The Fall of the House of Heron (Prologue Science Fiction)

by Eden Phillpotts

  “You must have learned a lot from such a scientific team as that,” said Ernest, when the three sat after dinner on the evening of the savant’s return.

  “Yes — a great team. I learned more in certain directions than my companions thought they were teaching me, and they got from me all I knew pertinent to the matter in hand. But the cases were rather different, because what I knew related to the business that brought us together; while odds and ends I got from them were beside the question, yet useful to my own private operations to which I now return. I am a pioneer again now and have read more into certain fruitful speculations than they themselves could do. A powerful study group of great physicists will be found ere long and I may bring them very definite lines of research only waiting to be followed a little further by myself before my announcement to the world. At present the situation of Science and the State on this subject is a problem in itself. We differed no little in our opinions, the question having vast implications. It is this, of course: shall we, who have discovered how to create atomic energy and employ it in a practical form, keep this knowledge a secret, or impart to our Allies only, or shall we announce the tremendous event to civilization at large? Are the English-speaking nations to keep their secret, or our supporters in the world war to share it? A silly problem to waste words upon, because great nations, like China, or Russia, will inevitably find it out in a few years’ time, while the atomic bomb is still only in its infancy and should end all wars rather than provoke fresh ones. But once we harness the energy to sane purposes, then there will be every reason for all nations to concentrate upon production and rival each other in rational application of it. At present only the United States possess the huge plants needful; but given what I am after and have as a matter of fact now in my grasp, then these prodigious things will be superseded by a very different and more modest machinery demanded by other agents to produce nuclear energy already in my knowledge. It all turns on that for me, and to reveal those other agents and share them is my intention. The time has come for science to play its proper part in application and control of the truths it wrests from nature. That is the doctrine of every intelligent physicist to-day. Infinite possibilities lie ahead. We may de-nature uranium, plutonium and thorium, leaving these elements fruitful of good, yet rendered powerless for evil. But while Governments will certainly seek to control their deposits, I at any moment am now able to depose all these treasures and present humanity with something better. It is enough to know that my country will soon stand in the lead of the world and that I am likely to be installed head of our forthcoming Experimental Station of Atomic Energy if I agree to accept the appointment.”

  “Throw over all Secret Diplomacy and tell everybody all we know: that is your idea?” asked Ernest.

  “Yes. Confound politics and give man a last chance to use his reasoning powers. Face reality, or die from a surfeit of knowledge our wretched brains cannot digest.”

  They were silent and he went on.

  “A crisis demands hope to face it and where shall you look for hope to-day save in science? Science has yet to examine, investigate and probe to the roots our mental attributes as well as our physical elements. Philosophy is foolery: we have waded through morasses of the spoken and written word for centuries, and where have they got us? What prophet helps us to face the new values and bring the light of human reason to them? Who crams into our thick heads we have now made the world so small that only a new order of progress can escape collision and destruction?”

  “We must be members one of another, whether we would or not,” said Ernest.

  “Then look for hope to science,” repeated Faraday. “First grant that no subject challenging the mind of man exists which cannot be approached from the scientific angle. Questions that have mystified our growing reason for centuries begin to find their answers the moment that pure science is brought to bear upon them. Had science been welcomed instead of hated and mistrusted until this our time, mankind’s fate had been happier and its credentials more respectable.”

  Greta forced herself to speak, feeling that dead silence might cause her brother to suspect her feelings; but it was not a kindly word she spoke.

  “Who could have dreamed that any enthusiasm for humanity would ever awake in you, Faraday?” she asked and he froze instantly.

  “Your surprise is justified. Mixing so much with other people as I have done of late, shows me how, to them, their little, twopenny-halfpenny lives matter just as much as my highly important existence matters to me. No room for enthusiasm for humanity if you are a man of science. Truth is all we seek, and though somebody appears to have said and millions have echoed ever since that ‘Truth is Beauty and Beauty, Truth,’ nothing could be so idiotically untrue. Truth is often inconceivably hideous and never more so than the truth of humanity.”

