CHAPTER XVII.VIEWING THE EBONIZED BODIES.
About noon the next day Governor Lehumada, in company with Helen Hinckley and Guillermo Gonzales, was returning from a professional and scientific call upon the head physicians and surgeons of the public hospital, when his vehicle of transport was called to a halt.
Señor Guillermo Gonzales opened the door as a civil messenger appeared at the side of the vehicle.
The messenger handed him an envelope and said: “His Honor’s presence is desired at once.”
Helen Hinckley asked: “At what place is the Governor wanted?”
“At the morgue. Anything further, Miss?” asked the messenger.
“Nothing further; we will go at once.”
The messenger disappeared. Guillermo Gonzales requested the motorman to move the vehicle near the pavement, out from the crowd of the street, while he examined the contents of the envelope.
He tore it open quickly. He drew out first a bulky letter, written on black paper. He turned it over, and read: “Marriet Motuble.”
“From the aggressive señorita,” said the Governor.
“Here is another letter. It is signed ‘Señor’—no, there is a line drawn through it and through the word ‘Father,’ under it,” said Guillermo Gonzales.
“It must be from both Don Francisco R. Cantu y Falomir and Father Hernandez, then,” smiled Miss Hinckley.
“Your surmise is correct, Miss Hinckley; see, it is signed: ‘Francisco R. Cantu, a citizen of the United States of America; Alberto Hernandez, an American citizen.’”
A smile was visible on the faces of the three occupants of the cab. Miss Hinckley said: “They have become metamorphosed since taking ‘Memory Fluid.’”
“I will read what they have to say,” continued Guillermo Gonzales; “there are only a few pages.”
“Do; then we will hurry to the morgue,” said Governor Lehumada.
“Marriet Motuble, or her body, will most likely be found at the morgue,” Helen Hinckley added with a smile.
The scientist Gonzales unfolded the written sheet, and read:
“Your Honor, the great and noble Governor of Chihuahua:—I greet you! When you receive this I will be in the other great and only real world, sent hence by the use of your disintegrator, the power of which is known to none better than yourself and your able scientific coworkers, Mr. Guillermo Gonzales and Julio Murillo. Early this morning we went to the public house for the dead, to which place we had sent the Rev.J. T. Note, yesterday, to see if that strange and erstwhile aggressive and very large, blonde woman—Marriet Motuble—was there as a spectator or herself a spectacle. In the latter condition we found, and greatly to our surprise, the ‘invincible señorita,’ as we often spoke of her.
“Hers is now a massive body of ebony, and as hard as a rock called flint. On seeing her thus, so serene and placid—the physical preserved, aye, for all time—the soul which had its abiding-place in her, gone—winging its way through space, frolicking here and there like a happy schoolboy dismissed from his tasks, we envied her; for we had begun toremember! I knew her—much the same as she was yesterday, and to-day in looks and actions—in a life gone by.
“Do not blame her for her strange doings, for back of all of them was a kind and generous heart. Her position on earth throughout two existences was the result of a misconception of sex. Her spirit was in the wrong house. It should have been in a house of the masculine gender.
“Poor creature! The note enclosed, which she sent to me, speaks of her knowledge of the mistake. Her letter I trust you will read at your leisure, fully and carefully.
“One thing more I wish to say to you, then myself and my friend Francisco R. Cantu, who at this moment is writing his will, and a confession to be sent to his family, will desire physical oblivion, and our souls will be set free.
