The effect on the brain results in space-sickness, the first symptoms being violent melancholy and depression followed by a terrible heart-rending longing for Earth. During this stage, at which the patient undergoes great mental suffering, the optical nerves usually become affected and everything appears upside down, as if the sufferer were looking through a lens. It becomes necessary to take large doses ofSiltagol, otherwise brain fever may develop.
At the end of two days the sickness left Ralph, but it left him worn and exhausted physically and he was subject to terrible fits of depression. At these times the boundless space about him appalled him, weighing him down with its infinite immensity. The awful stillness crushed him. Everything seemed dead—dead as was that silent motionless figure that had been a living laughing creature who had loved him—it seemed so long ago.
He felt that Nature herself was punishing him for his daring assault upon her dominions. He had presumed to set the laws of Life and Death at variance, and this was the penalty, this living death, shut in with the living dead.
At such times a madness of fear and despair would grip him. He would fling himself down at Alice's side, his face buried in her cold inert hand, and sob like a child in his loneliness and agony of spirit.
When this had passed he would return to his state of lethargy, sitting hours at a time staring moodily at the floor. Gaunt, hollow-eyed and listless, he seemed more mad than sane.
And yet, the tremendous will-power of the man came into evidence when, within forty-eight hours' distance of Earth he threw off his blinding lethargy, and made himself ready, mentally and physically, for his last fight for Alice's life.
He had drawn close enough to Earth now to use the Radio apparatus, and soon he was in hourly communication with his laboratory. He gave his instructions clearly and definitely, and he soon had assurance that everything that could possibly be done for the dead girl had been carefully arranged.
Ralph's flyer landed on top of his tower sixty-nine daysafter his departure. He was greatly impressed at the sight of the flags of the city at half mast. The town itself was very still. There were no aeroflyers, no vehicles in motion in the streets. Business was at a standstill for ten minutes after Ralph landed. Thus the world expressed its deep sympathy.
Within a few minutes Alice had been placed on an operating table in Ralph's laboratory, and 16K 5+, the world's greatest surgeon, who had been summoned, was in readiness. Ralph was placed on an operating table to the right of Alice. To the left lay Cléose, a beloved cousin of Alice.
In a few seconds Alice's arteries had been opened and the Radium-K Bromide solution was drawn off. A quantity of warm, distilled water, containing antiseptic salts was then pumped through her blood vessels by two assistants. During this time the surgeon had opened the large arteries of both Ralph and Cléose, and had introduced a flexible glass tube into each. In a short time the blood of Ralph and Cléose began flowing rapidly through these tubes into Alice's blood vessels.
Simultaneously a third assistant administered oxygen to Alice, while a fourth commenced to excite her heart rhythmically by means of electrical current.
The brain was stimulated energetically at the same time by means of the powerful F-9-Rays, and while Ralph and Cléose grew paler and paler as their blood flowed out into Alice's body, the latter began to acquire color by degrees, though there was no other sign of life. After enough blood had been taken from the two, the surgeon closed their arteries; and, while Cléose had fainted during the ordeal,Ralph, weakened as he was, remained conscious by sheer force of will.
The surgeon 16K 5+, asked Ralph if he did not think it would be better for him to be removed to another room, but Ralph refused so vehemently, despite his terribly depleted strength, that he was allowed to remain. He asked to be raised slightly higher that he might watch the work of restoring Alice to life, and this request too, was granted.
Almost two hours had passed since Alice had first been laid upon the operating table, and still there was no sign of life. The suspense became well-nigh unendurable, not only to Ralph, but to the workers as well.
Was she lost after all?
Was he fated never to see her alive again?
The great surgeon and his assistants were working desperately. Every conceivable means was used to revive the inanimate body, but all was to no avail. As attempt after attempt failed the faces of the men grew graver. A tense silence prevailed throughout the laboratory, broken only by the surgeon's sharp low instructions from time to time.
It was then, when the tide of hope was at the lowest ebb, that Ralph beckoned one of the assistants to his side. Though unable to speak above a whisper, so weak was he, he managed with difficulty to convey his meaning to the man, who sprang to the side of the surgeon and in a low voice gave him Ralph's message.
Ralph had sent for a Hypnobioscope, the head pieces of which they fastened to Alice's temples. They brought a number of rolls and from them Ralph chose one of the world's most beautiful love stories.
It was the last trench in his desperate combat with Nature. It was the supreme effort. It was the last throw of the dice in the game between Science and Death, with a girl as the stakes.
Ralph knew that if the brain was at all alive to impressions, the effect of the story would stimulate it to voluntary action.
As the reel unrolled, Ralph fixed his burning eyes on the closed ones as though he would drive by the very force of his will the impressions coming from the Hypnobioscope deep into her brain.
Then, while they watched, with bated breath, the slight body on the operating table quivered almost imperceptibly, as the water of a still pool is rippled by a passing zephyr. A moment later her breast rose gently and fell again, and from the white lips came the suggestion of a sigh.
When Ralph saw this, his strength returned to him, and he raised himself, listening with throbbing heart to the soft breathing. His eyes glowed with triumph. The battle was won. His face was transfigured. All the agony, the heart-breaking foreboding of the past weeks passed from him, and a great peace settled upon his soul.
The surgeon sprang to catch him as he dropped, unconscious.
About a week later Ralph was admitted by the nurse to the room where Alice lay, regaining her strength. He was still weak, himself, from the loss of blood. Alice had just awakened, and at his step, she turned her lovely face eagerly toward him. Her cheeks were faintly tinged with the delicate pink of the seashell, her eyes were brightwith the soft glow of health.
She beckoned to him smiling into his eyes, and he knelt down beside her, taking her hands in his own, and holding them close. She moved her lips and he bent his head close to them, so that her gentle breath fanned his cheek.
"I can't talk very loud," she whispered. "My lungs and vocal chords are not strong yet, but the nurse said I might speak just a few words. But I wanted to tell you something."
"What is it, my darling?" he asked tenderly.
She looked at him with the old sparkle of mischief in her dark eyes.
"Dearest," she said, "I have just found out what your name really means."
Ralph twined a little tendril of her hair around one of his fingers.
"Yes?" he asked with a quizzical smile.
"Well, you see," and the lovely color deepened to rose, "your name is going to be my name now, so I keep saying it over to myself—"
"My darling
ONE TO FORESEE FOR ONE!"(1 2 4 C 4 1)