Immediately my indignation was aroused. I had presented one side of the argument to console Mrs. Staley, but it was the other side that I proposed to give to Marston.

  “If you want my honest opinion,” I said frigidly, “I think that what you are doing is the most hellish practice since the days of necromancy.”

  “And that from a member of the triumvirate, if you please!” said Ted smiling unpleasantly at Irwin.

  Irwin Staley was obviously embarrassed and ill at ease. I had a feeling that he was “in deep” with Ted and couldn’t get out, though why was a little hard to explain. The laboratory equipment was all his, and legally he could have kicked Ted out anytime he chose, but morally he lacked the courage to do so. Ted and Irwin were living examples of mind over matter.

  “Yes,” I said, “and I am here to fight you to the finish if need be! Professor Lewis was right. Without the modifying and mollifying influence of a changing environment, evolution is a tool in the hands of the devil.”

  “I thought you never believed in his Satanic majesty,” said Marston sarcastically.

  “Nor do I now,” I replied heatedly. “I have always maintained that evil was not a positive force, merely negative good; a misdirection, so to speak, of the same forces that can result in good. Just so is evolution a force for good if used as the Creator intended, but woe befall humanity if its laws are tampered with. Electricity is an example of a force that can benefit us or kill us, according as we obey or disobey its laws.”

  “Very well, Parson Caldwell,” said Ted sneeringly, “granted there is some force to your argument, what are you going to do about it?”

  “Be reasonable, Ted,” I pleaded. “If you—”

  “Reasonable!” he mocked. “What does the world know about reason? Since the days of Plato, Aristotle, Socrates, and Anaxagoras have we advanced one iota in mentality? Answer me that! True, we have invented machines, have increased our luxuries, but have we any purer logic or do we come any nearer to knowing the Why of God than some of the philosophers of 500 BC? Let us hope, my friend, that a rapid evolution will increase the reason in most of us!”

  “But look at that—that—cat!” I finally found voice to say. “Isn’t that thing a warning to you, Ted?”

  “That cat, so far removed from your present state of evolution, is a shock to you merely because it is unfamiliar,” he said quietly. “Had you progressed parallel to it, you would look upon it as a delightful pet.”

  “Pet be hanged!” I blurted forth. “If that object could ever be a pet, I’m going home to get a rattlesnake for company!”

  “A very good idea! It would prove an excellent partnership,” with which cutting words he arose and disappeared into an adjoining room.

  “This situation is awful,” I said to Irwin after the door had closed behind Marston. “Do you share his views, may I ask?”

  Irwin Staley cleared his throat and glanced nervously toward the anteroom, which closeted his companion.

  “To tell the truth, Frank,” he said huskily, “I think Ted is going too far. It was all immensely interesting for a while. I didn’t even mind Cutey as you seem to, but when he began introducing evolutionary bacteria into his own system to change the tissues and organs through the many stages of bacterial infection, I confess I began to feel that he had carried the matter to an extreme. He has seemed different ever since he commenced it.”

  “Good heavens!” I exclaimed. “How long ago was that?”

  “Only a couple of weeks,” came the reassuring reply, “and in very moderate doses, but just this morning he intimated a desire to speed up the process, as he is becoming impatient.”

  “Irwin, if I were you I’d clear out and let him alone, even though it might mean considerable financial loss,” I admonished. “He is dangerous.”

  “I can’t, Frank, that’s the trouble. He wants me in his experiment.”

  I looked at him in exasperation. “You can’t? Has the man any power over your will?”

  “I believe he must have,” Irwin mumbled pitifully, “for it seems I have to do his bidding.”

  I turned away in disgust.

  “Count me out,” I said harshly. “I believe I’ll take my trip to Europe after all.”

  I walked down the path and he followed me, a forlorn, unhappy man. His courage seemed to return as he left the vicinity of the laboratory.

  “I rather wish I could get out of this whole business,” he said sheepishly. “I’d love to go to Europe with you.”

  “Come on, old boy,” I said delightedly, “can you be ready by Thursday? The boat actually sails Friday.”