“Your able coworker and friend, Julio Murillo, is the son of Señora Suzzan Carriles, of Colima, and myselfin another existence. She was a great worker in the church and a frequenter of the confessional. She was a true, pure woman, who looked up to me next to her God. I took advantage of her credulity. I asked her to grant the desire of my heart, which I told her I did not consider sinful, and if she felt any remorse of conscience, I would absolve her from all sin. I will make no further statement than that she believed me. What is the use of my telling you more about this matter. You were the then Governor of Chihuahua and brought me before the bar of justice, on evidence furnished by Marriet Motuble. I was condemned. Rather than face the decree of the State, I departed that life by means of my own hand. I was what they called in that day a suicide. Could I have been made to remember in that life, look at the misery I would have escaped in this life! And the shame and degradation I have subjected myself and followers to, is a nightmare to me. When you have finished this, I pray you, my friend, thou who hast left the gates ajar that I might see the beauties of the soul; of the spirit life, that I might remember, and save the world the misery from the unholy teachings I have been drilling into my stupid followers—stupid because I made them so by keeping them in submission and the knowledge of all light away from them, I pray you to use our bodies, soon to be a mass of ebonized flesh, as a specimen in your Natural History department of the Museum, to demonstrate the use to which your Ebony Fluid can be put. The great wrong we have done you and our dearly beloved America by stirring up these revolutionary sentiments, only ourselves can appreciate.In a way good will result. The wonderful results obtained by the use of ‘Memory Fluid’ will be more fully and quickly made known to the world. Our testimony as herein stated will be made known to the world to-morrow through the great dailyChihuahuan, with which, and the personal and written testimony of the ‘Plunger from Kansas,’ your evidence will be complete, and the petition which you are now hoping to present to the State of Chihuahua soon, asking for it to become a law, will meet with hearty approval. Then a great day of reckoning will be at hand; for all now living who committed crimes in lives gone by, will be called to the bar of justice. I predict the demand for ‘Liquid from the Sun’s Rays,’ to be so great, that laboratories for the extraction of this liquid will be established all over this world. Ah, while I have been writing, my friend, having his will and confession completed, has taken ‘time by the forelock’—willed his soul hence. The vial of Ebony Fluid is empty and is tightly clutched in his hand; his soul has winged its flight, his body will soon be a form of ebony, and I am alone.
“Come, dear friend, to the morgue at your first leisure, for at this moment the vial containing Ebony Fluid is being emptied into my mouth, and I am willing my soul away, and with the soul of my friend I will be soon.
“Good-bye, and much luck! I will see you again in another life. Good-bye.
“Francisco R. Cantu, a citizen of the United States of America.
“Alberto Hernandez, an American citizen.
“P. S.—I requested my friend in the beginning tosign this confession with me, as we had talked over what we thought the strongest points to make in the document. For me it is exceedingly fortunate that I secured his name to this sheet which served for the last page, before I began the recital, or he would at this hour have been beyond the power of mortal, to pen a line.
“A. H.”
“A. H.”
“A. H.”
“A. H.”
“The righting of wrongs could not have been so satisfactorily settled by the civil law. It is the influence of the Great Unseen that has brought this about,” said the Governor, as their vehicle sped rapidly toward the morgue.
All morning, before starting to the hospital, the Governor had been in constant communication with the Federal authorities at Washington. Reports to the effect that the rebels were increasing in power in many States, and that the depredations being committed upon the property of public officers in particular, and many inoffensive private citizens in general, were now almost hourly occurrences, had been the cause of many small affrays between the rebels and the State militia, in which many lost their lives and others were wounded, on both sides. It was believed by the authorities in Chihuahua that when the sad end of the instigators of the trouble had become known, that an early abating of the hostilities would occur, which would result in terms of peace being effected. The manipulators of the presidential campaign and the lobbyists out for booty, prayed for a continuation of hostilities; for they believed the hold they had lost, when James Henry Mortingo became President—when“parties” lost their hold—“when the plum was taken by a stray”—(as those who felt sore from the result of the election expressed themselves)—would be made strong again, from the very fact of the rebellion that had arisen, and the part the President played in it. Many claimed that they did not believe any rational beings would be in favor of electing a man to the Presidency of the United States of America, who publicly confessed having been a “Subject” on whom “Memory Fluid” was used, or one who believed in it and thought it to be the greatest discovery the world had ever known, and that through its use the world would be taught about and brought to see and to experience the highest laws of God.
The fame of Julio Murillo had gone abroad. His name, at the head of long columns in almost every newspaper in the land, was printed in flaming red letters. He was spoken of as more of a prophet than any recorded in the Bible or any other religious book.
Helen Hinckley and Catalina Martinet both received their share of criticism, of ridicule, of praise.
Catalina was caricatured in various ways, and in each she was in a different way giving “Memory Fluid” to humanity, who were grovelling at her feet and beseeching for it.
Helen Hinckley was represented in one paper as a beautiful, fair-haired, young woman, suspended high in the air, and looking down with scorn upon the awestricken people.
