The Country of the Blind, and Other Stories

lass slide under the microscope, "is well,-a prepar

ly not accustomed to that kind of thing, and held a limp whit

the microscope is out of focus for you. Eyes vary so

l. Little streaks and shreds of pink. And yet those little particles

n his hand towards the window. "Scarcely visible," he said, scrutinising

cteriologist. "I wish, for my own part, we could

mile, 'that you scarcely care to have such thin

across the room and took up one of several sealed tubes. "Here is the living thing. This is a c

visited him that afternoon with a note of introduction from an old friend, interested him from the very contrast of their dispositions. The lank black hair and deep grey eyes, the haggard expression and nervous manner, the fitful yet keen interest of his visitor were a novel

, death swift and terrible, death full of pain and indignity-would be released upon this city, and go hither and thither seeking his victims. Here he would take the husband from the wife, here the child from its mother, here the statesman from his duty, and here the toiler from his trouble. He would follow the water-mains, creeping along streets, picking out and punishing a house here and a house there where they did not boil their drinki

He had been told rhet

safe here, you

at. "These Anarchist-rascals," said he, "are fools, blind fool

ils, was heard at the door. The Bacteriologist op

of your time," he said. "Twelve minutes to four. I ought to have left here by half-past three. But your thin

ertainly the man was not a Teutonic type nor a common Latin one. "A morbid product, anyhow, I am afraid," said the Bacteriologist to himself. "How he gloated over those cultivations of disease germs!" A disturbing thou

houted hoarsel

" came a re

hand when I spoke to

us

ar, because

d incontinently ran to the front door and

ut he did not wait for it. "He has gone mad!" said Minnie; "it's that horrid science of his"; and, opening the window, would have called after him. The slender man, suddenly glancing round, seemed struck with the same idea of mental disorder. He pointed hastil

the height of the season, too-in his socks!" A happy thought struck her. She hastily put her bonnet on, seized his shoes, went into the hall, took down his hat and light overcoat from the pegs, emerg

the cabman whipped up at once in the most matter-of-fact

cts round the cabman's shelter at Haverstock Hill were startled by the p

went by, and then as

?" said the stout g

ot

p, he is, to rights,"

Tommy Byles; "here's an

if ther

ivin' a loonatic, as you say. Ain't he a-clawin'

man's shelter became an

ace." "You'll ketc

she is!" said

in' to begin in a minute. Here's another comin'. If a

e this time," sa

said Old Tootles. "Usua

he got in

ike a 'i

Three to one on old George,"

duty, and whirled on down Haverstock Hill and Camden Town High Street with her eyes ever intent on the

rsons whose fame he had envied dwindled into insignificance beside him. He had only to make sure of the water supply, and break the little tube into a reservoir. How brilliantly he had planned it, forged the letter of introduction and got into the laboratory, and how brilliantly he had seized his opportunity! The world should hear of him at last. All those people who had sneered at him, neglected him, preferred other people to him, found his company undesirable, should consider him at last. Death, death, death! They had always treated h

and the Anarchist, half-standing under the trap, put the hand containing the little glass tube upon the apron to preserve his balance. He felt the brittle thing crack, a

hudd

ll be a Martyr. That's something. But it is a filthy death

le drop was still in the broken end of the tube, and he drank that to

head felt queer. It was rapid stuff, this cholera poison. He waved his cabman out of existence, so to speak, and stood on the pavement with his arms folded upon his breast await

late, my friend, I have drun

s cab as if to descend, at which the Anarchist waved him a dramatic farewell and strode off towards Waterloo Bridge, carefully jostling his infected body against as many people as possible. The Bacteriologist was so preoccupied with the vision of him tha

n responsibility. "Put on my shoes? Certainly, dear," said he, as the cab began to turn, and hid the strutting black figure, now small in the

ing you of that infest, and I think cause, the blue patches upon various monkeys; and, like a fool, I said it was Asiatic cholera. And he ran away with it to poison the water of London, and he certainly might have made things look blue for this civilised city

. Jabber. My dear, Mrs. Jabber is not a draught. But why should