  “You speak as one who knows,” answered Greta with a throbbing heart; and then she left them in fear of her own tongue. It was understood that two days should be allowed to elapse before Trensham opened his attack.

  Now the traveller buried himself in his own discovery and those new aspects of the future it involved.

  “Novel necessities and opportunities cry to us on every side,” he said. “The war has quickened human genius as never any conflict yet, but, happily for us, certain great, new destructive channels opened too late. Terrific possibilities exist for good or evil, and not too late for good. The rocket and jet-propulsion abound in promise. A time is close at hand when atomic bombs might travel in less than an hour from the new world to the old, or from the old to the new — a journey taking half a year in the past. Our flying ships to come will bring death or life — destruction, or salvation with the solution of those problems of distribution which continue to confound all mankind. They will enable us to slaughter each other, or to succour and save each other at will; but great questions must be answered before such airships stream above earth and sea. Indeed I amazed myself as well as my companions to find right answers teeming in my brain. They seemed to leap out of my intellect and promise further important work when I have completed my present task.”

  Ernest listened with due respect.

  “Such assurance may well support a tremendous brain like yours,” he admitted. “But are you never frightened? Genius such as yours must bring rather awful responsibilities.”

  “It is difficult to see how one man could be confronted with greater at this moment,” agreed the scientist.

  Anxious, ere battle was joined, to learn such details as his brother-in-law might furnish, the other made an inquiry.

  “Don’t answer if you think the question impertinent,” he begged, “but now, on the eve as you are of proclaiming your discovery to the scientific world, how would you put it into words for the people at large to understand? Shall you tell science, not only what you have done but how you have done it?”

  “It is too soon to say that I am on the eve of proclaiming anything,” answered Faraday. “I have told you and Greta where I stand, but do not wish you to discuss the subject with anybody else. One has to think of her now in connection with the future of Cliff, for, once my operations here are ended, I shall have no more use for the place than she or you.”

  Three days intervened before Faraday listened to his brother-in-law and then, on the pretext of a very fine night and a subject involving need for extreme privacy, Ernest persuaded him to the gazebo on the cliff and announced his position. The little belvedere was lighted by electricity and Trensham prepared to turn it on, but his companion suggested the gloom of the starlit night.

  “My eyes are tired,” he said, “and unless you want me to read anything, I should like to rest them.”

  “Light your pipe then and listen.”

  “I have felt you had something on the tip of your tongue ever since I came back,” answered the other. “Does it concern your own plans? If so I would suggest again waiting a little, until you learn whether the near future may not put me in a position to offer you some
really good appointment — something to please Greta.”

  “Most considerate and I appreciate the suggestion, Faraday; but what I have to say will rather alter your own focus as to the future. You have to face some tremendous facts which, though long familiar to you, will bring you a staggering surprise from the lips of another, and that other myself. To me it is impossible to describe my astonishment and horror when I learned these things, and to find jog-trot, everyday life reveal such a ghastly story of crime still beggars my imagination.”

  “You whet my appetite,” answered Faraday. “For a man of your calibre and experience to confess horror concerning facts long familiar to me — a promising beginning. Have you abandoned detection of crime and turned to the higher plane on which I move? Have you turned physicist, Ernest?”

  “I am to tell you of elaborate and extraordinary crimes and invite you to consider two people: the perpetrator of them, whom you know, and the discoverer, whom you also know. I am going to take you step by step along a road that, from one side, represents nothing but infernal, unbelievable villainy, from the other offers motives and prospects and human aspects yet to be examined.”

  “You must have been enjoying yourself and battling with all manner of mingled emotions. Always a wearisome business, however. How should I come into your adventures in any case?”

  Ernest was silent a moment and then replied, but not to the main question which had just been put to him.

  “Mingled emotions are tiring as you say. In fact all emotion is tiring when it involves yourself and those vital to yourself. A nice question whether love or hate best serves our needs and advances our good causes.”

  “Love and hate are equally worthless parasites on will-power,” answered Faraday. “They sap our energy — rob us of any sustained usefulness, confound what promise we may possess. Our passion for loving and hating make us the valueless, untrustable brutes we mostly are. Had man been created a steadfast robot instead of the soap-bubble he is, then we might feel a shadow more trust in him and a grain more respect.”

