, which, on the whole, is perhaps as well for us.ā ā€”I am about to release the spring.ā ā€”Close attention, please.ā ā€”Notice the effect.ā€

ā€œAtherton, let the brute go!ā€

ā€œThe bruteā€™s gone! Iā€™ve released the springā ā€”the pellet has been dischargedā ā€”it has struck against the roof of the glass boxā ā€”it has been broken by the contactā ā€”and, hey presto! the cat lies deadā ā€”and that in face of its nine lives. You perceive how still it isā ā€”how still! Letā€™s hope that, now, itā€™s really happy. The cat which I choose to believe is Paul Lessinghamā€™s has received its quietus; in the morning Iā€™ll send it back to him, with my respectful compliments. Heā€™ll miss it if I donā€™t.ā ā€”Reflect! think of a huge bomb, filled with what weā€™ll call Athertonā€™s Magic Vapour, fired, say, from a hundred and twenty ton gun, bursting at a given elevation over the heads of an opposing force. Properly managed, in less than an instant of time, a hundred thousand menā ā€”quite possibly more!ā ā€”would drop down dead, as if smitten by the lightning of the skies. Isnā€™t that something like a weapon, sir?ā€

ā€œIā€™m not well!ā ā€”I want to get away!ā ā€”I wish Iā€™d never come!ā€

That was all Woodville had to say.

ā€œRubbish!ā ā€”Youā€™re adding to your stock of information every second, and, in these days, when a member of Parliament is supposed to know all about everything, informationā€™s the one thing wanted. Empty your glass, manā ā€”thatā€™s the time of day for you!ā€

I handed him his tumbler. He drained what was left of its contents, then, in a fit of tipsy, childish temper he flung the tumbler from him. I had placedā ā€”carelessly enoughā ā€”the second pellet within a foot of the edge of the table. The shock of the heavy beaker striking the board close to it, set it rolling. I was at the other side. I started forward to stop its motion, but I was too late. Before I could reach the crystal globule, it had fallen off the edge of the table on to the floor at Woodvilleā€™s feet, and smashed in falling. As it smashed, he was looking down, wondering, no doubt, in his stupidity, what the pother was aboutā ā€”for I was shouting, and making something of a clatter in my efforts to prevent the catastrophe which I saw was coming. On the instant, as the vapour secreted in the broken pellet gained access to the air, he

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