A Strange Experiment

: The Crack Of Doom

Soon after my arrival in London, I called on Brande, at the address he

had given me in Brook Street. He received me with the pleasant

affability which a man of the world easily assumes, and his apology for

being unable to pass the evening with me in his own house was a model of

social style. The difficulty in the way was practically an

impossibility. His Society had a meeting on that evening, and it was

imperative that
he should be present.



"Why not come yourself?" he said. "It is what we might call a guest

night. That is, visitors, if friends of members, are admitted, and as

this privilege may not be again accorded to outsiders, you ought to come

before you decide finally to join us. I must go now, but Natalie" (he

did not say "Miss Brande") "will entertain you and bring you to the

hall. It is very near--in Hanover Square."



"I shall be very glad indeed to bring Miss Brande to the hall," I

answered, changing the sentence in order to correct Brande's too

patronising phrase.



"The same thing in different words, is it not? If you prefer it that

way, please have it so." His imperturbability was unaffected.



Miss Brande here entered the room. Her brother, with a word of renewed

apology, left us, and presently I saw him cross the street and hail a

passing hansom.



"You must not blame him for running off," Miss Brande said. "He has much

to think of, and the Society depends almost wholly on himself."



I stammered out that I did not blame him at all, and indeed my

disclaimer was absolutely true. Brande could not have pleased me better

than he had done by relieving us of his company.



Miss Brande made tea, which I pretended to enjoy in the hope of pleasing

her. Over this we talked more like old and well proven friends than mere

acquaintances of ten days' standing. Just once or twice the mysterious

chord which marred the girl's charming conversation was touched. She

immediately changed the subject on observing my distress. I say

distress, for a weaker word would not fittingly describe the emotion I

felt whenever she blundered into the pseudo-scientific nonsense which

was her brother's favourite affectation. At least, it seemed nonsense to

me. I could not well foresee then that the theses which appeared to be

mere theoretical absurdities, would ever be proven--as they have

been--very terrible realities. On subjects of ordinary educational

interest my hostess displayed such full knowledge of the question and

ease in dealing with it, that I listened, fascinated, as long as she

chose to continue speaking. It was a novel and delightful experience to

hear a girl as handsome as a pictorial masterpiece, and dressed like a

court beauty, discourse with the knowledge, and in the language, of the

oldest philosopher. But this was only one of the many surprising

combinations in her complex personality. My noviciate was still in its

first stage.



The time to set out for the meeting arrived all too soon for my

inclination. We decided to walk, the evening being fine and not too

warm, and the distance only a ten minutes' stroll. At a street crossing,

we met a crowd unusually large for that neighbourhood. Miss Brande

again surprised me. She was watching the crowd seething and swarming

past. Her dark eyes followed the people with a strange wondering,

pitying look which I did not understand. Her face, exquisite in its

expression at all times, was now absolutely transformed, beatified.

Brande had often spoken to me of mesmerism, clairvoyance, and similar

subjects, and it occurred to me that he had used his sister as a medium,

a clairvoyante. Her brain was not, therefore, under normal control. I

determined instantly to tell him on the first opportunity that if he did

not wish to see the girl permanently injured, he would have to curtail

his hypnotic influence.



"It is rather a stirring sight," I said so sharply to Miss Brande that

she started. I meant to startle her, but did not succeed as far as I

wished.



"It is a very terrible sight," she answered.



"Oh, there is no danger," I said hastily, and drew her hand over my arm.



"Danger! I was not thinking of danger."



As she did not remove her hand, I did not infringe the silence which

followed this, until a break in the traffic allowed us to cross the

street. Then I said:



"May I ask what you were thinking of just now, Miss Brande?"



"Of the people--their lives--their work--their misery!"



"I assure you many are very happy," I replied. "You take a morbid view.

Misery is not the rule. I am sure the majority are happy."



"What difference does that make?" the girl said with a sigh. "What is

the end of it all--the meaning of it all? Their happiness! Cui Bono?"



We walked on in silence, while I turned over in my mind what she had

said. I could come to no conclusion upon it save that my dislike for her

enigmatic aberrations was becoming more intense as my liking for the

girl herself increased. To change the current of her thoughts and my

own, I asked her abruptly:



"Are you a member of the Cui Bono Society?"



"I! Oh, no. Women are not allowed to join--for the present."



"I am delighted to hear it," I said heartily, "and I hope the rule will

continue in force."



She looked at me in surprise. "Why should you mind? You are joining

yourself."



"That is different. I don't approve of ladies mixing themselves up in

these curious and perhaps questionable societies."



My remark amused her. Her eyes sparkled with simple fun. The change in

her manner was very agreeable to me.



"I might have expected that." To my extreme satisfaction she now looked

almost mischievous. "Herbert told me you were a little--"



"A little what?"



"Well, a little--you won't be vexed? That is right. He said a

little--mediaeval."



