Grey Face/Chapter 41

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Grey Face
by Sax Rohmer

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3296052Grey Face — Chapter 41Sax Rohmer

CHAPTER XLI

FORBIDDEN WISDOM

WHAT should you guess," Sir Provost asked, glancing around the room from face to face, "to be Trepniak's age?"

His glance finally rested on the face of Torrington, into whose eyes an almost wild look of enlightenment had leapt; but Carey was the first to answer, and:

"It is very hard to judge," he said, "in the case of a man of his type, but I should say between thirty-five and forty."

"I think he is older," Jasmine declared; "not perhaps in his appearance, or his habits, but in his outlook."

"Ah!" Torrington exclaimed. "Woman's wisdom!"

"That is so." Sir Provost nodded his head. "But I await your opinion, Torrington."

"I hesitate to give it," Torrington replied. "You see, I have examined the man, and frankly, he puzzles me. You say thirty-five to forty, Carey? And you, Miss Hope?"

"I should guess him nearer fifty," she said.

"Ah!" Torrington repeated, and began to walk up and down excitedly. "But I rather fancy. Sir Provost"—turning to meet the other's glance—"that you know the facts?"

"I do," Sir Provost admitted. "Trepniak is between ninety-six and ninety-seven years of age."

"What!"

Carey almost jumped out of his seat. Jasmine's eyes became round mirrors of wonderment. But:

"I knew it!" Torrington shouted. "I knew it! Now I understand his skin, and now I understand Chapter Thirty-six of Atomic Pathology."

"Atomic Pathology," Sir Provost took him up, "was written when its author, Hadrian von Gühl, was over seventy. It is an elaboration of a series of lectures delivered at Leipzig during the latter part of 1898 and the beginning of 1899. It brought about a revolution in the treatment of lymphatics, as you know, Torrington, but its deeper significance has apparently been overlooked."

"It was overlooked by me," Torrington Interrupted, "until I found Trepniak studying a work of Gühl's on the occasion of my first visit. This started a train of thought: I followed it up, re-reading Atomic Pathology with care. I had particularly in mind the extraordinary quality of the man's skin."

Sir Provost Hope raised his hand, checking the speaker.

"You were quite right, Torrington," he said; "very cleverly you were groping your way toward the truth. I don't doubt that in time you would have reached it. According to Trepniak's account"—he consulted the manuscript—"it was in 1902 that the system hinted at in Chapters Thirty-six to Forty-one of Atomic Pathology was developed by Gühl to a point at which he felt justified in experimenting upon human subjects.

"It is strange how Science constantly catches up with and outdistances superstition. All the modern blood-infusion theories are no more, of course, than adaptations of the methods ascribed to vampires in the Middle Ages, and Gühl's system of rejuvenation is based upon his discovery of the properties of a certain gland in the human body. An extraction from this gland, in the case of a young and healthy subject, produces no ill-effects in the person yielding it. The extraction of too large a quantity, however, may very readily prove fatal.

"This secretion Gühl incorporated with a certain proportion of blood drawn from the veins of the person to be rejuvenated; such was the base of his serum. There was a third constituent of purely mineral character, costly, and difficult to prepare. Upon this point I need say no more.

"Professor Gühl made his first experiment on a hospital patient of advanced years, and apparently marked for death. His laboratory assistant, a chemist named Weissler, induced a young member of his own family to submit to the slight operation necessary for the preparation of the serum; and the experiment was made. This in the spring of 1903."

"What was the result?" Torrington cried eagerly.

"The immediate death of the patient!" was the reply. "But Gühl was not dismayed. He recognized where he had gone wrong, and experimented again. This time he succeeded, within limitations. The subject was a man of the peasant class nearing eighty, and Gühl restored him to vigorous health in less than a week. Great secrecy was observed, and the patient, of course, was kept under close observation. There were curious features in the case. First, the man's skin became blanched like that of an albino."

"Good God!" Torrington exclaimed.

"The hair also was colourless, as in leucosis; and thirdly, he developed the traits of a dangerous wild animal, finally having to be strapped to the bed to prevent his homicidal outbursts. Lastly, in the enjoyment of full physical vigour, he suddenly collapsed and died some three weeks after the operation had been performed.

"Gühl, however, was not beaten yet. He realized that the result of his treatment was not permanent; that the injections must be maintained at intervals to be determined; that the action upon the brain required further study; and lastly, a minor, but not unimportant point, that some method had yet to be found for preserving the colour of the hair.

"Toward the end of 1906 he completed a long series of laboratory experiments, and a subject for his third attempt was literally thrust upon him at this time by medium of a street accident which befell Weissler, his assistant.

