‘But the last time——’
‘The last time you were here, I had not quite perfected my discovery. But since then some of my experiments have led me to think—to be absolutely certain—that life can be sustained, with all the appearance of death upon the subject, for a full week at all events.’
‘And when consciousness returns?’
‘The subject treated wakes to life again in exactly the same condition as when he or she fell asleep—without loss of brain or body power.’
‘Seven days! A long time!’ The young man smiled. ‘You bring back old thoughts and dreams. Are you a second Friar Laurence? Even he, though he could make the fair Juliet sleep till all believed her dead, could not prolong that unfortunate deception beyond a certain limit.
‘“And in this borrowed likeness of shrunk death
Thou shalt continue two-and-forty hours.”
‘Less than two days—and yet, thou conjurer’—he slapped the Professor’s arm gaily—‘you would talk of keeping one in death’s bonds for years!’
‘Ay, years!’ The Professor looked back at him, and his eyes shone. Old age seemed to slip from him, and for the moment a transient youth was his again. ‘This is but a beginning—a mere start; but if it succeeds—if life can be sustained by means of this drug alone for seven days, why not for months and years?’
‘You forget one thing,’ said the young man. ‘Who would care for it? Why should one care to lie asleep for years?’