The Amazing Dr. Darwin

by Charles Sheffield

  “Nonetheless, I was forced to take seriously your brother’s concern that you were the slave of an evil circumstance. I suspect that he may think so still, when he knows all. But I knew from my first look that you were—and are—not possessed by any demons but your own. You are suffering from one malady recognized by medical science: great fatigue. You have the look of someone who has seen no rest for many weeks. Of a woman, in fact, who occupies her nights providing signals that ships offshore are able to interpret.”

  “Smugglers!” Pole exclaimed. “They are running goods along Chesil Bank, and into The Fleet.”

  “Very true, Jacob.” Darwin had one eye still on Helen Solborne. “Smugglers, however, who carry an unusual cargo. The Solborne family, as we were told on that first evening in Birmingham, does not lack for wealth. Can you see the mistress of Newlands, a lady of ‘substantial independent means,’ dealing in rope tobacco, Nantz brandy, or Alenзon lace, when she can easily purchase them with her own funds?”

  “It was a cargo more precious than lace,” Helen said abruptly. “More valuable than gold or rubies. Brother, I seldom ask for anything, but I beg you, do not take this to the Court. Promise me that, and I will tell you everything.”

  Solborne had not sat down. He stared at her in total confusion.

  “He cannot promise what he does not understand,” Darwin said mildly. “Tell first, Miss Helen, then make your request.”

  “I cannot.” And then, under Darwin’s steady gaze, “But I must.” She took a deep breath. “Very well. I will.

  “Tom, you cannot guess how it distressed when you thought me the devoted slave of that—that mountebank, Riker. He is nothing, merely an intermediary for others. What I am doing, I do because I choose, not because I am in any way controlled. And this did not begin two months ago, with my trip to Bristol. It began a full year earlier, with my visit to France. I saw poverty there beyond imagining, people downtrodden and hopeless and reduced to animal existence. But in Paris I also met a group of men and women, small in numbers yet dedicated, who seek in France what was recently achieved by the American colonies: freedom.”

  “A revolt!”

  “No, brother, not a revolt. A revolution. They cannot speak openly—King Louis, ineffectual as he seems, has ministers and minions both suspicious and bloodthirsty. Plans must be made in secret; in the churches, in the Paris catacombs, in the open fields, by sunlight and moonlight and candlelight. And still there is risk. When exposure comes too close, there is only one chance: the suspect must quit France entirely, and fly to another country. I have helped those in peril to find sanctuary.” Helen Solborne walked forward and took her brother by the hand. “Tom, I have deceived you for one reason only: I seek to save human lives.”

  “I believe you.” But Solborne was not looking at her. “If the King found out—he already becomes demented at any mention of the American revolt—he would fear for the spread to England, men would say treason—”

  “And women would say compassion. Tom, I had no choice. Don’t you see that?”

  “It must stop, Helen. Tonight was the last time.”

  “The secret is out now. I will agree—if you will not go to London, and betray them. A score or more are here in England, facing certain death on a return to France.”

  “I will—think about it.” Solborne met his sister’s eyes for the first time. He sat down on one of the straight-backed chairs. “If you can promise me that there is nothing else. Nothing more that you are concealing from me.”

  “Brother, I will answer every question that you ask, openly and honestly. But do not betray those whose lives have depended on me.”

  Darwin caught Jacob Pole’s eye, and jerked his head toward the door. “This is no part of our business,” he said softly, as they headed down the stairs. “It is between Tom and Helen Solborne.”

  “Will she persuade him?”

  “She is his little sister. She will throw herself on his mercy, and he will be unable to resist her.”

  “But ’Rasmus, this could be—treason.” Pole hissed the word. “If anything like the Americas were to happen here…”

  “It will not. King George is sane only north-northwest, but there is too much of a bottom of good sense in our people and parliament for revolution to be a danger. The Continent is different. You heard Matthew Boulton. France is stirring, there is unrest in Bavaria and Bohemia. The royal courts must look out for themselves. The problems in Europe run broad and deep.”

  They had reached the bottom of the stairs and were passing Joan Rowland’s room. She was standing by her bed in a long flannel nightgown, round eyed and as far from sleep as anyone could be.

  Darwin turned to Pole. “I feared as much. Jacob, will you do me a favor? Will you calm her fears, and tell her that it is quite safe to go to bed?”

  “Me? You are the one who knows all.”

  “I lack your talent to soothe a lady’s worries.”

  “Rubbish! You boast of it. Oh, all right.” Pole turned into the bedroom. “You owe me, ’Rasmus,” he said over his shoulder. And then, in a confiding voice to Joan, which happened to be quite loud enough for Darwin to hear. “You see how it is, Joan Rowland, the great Dr. Darwin goes off to roll his fat in a cozy bed, and leaves others to do his work.”

  Darwin smiled to himself as he continued into the dining room. He remained only long enough to adjust his scarf and button his greatcoat. Then he headed downstairs for the entrance hall. He left Newlands, and took the dark path that led south along the cliff.

  Now came the difficult part.