"Loss of blood was so great that the man's life was despaired of. I may say that Weissler at this period was over seventy years of age. Gühl determined to test his new serum. He now for the first time practised that surgical piracy which, later, he regularly pursued. He was, of course, an accomplished hypnotist, and a student unconsciously supplied the base of the serum which was used to restore Weissler!

"The treatment proved successful. It was carried out, this third experiment, with secrecy, at the Professor's private house. I shall not have time to give you details of the means adopted by Gühl to conceal the result. Suffice it to say that old Weissler disappeared. The reputation of the Professor was unchallengeable, and the rejuvenated man became a secret inmate of Gühl's house."

"Why secret?" asked Torrington.

"For a very good reason," Sir Provost replied. "I have said that the treatment was successful. This is correct. His hair became jet-black—indeed, more than humanly black, and so profuse as to render him grotesque in appearance. His shrunken body expanded but did not increase in height, whilst his arms, which were always long, grew longer! His intellect remained practically unimpaired, except for periodical homicidal outbursts, invariably directed against the Professor. The treatment was continued, numberless victims providing the basis of the serum. Weissler had acquired formidable physical strength, and the animal in his nature was strongly manifested. In short, except for his acquired knowledge, which remained, he had reverted to the primitive.

"This phenomenon led to further study; and, finally, Gühl grasped the explanation. Intense mental con-centration was necessary at the time of the first injection if the balance of character were to be maintained. Otherwise, the stronger characteristics, which nearly always would be the lower and those normally suppressed, would gain ascendancy.

"Convinced that his knowledge of the process was now complete, the Professor, in the year 1912, submitted himself to his own treatment. He was, of course, a man of amazing personality and phenomenal virility. His other studies, the nature of which we have already considered, had reached a point in advance of any student of his generation. At the age of eighty-five the brain of Hadrian von Gühl remained the brain of an active genius; and this was the intellectual giant who, in the latter part of 1912, assisted by Weissler, his confidant and assistant in these experiments, attempted to check the processes of Nature in order that he might complete those studies which enthralled him, and in which—too late, if he should fail—he saw possibilities stretching out illimitably.

"In September, 191 2, at his own home in Leipzig, Professor Gühl set his affairs in order, and then, so far as the world knew, went upon a journey to Russia from which he never returned.

"The subsequent outbreak of war served his purpose admirably, and he experienced little difficulty in beginning a new life. The disappearance of the aged Professor was less than a nine days' wonder in Germany. Other matters arose to claim public attention.

"During the next five or six years these two strange beings, Gühl and Weissler, travelled through the Far East and the Near East, in pursuit of those hidden secrets of Nature which are said to be discoverable there. Using various names, and sometimes even employing disguises, the Professor penetrated to the secret monasteries of Tibet. Here, or in China, he perfected that system which you, Carey, have seen actually in operation, of—shall I say?—' listening-in' to the past.

"It was apparently from Ibn Sina, commonly known as Avicenna, of Bokhara, that he picked up the secret of transmutation. At any rate, it was in Meshed near the Russian frontier that he established his gold factory. On the interesting point of how it is conducted, and how the gold is transported and sold, I have, unfortunately, no information.

"Then, finally, in Egypt, Gühl achieved his master stroke. He grasped that instrument of terrifying power toward which for many years his studies had been tending. This accomplished, he seems to have proceeded to Moscow, and in Moscow experiments were commenced upon Cagliostro's formula for diamonds.

"And now you see we are back again to Cagliostro, who constantly crops up, as you must have observed—and for a very good reason. Gühl knew that some of the claims of this famous charlatan were based upon a phenomenal knowledge of Nature's laws.

"Throughout the year 191 2-that is, immediately prior to his great experiment upon himself—the Professor seems to have been studying the works of Cagliotro—supposedly destroyed but actually preserved in Rome. How, at this time, he obtained access to them, I do not know, nor does he explain. The result, however, was very curious."

"Very curious!" Carey interrupted. "Now that, my attention is drawn to the fact, I can see that Trepniak is a physical counterpart of Cagliostro."

"Trepniak!" Jasmine whispered.

Torrington strode across and rested his hand upon her shoulder.

"My dear girl," he said, "no doubt your father has his reasons for telling you these things, but I know that it must be a shock to find that a man you have driven with, danced with, and dined with, is a horrible phenomenon who by all the laws of Nature should be dead and buried."

He returned again to his place upon the hearth, and Jasmine, who had grown very pale, once more clasped Carey's hand.