  Thereupon Trensham told his tale. He began just as he had begun to his wife, noted the strange chances that brought him in sight of his discovery, the accident of time and place, his own extraordinary application and patient industry to verify every step of the road, every date, every detail in its place; the facts concerning Faraday’s own motives; the need for Alfred Heron’s elimination and the means by which it might have been effected. Aware that here evidence must be unprocurable and the naked theory tenuous without it, he sketched that incident, only pointing the motive; but on the murder of Sir Hector he dwelt with in exhaustible detail and described how the connection between the rooms still existed and had been carefully preserved. For two hours he talked without one word of interruption uttered, or one question asked. Then his voice ceased and for a few moments there was no sound but the sigh of the sea on the foot of the red cliffs beneath them. Faraday’s first reply took shape in a gesture. He rose and turned on the electric light before he made any answer. Then he returned to his chair and regarded the other with appraising eyes. It was a curious and thoughtful expression. So a man, conscious of his own superiority, may yet admire a noble horse or dog, outstanding on its humbler plane of excellence. When he spoke there sounded almost a note of commendation in his cold voice.

  “You are something of a genius on your own ground,” he said. “This is a wonderful feat. Genius consists largely in recognizing opportunities before they are offered and bringing to them your own special gifts if you possess any. Few have such a power and this is a marvellous example of it. You pounce upon a triviality that no eye might have marked but your own and you proceed, with infinite patience and ingenuity, to build on these slender foundations a massive indictment — a building with flying buttresses to strengthen the mass, a truly rational piece of architecture and destined some day to become a classic. I congratulate you. It seems as though destiny, having determined you shall be a brilliant policeman, has remembered your endowments and afforded a wonderful opportunity to exercise them.”

  But the other, determined to keep an upper hand of the situation he had created, answered sternly.

  “We need not trouble to consider what has happened as a work of art,” he answered. “Nothing more staggering, or serious, or far reaching could have possibly overtaken you, or me. To be found out generally means to be understood, or so I have discovered in my old trade; but what revelation can explain you? For a man of your education, cultural endowment and lineage to be found a patricide, a fratricide, a criminal willing to commit infernal cruelties on his own blood, is a mystery, and though the motives duly appear, who can conceive them as adequate, or acquit you of about the most damnable crime in the annals of crime? I am not here to preach, but to handle things as I find them and respect my duty to the community, as soon as I feel convinced of what my duty may be. That I am not yet convinced, you will have learned since I face you myself and have not directed the Law to do so. Here are problems as difficult for me as for you, and I approach them with a sense of justice that has prompted me to hear your statement before acting.”

  “You are assuming a situation as yet hardly reached,” replied the other. “You are indicating a rather mistaken view of where we stand. You have a strong hand, but must play it in a way to match your initial skill. As you say you are not here to preach, but you are wise and just in agreeing to listen to me. Before I speak, however, there are certain questions I shall ask, and I feel sure you can be trusted to answer truthfully. This assault, at a crucial moment in my career, comes at an awkward season for me and I submit you must help me with a few more facts before we proceed.”

  “I have laid all my cards on the table, Heron,” answered Ernest. “I have nothing to conceal and can reply to any reasonable question of which I know the answers.”

  “Just stick to your usual method of speech, then, and don’t overweight it with long words. There is nothing solemn in long words. All we need is clarity that we may both find exactly where we stand. My first question is whether your activities lie entirely between ourselves. You say you postponed any action until you had confronted me with the story. Is that actually so?”

  Aware that he could not yet be said to have mastered his opponent, yet relieved in a manner by his calm, Ernest spoke.

  “Not a soul but you and I know the truth.”

  “As you believe the truth. Not Greta? Think twice before you answer.”

  But Trensham seized his opportunity.

  “Good God! She to know? Of all others on earth she must be the last, and I would cut off my right hand to save her from it. This would ruin her life and deny her another hour of happiness.”