  * * *

  Darwin walked slowly, chin tucked in low on his chest, hardly aware of the rough shingle beneath his feet. His eyes from time to time sought the sea to his right. Somewhere out there would be a ship, hove to, its crew perplexed. They would wonder, why had the signal light been interrupted? Was it safe to go ashore?

  The house rented by Anton Riker was tiny, hardly more than a one-room cottage. There was no sign of the pony and trap in front of its only door. True to his word, Riker had gone to Abbotsbury, a few miles farther along the coast. Darwin could guess what that business was. Riker would soon be as confused as the ship’s crew.

  The cottage door was closed. It was hard to see anything through the single grimy window. A flickering light gleamed from within.

  Darwin took a deep breath, swung the door open, and passed through in a single movement.

  The low-ceilinged room was lit by two tallow candles in stone bowls, one at each end of a table of knotty elm. The Riker calculating engine was on the floor over by the wall, looking exactly as it had in the Newlands’ dining room. A bed stood to the right on one side of the fireplace, and on the other side was a child’s cot.

  Food was set out on the table: a leg of cold mutton, a great dish of pickled onions, dark bread and a steaming cauliflower. A quart pewter mug stood by the single plate. Next to that plate sat a man. He had a knife in his hand, and was about to slice mutton from the joint.

  The man’s legs dangled from the tall chair, and the crown of his head was no more than twelve inches above the table top.

  Darwin nodded to him casually, as though meeting a dwarf late at night was the most normal and pleasant thing in the world.

  “Good evening. I was hoping to converse with Professor Riker.”

  To anyone less observant, the other’s brief hesitation would have passed unnoticed. “The professor is away on business,” he said. And, when Darwin did not respond, “I am—his manservant. My name is Elie Marйe.”

  The dwarf spoke good English, though with a definite Normandy accent. He slid down from the chair, moved away from the table, and bowed to Darwin. Standing, he was at most three and a half feet tall. His arms and legs were short and stubby, but the large head was well formed. Alert brown eyes swept Darwin from head to foot.

  Darwin smiled his toothless smile. “I wonder if I might wait here for the professor’s return.”

  Again, the pause for thought was
scarcely discernible, but Darwin had a sense of rapid evaluation and of a definite choice made.

  “Certainly.” Marйe waved to a seat at the other side of the table. “I am about to dine. If you would care to join me…”

  “Perhaps a bite or two.” Darwin sat down, picked up a pickled onion, and crunched it with pleasure. He wiped vinegar from his lips with his sleeve. The other man put out two plates, carefully carved mutton, and waited.

  “I saw the calculating engine demonstrated earlier this evening.” Darwin nodded to the machine. “It is a wonderful invention.”

  “Professor Riker is a man of outstanding talent.”

  “I would go beyond that.” Darwin stood up from his chair and walked across to the engine. “This machine displays genius. One might even say it contains genius. Do you know the names of Jedediah Buxton, or George Lambert Walker?”

  “They are new to me.”

  “They should not be. You have much in common with them. But one thing about this engine puzzles me more than any other.”

  “Indeed?” Marйe’s tone was completely neutral, but he had stopped carving. “I am afraid that an explanation must await Professor Riker’s return.”

  “I am not sure of that. You see, Monsieur Marйe, my question has nothing to do with the interior workings of the engine. It is something far more mundane.”

  The other remained silent.

  “It is simply this,” Darwin continued. “When the engine was brought to Newlands, it needed two servants to carry it to and from the carriage. But when Professor Riker left the Solborne house to bring the machine here, he was alone. The professor is not a man of powerful build. I wondered how it was possible for him, single-handed, to unload an engine heavy enough to need the efforts of two strong young men.”

  “I helped him.” Marйe was totally still.

  “I feel sure that you did. In more ways than one.” Darwin took hold of one corner of the calculating engine and lifted. It raised easily from the floor. “You helped to carry it, but more than that: you diminished its weight, from a hundredweight and more to less than half of that. By the amount, in fact, of your own weight.”

  Again, Marйe’s eyes showed that rapid evaluation and decision was going on behind them. The final shrug of his shoulders suggested that he did not care any more. He raised the carving knife, but only to spear slices of mutton and drop them onto the two plates.

  “How much do you know—Dr. Darwin? I think you will agree that it gives away nothing to admit that I realize who you are.”

  “Nothing at all. One might say, in some sense, we were introduced to each other earlier this evening. Would you do me the honor of showing me the inner working of your invention?—I assume that it is all yours.”

  “Totally. Design and fabrication. Anton Riker is a brave man, and a good actor, but nothing more.” Elie Marйe hopped off his chair and went to crouch by the calculating engine. He pressed a concealed stud in the base, and the lower section slid open across its whole length like a drawer. “As you see. The levers here, that can be read off below as they are moved above. The type here, to print answers.”

  “Just so. But the provision of those arithmetical answers, Monsieur?”

  Marйe did not speak, but tapped his forehead.

  Darwin nodded. “As I thought. I did not mention Jedediah Buxton and George Walker for no reason. They, like you, are phenomenal calculators, capable of feats of mentation far beyond most men. Unlike you, they lack the power of original engineering design.” He leaned forward, examining the cavity at the base of the engine. “It is padded, but most cramped. Long hours inside must be uncomfortable.”