This abated my appreciation of her sense of humour, and I maintained a

dignified reticence, which unhappily she regarded as mere sullenness,

until we reached the Society's room.



The place was well filled, and the company, in spite of the

extravagantly modern costumes of the younger women, which I cannot

describe better than by saying that there was little difference in it

from that of ordinary male attire, was quite conventional in so far as

the interchange of ordinary courtesies went. When, however, any member

of the Society mingled with a group of visitors, the conversation was

soon turned into a new channel. Secrets of science, which I had been

accustomed to look upon as undiscoverable, were bandied about like the

merest commonplaces of education. The absurdity of individuality and the

subjectivity of the emotions were alike insisted on without notice of

the paradox, which to me appeared extreme. The Associates were

altruistic for the sake of altruism, not for the sake of its

beneficiaries. They were not pantheists, for they saw neither universal

good nor God, but rather evil in all things--themselves included. Their

talk, however, was brilliant, and, with allowance for its jarring

sentiments, it possessed something of the indefinable charm which

followed Brande. My reflections on this identity of interest were

interrupted by the man himself. After a word of welcome he said:



"Let me show you our great experiment; that which touches the high-water

mark of scientific achievement in the history of humanity. It is not

much in itself, but it is the pioneer of many marvels."



He brought me to a metal stand, on which a small instrument constructed

of some white metal was placed. A large number of wires were connected

with various portions of it, and these wires passed into the side-wall

of the building.



In appearance, this marvel of micrology, so far as the eye-piece and

upper portions went, was like an ordinary microscope, but its magnifying

power was to me unbelievable. It magnified the object under examination

many thousand times more than the most powerful microscope in the world.



I looked through the upper lens, and saw a small globe suspended in the

middle of a tiny chamber filled with soft blue light, or transparent

material. Circling round this globe four other spheres revolved in

orbits, some almost circular, some elliptical, some parabolic. As I

looked, Brande touched a key, and the little globules began to fly more

rapidly round their primary, and make wider sweeps in their revolutions.

Another key was pressed, and the revolving spheres slowed down and drew

closer until I could scarcely distinguish any movement. The globules

seemed to form a solid ball.



"Attend now!" Brande exclaimed.



He tapped the first key sharply. A little grey cloud obscured the blue

light. When it cleared away, the revolving globes had disappeared.



"What do you think of it?" he asked carelessly.



"What is it? What does it mean? Is it the solar system or some other

system illustrated in miniature? I am sorry for the misadventure."



"You are partly correct," Brande replied. "It is an illustration of a

planetary system, though a small one. But there was no misadventure. I

caused the somewhat dangerous result you witnessed, the wreckage not

merely of the molecule of marsh gas you were examining--which any

educated chemist might do as easily as I--but the wreckage of its

constituent atoms. This is a scientific victory which dwarfs the work of

Helmholtz, Avogadro, or Mendelejeff. The immortal Dalton himself" (the

word "immortal" was spoken with a sneer) "might rise from his grave to

witness it."



"Atoms--molecules! What are you talking about?" I asked, bewildered.



"You were looking on at the death of a molecule--a molecule of marsh

gas, as I have already said. It was caused by a process which I would

describe to you if I could reduce my own life work--and that of every

scientific amateur who has preceded me since the world began--into half

a dozen sentences. As that would be difficult, I must ask you to accept

my personal assurance that you witnessed a fact, not a fiction of my

imagination."



"And your instrument is so perfect that it not only renders molecules

and atoms but their diffusion visible? It is a microscopic

impossibility. At least it is amazing."



"Pshaw!" Brande exclaimed impatiently. "My instrument does certainly

magnify to a marvellous extent, but not by the old device of the simple

microscope, which merely focussed a large area of light rays into a

small one. So crude a process could never show an atom to the human eye.

I add much to that. I restore to the rays themselves the luminosity

which they lost in their passage through our atmosphere. I give them

back all their visual properties, and turn them with their full etheric

blaze on the object under examination. Great as that achievement is, I

deny that it is amazing. It may amaze a Papuan to see his eyelash

magnified to the size of a wire, or an uneducated Englishman to see a

cheese-mite magnified to the size of a midge. It should not amaze you

to see a simple process a little further developed."



"Where does the danger you spoke of come in?" I asked with a pretence of

interest. Candidly, I did not believe a single word that Brande had

said.



"If you will consult a common text-book on the physics of the ether," he

replied, "you will find that one grain of matter contains sufficient

energy, if etherised, to raise a hundred thousand tons nearly two miles.

In face of such potentiality it is not wise to wreck incautiously even

the atoms of a molecule."



"And the limits to this description of scientific experiment? Where are

they?"



"There are no limits," Brande said decisively. "No man can say to

science 'thus far and no farther.' No man ever has been able to do so.

No man ever shall!"



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