  “One of your problems, and quite a difficult one no doubt.”

  “We live only for each other, as you cannot fail to know, and when you ask that question — since you can ask it — you are wasting time.”

  “It is enough that I take your word, but quite reasonable to ask the question,” replied Faraday. “You are a vain man and, having done a wonderful thing, would naturally enjoy to hear it applauded and thrill other people with your extraordinary ability. I quite agree, however, that a thousand considerations might well bar you from seeking her confidence. If future events are to take such a shape that Greta must learn them, then her light will go out for evermore and not even you be equal to restoring her happiness. You are an astute and far-sighted man and I am prepared to believe that your devotion to her would be the leading thought under such a challenge. But, if you feel your duty and any impulsion of what is called ‘conscience’ combine to ruin her future life and mar your own, I should suffer genuine regret for you both.”

  “That is what I am nerving myself to face,” replied the other.

  “And are anxious to learn whether it may lie in my power to help you,” suggested Faraday. “Many things have to be considered before you decide on what to do next. I too demand a thought. I must be permitted some measure of time, Trensham
, because this very grave indictment, while long familiar to you, comes upon me as a complete surprise. It aims not only at my future value to the world, but threatens immediate extinction of my life. Therefore, I reasonably ask for time — a brief period of time to be granted in which I may consider my position.”

  “Twenty-four hours and no longer.”

  “I will make that enough and show you that you need time also. First, then, you will be interested and gratified to hear you are right in all that you have told me. We have no witness for that admission and I might deny it if I submit to arrest and the matter comes to court. I should then be found guilty and sentenced to death, or the skill of my legal supporters serve to win the case and exonerate me. But I do not think any jury would let me off. I am inclined to believe that your story is so complete, exact and well supported by evidence in detail that a plea of ‘not guilty’ would be vain. You have a tremendous case and can produce a crushing sequence of events. Individually they appear fantastic to any conventional mind, but when assembled one can see the logical conclusion easily enough. The theft of the radium, for example, can only be explained in one way, for when those alone in a position to know argued it out, they perceived that none but myself and my two colleagues could by any possibility have stolen it. Yet, if one of the three defied suspicion, all agreed in deciding that I did. I had my name behind me and no conceivable motive, being, as everybody knew, a rich man with an enormously rich father. Yet you discovered the motive, you found how what I wanted was great wealth and, being denied it, took the first step to come by that wealth by securing the means to do so. Experiments will now be submitted to radioactivity. It will be found that animals react to its influence as my father did and science prove, to the satisfaction of the Law, that Sir Hector died under wrongful application of this element. That is really all a judge and jury need, while for the doubters, what remains to convince them? The fact, which I have actually stated in the hearing of your wife and yourself and others, that I already know the means of controlling atomic energy. Then there are the dates when I was on Dartmoor, which corresponded with experimental, unexplained explosions but ten miles from where I lodged at Powder Mills Farm; the fact of my brother’s death under mysterious conditions in Africa; the certainty that I had seen and handled the heavy cartridges to be used in his big rifle and the possibility that I might, during my visit to Cliff, have tampered by night with one of those cartridges, yet left the thing in no way altered to the eye. That is what actually happened. It was a bow drawn at a venture to end Alfred’s life, and it found its mark. The way cleared, my father’s death followed. Thus your story is all of a piece — a very formidable mass of circumstantial evidence to confront a man in his secure hour with his object accomplished and the result of the wealth that purpose needed applied to it. We may sum the situation in few words: it represents a dramatic issue for us both as far as we have gone. You face the demands of your duty and your conscience; I find my career and the prodigious importance of my discoveries, now nearly ready to be made public, suddenly blocked by the challenge that confronts — not me but you. You can probably destroy me, or I can certainly destroy myself, but by destroying me, or influencing me to destroy myself, you raise more than a question for your conscience. You are confronted with a gigantic issue because, in either event, you rob humanity of my discoveries. They are of such a nature that generations may elapse before their rediscovery, and meanwhile events may well occur to preclude their rediscovery for ever. So you will agree that it is fitting we both spend a little time before action.”