Creeps by Night: Chills and Thrills

Left alone, the Traveler examined the body again. The heart was still beating and the blood on the forehead was already nearly dry; soon he would be coming round. If only she would hurry with that cord — their makeshift lashings would not hold him long, a great brute of a man with a maniac’s strength at that. At a pinch they might both cut and run while he was struggling to get free; but if he did get loose he’d kill some one before he’d finished. He wondered whether there was a telephone in the place. His sister came back with a candle, the only one, she said, in the house, and a good length of stout box-cord. The light was cheering, and the Traveler was able to secure the brute’s hands and feet carefully and at his leisure. There, he said at last, straightening his back; he’s safe enough for the present; now, is there a ’phone in the house? Good; go down and ring up the police and tell them to send round several men, with a strait-jacket, if they’ve got one, as soon as they can. Oh, but I’m frightened, she said; it’s so dark on the stairs; don’t make me go. I’m afraid you’ll have to, he said; here, you can take the candle; come, it’s nearly over now; run along quick, there’s a good girl, and the police will be along in a minute or two, and then everything will be all right. He could see that she was ready to collapse at any minute, but she took the candle and went downstairs.

In the dark he heard a low moan; soon his eyes growing accustomed to the absence of the candle, he could see some movement in the huge figure on the floor. He knew that the brute had come to and was trying to free himself. The table creaked. You can’t get loose, said the Traveler sharply; you’ll only hurt yourself trying. There was another moan followed by silence. The woman returned with the candle. Are they coming? he asked. Yes, she said, they promised to send the men at once. How far, he asked, is the police station? The other end of the town, she said, but it won’t... She broke off with a scream as her eye fell on the Chemist. Look, she whispered, look, he’s watching us. At that the Chemist shut his eyes and moaned again. For God’s sake loose me, he whined; these cords are killing me. Don’t answer him, said the Traveler; we can’t take any risks. For God’s sake, the Chemist whined again in his vile Greenock speech, for God’s sake let go my legs from the table so I can lie straight. We could do that, couldn’t we? said the woman weakly. No, snapped her brother; we can’t take any risks.

The Chemist began to talk, lucidly enough; he was all right now, he said, they need not be afraid; he didn’t mind being tied up so long as they would ease him a little; he was suffering terribly. When the Traveler ignored him he began to excite himself, threatening and imploring them by turns. He strained at the cords without effect, groaning and gasping, his face distorted, saliva trickling from his mouth. Then he lay still and began to talk rapidly about the child; it was his child, he said, and it was to be a genius, a superman, the greatest man that ever lived; fools that they were to stop the treatment, they should not stop it, he was the father and it was for him to say. His speech grew thicker, his accent so strong as to make his words barely intelligible. The boy was to be the greatest man that ever lived; it was simple, it was easy, but no one else had found the way to do it. Hemp, Indian Hemp, Cannabis Indica; they understood it in the East; but here, what did the doctors use it for? Chlorodyne and corn cures; no one knew but him, it was his discovery; steady dosing, minute at first but increasing month by month, from early childhood, and there was your genius, there was your pure intellect; fools were afraid of drugs, the doctors said they were harmful, yet all the great men had taken drugs in one form or another, all of them; they had suffered because the effect on the adult brain was to disintegrate the mental controls and unbalance the faculties; but steady assimilation by the growing brain, that was his discovery, no one else had seen it; it was simple but all the clever people missed it. The child would be the greatest man the world had ever seen; and but for meddling fools... He broke off, panting.