In another she was gliding, with Governor Lehumada, out of a door that led onto a balcony, from the secondfloor of the Governor’s Mansion, into space. All of these things were commented upon by the Governor, Miss Hinckley and Guillermo Gonzales as they hurried to the morgue.
Hundreds of people were on the outside, eager to see the four suicides, all of whom had been guilty of treason against the United States of America.
As the Governor and his party alighted from the strange, circular cab, the throng drew near, and it would take volumes to hold the remarks passed by them about the vehicle, the Governor as a public officer, as a scientist, and strange to say, as a lover.
Equally eager were they to catch a glimpse of Helen Hinckley, and numerous were the criticisms passed upon her—upon the woman who, if reports were true, would soon be the Governor’s wife; upon the woman who, so far as they knew, was the sole possessor of the knowledge of how to overcome the law of gravitation. It was quite evident that everybody considered the Governor, his prospective bride, and his two scientific coworkers, a queer lot.
Amongst the large crowd of ultra-fashionable people who held tickets which would admit them to the public temporary carnal-house, when the examination by the law had been concluded, was Mrs. Grange, with her enamoring graces. She was giving some fashionably dressed men near by, the benefit of her first impression of the Governor and Miss Hinckley. At the same time she was coquetting with her eyes, in the hope, no doubt, of getting another promise from someone to help get her husband a higher salary.
The Governor’s party heard the remark, “It is a shame, Mrs. Grange, that a woman so surpassingly beautiful as yourself, is not the wife of a millionaire. I believe,” continued her flatterer, “that you have been asubject, and without any jesting whatever, I know your engaging manners could induce the Governor to teach you how to extract liquid from the sun’s rays. And having been asubject, you could teach from your own experience, and your husband could run the business. Your names would go down to posterity then as renowned scientists.”
“How lovely,” smiled Mrs. Grange. “How kind of you to think of it.”
“Not at all, Mrs. Grange,” continued her admirer; “not at all. It would be much easier for you to tell of its wonders and your own experiences, than to spend so much sweetness canvassing for your husband. It is too bad his voice failed. That is what I heard you say in the year of eighteen hundred and ninety-eight, in El Paso, Texas.”
Mrs. Grange’s countenance fell, and she only gave him a glance now and then from under her brow.
Not in the least abashed, the gentleman continued: “It was at the time that he was connected with some road, less than one hundred miles long, that extended from the Pass City, which was then, if you remember your own expression, ‘nothing more than a rough border-town, absolutely without any dramatic talent or voice culture.’ Oh, well, that is all past and gone, Mrs. Grange; even the remembrance of the little dramatic performance in which you displayed your enamoring graces, is known only to the initiated.”
“Thenyou remember!” exclaimed Mrs. Grange, looking at him with a frightened look in her face. “Great God! if others and others continue taking ‘Memory Fluid,’ and they look upon me with the scorn that you do, and speak to me with the satire you do, I will be tempted to take Ebony Fluid, after I learn to will my soul away, that I may preserve the physical shape of this life. I want to close the present life and have an opportunity to come again, and then I will live the life of a rational being. A thousand times or more my heart has almost consumed itself with shame, since I haveremembered, at the thoughts of my actions in the Pass City, and in this life also. Then I flaunted myself before the public, flirted with men, drank beer, wine, anything that would make me more lively—danced and otherwise dissipated, until my life was wrecked and my reputation gone. In this life I have done much the same things, and added to them the accomplishment ofdoing menfor all they were worth, under the pretence of soliciting for my husband. Unfortunately for me, I have the same one I had in the other life. He has gone through much the same experiences, losing his voice and all. Great God! I hope I may be spared in another existence, the same family relations I have in this life and the desire to be a professional beauty and a hypocrite in general.”
“You are saved, Mrs. Grange. The desire you have this moment voiced, will be the means of your salvation, if you at once change your mode of action to one that accords with Law, and continue, to the best of your instruction, to live in touch with the Unseen. I have oftenthought that you were destined to be mine,” said the gallant, rich and lettered man by her side.
