The Blue Germ

ellow polished wood; the walls were white-washed, and covered with pencil marks. A big table covered with papers and books stood at one end. At the other, through an open doorway, t

huge cumbersome brute. Its ancient, scaly head was thrust out and its eyes gleamed with a kind of sharp intelligence. The surface of its vast and massive sh

hile he sat down on the great beast-whom he called Belshazzar-and told me over an

ing on Belshazzar?"

nd smiled en

s old," he said. "I wan

rch Sarakoff was intent upon, although, reading between the

y. His tousled black hair, moustaches and beard seemed to bristle with it; it shone in his pale blue eyes. He was full of sudden violence, flinging test-tubes across the laboratory, shouting strange songs, s

of frost sparkled on the window-panes of the laboratory. Briefly, we found ourselves at one over many problems of human research, and I congratulated mysel

le I had set myself," he exclaimed, striding to and fro. "We wil

e riddle you sp

pulsively and shook my hand. "We shall find it beyond a doubt, and we

ferocious manner and smiling and nodding to himself. I though it best to let him disclos

t. There's a telegraph everywhere, reporters in every village, and enough newspapers to carpet every

large

-an experiment, ulti

s anxious to draw hi

in England?" I a

nod

hich started in this country, spread like wildfire until the waves, passing

ure," I

d not

burst of influenza which began in Russia, Sarakoff must have been a student.

d me. His manner intrigued me so much that I felt inclined to pursue

udents, but here and there I saw older men, and at the head of the mob was a white-bearded indi

a hiss that I could hear even abo

inwardly roused to a dangerous degree, I could tell from his gestures. The copy of the periodical was much in evidence. Fists were shaken freely. The

trooped out of the ro

sked when their s

n laughed. He picked up the battered pe

o this morning-that is

rt of ma

lieve that in a few more years death will only exist as an uncertain element, appearing rarely, as an unnatural and

er of its secrets in that, until all the fragments when fitted together make up the whole wonder. It seems that my discovery, coupled with the results of his own unpublished researches, had led Sarakoff to

ty among his colleagues, I thought, as Sarakoff walked about, declaiming with outstretched arm. Put as briefly as possible, Sarakoff held all

the soiled and torn periodica

y to me, thanks to a magnificent series of profound investigations. I announce, therefore, that the disappearance of death from this planet can be anticipated wi

exclaimed, and s

aches and observed m

you thi

my shoulder

t is far

thumped me on the back. "There's not a flaw in it!" he cried. "It's magnificent. My dear fellow, death is only a failure in human perfection. There's nothing mysterious in i

ned, fa