im to know it. Even without
your story, Judge Dudley might hesitate to let Leon marry his
daughter, if he knows him to be son of mine. There may be a doubt
against me lurking in some corner of his brain, which would be
vivified if he learned my secret. You will not reveal it?"

"No!"

"I thank you. The boy will not suffer. I have left a will in his
favor, and there is another paper making him the guardian of my
estates should I lose my reason. You see I have contemplated my
experiment for a long time, and all my preparations are complete. The
Judge has arranged to give Leon my name legally. So all will be well!
All will be well! All my plans successful! I lose my reason without
complaint! But, time is passing, and my reason remains! A horrible
thought comes over me! I have made a mistake! By all the eternal
torments, I have made a mistake, and here I am chained up so that it
is impossible for me to rectify the error! They say I am an egotist,
yet I have so little remembered my own mental superiority, that I
actually have thought that a dose of Sanatoxine which would unseat the
reason of an ordinary man, would effect me. Fool! Fool! Fool! How
could I forget that I, Emanuel Medjora, the Wizard, am not as other
men? How can my reason be destroyed by so small a dose as that which I
have taken? But stop! There may be yet one chance! There may be more
in the phial! Where is it?" His excitement increased as he gave vent
to his thoughts aloud, as though Mr. Barnes were not present. Now he
looked eagerly about, and at last saw the bottle at some distance from
him on the floor. Mr. Barnes also saw it, and stepped forward to pick
it up. Instantly the Doctor sprang towards him, grasping the hammer
which had lain within his reach.

"Touch that phial at your peril!" he screamed. "I will brain you as
mercilessly as I would a rat! That phial is mine! Its contents are
mine! Valuable only to me and to science! My experiment must succeed!
It must! It must! It shall!"

Glaring at Mr. Barnes, who stood back awed by his threatening
attitude, the Doctor moved towards the bottle, but, as he stooped to
reach for it, the chains tightened and impeded his progress.

"The chains! I had forgotten the chains! Ha! I have never forgotten
before! Perhaps my reason is yielding already! No! No! I feel that I
have full sway over all my faculties! I must have that phial!"

He stooped to his knees, and stretched and writhed and twisted, in his
effort