CHAPTER IV
THE SIX TUBES
One night, just as I entered my house, the telephone bell in the hallrang sharply. I picked up the receiver impatiently, for I was tired withthe long day's work.
"Is that Dr. Harden?"
"Yes."
"Can you come down to Charing Cross Station at once? The station-masteris speaking."
"An accident?"
"No. We wish you to identify a person who has arrived by the boat-train.The police are detaining him as a suspect. He gave your name as areference. He is a Russian."
"All right. I'll come at once."
I hung up the receiver and told the servant to whistle for a taxi-cab.Ten minutes later I was picking my way through the crowds on theplatform to the station-master's office. I entered, and found a strangescene being enacted. On one side of a table stood Sarakoff, veryflushed, with shining eyes, clasping a black bag tightly to his breast.On the other side stood a group of four men, the station-master, apolice officer, a plain clothes man and an elderly gentleman in whitespats. The last was pointing an accusing finger at Sarakoff.
"Open that bag and we'll believe you!" he shouted.
Sarakoff glared at him defiantly.
I recognized his accuser at once. It was Lord Alberan, the famous Toryobstructionist.
"Anarchist!" Lord Alberan's voice rang out sharply. He took out ahandkerchief and mopped his face.
"Arrest him!" he said to the constable with an air of satisfaction. "Iknew he was an anarchist the moment I set eyes on him at Dover. There isan infernal machine in that bag. The man reeks of vodka. He is mad."
"Idiot," exclaimed Sarakoff, with great vehemence. "I drink nothing butwater."
"He wishes to destroy London," said Lord Alberan coldly. "There isenough dynamite in that bag to blow the whole of Trafalgar Square intofragments. Arrest him instantly."
I stepped forward from the shadows by the door. Sarakoff uttered a cryof pleasure.
"Ah, Harden, I knew you would come. Get me out of this stupidsituation!"
"What is the matter?" I asked, glancing at the station-master. Heexplained briefly that Lord Alberan and Sarakoff had travelled up in thesame compartment from Dover, and that Sarakoff's strange restlessnessand excited movements had roused Lord Alberan's suspicions. As aconsequence Sarakoff had been detained for examination.
"If he would open his bag we should be satisfied," added thestation-master. I looked at my friend significantly.
"Why not open it?" I asked. "It would be simplest."
My words had the effect of quieting the excited professor. He put thebag on the table, and placed his hands on the top of it.
"Very well," he said slowly, "I will open it, since my friend Dr. Hardenhas requested me to do so."
"Stand back!" cried Lord Alberan, flinging out his arms. "We may be somuch dust flying over London in a moment."
Sarakoff took out a key and unlocked the bag. There was silence for amoment, only broken by hurrying footsteps on the platform without. ThenLord Alberan stepped cautiously forward.
He saw the worn canvas lining of the bag. He took a step nearer and sawa wooden rack, fitted in the interior, containing six glass tubes whosemouths were stopped with plugs of cotton wool.
"You see, there is nothing important there," said Sarakoff with a smile."These objects are of purely scientific interest." He took out one ofthe tubes and held it up to the light. It was half full of asemi-transparent jelly-like mass, faintly blue in colour. The detective,the policeman and the station official clustered round, their facesturned up to the light and their eyes fixed on the tube. The Russianlooked at them narrowly, and reading nothing but dull wonderment intheir expressions, began to speak again.
"Yes--the Bacillus Pyocyaneus," he said, with a faint mocking smile anda side glance at me. "It is occasionally met with in man and is easilydetected by the blue bye-product it gives off while growing." He twistedthe tube slowly round. "It is quite an interesting culture," hecontinued idly. "Do you observe the uniform distribution of the growthand the absence of any sign of liquefaction in the medium?"
Lord Alberan cleared his throat.
"I--er--I think we owe you an apology," he said. "My suspicions wereunfounded. However, I did my duty to my country by having you examined.You must admit your conduct was suspicious--highly suspicious, sir!"
Sarakoff replaced the tube and locked the bag. Lord Alberan marched tothe door and held it open.
"We need not detain you, sir," said the detective. The policeman squaredhis shoulders and hitched up his belt. The station official lookednervous.
Dr. Sarakoff, with a gesture of indifference, picked up the bag and,taking me by the arm, passed out on to the brilliantly-lit platform."_Pyocyaneus_," he muttered in my ear; "_pyocyaneus_, indeed! Confoundthe fellow. He might have got me into no end of trouble if he had knownthe truth, Harden."
"But what is it?" I asked. "What have you got in the bag?"
He stopped under a sizzling arc-lamp outside the station.
"The bag," he said touching the worn leather lovingly, "contains sixtubes of the Sarakoff-Harden bacillus. Yes, I have added your name toit. I will make your name immortal--by coupling it with mine."
"But what is the Sarakoff-Harden bacillus?" I cried.
He struck an attitude under the viperish glare of the lamp and smiled.He certainly did look like an anarchist at the moment. He loomed overme, huge, satanic, inscrutable.
A thrill, almost of fear, passed over me. I glanced round in someapprehension. Under an archway near by I saw Lord Alberan lookingfixedly at us. The expression of suspicion had returned to his face.
"You mean----?" He nodded. I gulped a little. "You really have----?" Hecontinued to nod. "Then we can try the great experiment?" I whispered,dry throated.
"At once!" The detective passed us, brushing against my shoulder. Icaught Sarakoff by the arm.
"Look here--we must get away," I muttered. I felt like a criminal.Sarakoff clasped the bag firmly under his free arm. We began to walkhurriedly away. Our manner was furtive. Once I looked back and sawAlberan talking, with excited gestures, to the detective. They were bothlooking in our direction. The impulse to run possessed me. "Quick," Iexclaimed, "there's a taxi. Jump in. Drive to Harley Street--like thedevil."
Inside the cab I lay back, my mind in a whirl.
"We begin the experiment to-morrow," said Sarakoff at last. "Have youmade plans as I told you?"
"Yes--yes. Of course. Only I never believed it possible." I controlledmyself and sat up. "I fixed on Birmingham. It seemed best--but I neverdreamed----"
"Good!" he exclaimed. "Birmingham, then!"
"Their water supply comes from Wales."
We spoke no more till I turned the key of my study door behind me. Itwas in this way that the germ, which made so vast and strange animpression on the course of the world's history, first reached England.It had lain under the very nose of Lord Alberan, who opposed everythingnew automatically. Yet it, the newest of all things, escaped hisvigilance.
We decided to put our plans into action without delay, and next morningwe set off, carrying with us the precious tubes of the Sarakoff-Hardenbacillus. Throughout the long journey we scarcely spoke to each other.Each of us was absorbed in his picture of the future effects of thegerm.
There was one strange fact that Sarakoff had told me the night before,and that I had verified. The bacillus was ultra-microscopical--that is,it could not be seen, even with the highest power, under the microscope.Its presence was only to be detected by the blue stain it gave offduring its growth.
The Blue Germ Page 4