The Project Gutenberg EBook of An Adulteration Act, by W.W. Jacobs

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Title: An Adulteration Act
The Lady of the Barge and Others, Part 10.

Author: W.W. Jacobs

Release Date: April 22, 2004 [EBook #12130]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK AN ADULTERATION ACT ***

Produced by David Widger

THE LADY OF THE BARGE

AND OTHER STORIES

By W. W. Jacobs

AN ADULTERATION ACT

Dr. Frank Carson had been dreaming tantalizing dreams of cooling,
effervescent beverages. Over and over again in his dreams he had risen
from his bed, and tripping lightly down to the surgery in his pajamas,
mixed himself something long and cool and fizzy, without being able to
bring the dream to a satisfactory termination.

With a sudden start he awoke. The thirst was still upon him; the
materials for quenching it, just down one flight of stairs. He would
have smacked his lips at the prospect if they had been moist enough to
smack; as it was, he pushed down the bedclothes, and throwing one leg out
of bed-became firmly convinced that he was still dreaming.

For the atmosphere was stifling and odorous, and the ceiling descended in
an odd bulging curve to within a couple of feet of his head. Still half
asleep, he raised his fist and prodded at it in astonishment--a feeling
which gave way to one of stupefaction as the ceiling took another shape
and swore distinctly.

"I must be dreaming," mused the doctor; "even the ceiling seems alive."

He prodded it again-regarding it closely this time. The ceiling at once
rose to greater altitudes, and at the same moment an old face with bushy
whiskers crawled under the edge of it, and asked him profanely what he
meant by it. It also asked him whether he wanted something for himself,
because, if so, he was going the right way to work.

"Where am I?" demanded the bewildered doctor. "Mary! Mary!"

He started up in bed, and brought his head in sudden violent contact with
the ceiling. Then, before the indignant ceiling could carry out its
threat of a moment before, he slipped out of bed and stood on a floor
which was in its place one moment and somewhere else the n