tuation was a contradiction of all reason. The bare, black, salt
encrusted rocks with no trace of vegetation showing. The gray water
rumbling and surging among the uneven rocks at the base of the shore,
while gulls screamed hoarsely overhead. The white haired little man
with his benevolent face, smiling confidently at the two grim men.

"The time will come," said The Master gently, and in the tone of utter
confidence with which one states an inescapable fact, "the time will
come when all the earth will know my rule. The taking of my little
medicine will be as commonplace a thing as the smoking of tobacco,
which I abhor, Senores. You are mistaken about there being an antidote
and a poison. It is one medicine only. One little compound. A
vegetable substance, Senor Bell, combined with a product of modern
chemistry. It is a synthetic drug. Modern chemistry is a magnificent
science, and my little medicine is its triumph. Even my deputies have
not heard me speak so, Senores."

Bell snarled wordlessly, but if one had noticed his eyes they would
have been seen to be curiously cool and alert and waiting. The Master
leaned forward, and for once spoke seriously, almost reverently.

"There shall be a forward step, Senores, in the race of men. Do you
know the difference between the brain of a man and that of an
anthropoid ape? It consists only of a filmy layer of cortex, a film of
gray nerve cells which the ape has not. And that little layer creates
the difference between ape and man. And I have discovered more. My
little medicine acts upon that film. Administered in the tiny
quantities I have given to my slaves, it has no perceptible effect. It
is merely a compound of a vegetable substance and a synthetic organic
base. It is not excreted from the body. Like lead, it remains always
in solution in the blood. But in or out of the blood it changes,
always, to the substance which causes murder madness. Fresh or
changed, my little medicine acts upon the brain."

* * * * *

He smiled brightly upon them.

"But though in tiny quantities it has but little effect, in larger
quantities--when fresh it makes the functioning of the gray cells of
the human brain as far superior to the unmedicated gray cells, as
those human gray cells are to the white cells of the ape! That is what
I have to offer to the human race! Intelligence for every man, which
shall be as the genius of the past!"

He laughed softly.

"