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Chapter 14. In Which Challenger Meets a Strange Colleague · The Land of Mist

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Section fourteen of the Land of Mist. This is a LibriVox recording. All
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LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer,
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please visit LibriVox dot org. Read by Rob E. Brown The Land of
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Mist by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Chapter fourteen, in which Challenger meets a
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strange colleague. Professor Challenger was not a man who made friends easily. In
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order to be his friend, you had also to be his dependent. He
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did not admit of equals. But as a patron he was superb with his
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Jovian air, his colossal condescension, his his amused smile, his general suggestion
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of the God descending to the mortal. He could be quite overpowering in his
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amiability, but he needed certain qualities in return. Stupidity disgusted him, physical
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ugliness alienated him. Independence repulsed him. He coveted the man whom all the
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world would admire, but who in turn would admire the superman above him.
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Such a man was doctor Ross Scottan, And for this reason he had been
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Challenger's favorite pupil. And now he was sick unto death. Doctor Atkinson of
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Saint Mary's, Who's already played some minor part in this record, was attending
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him, and his reports were increasingly depressing. The illness was that dread disease
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disseminated sclerosis, and Challenger was aware that Atkinson was no alarmist when he said
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that a cure was a most remote and unlikely possibility. It seemed a terrible
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instance of the unreasonable nature of things that a young man of science, capable
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before he reached his prime of two such works as the embryology of the sympathetic
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nervous system and the fallacy of the obsonic index, should be dissolved into his
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chemical elements, with no personal or spiritual residue whatever. And yet the professor
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shrugged his huge shoulders, shook his massive head, and accepted the inevitable.
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Every fresh message was worse than the last, and finally there was an ominous
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silence. Challenger went down once to his young friends lodging in Gower Street.
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It was a racking experience, and he did not repeat it. The muscular
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cramps, which are characteristic of the complaint, were tying the sufferer into knots,
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and he was biting his lips to shut down the screams which might have
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relieved his agony at the expense of his manhood. He seized his mentor by
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the hand as a drowning man seizes a plank. Is it really as you
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have said? Is there no hope beyond the six months of torture which I
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see lying before me? Can you, with all your wisdom and knowledge,
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see no spark of light or life in the dark shadow of eternal dissolution?
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Face it, my boy, face, it said Challenger. Better to look
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facts in the face than to console oneself with fancies. Then the lips parted,
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and the long pant scream burst forth. Challenger rose and rushed from the
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room. But now an amazing development occurred. It began by the appearance of
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Miss Delicia Freeman. One morning there came a knock at the door of the
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Victoria Flat. The austere and taciturn Austin, looking out at the level of
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his eyes, perceived nothing at all. On glancing downwards, however, he
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was aware of a small lady whose delicate face and bright birdlike eyes were turned
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upwards to his own. I want to see, the professor, said,
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she, diving into her handbag for a card. Can't see you, said
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Austin. Oh, yes he can, the small lady answered serenely. There
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was not a newspaper office, a statesman's sanctum, or a political chancellery which
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had ever presented a ba carriers strong enough to hold her back where she believed
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that there was good work to be done. Can't see you, repeated Austin.
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Oh but really I must, you know, said miss Freeman, and
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made a sudden dive past the butler. With unerring instinct, she made for
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the door of the sacred study, knocked and forthwith entered. The lion head
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looked up from behind a desk littered with papers. The lion eyes glared.
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What is the meaning of this intrusion? The lion roared. The small lady
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was, however, entirely unabashed. She smiled sweetly at the glowering face.
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I'm so glad to make your acquaintance, she said. My name is Delicia
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Freeman. Austin, shouted the professor. The butler's impassive face appeared round the
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angle of the door. What is this, Austin? How did this person
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and get here? I couldn't keep her out, wailed Austin. Come,
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miss, We've had enough of it. No no, you must not be
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angry. You really must not, said the lady sweetly. I was told
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that you were a perfectly terrible person, but really you are rather a dear
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Who are you? What do you want? Are you aware that I am
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one of the most busy men in London. Miss Freeman fished about in her
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bag once more. She was always fishing in that bag, extracting, sometimes
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a leaflet on Armenia, sometimes a pamphlet on grease, sometimes a note on
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Zanana missions, and sometimes a psychic manifesto. On this occasion it was a
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folded bit of writing paper which emerged from doctor Rosscotten. She said it was
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hastily folded and roughly scribbled, so roughly as to be hardly legible. Challenger
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bent his heavy brows over it. Please, dear friend and guide, listen
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to what these ladies says. I know it's against all your views, and
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yet I had to do it. You said yourself that I had no hope.
