Page:Amazing Stories Volume 01 Number 05.djvu/95

Dr. Ox’s Experiment

By JULES VERNE

(Concluded)

⟨cate⟩ Schut going arm in arm with ⟨C⟩ustos the doctor, Frantz Niklausse ⟨w⟩alking with equal familiarity with ⟨Si⟩mon Collaert, each going tranquilly, ⟨no⟩iselessly, without even being con⟨sc⟩ious of what had happened and hav⟨in⟩g already forgotten Virgamen and ⟨th⟩eir revenge. The general returned ⟨to⟩ his confections, and his aide-de-⟨ca⟩mp to his barley sugar.

Thus everything had become calm ⟨a⟩gain; the old existence had been re⟨su⟩med by men and beasts, beasts and ⟨pl⟩ants; even by the tower of Ouden⟨ar⟩de gate, which the explosion—these ⟨ex⟩plosions are sometimes astonishing⟨—⟩had set upright again!

And from that time never a word ⟨w⟩as spoken more loudly than another, ⟨ne⟩ver a discussion took place in the ⟨to⟩wn of Quiquendone. There were no ⟨m⟩ore politics, no more clubs, no more ⟨tr⟩ials, no more policemen! The post of ⟨th⟩e Commissary Passauf became once ⟨m⟩ore a sinecure, and if his salary was ⟨no⟩t reduced, it was because the burgo⟨m⟩aster and the counselor could not ⟨m⟩ake up their minds to decide upon it.

From time to time, indeed, Passauf ⟨fli⟩tted, without anyone suspecting it, ⟨th⟩rough the dreams of the inconsol⟨ab⟩le Tatanemance.

As for Frantz's rival, he generously ⟨aba⟩ndoned the charming Suzel to her ⟨lov⟩er, who hastened to wed her five or ⟨six⟩ years after these events.

And as for Madam evan Tricasse, ⟨sh⟩e died ten years later, at the proper ⟨ti⟩me, and the burgomaster married Mademoiselle Pelagie van Tricasse, his cousin, under excellent conditions—for the happy mortal who should succeed him.

 

CHAPTER XVII

In Which Dr. Ox’s Theory Is Explained

What, then, had this mysterious Doctor Ox done? Tried a fantastic experiment—nothing more.

After having laid down his gas pipe, he had saturated, first the public buildings, then the private dwellings, finally the streets of Quiquendone, with pure oxygen, without letting in the least atom of hydrogen.

This gas, tasteless and odorless, spread in generous quantity through the atmosphere, causes, when it is breathed, serious agitation to the human organism. One who lives in an air saturated with oxygen grows excited, frantic, burns!

You scarcely return to the ordinary atmosphere before you return to your usual state. For instance, the counselor and the burgomaster at the top of the belfry were themselves again, as the oxygen is kept, by its weight, in the lower strata of the air.

But one who lives under such conditions, breathing this gas which transforms the body physiologically as well as the soul, dies speedily, like a madman.

It was fortunate, then, for the Quiquendonians, that a providential explosion put an end to this dangerous experiment, and abolished Doctor Ox's gas works.

To conclude: Are virtue, courage, talent, wit, imagination,—all these qualities or faculties only a question of oxygen?

Such is Doctor Ox's theory; but we are not bound to accept it, and for ourselves we utterly reject it, in spite of the curious experiment of which the worthy old town of Quiquendone was the theatre.

The End

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Aspiration

By Leland S. Copeland

Over the dark, thin nebular drift,
 Waiting the warmth and light;
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Comets that race with a trail of fire,
 Asteroids whirling along—
Something is brooding, impelling;
 Something that cannot be wrong.

Up from the unseen germ and cell,
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Up from the fish of the Devon sea,
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 And dark-eyed cave girl's song—
Something is moving, compelling;
 Something that cannot do wrong.

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