The Monster Men | Page 4

is not a human being that you see, but the remains of a
chemically produced counterfeit created in my own laboratory," they
would have smiled, and either hanged him or put him away with the
other criminally insane.
This phase of the many possibilities which he had realized might be
contingent upon even the partial success of his work alone had escaped
his consideration, so that the first wave of triumphant exultation with
which he had viewed the finished result of this last experiment had
been succeeded by overwhelming consternation as he saw the thing

which he had created gasp once or twice with the feeble spark of life
with which he had endowed it, and expire--leaving upon his hands the
corpse of what was, to all intent and purpose, a human being, albeit a
most grotesque and misshapen thing.
Until nearly noon Professor Maxon was occupied in removing the
remaining stains and evidences of his gruesome work, but when he at
last turned the key in the door of his workshop it was to leave behind
no single trace of the successful result of his years of labor.
The following afternoon found him and Virginia crossing the station
platform to board the express for New York. So quietly had their plans
been made that not a friend was at the train to bid them farewell--the
scientist felt that he could not bear the strain of attempting explanations
at this time.
But there were those there who recognized them, and one especially
who noted the lithe, trim figure and beautiful face of Virginia Maxon
though he did not know even the name of their possessor. It was a tall
well built young man who nudged one of his younger companions as
the girl crossed the platform to enter her Pullman.
"I say, Dexter," he exclaimed, "who is that beauty?"
The one addressed turned in the direction indicated by his friend.
"By jove!" he exclaimed. "Why it's Virginia Maxon and the professor,
her father. Now where do you suppose they're going?"
"I don't know--now," replied the first speaker, Townsend J. Harper, Jr.,
in a half whisper, "but I'll bet you a new car that I find out."
A week later, with failing health and shattered nerves, Professor Maxon
sailed with his daughter for a long ocean voyage, which he hoped
would aid him in rapid recuperation, and permit him to forget the
nightmare memory of those three horrible days and nights in his
workshop.

He believed that he had reached an unalterable decision never again to
meddle with the mighty, awe inspiring secrets of creation; but with
returning health and balance he found himself viewing his recent
triumph with feelings of renewed hope and anticipation.
The morbid fears superinduced by the shock following the sudden
demise of the first creature of his experiments had given place to a
growing desire to further prosecute his labors until enduring success
had crowned his efforts with an achievement which he might exhibit
with pride to the scientific world.
His recent disastrous success had convinced him that neither Ithaca nor
any other abode of civilization was a safe place to continue his
experiments, but it was not until their cruising had brought them among
the multitudinous islands of the East Indies that the plan occurred to
him that he finally adopted--a plan the outcome of which could he then
have foreseen would have sent him scurrying to the safety of his own
country with the daughter who was to bear the full brunt of the horrors
it entailed.
They were steaming up the China Sea when the idea first suggested
itself, and as he sat idly during the long, hot days the thought grew
upon him, expanding into a thousand wonderful possibilities, until it
became crystalized into what was a little short of an obsession.
The result was that at Manila, much to Virginia's surprise, he
announced the abandonment of the balance of their purposed voyage,
taking immediate return passage to Singapore. His daughter did not
question him as to the cause of this change in plans, for since those
three days that her father had kept himself locked in his workroom at
home the girl had noticed a subtle change in her parent--a marked
disinclination to share with her his every confidence as had been his
custom since the death of her mother.
While it grieved her immeasurably she was both too proud and too hurt
to sue for a reestablishment of the old relations. On all other topics than
his scientific work their interests were as mutual as formerly, but by
what seemed a manner of tacit agreement this subject was taboo. And

so it was that they came to Singapore without the girl having the
slightest conception of her father's plans.
Here they spent nearly