  His eyes were wistful and he seemed almost persuaded when Ted Marston’s voice called from the region of the laboratory, “Where on Earth are you, Irwin? Come here. I need you for an experiment.”

  Instantly all the joy faded from Staley’s countenance.

  “Sorry, Frank, but I’ll have to give up that trip. Some other time maybe,” he muttered vaguely.

  I stared mutely after him till he vanished behind the shrubbery at the turn of the path.

  IV

  As luck would have it I learned upon my return that I had been granted a sabbatical year, and so instead of returning to my teaching that fall, it was not until a year from that autumn that I came back to the States and plunged immediately into college work. In the interim I had heard no word from Ted and Irwin. The following summer I planned to visit them, but the death of Professor Lewis shortly before the close of the school year necessitated my remaining and working at the college, for I had been appointed head of the department of biology to take Professor Lewis’s place. I missed the kindly old man and hoped I would prove a worthy successor. Thus it was three years before I returned to the laboratory that stood upon the beautiful Staley estate.

  I had read about the death of Mrs. Staley two years before, so I did not stop at the house as I had upon the previous occasion but started immediately in the direction of the laboratory. As I approached, a strange sensation took possession of me. I had an irresistible desire to flee, and yet it was not exactly fear that possessed me. Imagine my amazement when I realized that contrary to my will I had turned my back upon the laboratory and was walking away with the intention of returning home!

  I had reached a turn in the path when I was startled by a hoarse, inhuman cry. I turned to see a decrepit figure hurrying toward me in obvious distress. There was a vague familiarity in the uncouth stranger and I stood puzzled on the verge of discovering the elusive identity.

  “Who are you?” I demanded in fearsome apprehension.

  Before he could reply, he turned inexplicably about and retraced his steps toward the laboratory, and I, discovering my movement now unhampered, followed him with quickening pace. To the very threshold I followed, but the door closed with a loud bang between us, and again I felt powerless to enter. Whatever the force that controlled me now as it had a few moments before, it had ceased to act while the degenerate was returning to the building. I was confident that the control was from a source within the laboratory and that, mighty though it was, it was limited in its power of concentration to one subject at a time.

  Surely here was a state of affairs that needed investigation and yet I seemed powerless to act! I returned to college and pondered the situation. Should I return with an armed force or should I try it again alone?

  Several days after this inexplicable occurrence I was the recipient of a letter from Dorothy Staley:

  Dear Mr. Caldwell:

  I heard recently that you are again in the States, and if it would not be too much trouble I should appreciate your coming here at once. Things have been going from bad to worse, and I am in serious trouble. May I count on your help?

  Dorothy Staley

  I confess I was puzzled. The letter did not seem like the product of the pen of the addle-pated girl I had met three years before. Could three years, even of trouble, so tone down and change the frivolous maid whom I recalled with a feeling almost of disgust? Or was the author of the note someone who was trying to trick me by the use of the girl’s name?

  It was late afternoon as I approached the estate. The long line of poplars like sturdy sentinels seemed to guard the mansion from external danger, but what was symbolic of its protection against an encroaching menace within? As I mounted the veranda steps, the door opened—and Dorothy stood framed in the entryway. For a moment I discontinued my ascent of the steps and gazed speechlessly at her, for it seemed I had never seen this girl before—yet I knew it was Dorothy. What refining process had altered her nature and appearance so intrinsically? Trouble is the refiner’s fire necessary for some natures, yet somehow this change in Dorothy was not so much one of degree as one of actual difference of quality.

  “Mr. Caldwell,” she said with a quiet, sad smile, “I sent for you, because I believed you could help me as no one else in the world can.”

  “I am flattered, I assure you,” I murmured as I followed her into the large gloomy interior and passed the long mirror, where, three years ago, she had primped herself so vainly.

  When we were seated in the luxurious living room, whose windows opened on a fountain outside, she began the explanation of her worry. Her beautiful face with its serious sincerity held my enraptured gaze as she talked.

