Ambrotox and Limping Dick | Page 8

proportion of cases, very quickly to an ineradicable
habit. In wise hands, the patient's and the public's ignorance being
maintained, Ambrotox"--and here he bestowed a little laugh on amateur
nomenclature--"Ambrotox will be a blessing almost as notable as was
chloroform in the fifties.
"But there's another side: carry the thing a step further, and you have a
life, waking, and dreams, sleeping, of delight such as has never been--I
think never could be expressed in words; not because, as with De
Quincey and his laudanum, the coherent story of the dreams and
visions cannot be remembered, but because the clear sunshine of
personal happiness and confidence in the future--the pure joy of being
alive--which the abuser of Ambrotox experiences in his whole daily life,
is incommunicable. It is a period of bliss, of clear head, good impulses,
celestial dreams, and steady hope. These effects last, on an even dose,
longer than with any other drug of which I have experience. And then
there begins and grows a desire for action, the devil preaching that no
good works have resulted from the faith, the hope and the good
intentions. A little more, and we shall accomplish, he assures us, the
full measure of our dreams. The dose is increased, confidence returns,

and performance is still for to-morrow. I have never seen a victim of
Ambrotox pursue this descent to the grave, but all analogous
experience assures me that the final stages must be hell."
"How do you know so much about the effects?" asked Dick.
"There was only one possible subject for experiment--myself," replied
Caldegard.
Amaryllis sat upright in her chair, and drew in her breath sharply. But
she did not speak.
"Ghastly risk to take," said Dick.
"Ghastly," assented Caldegard. "But it wasn't the first, nor the second
time that I'd chanced it. The very memory of the horrors I went through
in curing myself after a course of hashish, gave me faith in my power to
push this tremendous experiment to the point I had determined upon,
without overshooting the mark."
"What was the mark?" inquired Dick.
"The appearance," replied Caldegard, "of certain cardiac symptoms
which I expected."
"Oh, dad!" exclaimed Amaryllis. "That must have been the time when
you sent for Dr. Greaves at three in the morning."
Caldegard nodded.
"For three weeks after that," went on Amaryllis indignantly, "I thought
you were horribly ill."
"That, my darling," answered her father, smiling at her, "was because I
was getting better."
"I've been wondering, Caldegard," said Randal, "how often and how
strongly the remembrance of that incommunicable bliss cries out for an
epicurean repetition of those early stages of your scientific

experiment."
Caldegard laughed. "Oh, she calls, and calls pretty loud sometimes," he
said. "Let her call. It's all part of the experiment. Knowledge, you see,
has the sweeter voice."
Amaryllis had tears in her eyes, and for a moment the others waited on
her evident desire to speak.
"But do you think, father," she said at last, "that's it's really worth while
to let the world know you have found a more delightful temptation than
opium or cocaine, just for the sake of giving a few sick people a more
comfortable medicine than they've been accustomed to. Ambrotox!"
she sighed scornfully. "I wish I'd never given it that pretty name. I think
it's horrid stuff!"
"That's what I was going to ask," said Dick.
"As for publicity, my dear boy," replied Caldegard, "Ambrotox will
very probably do more harm than good if its properties become general
knowledge. But the Home Office is drafting a comprehensive measure
for State control of the manufacture and distribution of injurious drugs.
You all know that the growth of the drug habit caused serious alarm in
the early days of the war, and that even the amendment to the Defence
of the Realm Act, forbidding the unauthorised sale and possession of
cocaine and other poisons, did little to diminish the illicit traffic. Such
contrabrand dealing is immensely lucrative, and prices rise in direct
ratio with the danger. But the new Bill may contain a clause vesting in
the State the formulæ and the manufacture of all newly-discovered
drugs of this kind. The Government is relying in this matter greatly
upon the experience and advice of Sir Randal, and if a sufficiently
stringent clause can be devised, it is probable that never more than
three living persons, in addition to the discoverer, will be acquainted
with the processes necessary to the manufacture of a newly discovered
chemical compound which has been brought under State control. In
regard to the good which may be done by Ambrotox--do you remember,
Amaryllis, the two pretty little old ladies who lived in the small grey
house with the red blinds? Don't say names, my child, nor mention the

town. They were