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I have tested it and it works. I know it seems wild and
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crazy, but any hope is better than no hope. If you were in
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my place, you would have done the same. Will you not cast out
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prejudice and see for yourself. Doctor Felcon comes at three j Ross Scottan Challenger
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read it twice over and sighed. The brain was clearly involved in the lesion,
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he says, I am to listen to you. What is it?
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Cut it as short as you can. It's a spirit, doctor, said
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the lady. Challenger bounded in his good God, Am I never to get
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away from this nonsense? He cried? Can they not let this pod devil
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lie quiet in his deathbed? But they must play their tricks upon him.
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Miss Delicia clapped her hands and her quick little eyes twinkled with joy. It
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is not his death bread. He is going to get well. Who said
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so, doctor Falcon? He never is wrong, Challenger snorted. Have you
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seen him lately, she asked, Not for some weeks, But you wouldn't
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recognize him. He is nearly cured, cured, cured of diffused sclerosis in
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a few weeks. Come and see you want me to aid in a bet
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in some infernal quackery. The next thing, I should see my name on
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this rascal's testimonials. I know the breed. If I did come, I
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should probably take him by the collar and throw him down the stair. The
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lady laughed heartily. He would say, with Aristides strike but hear me,
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you will hear him first. However, I am sure your pupil is a
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real chip of yourself. He seems quite ashamed of getting well in such an
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unarthodox way. It was I who called doctor Falcon in against his wish.
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Oh you did, did you? You took a great deal upon yourself.
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I'm prepared to take any responsibility so long as I know I am right.
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I spoke to doctor Atkinson. He knows a little of psychic matters. He
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is far less prejudiced than most of you scientific gentlemen. He took the view
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that when a man was dying in any case, it could matter little what
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you did. So doctor Falcon came and pray, how did this quack doctor
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proceeded treat the case? That is what doctor Rosscotton wants you to see.
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She looked at a watch, which she dragged from the depths of the bag.
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In an hour, he will be there. I'll tell your friend you
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are a coming. I'm sure you would not disappoint him. Oh, she
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dived into the bag again. Here's a recent note upon the Bessarabian question.
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It's much more serious than people think. You will just have time to read
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it before you come. So good bye, dear professor and au revoir.
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She beamed at the scowling lion and departed. But she had succeeded in her
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mission, which was a way she had. There was something compelling in the
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absolutely unselfish enthusiasm of this small person, who would, at a moment's notice
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take on anyone, from a Mormon elder to an all Albanian brigand loving the
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culprit and mourning the sin. Challenger came under the spell, and shortly after
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three he stumped his way up the narrow stair and blocked the door of the
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humble bedroom where his favorite pupil lay stricken. Ross Scotton lay stretched upon the
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bed in a red dressing gown, and his teacher saw with a start of
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surprise joy that his face had filled out, and that the light of life
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and hope had come back into his eyes. Yes, I'm beating it,
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he cried. Ever since falk And held his first consultation with Atkinson, I
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felt the life fastinning back into me. Oh Chief, it is a fearful
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thing to lie awake at night and feel the cursed microbes nibbling away at the
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very roots of your life. I could almost hear them at it, and
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the cramps when my body, like a badly articulated skeleton, would all get
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twisted into one rigid tangle. But now, except some dyspepsia and you are
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to carry of the palms, I'm free from pain and all on account of
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this dear fellow here who has helped me. Emotioned with his hand, as
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if alluding to some present. Challenger looked round with a glare, expecting to
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find some smug charlatan behind him, but no doctor was there. A frail
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young woman who seemed to be a nurse, quiet, unobtrusive, and with
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a wealth of brown hair, was dozing in a corner. Miss Delicia,
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smiling demurely, stood in the window. I am glad you are better,
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my dear boy, said Challenger, But do not tamper with your reason such
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a complaint as its natural. Cistol and Diastol talked to him. Doctor Falcon
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clear his mind, for, said the invalid. Challenger looked up at the
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cornice and round at the skirting. His pupil was clearly addressing some doctor in
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the room, and yet none was visible. Surely his aberration had not reached
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the point when he thought that actual floating apparitions were directing his cure. Indeed,
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it needs some clearing, said a deep and virile voice at his elbow.
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He bounded round. It was the frail young woman who was talking.