  “Things have advanced to a terrible state between Ted and Irwin, and even I …”—she paused and glanced about her apprehensively—“am fearful of what the future has in store for us all. Ted has—” Here she broke down completely and was unable to continue.

  “Just what has Ted done?” I asked partly to relieve the embarrassing and distressing silence.

  “I have not seen Ted in the last year,” she replied, sitting up straight in her chair and making a renewed effort to control herself, “but I have heard of his progress through my brother, who is his helpless tool—and it is my understanding,” she lowered her voice to a whisper, “that Ted has progressed (if one can call it progression) beyond any semblance to humanity as we know it!”

  “Horrible!” I ejaculated, mentally recalling a certain example of feline evolution.

  “I thought I loved him once,” continued Dorothy, “but now I do not even respect him.”

  “No, I should think not,” I replied dryly. “And it seems to me he should be made to relinquish his hold on Irwin. Maybe what he does to himself is his own business, but he should not be allowed to involve others.”

  “‘Be allowed’ is a strange term to be used in regard to Ted Marston,” said the girl bitterly. “He is his own master. For some reason or other he will not allow me to see him but sends Irwin to me with his messages. A week ago Irwin came to the house looking so wretched and miserable. I pleaded with him to force Ted to go away, but all I could get from him was, ‘I can’t, Sis. I know it is unbelievable but I’ve got to do what he says. He really is wonderful. If you knew him as I do, you would think so too.’

  “I was sitting in this very chair, Fra—er, Mr. Caldwell, a week ago,” the sweet voice went on, “during this conversation with my brother Irwin. He looked so unhappy, even while he praised Ted, that I knew his tongue belied his real feelings in the matter. Suddenly he told me very earnestly that Ted still loved me, but that he knew that two beings so far apart in evolutionary development would not be suited to one another, so he intended inoculating me with the germs in order to advance me to his stage of development. Then we two, he told me through Irwin, would rule the world! I was so terrified I found myself unable to move, and as I sat there stunned, Irwin quietly advanced and without the slightest warning of what was to follow, plunged a hypodermic needle into my arm. I must have fainted, for the next I knew I was in bed and Cora, our maid, was moving about in my room. Strange to say I felt no ill effects; in fact, if there was any difference, I felt better, not physically so much as mentally. I seemed to understand things in a quiet, impersonal sort of way, and was, so to speak, above petty emotions and passions that had swayed me constantly prior to this experience. If this was evolution, I thought, it was very much to be desired and I wondered at Irwin’s very apparent fear of Ted. Then that night Irwin came again, but this time he seemed different.”

  Two tears rolled down Dorothy’s fair rounded cheeks, but she continued with obvious effort.

  “He told me that Ted was asleep, and that upon such rare occasions as he slept, he, Irwin, seemed free to follow the dictates of his own will. Previously he had found himself locked in, but upon this occasion he had escaped through an open window and a torn screen. He warned me earnestly not to allow him to inflict me again with the germs of evolution.

  “‘This dose, which was very light for the initial treatment, would have very little effect on the body tissues,’ he told me, ‘but each subsequent injection would cause such obvious change that in time one would be, as Ted is, unrecognizable as a human being!’

  “I begged him to tell me what Ted looked like, but he only shuddered and turned away and his last words were a repetition of his first, ‘Don’t let me administer to you any more germs of evolution.’

  “That was a week ago and I have not seen him since—my own brother—yet I dare not seek him under these awful circumstances. I want to see that he is well, but I dread his approach for what it will mean to me. Can you help?”

  Her last words expressed such utter anguish, I longed to put my arms about her and comfort her, but instead I merely said, “Dorothy, if I may be allowed to stay here until this danger that threatens you is put out of the way, I shall count it a very great privilege.”

  For answer she smiled a grateful acquiescence.

  V

  “You may have the southwest bedroom during your stay here,” Dorothy informed me. “Its windows overlook the laboratory, though the latter is so completely surrounded by trees and bushes that only its approximate locality can be detected.”

