The Flutter of the Goldleaf | Page 4

attention.)
Seymour
I hope I shall not disappoint you.
Philo
I believe we have some points of view in common, for your profession
needs to take note of many problems connected with both evolution
and electricity. I have been a reader of general science for many years.
The fact that on the earth we have had a slow evolution from a monad
to a man contains a promise of further development of man into--let us
say an angel.
Bellows
Not very soon, I guess.
Philo (sharply)
Hardly in your day, doctor. You needn't worry about the fashion in
wing-feathers.
Seymour
Go on, Mr. Warner.

Philo
In others of the many millions of globes about us in space, a similar
evolution is going on, and in some the evolution is less advanced than
in ours, in others incomparably more advanced.
Seymour
We may admit that.
(BELLOWS looks to WARNER for sympathy, and shakes his head.)
Philo
We have reached a stage when we have begun to peer out into the
stellar depths and question them. We are beginning to master the light
and the lightning, to measure the vastness of space, to weigh the suns,
to determine the elements that comprise them, to talk and send
messages thousands of miles without wires. Each year uncovers new
wonders, infinitely minute, infinitely great.
Seymour
True,--all true.
Philo (becoming more repressed and tensely excited as he goes on)
The dreams of the alchemists are being realized. That machine yonder
detects the waves from a millionth of a millionth of a milligramme of
radium.
Seymour
What!
Philo
I have invented a tuned electroscope that would be destroyed by such
waves, so sensitive as to react only to waves from an inconceivable

distance, beyond thirty-five million miles.
Seymour (trying to take it in)
Thirty-five million miles!
Philo (with great tension)
Three weeks ago I made this instrument, and ever since then, at regular
intervals, there have been rhythmic flutterings of the goldleaf, regular
repetitions, as if it were knocking at the door of earth from the eternal
silences. I have watched it--the same measured fluttering--two
beats--then three--then two--then four and a pause! It is a studied
measure! It has meaning! When I first noticed it--the faint flutter of the
goldleaf--and knew that any waves from a nearer point than thirty-five
million miles would utterly destroy so delicate an instrument--my hair
stood on end. I have watched it three weeks--alone--and you ask me
why I do not sleep!... Look!
(The doctors spring up electrified, and stare at the instrument.)
Philo
There it is again! Two beats--then three--then two--then four--now it is
over!
(SEYMOUR continues to stare at the instrument. BELLOWS subsides
into a chair, looking foolish.)
Seymour (to himself)
Impossible!... (To PHILO.) What was it you were saying? What did
you see?
Philo
I saw what you saw--signals from a distance farther than the distance of
the nearest planet to our earth.

Seymour (shaken)
But I saw nothing. At least a slight movement in anything so sensitive
might be due to many causes....
Philo
Yes! It is always the old story. Truths must be hammered into humanity!
Branded in with flame, or driven in with sword and bullet!
Bellows (starting up alarmed)
Hadn't we better be going, doctor?
Philo
Oh, no! Wait till you've talked me over. Decide whether I'm mad or not!
If I'm a menace to the community! If I must be locked up! My father
and mother are waiting to know. Don't go! Finish your work! (Rushes
into room, left.)
Bellows (triumphantly to SEYMOUR)
Well?
(SEYMOUR hesitates, looks at the father and mother, then at
BELLOWS, and takes out his match-case.)
Bellows (making a conquest of the obvious)
Warner, a little of that fine cider of yours would just finish off our chat.
Warner
Nothing better! (Starting out, whispers to MRS. W.) Where's grandma's
silver pitcher?
Mrs. W.

I'll get that.
(They go down-stairs.)
Bellows (laughing)
She never lets him go to the cellar by himself.
Seymour
Not a drinker, is he?
Bellows
Oh, no! The pattern of a deacon. But she keeps her hand on.
(SEYMOUR lights a cigar thinkingly.)
Bellows
No use to go over this case. It's clear enough. We'll have our cider--it's
worth waiting for--then go to my office and fix up the commitment
papers.
Seymour (rubbing his hand slowly over his forehead)
To talk with such a patient sometimes bewilders the brain. He seemed
so clear in his utterance--so rational----
Bellows
Funny, wasn't he? I almost believed it myself for a minute.
Seymour
It might be true.
Bellows

Hey?
Seymour
Perhaps we are all somnambulists moving about in this dream-world
we call practical life. Behind this tough matter that takes so many
shapes and colors, what strange secrets are hidden, just beginning to
reach our dull senses--X-rays, radium emanations, wireless waves.
Bellows
Oh, they're