Marriet Motuble dropped the lifeless head of Mrs. Grange on the back of the chair where she sat, and in a pleading voice said: “Dear Governor, I must first have your promise that you will forgive me for making tests of your fluid without the consent of yourself or the great scientist, Guillermo Gonzales. Don’t tell me, I pray, that I have taken too much liberty with your great discovery.”
“On the other hand, Miss Motuble, I am personally delighted that you are thus experimenting, and I feel confident my able coworkers too, will be grateful to you for taking so much interest in our ‘Memory Fluid.’”
“Bravo! Say, gentlemen and ladies, that is the kind of stuff to make governors out of, and scientists, too. Well, so long as the culprit is not to be punished, I will confess. While ‘Memory Fluid’ has no odor, a simple inhalation of it will cause a cataleptic state, such as the state in which we now find the beautiful (?) Mrs. Grange. When she comes out of this state, in which she has been about five minutes, she will begin to remember. And if I am not mistaken, she will begin to regret the life of deceit she has been leading.”
Catalina cried: “Señorita Motuble, she will remember and yet will be punished for her ill treatment of me in that unhappy life of mine, long, long ago.”
Everyone stood around in breathless surprise.
Marriet Motuble kissed the child Catalina, standing by her side and holding in tight clasp the Governor’s hand, and said: “Dearie, she will remember, and I hope that her first regret will be of her ill treatment of you. See! she moves.”
The crowd stood back in breathless expectation.
Secretly the Governor and the other two scientists rejoiced at what was now taking place. It was the realization of a long-looked-for opportunity. A public exhibition of the effect of “Memory Fluid” and the proof of its harmlessness.
“She moves again,” came in subdued tones from some one standing by. Much the same effect seemed to be produced upon those witnessing the scene, as would take place if Mrs. Grange had been dead and they were waiting to see her return to life.
“She moves again,” said the Spanish consul, stepping closer. “The fluid has caused no change in her complexion, and her circulation is very little wrong,” he concluded, as he let her wrist drop, but gazed with evident admiration into her face.