"No. We should rejoice if his time of release had come. But his legs, Aimu! No one wants to suffer and be crippled."
Even in her distress, the girl's voice was rich and vibrant, and every tone moved Hale curiously.
"Hurry!" cried the scientist. "Have them bring him here before he dies."
The girl leaped to her feet and sped away.
"Come, Oakham," continued Sir Basil. "Here is a rare opportunity for you to see how completely I have mastered the laws that govern organic matter. Help me prepare."
For several minutes, Hale worked under the scientist's sharply spoken directions. By the time the injured man was brought to the laboratory, Sir Basil was ready for him.
Unani Assu was still conscious, but his pale face indicated that he had lost much blood. When the improvised stretcher was lowered to the floor, Sir Basil sent all the Indians away.
Unani Assu opened his eyes and called feebly, "Aña!"
"Be still!" ordered Sir Basil. "Aña is not here."
"Please!" gasped the dying man. "I want her--my Aña!"
Sir Basil sucked in his breath sharply. "What's this? Have you been making love to Aña again, after my warning to you?"
The sufferer stirred uneasily. "No!" he panted. "But perhaps my hour of release has come, and I want to look at her--once more."
The scientist smiled unpleasantly as he eyed the magnificent body which looked like a broken statue in bronze.
"Some human characteristics are strange," he muttered. "In spite of everything I do, this fellow continues to love Aña: Aña whom I intend for myself."
He stepped to the apparatus and swiftly changed one of the adjustments.
"Perhaps," he resumed, with a gleam in his eyes that chilled Hale, "this will forever cure him."
In another moment, the still, half-dead body was lifted and gently slipped into a compartment.
Before Hale's horrified gaze fastened on the eye-piece which revealed moving pictures of every process that went on within, Unani Assu's body was reduced almost instantly to a fine, silvery dust.
"Good God!" he cried. "You have killed him."
The scientist's teeth showed in his wide smile. "Think so? Does a woman destroy a dress when she rips it up to make it over?"
"Do you mean me to understand that you can reduce a living body to its basic elements and then rebuild these elements into a remade man?"