“I am pleased,” said the Frenchman, bowing, “but shall I confess that I do not understand?”
“I am going to marry Lola,” said John frankly, as he stepped forward and offered his hand.
“Ah! Now I do understand,” responded Dr. Crossett. “Then Dr. Barnhelm has my sympathy, and you my approval. You have at least, good taste.”
“Thank you, Doctor—am I in the way?” inquired John, turning to Dr. Barnhelm.
“Not at all. I was about to explain my pet hobby; as you will often have to hear about it, it might be a good thing if you were to listen now. I will spare you the technical description, John; you would not understand, and you, Paul, are of course familiar with this apparatus. This, then, is an instrument by which, if I am right, and I am convinced that there is no doubt of that, I can restore life to a person who has been dead for many hours.”
“Doctor!” cried John, horrified and anxious; and he turned to Dr. Crossett, expecting him to share in his belief that long hours of brooding over his experiments had turned the old man’s brain, but, to his intense surprise, he read nothing but eager interest in the Frenchman’s face, as the latter bent over the instrument and inquired earnestly: “Many hours, Martin?”
“Five,” replied Dr. Barnhelm; “perhaps six, possibly seven!”
“That has not been claimed before?”
“I can do it.”
“You can restore the dead to life?” demanded John with such disbelief and distress in his voice that Dr. Crossett turned to him with a kindly smile and said gently, “You need not look at your future father-in-law in horror, my dear young friend. He is not mad. I have studied these things, as perhaps you know. In Paris I have seen the experiment tried. I have seen the heart action cease and later be resumed. I have seen muscular activity stimulated and the patient, whom I myself had pronounced dead, rise and walk unaided from the operating room. But”—he stopped and for a moment eyed his old friend keenly—“but only has this been done in my peculiar case, and never more than five minutes after the last flutter of the pulse!”