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that she would not see that plant again, and Wedderburn had to admire its
leaves alone. They were of the ordinary broad form, and a deep glossy green,
with splashes and dots of deep red towards the base. He knew of no other
leaves quite like them. The plant was placed on a low bench near the
thermometer, and close by was a simple arrangement by which a tap dripped on
the hot-water pipes and kept the air steamy. And he spent his afternoons now
with some regularity meditating on the approaching flowering of this strange
plant.
And at last the great thing happened. Directly he entered the little glass
house he knew that the spike had burst out, although his great Palaeonophis
Lowii hid the corner where his new darling stood. There was a new odour in the
air, a rich, intensely sweet scent, that over- powered every other in that
crowded, steaming little greenhouse.
Directly he noticed this he hurried down to the strange orchid. And, behold!
the trailing green spikes bore now three great splashes of blossom, from which
this overpowering sweetness proceeded. He stopped before them in an ecstasy of
admiration.
The flowers were white, with streaks of golden orange upon the petals; the
heavy labellum was coiled into an intricate projection, and a wonderful bluish
purple mingled there with the gold. He could see at once that the genus was
altogether a new one. And the insufferable scent! How hot the place was! The
blossoms swam before his eyes.
He would see if the temperature was right. He made a step towards the
thermometer. Suddenly everything appeared unsteady. The bricks on the floor
were dancing up and down. Then the white blossoms, the green leaves behind
them, the whole greenhouse, seemed to sweep sideways, and then in a curve
upward.
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At half-past four his cousin made the tea, according to their invariable
custom. But Wedderburn did not come in for his tea.
"He is worshipping that horrid orchid," she told herself, and waited ten
minutes. "His watch must have stopped. I will go and call him."
She went straight to the hothouse, and, opening the door, called his name.
There was no reply. She noticed that the air was very close, and loaded with
an intense perfume. Then she saw something lying on the bricks between the
hot-water pipes.
For a minute, perhaps, she stood motionless.
He was lying, face upward, at the foot of the strange orchid. The
tentacle-like aerial rootlets no longer swayed freely in the air, but were
crowded together, a tangle of grey ropes, and stretched tight with their ends
closely applied to his chin and neck and hands.
She did not understand. Then she saw from under one of the exultant tentacles
upon his cheek there trickled a little thread of blood.
With an inarticulate cry she ran towards him, and tried to pull him away from
the leech-like suckers. She snapped two of these tentacles, and their sap
dripped red.
Then the overpowering scent of the blossom began to make her head reel. How
they clung to him! She tore at the tough ropes, and he and the white
inflorescence swam about her. She felt she was fainting, knew she must not.
She left him and hastily opened the nearest door, and, after she had panted
for a moment in the fresh air, she had a brilliant inspiration. She caught up
a flower-pot and smashed in the windows at the end of the greenhouse. Then she
re-entered. She tugged now with renewed strength at Wedderburn's motionless
body, and brought the strange orchid crashing to the floor. It still clung
with the grimmest tenacity to its victim. In a frenzy, she lugged it and him
into the open air.
Then she thought of tearing through the sucker rootlets one by one, and in
another minute she had released him and was dragging him away from the horror.
He was white and bleeding from a dozen circular patches.
The odd-job man was coming up the garden, amazed at the smashing of glass,
and saw her emerge, hauling the inanimate body with red-stained hands. For a
moment he thought impossible things.
"Bring some water!" she cried, and her voice dispelled his fancies. When,
with unnatural alacrity, he returned with the water, he found her weeping with
excitement, and with Wedderburn's head upon her knee, wiping the blood from
his face.
"What's the matter?" said Wedderburn, opening his eyes feebly, and closing
them again at once.
"Go and tell Annie to come out here to me, and then go for Dr. Haddon at
once," she said to the odd-job man so soon as he brought the water; and added,
seeing he hesitated, "I will tell you all about it when you come back."
Presently Wedderburn opened his eyes again, and, seeing that he was troubled
by the puzzle of his position, she explained to him, "You fainted in the
hothouse."
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"And the orchid?"
"I will see to that," she said.
Wedderburn had lost a good deal of blood, but beyond that he had suffered no
very great injury. They gave him brandy mixed with some pink extract of meat,
and carried him upstairs to bed. His housekeeper told her incredible story in
fragments to Dr. Haddon. "Come to the orchid-house and see," she said.
The cold outer air was blowing in through the open door, and the sickly
perfume was almost dispelled. Most of the torn aerial rootlets lay already
withered amidst a number of dark stains upon the bricks. The stem of the
inflorescence was broken by the fall of the plant, and the flowers were
growing limp and brown at the edges of the petals. The doctor stooped towards
it, then saw that one of the aerial rootlets still stirred feebly, and
hesitated.
The next morning the strange orchid still lay there, black now and
putrescent. The door banged intermittingly in the morning breeze, and all the
array of Wedderburn's orchids was shrivelled and prostrate. But Wedderburn
himself was bright and garrulous upstairs in the glory of his strange
adventure.
THE NEW ACCELERATOR
Certainly, if ever a man found a guinea when he was looking for a pin it is
my good friend Professor Gibberne. I have heard before of investigators
overshooting the mark, but never quite to the extent that he has done. He has
really, this time at any rate, without any touch of exaggeration in the
phrase, found something to revolutionise human life. And that when he was
simply seeking an all-round nervous stimulant to bring languid people up to
the stresses of these pushful days. I have tasted the stuff now several times,
and I cannot do better than describe the effect the thing had on me. That
there are astonishing experiences in store for all in search of new sensations
will become apparent enough.
Professor Gibberne, as many people know, is my neighbour in Folkestone. [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]