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Let me introduce you to doctor Felkin, said Miss Delicia, with a mischievous
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laugh. What umbfuol rea is this, cried Challenger. The young woman rose
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and fumbled at the side of her dress, and she made an impatient gesture
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with her hand. Time was my dear colleague, when a snuff box was
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as much part of my equipment as my philebotomy case. I lived before the
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days of lenik, and we carried no stuf ethoscope, but we had our
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little surgical battery none the less. But the snuff box was a peace offering,
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and I was about to offer it to you, but alas it has
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had its day. Challengers stood with staring eyes and dilated nostrils while this speech
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was delivered. Then he turned to the bed. Do you mean to say
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that this is your doctor, that you take the advice of this person?
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The young girl drew herself up very stiffly, sir, I will not bandy
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words with you. I perceive very clearly that you are one of those.
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You have been so immersed in material knowledge that you have had and no time
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to devote to the possibilities of the spirit. I certainly have no time for
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nonsense, said Challenger. My dear chief, cried a voice from the bed.
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I beg you to bear in mind how much Doctor Felkin has already done
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for me. You saw how I was a month ago, and you see
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how I am now. You would not offend my best friend. I certainly
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think, Professor, that you owe dear doctor Felkin an apology, said Miss
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Delicia, a private lunatic asylum, snorted Challenger. Then, playing up to
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his part, he assumed the ponderous elephantine irony, which was one of his
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most effective weapons in dealing with recalcitrant students. Perhaps, young lady, or
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shall I say, elderly and most venerable Professor, you will permit a mere,
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raw, earthly student, who has no more knowledge than this world can
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give, to sit humly in a coller and possibly to learn a little from
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your methods and your teachings. The speech was delivered with his shoulders up to
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his ears, his eyelids over his eyes, and his palms extended in front
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an alarming statue of sarcasm. Doctor Falcon, however, was striding with heavy
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and impatient steps about the room and took little notice. Quite so. Quite
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so, he said, carelessly, get into the corner and stay there.
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Love all stop talking, as this case calls for all my faculties. He
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turned with a masterful air towards the patient. Well, well you are coming
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along. In two months you will be in the class room. Oh it
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is impossible, cried Roscotton, with a half sob Not so, I guarantee
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it. I do not make false promises. I answer for that, said
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miss Delicia. I say, dear doctor, do tell us who you were
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when you were alive? Tot tot the unchanging woman they got in my time
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and they gossip. Still, no, no, we will have a look
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at our young friend here. Pulse, the intermittent beat is gone. That
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is something gained. Temperature obviously normal, blood pressure still higher than I like.
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Digestion much to be desired. What you madns call a hunger strike would
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not be amiss. Well, the general conditions are tolerable. Let us see
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the local center of the mischief. Pull your shirt down, sir, lie
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on your face excellent. She passed her fingers with great force and precision down
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the upper part of the spine, and then dug in her knuckles with a
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sudden force, which made the sufferer yelp. That is better. There is,
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as I've explained, a slight want of alignment in the civical vertebrae,
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which has, as I proceed it, the effect of lessening the forameino through
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which the nerve roots emerge. This has caused compression, and as these nerves
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are really the conductors of vital force, it has upset the whole equilibrium of
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the parts supplied. My eyes are the same as your clumsy x rays,
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and I clearly perceive that the position is almost restored and the fatal constriction removed.
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I hope, sir, to Challenger, that I make the pathology of
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this interesting case intelligible to you. Challenger granted his general hostility and disagreement,
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I will clear up any little difficulties which may linger in your mind. But
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meantime, my dear lad you are a credit to me, and I rejoice
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in your progress. You will present my compliments to my colleague of Earth,
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doctor Atkinson, and tell him that I can suggest nothing more. The medium
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is a little weary, poor girl, so I will not remain longer to
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day. But you said you would tell us who you were. Indeed,
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there is little to say. I was a very undistinguished practitioner. I sat
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under the Great Amanathy in my youth and perhaps imbibed something of his methods.
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When I passed over in early middle age, I continued my studies and was
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permitted if I could find some suitable means of expression, to do something to
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help humanity. You understand, of course, that it is only by serving
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and self abnegation that we advance in the higher world. This is my service,
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and I can only thank kind fate that I was able to find in
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this girl a being whose vibrations so correspond with my own that I can easily
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assumed control of her body. And where is she asked the patient. She
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is waiting beside me and will presently re enter her own frame. As to
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you, sir, turning to challenger, you are a man of character and
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learning, but you are clearly embedded in that materialism which is the special curse
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of your age. Let me assure you that the medical profession, which is
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supreme upon earth for the disinterested work of its members, has yielded too much
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to the dogmatism of such men as you, and has unduly neglected that spiritual
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element in man which is far more important than your herbs and your minerals.