Mrs. Grange gave one long gasp as she exclaimed: “Since taking ‘Memory Fluid’ I have known it to be a fact. In another life it will come to pass,” and fell back amongst the crowd in a dead faint. A cab was hailed and she was immediately taken to her home, and a physician, who had knowledge of “Memory Fluid,” sent to attend her; her gallant friend accompanied her.
Governor Lehumada, Señor Guillermo Gonzales and Miss Helen Hinckley entered the room where lay the physical transformation of the once invincible Señorita Marriet Motuble, and the two instigators of the rebellion.
Prominent physicians from the city and neighboring towns and States, who had flocked to the great capital of Chihuahua since hearing of the wonderful discovery of the scientists, were allowed to enter the room with the Governor’s party.
The scientist, Guillermo Gonzales, examined the bodies first. The Governor, with Helen Hinckley on his arm, passed from one to the other and viewed them in perfect silence.
Nearly one hundred physicians and investigating scientists looked in turn with amazement upon the ebonized forms of the three bodies before them. The Rev. J. T. Note, cold and stiff in the hands of death, lay at the far end of the long death chamber quite alone, and forgotten by everyone present, except the Governor’s party. When the last person had surveyed the ebonized bodies, Guillermo Gonzales addressed them and said:
“Your Honor, Miss Hinckley, and friends, yonder lies the dead body of Rev. J. T. Note, an aider and abettor of the rebels. He is not dead by means of Ebony Fluid, it does not cause the state called death, but from remorse of conscience, the result of taking ‘Memory Fluid.’ He is, therefore, a fit subject upon whom I can demonstrate to you the magic action of Ebony Fluid. It is a knowledge of science we are working for, and the sooner the power of this wonderful fluid is made known to humanity, the sooner the present microbic condition of matter will be extinguished. I will have the body moved to the center of the room, and I will immediately transform this seething mass of microbes into a harmless body of ebony flint.”
Two attendants of the morgue entered at the request of Guillermo Gonzales, and moved the corpse of Rev. J. T. Note to the center of the room, and immediately made their exit on being informed that their services were no longer needed. Everyone stood as near the body as possible, to watch the effect of Ebony Fluid upon the corpse.
Guillermo Gonzales removed the sheet from the corpse. Mortification had set in, and the odor escaping from the body was, to express it mildly, exceedingly disagreeable to the lookers-on. The scientist sprayed the body with a powerful deodorizer, and immediately the offensive odor was gone. Then, inserting a small tube into the mouth of the corpse, he pressed a bulb to which it was connected, and emptied the Ebony Fluid which was in the bulb, into the body. The body jerked and writhed, the face became contorted, and in all, was a very grewsome object.
The most stoic of the scientists and physicians present, turned their faces away to shut out from view the terrible sight before them. It sprang into a sitting posture, then fell back against the hard board with a thud, the limbs rigid and straight. The physicians and scientists looked inquiringly at Guillermo Gonzales and Governor Lehumada.
“Explain, friend Guillermo,” said the Governor; “explain the action of Ebony Fluid upon animal matter.”
The scientist poured a small quantity of the fluid into a thin glass, and holding it high in his hand, said: “The black fluid you see before you we call Ebony Fluid, because of its color. The great struggle the corpse underwent after the injection of this fluid into it, was due to the struggle of the microbes trying to resist the influence of the fluid. The battle was bravely fought, but the microbes were conquered at last. Nothing in life can resist its influence. See this body, only a few moments ago repulsive to the sight and emitting an odor so offensive to the smell, and rank with poison, that if it were allowed to remain in a room for five minutes, every occupant of the room who remained for that length of time in the atmosphere of the poison, would inhale enough bacteria to fill them with disease which would eventually end their lives very shortly. The action of Ebony Fluid after the death of the bacteria, hardens, then petrifies the entire body. Assist me, doctor,” continued the scientist, speaking to the physician next to him, “to lift the body of Rev. J. T. Note, and we will stand it in the corner.”
It required much effort for the two men to lift thebody and carry it to the wall. There they stood it erect, and held it in place by means of a stout cord across the shoulders, each end of which was fastened to a large screw in the wall.
“Nothing better illustrates the magical power of Ebony Fluid than that figure,” concluded the scientist.