"You see, Jasmine," Sir Provost continued, "when Hadrian von Gühl ceased to exist, another man came into being. He used many names, but of these I only know two: one, the name formerly borne by his assistant, was Weissler, to which he added the title of doctor, Weissler becoming known as Krauss. The other, with which we are all familiar, was Anton de Trepniak.

"To return, then: At the time of his transfiguration Gühl was immersed in a study of the writings of Cagliostro. He had learned the necessity for intense concentration during the time that the physical change—which, he asserts, was agonizing—took place. As to the result, let me quote his own words."

Sir Provost sought for the passage in the manuscript, and then read aloud:

"'In this last agony I lost consciousness but firmly maintained my mental attitude to the last. When Weissler awakened me I was without pain, I was vigorous and knew a strange joy. My heart throbbed in my breast strongly, like the heart of a bull. I leapt to my feet, and running to a mirror, beheld the image of Cagliostro.'

"You see," said Sir Provost, looking up, "he recognized it, himself. And it was not merely physical, but also mental. From an untidy student, who had devoted his life to Science, he developed into a brilliant adventurer. His genius undimmed, endowed with a new love of astonishing, he sought to impress, to dazzle his fellowmen. No extravagance was too wild for indulgence. He determined to be more mad than Nero, more powerful than Alexander.

"There was, in his new life, an urgent necessity: that of discovering an uninterrupted series of healthy bodies from which Krauss, who usually operated, might obtain the vital secretion. Up to the time that he secured the means of-shall I say?-'broadcasting' his will, his difficulties in this respect were great. The bond between the man latterly called Krauss and that other whom we know as Trepniak, is not discoverable from these memoirs; but that Krauss sustained his synthetic life in constant fear that Trepniak one day would deprive him of the serum is mentioned more than once. On three occasions, apparently, this anxiety induced in Krauss an excess of zeal, and the subjects died."

The speaker turned to Torrington.

"The woman in Limehouse was the last victim," he said. "Thanks to your skill, Mrs. Lewisham was spared."

"Mrs. Lewisham!" Jasmine cried.

"Mrs. Lewisham, dear," her father explained, "was dangerously ill. Doctor Torrington has been attending her."

"But——" Jasmine began.

"Shall I tell her.f'" Torrington interrupted.

Sir Provost nodded slightly, and:

"In fact," said Torrington, "she was one of the victims selected by this modern vampire."

Following his words there were some moments of silence. Then:

"This was the fear which haunted Trepniak's second life," Sir Provost continued. "At somewhat irregular periods, I gather, the necessity for renewal of the treatment manifested itself. In short, the God of Things as They Are claimed him unexpectedly. In one hour, according to his own statement, he would age ten years if the serum chanced to be unavailable.

"I will pass over the fact that members of the feline and canine families regarded himself and Krauss with the utmost horror, and I shall proceed to the supreme and terrible penalty of this artificial life.

"During these premonitory seizures he found himself spiritually in the company of the dead! He slipped into that borderland to which he properly belonged, meeting there some who had suffered at his hands.

"At such times he would lose control of himself, and, as he admits, be thrown back upon the beliefs of his childhood; would seek refuge with any simple soul to whom the Cross was an emblem of faith, and where, according to his own account, he found peace. Yes! the daring investigator of forbidden things, the enemy of God, at times, as he confesses in this terrible human document, ran half-clad through empty streets, pursued by phantoms of the dead, in search of some church of Christ whose open doors offered sanctuary.

"A less spiritual and more material fear was that of the organization whose trust he had betrayed. He knew, by reason of his advanced studies, something of the identity of the man who sooner or later must trace him. He seems to have been strangely blind to the fact that be might be approached on a plane outside the physical.

"His fear of death manifested itself in peculiar ways. His possessions, great and small, were studiedly ephemeral; no one of them was destined to outlive him. He spent millions on the appointments of his various homes, for he seems to have become incapable of contemplating any inanimate object which had existed earlier than himself, or which was likely to survive him. In short, where Gühl had been a genius, Trepniak became an inspired madman. The suppressed Gühl, who had been sacrificed to Science, manifested himself. Theosophists would say that the soul of Cagliostro possessed the body of Gühl in its new form, but I merely state the facts as they appear in this document.

"I have nearly finished, and it is day. Might I trouble you, Torrington, to make the fire blaze: I had it lighted for a particular purpose. In passing"—Sir Provost rapidly turned over several pages—"I may mention that Trepniak refers to his inability to influence persons of unsound mind and those suffering from loss of memory. There have been, of course, a number of women in his lifeW}}HAT should you guess," Sir Provost asked, glancing around the room from face to face, "to be Trepniak's age?"