  “Believe me, Dr. Darwin, I am used to discomfort. The life of a dwarf is not all pleasure.” For the first time, Marйe’s voice betrayed emotion. He gestured to the engine. “Do you wish to see how I lie inside? It is a tight fit—even for a little man.”

  “That is not necessary. Come, eat your dinner. You have more than deserved it.”

  “I am not sure that I have appetite.” But Marйe closed the drawer and returned to the table. “What now, Dr. Darwin? You know my secret. You can easily expose me, and destroy my livelihood. You will surely not permit our other activities in England to continue. Whatever happens, I have no future.”

  Rather than answering at once, Darwin reached for a slice of mutton and began to chew on it moodily.

  “There are other mysteries,” he said at last. “It is not my purpose to cause you pain, but I do not understand why you follow such a life. You have great gifts, that is obvious. You have used them, too, but for deception. And you are here, in a foreign land, living with discomfort and uncertainty and danger—for you must know the consequences if your role in assisting a revolt in France were to be discovered. Why not use your powers openly, to do what you do so well?”

  Despite his stated lack of interest in food, Elie Marйe had begun to eat. He was picking at the cauliflower, breaking off pieces with his fingers. “What would be easy for another is not easy for me. May I tell a story, Dr. Darwin?”

  “Whatever you wish, sir.”

  “I am twenty-seven years old. The life span of one such as I is not long—perhaps forty years. I do not complain of that. Christ and Alexander had fewer years to accomplish their work. But with the knowledge of short life, I am perhaps too impatient. I have always had a talent for engineering invention. Two years ago I had what seemed like a most valuable idea. As you know, water power increasingly runs our spinning wheels and looms. But there is a problem in controlling the machinery to operate at a constant speed when the water flow varies.

  “I have solved that problem. I place spring-loaded weights on the perimeter of the driven wheel. They move outward under centrifugal force as the spin increases, return inward as it decreases. Their changing position adjusts the water flow, according as the weights are farther from or nearer to the center. In this way, we can precisely govern and make constant the speed of the wheel, without human intervention. Do you follow?”

  “I do, completely. It is most ingenious, and must be of vast value.”

  “I thought so. In fact, I was so convinced of its worth that I sought an audience with his Majesty, King Louis. I was quite prepared to offer my invention, without personal reward, for the good of France. But I made a fatal mistake. I was sure that King and Court would immediately grasp the significance of what I had done—as you did. The king, after all, has a reputation as a skilled locksmith. I did not think that a large working model would be necessary. Now I realize that I ought to have controlled some giant wheel on the Seine or the Loire River, to demonstrate an impressive mastery over Nature.

  “But I did not. Instead, I brought to the Palace of Versailles a small scale model, without the means to drive it. I cannot describe my excitement as I waited in the antechamber for my audience. I had rehearsed a thousand times what I would say to the king.

  “It was all in vain. I was lost as soon as I entered the door of the royal chamber, my model in my arms. A score of people were with the king, men and women both. I heard them titter and giggle and remark to each other as I came forward.” Marйe’s voice became bitter. “To them I was not an inventor, Dr. Darwin, seeking to serve France. I was not even a man. I was a freak, a walking joke, a parody of humanity carrying in his arms a child’s toy.

  “I began my explanation, stammering and lame-tongued. The king was not listening, he was too distracted by his jesting courtiers. One of the gowned women said, with no attempt to keep the words from my ears, ‘How does he propose to drive the little wheel? Piss on it, with his teeny-weeny little thing?’

  “I stopped. The king waved a hand. I was ushered out. It was over, the end of my great audience.”

  Darwin nodded slowly. “Monsieur Marйe, I understand the magnitude of your tragedy too well to offer sympathy. So let me instead ask two questions. First, would your ‘speed governor’ work as well to regulate the flow of steam?”

  Marйe frowned at the sudden
change of subject. “I do not see why not. But I know little about steam power, although here in England it is much talked about.”

  “It will define the future. My second question: what will you do now?”

  “I told you. Nothing. Unlike steam, I have no future.”

  “That is not an acceptable answer. I can see why you hate bitterly the court of France. I would feel the same. But vengeance can never make a full life. I have a different suggestion, if you will hear me out.”

  “Do I have a choice?”

  “No. I speak now both as physician and engineer. For your physical condition, I regret to say that I can do nothing. It is congenital. For the rest—” Darwin rummaged in the pocket of his greatcoat, and came up with Jacob Pole’s letter. “Do you have pen and ink?”

  “I will get it.”

  Darwin smoothed a page and turned to its blank back side. “This part of the country may not be safe for you. You must travel to Birmingham, well north of here. When can you leave?”

  “Nothing holds me here. If necessary I can leave at once.”

  “Good. I am going to give you an introduction to a Mr. James Watt.” Darwin took the goose quill, dipped it, and began to write. “He will, at my request, employ you in the Soho works. I propose to point out that your possible contributions are many in number, and he should attend most carefully to your ideas on speed governors and anything else.”

  “Attend—as the court of France attended? Dr. Darwin, I may be in England, but my height is no greater than in Paris. I will be taken no more seriously.”