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There is a life Fars, sir, and it is in the control of
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this life, Foss, that the medicine of the future lies. If you
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shut your mind to do it, it can only mean that the confidence of
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the public will turn to those who are ready to adopt every means of cure,
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whether they have the approval of your authorities or not. Never could young
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Ross Scott and forget that scene. The Professor, the Master, the supreme
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Chief, he who had to be addressed with bated breath, sat with half
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opened mouth and staring eyes, leaning forward in his chair, while in front
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of him, the slight young woman, shaking her mop of brown hair and
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wagging an admonitory forefinger, spoke to him as a father speaks to a refractory
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child. So intense was her power that challenger for the instant was constrained to
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accept the situation. He gasped and grunted, but no retort came from his
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lips. The girl turned away and sat down on a chair. He is
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going, said miss Delicia. But not yet gone, replied the girl with
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a smile. Yes, I must go, for I have much to do.
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This is not my only medium of expression, and I am due in
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Edinburgh in a few minutes. But be a good heart, young man.
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I will set my assistant with two extra batteries to increase your vitality so far
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as your system will permit. As to you, sir, to challenger,
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I would implore you to beware of the egotism of brain and the self concentration
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of intellect. Store what is old, but be ever receptive to what is
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new, and judge it not as you may wish it, but as God
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has designed it. She gave a deep sigh and sank back in her chair.
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There was a minute of dead silence while she let with her head upon
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her breast. Then, with another sigh and a shiver, she opened a
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pair of very bewildered blue eyes. Well has he been, she asked in
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a gentle feminine voice. Indeed, yes, cried the patient. He was
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great. He says, I should be in the class room in two months.
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Splendid. Any directions for me, just the special message as before.
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But he is going to put on two new spirit batteries. If I can
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stand it, my word, he won't be long now. Suddenly the girl's
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eyes lit on Challenger, and she stopped in confusion. This is Nurse Urstler,
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said, Miss Delicia, nurse, let me present you to the famous
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Professor Challenger. Challenger was great in his manner towards women, especially if the
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particular woman happened to be a young and pretty girl. He advanced now as
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Solomon may have advanced to the Queen of Sheba, took her hand and patted
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her hair with patriarchal assurance. My dear, you're a far too young and
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charming for such deceit. Have done with it forever, be content to be
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a bewitching nurse, and resign all claim to the higher functions of doctor.
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Where may I ask, did you pick up all this jogging about cervical vertebrae
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and posterior promina. Nurse Ursela looked helplessly round as one who finds herself suddenly
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in the clutches of a gorilla. She does not understand a word you say,
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cried the man on the bed, Oh chief, you must make an
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effort to face the real situation. I know what a readjustment it means.
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In my small way, I've had to undergo it myself. But believe me,
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you see everything through a prism instead of through plate glass until you understand
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the spiritual factor. Challenger continued his paternal attention, though the frightened lady had
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begun to shrink from him. Come now, said he who was the clever
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doctor with whom you acted as nurse, the man who taught you all these
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fine words. You must feel that it is hopeless to deceive me. You
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will be much happier, dear child, when you've made a clean breast of
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it all, and when we can laugh together over the lecture which you inflicted
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upon me. An unexpected interruption came to check Challenger's exploration of the young woman's
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conscience or motives. The invalid was sitting up a vivid red patch against his
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white pillows, and he was speaking with an energy which was in itself an
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indication of his coming cure. Professor Challenger, he cried, you are insulting
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my best friend. Under this roof, at least she shall be safe from
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the sneers of scientific prejudice. I beg you to leave the room if you
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cannot address Nurseusela in a more respectful manner. Challenger glared, But the peace
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making Delicia was at work in a moment. You are far too hasty,
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dear doctor Ross Scotton, she cried. Professor. Challenger has had no time
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to understand this. You were just as skeptical yourself at first. How can
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you blame him? Yes, yes, that is true, said the young
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doctor. It seemed to me to open the door to all the quackery in
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the universe. Indeed it does. But the fact remains one thing. I
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know that whereas I was blind, now I see quoted Alicia. Ah,
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Professor, you may raise your eyebrows and shrug your shoulders, but we've dropped
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something into your big mind this afternoon, which will grow and grow until no
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man can see the end of it. She dived into the bag. There's
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a little slip here, brain versus soul. I do hope, dear professor,
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that you will read it and then pass it on. End of chapter fourteen,