r claim
is justified. You, Mr. Chairman, have not seen the miracle that I have
seen this afternoon. If the germ can bring a moribund child back to life
in an hour, why should it not banish disease from the world?"

"But if it does banish disease from the world, that does not mean it
confers immortality," objected Sir Jeremy. "Do you mean to say that we
are to regard natural death as a disease?"

He gazed round the hall helplessly. Several men arose to speak, but were
unable to obtain a hearing, for excitement now ran high and every man
was discussing the situation with his neighbour. For a moment, a
strange dread had gripped the meeting, paralysing thought, but it
passed, and while some remained perplexed the majority began to resent
vehemently the suggestions of Hammer. I could hear those immediately
behind me insisting that the view was sheer rubbish. It was
preposterous. It was pure lunacy. With these phrases, constantly
repeated, they threw off the startling effect of Hammer's speech, and
fortified themselves in the conviction that the Blue Disease was merely
a new malady, similar to other maladies, and that life would proceed as
before.

I turned to them.

"You are deliberately deceiving yourselves," I said. "You have heard the
evidence. You are simply making as much noise as possible in order to
shut out the truth."

My words enraged them. A sudden clamour arose around us. Several men
shook their fists and there were angry cries. One of them made a
movement towards us. In an instant calmness left us. The scene around us
seemed to leap up to our senses as something terrible and dangerous.
Sarakoff and I scrambled to our feet, pushed our way frantically
through the throng, reached the corridor and dashed down it. Fear of
indescribable intensity had flamed in our souls, and in a moment we
found ourselves running violently down Regent Street.

CHAPTER XX

THE WAY BACK

It had been a wet night. Pools of water lay on the glistening pavements,
but the rain had ceased. We ran steadily until we came in sight of
Piccadilly Circus, and there our fear left us suddenly. It was like the
cutting off of a switch. We stopped in the street, gasping for breath.

"This is really absurd," I observed; "we must learn to control
ourselves."

"We can't control an emotion of that strength, Harden. It's
overwhelming. It's all the emotion we had before concentrated into a
single expression. No, it's going to be a nuisan