IV. RESURRECTION OF THE DEAD
There passed month. Day of «resurrection of the dead» came. The public worried. There were disputes whether it will be possible to return to life shipped in anabiosis.
At night on the eve of revival the surgeon in the presence of Gilbert and Carlson examined Lesley and Mere. They lay as the corpses, cold, lifeless.
The surgeon knocked with the doctor’s hammer on the frozen lips of the poet, and blows were accurately carried on the empty hall as though the hammer struck a piece of a tree. Eyelashes became covered with hoarfrost from heat which left a body.
At survey of a body of the astronomer the trained eye of the surgeon noticed on a naked hand a small hillock under skin. At top of a hillock hardly noticeable speck as though from a prick, and below – the frozen drop of some liquid was seen.
The surgeon disapprovingly shook the head. Having scratched out a lancet the frozen drop, the surgeon carefully carried this piece of ice in an office and there subjected it to the chemical analysis. Carlson and Gilbert watched closely work of the surgeon.
– Well?
– The same! Again hydrocianic acid! Despite all our precautions, Arthur Lesley, apparently, managed to inject in some way under skin of the adored uncle several drops of lethal poison!
Gilbert and Carlson were depressed.
– Everything died! – in despair Gilbert spoke. – Eduard Lesley will not wake up more. Our business is hopelessly compromised.
Carlson raged.
– Under its court, the villain! Now and I see that this criminal should be transferred to justice hands, at least scandal also damaged to us!
The surgeon, having propped up the head a hand, thought of something.
– Wait, maybe, still it is lost nothing! – at last he started talking. – Do not forget that poison was injected under skin of absolutely frozen body in which all vital processes are suspended. Absorption could not be. In the absence of blood circulation poison could not be carried and by birth. If poisonous liquid was heated, then it could get in a small amount under skin which under the influence of heat became more elastic. But further liquid could not get. You can judge by the drop which acted in the place of a prick that the criminal did not manage to enter a significant amount.
– But and one drop it is enough to poison the person?
– Quite right. However we can remove this drop very quietly, having cut out it with a meat piece.
– Really you think that the person can remain live after poison was in his body, perhaps, two-three weeks?
– And why is also not present? It is only necessary to cut out more deeply that there is no drop left in a body! To warm a body, at least partially, risky. It is necessary to make original «cold» operation.
And, having taken the hammer and the tool reminding a chisel the surgeon went to a corpse and began to cut down a hillock, working as the sculptor over a marble statue. Skin and muscles small frozen splinters of drop on a box bottom. Soon in a hand small deepening was formed.
– Well, apparently, it is enough!
Splinters carefully swept away. Deepening was greased with iodine which immediately froze.
Behind a window traffic began. The house had already a turn of expecting.
Doors opened, and the hall was filled with public.
Exactly at twelve in the afternoon removed glass covers of boxes, and the surgeon began to increase slowly temperature, looking at the thermometer.