“All day to-morrow, and next day, the morgue will be open for the public to inspect these bodies,” said the Governor. “While these gentlemen are present, do you not think it is wise, Miss Hinckley, and friend Guillermo, to read the confession of Marriet Motuble, that creature whom we all considered so strange, so unlike other women?”
Miss Hinckley replied: “Your Honor, it would be just to them to hear the statements of Miss Motuble read, after having viewed her ebonized body, and after seeing the effect of the fluid upon Reverend Note. There is no wanting of testimony in favor of the use to which these fluids can be put; however, I am sure it would be well for these men of science to hear the statements of this señorita, which I am sure will be interesting.”
“Miss Hinckley has spoken wisely, Miguey. I will read the document without further delay. Be seated, gentlemen, and I will begin.”
When he had placed three comfortable chairs near together, on which he invited the Governor and Miss Hinckley to be seated, he seated himself upon a high stool, and began reading the confession. The densely black paper and clear white letters made a curious looking paper and was in itself exceedingly characteristic of the author.
“Reverend Father Hernandez and Don Francisco R. Cantu y Falomir! Ha! ha! I laugh even in this last stage of the game, at the thought of the title ‘Reverend’ and ‘Father’ attached to the name Hernandez, and louder and longer do I laugh at the title ‘Don’ preceding Cantu, and the ‘y’ and Falomir following the name. Say, gentlemen, there is no use in further pretensions upon your part; they have a dead cinch upon you, so you might as well walk up to the mourner’s bench and take your medicine like men. What kick have you against Uncle Sam’s government? He didn’t take you under his wing because he wanted an addition to his family. He took you because he was sorry for you, and the most intelligent people of your race wanted to be adopted.
“Now my purpose in writing this note is not to rake up a bone for contention, nor do I write this to you because I love you with all my heart and soul and strength; for there are others whom I love more. Whom I love so much that my heart is sore, and I cannot pen him a line; but knowing this will reach him through you, I rest content.
“To the point: In my present and a former existence, the ego of my life entered a habitation unwittingly of the wrong sex. In other words, I should have been born of the masculine gender. Such not being the case, is why I have not been able in this life to find my counterpart. In my first incarnation I wed a man according to the civil law. I became the mother of six children who grew up to be thorns in my side.
“In this life I did not wed, because I thought thegreat and noble Governor was destined for me, until I became asubject; then my eyes were opened. Then I knew I must live again in the castle of a man, before I would meet the one who would be my counterpart physically and in the realm of spirit.”
“How strange, how strange!” exclaimed one of the physicians present.
“It is an entirely new thought to me and not wholly without reason,” said another.
“She often told me, when I met her in Chihuahua in the year eighteen hundred and ninety-eight,” said Helen Hinckley, “that she felt a great injustice had been done her by not being born a man. It seemed to be the regret of her life.”
“Poor creature,” said Governor Lehumada; “poor creature! I sympathize with her from the bottom of my heart. Continue, continue, friend Guillermo; I am anxious to hear the last of this strange letter.”
“On leaving you I went straight to the morgue. I had heard that Rev. J. T. Note had passed over, and I felt humanity was blessed. I viewed the remains over and over. Afterwards I found a bench unoccupied; I sat down. Near by was a young woman who had suicided because her lover was false. Her soul was sent forth to grope through the dark night in despair. My heart ached for her; so I said I will go now, send my soul forth and search for her. And as I gazed upon her sweet, pure face, I knew she was intended for my bride, had I been a man; and my soul cried out:‘Great and everlasting Cause, guide me to her! Let me find her and whisper the sweet story into her ear!’ Presently I heard a sweet, clear voice cry out in glad surprise: ‘I hear you, Miguel. I hear you. Come; I am by the fountain in the great public garden at the outskirts of the city. Come; I now know it was you for whom I sought. It was you upon whom my affections were bestowed, and in my ignorance of law I thought it someone else.’
“When no attendant was in sight, I stretched myself upon a bench, and after willing my soul away, placed the Ebony Fluid to my lips (for I wished my body to be preserved). In one instant I will have swallowed it, and my soul, now winging itself free, will seek its counterpart. We both will be born again and together we will meet you.
“I am Marriet Motuble in this life. In the next life I will beMiguel. You will know me when I speak.”