  A few minutes later I stood at a window of the beautiful room assigned to me and looked out across a veritable Eden: winding gravel paths, a splashing fountain, tall trees, and clumps of bushes. And suddenly, with something like a shock, I knew that the large mass of vegetation at the far end of the estate hid from view the laboratory that housed my former friends.

  “Former!” Was it true that I could no longer think of them as such?

  “Such is the effect upon normal man of gross distortions of God’s laws,” I thought.

  It was dusk by this time, and as I turned from my survey of the grounds below me to put on the light, I detected a movement in the shrubbery near the spot where the laboratory was hidden from view, and then much to my surprise, a figure emerged from the surrounding shadows. As it walked with a slouching posture and shuffling gait toward the house along the flower-bordered path, I recognized with a disheartening shock Irwin Staley—no longer the aristocratic-appearing youth I had left three years go, but a disheveled hobo with apparently one vague but persistent idea obsessing his mind.

  I rushed to the door of my room, opened it and peered down the dimly lighted hallway. There was no one in sight, but I heard Dorothy moving about in the lower hall.

  “Are you going to lock the house for the night?” I called to her from the top of the stairs.

  “Yes,” her sweet voice floated up to me. “I am on my way to the front door now.”

  Leaning over the broad banisters, I glimpsed her as she approached the door, but before she reached it, it was thrust open from the outside and Irwin staggered in. Her face white with terror, Dorothy turned beseeching eyes in my direction and I lost no time in descending the stairs. Irwin looked at me with apparently no recognition. If his had been a one-track mind in college days, it was now even a narrow-gauge one-track mind, for it seemed that no other idea entered his brain other than his mission in regard to his sister.

  “Hey, Sis,” he said, ignoring me as if I were nonexistent, and for ought I know, I may have been so to him, “Ted wants you to come out to the laboratory. He wants me to give you the evolutionary bacteria treatment in his presence. He claims he can advance you to his state in a remarkably short time.”

  As Dorothy shrank from Irwin, he continued. “It’s no use opposing him, Dorothy. He is determined. And really you don’t know what an honor it is to be chosen as mate and co-ruler with one who is in a position to rule the world. You and he would be so far in advance of the rest of the human kind that the establishment of your recognized authority would be immediate. Your progeny, the royal family would—why, Dorothy!”

  Dorothy swayed unsteadily. I thought she was going to faint, but she rallied and turned to me. I stepped up to Irwin and seized his shoulder in a firm grip.

  “Irwin Staley,” I said harshly, “whether you know it or not, I am your old friend, Frank Caldwell, and though you and Ted are apparently not the same fellows I knew in college days, I am unchanged, and I propose to bring you two to your senses. Of all the crazy ‘goings on’ I ever heard of, this caps the climax!”

  During my outburst, Irwin regarded me sullenly and with a suspicion of defiance, but the latter quality was not outstanding in his demeanor. To me it was apparent that he was a coward doing another’s will.

  Suddenly he put a hand in his pocket and quickly drew forth a small hypodermic syringe, at the same time roughly laying hold of Dorothy’s arm. In another second I had caught him in the chin with my fist and sent him sprawling on the floor. He staggered to his feet whimpering and I grabbed him by his coat collar.

  This scene must have been very distressing to Dorothy, but I could spare no one’s feelings if I was to cope with the will of this monster of the future.

  Turning to the girl, whom I knew now I loved dearly, I said, “Wait for me, dear. Irwin and I are going to see Ted and we’ll be back again.”

  “Oh, Frank,” she cried, her voice trembling, “I am afraid for you! Brave and fearless as you are, what can you do against the accumulated knowledge of centuries?”

  “But it isn’t that, sweetheart,” I exclaimed joyfully. “Don’t you see, it couldn’t be! Environment must play a part in the future development of the race, and Ted has no greater environmental experience than we’ve had. His physical body may have changed but not exactly as ours will, for the mollifying influence of man’s changing surroundings would tend to soften and temper any radical tendencies of development. We are all subject to the inexorable law of cause and effect, which will develop everything proportionately. Ted is an anachronism, and as such he has no place in his condition in our world, now or in the future.”