Thirty Strange Stories

 :  CONTENTS  

THE STRANGE ORCHID 1
ÆPYORNIS ISLAND 15
THE PLATTNER STORY 34
THE ARGONAUTS OF THE AIR 66
THE STORY OF THE LATE MR. ELVESHAM 86

THE STOLEN BACILLUS 114
THE RED ROOM 125
A MOTH (GENUS UNKNOWN) 140
IN THE ABYSS 157
UNDER THE KNIFE 183
THE RECONCILIATION 205
A SLIP UNDER THE MICROSCOPE 216
IN THE AVU OBSERVATORY 247
THE TRIUMPHS OF A TAXIDERMIST 259
A DEAL IN OSTRICHES 266
THE RAJAH’S TREASURE 274
THE STORY OF DAVIDSON’S EYES 291
THE CONE 307
THE PURPLE PILEUS 326
A CATASTROPHE 345
LE MARI TERRIBLE 359
THE APPLE 366
THE SAD STORY OF A DRAMATIC CRITIC 379
THE JILTING OF JANE 393
THE LOST INHERITANCE 405
POLLOCK AND THE PORROH MAN 416
THE SEA RAIDERS 442
IN THE MODERN VEIN 459
THE LORD OF THE DYNAMOS 476

THE TREASURE IN THE FOREST 491

THE STOLEN BACILLUS
“This again,” said the Bacteriologist, slipping a glass slide under the microscope, “is a preparation of the celebrated Bacillus of cholera—the cholera germ.”

The pale-faced man peered down the microscope. He was evidently not accustomed to that kind of thing, and held a limp white hand over his disengaged eye. “I see very little,” he said.

“Touch this screw,” said the Bacteriologist; “perhaps the microscope is out of focus for you. Eyes vary so much. Just the fraction of a turn this way or that.” “Ah! now I see,” said the visitor.

“Not so very much to see, after all. Little streaks and shreds of pink. And yet those little particles, those mere atomies, might multiply and devastate a city! Wonderful!”

He stood up, and releasing the glass slip from the microscope, held it in his hand towards the window. “Scarcely visible,” he said, scrutinising the preparation. He hesitated. “Are these—alive? Are they dangerous now?”

“Those have been stained and killed,” said the Bacteriologist. “I wish, for my
own part, we could kill and stain every one of them in the universe.”

:Thirty Strange Stories