A. Merritt's Fantasy Magazine, October 1950 — page 54: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

THE ELIXIR OF HATE 53 turned and began again the long, perilous climb to the cliff-top. It was-with a sense of infinite relief that he eventually regained his room by clambering up the trellis. Then he shut the blinds. Even in spite of all this new, magnificent strength, the labors and ex- citements of the past two days and nights were beginning to tell on him. Some forty hours had passed since he had slept. Nature was beginning to make strong demands for rest upon him. And, like a sensible man—since for the present he could follow no further the clue of his investigation—he yielded to that injunc- tion. Not venturing to strike a light, he un- dressed in the dark and turned in. Soon all his speculations, all the hundred and one questions of his perplexed mind, re- solved themselves into a delicious warmth and drowsiness. He slept. Mid-morning of the next day was more than past when he awoke, refreshed, in- vigorated, splendidly strong and full of life. Dispelled were all the fears and haunt- ing visions of the night. Entirely healed, without scars, the cuts on his hands, made the night before by the pieces of broken glass on top of the wall. As he sprang out of bed and stretched luxuriously re- veling in his newfound suppleness and force, a great primal gladness surged through his heart. “Life! Life!” he cried again. “Thank God for that, whatever may befall!’ The big mirror set into the door of his clothes-press caught his eye. Over to it he strode, and for a while stood there examining his features. “By Jove!” he exclaimed. “How can this be? And yet, it is! If anybody had tried to tell me, a week ago, that such a thing could happen, I’d merely have recommended him to see an_alienist. Yet—look! See! The impossible has happened. The unbelievable is an accom- plished fact!’ Wondering, he studied his face, where notable changes had taken place. Already the deeper wrinkles about the eyes and mouth, and across the forehead, had begun to lessen. The smaller ones had practically all disappeared. In the eyes no longer lay the yellowish cast of age, that muddly and unhealthy look which Dennison so well recalled. No, the whites were now clear and true, the pupils sparkling, the expression strong and vigorous. The cheeks, he noted with pleasure and astopishment, were no longer hollow and deep-lined with care, suffering and mal- nutrition. Full and smooth, they showed the healthy blood coursing in full tide be- neath the skin. From grizzled white his hair was already beginning to reassume the brown of middle life. Upon the here- tofore bald expanse of his cranium a vigorous new growth was pushing forth. Quite similarly, his eyebrows had grown darker and more glossy. The mustache, too, had begun to win back its earlier hue and to lose something of its stiff and wiry character. Even the nose, which but so short a time before had shown the aquiline curve indica- tive of approaching senility, had modified its form and now seemed returning to straight perfection of earlier days. The jaw had once more grown strong and firm, the lips full and red, the whole face indicative not only of the strength and vitality of a man hardly past his prime, but even of a greater force. STOUNDING as all these metamor- phoses were, a still more overwhelm- ing surprise awaited him. For, baring his teeth, he was amazed to perceive that they had whitened and apparently strength- ened; and, most marvelous of all—in his right upper canine a gold filling had been slightly displaced. “What?” ejaculated Dennison, staring with incredulity. Carefully he studied this phenomenon. - Yes, no possible doubt of it could exist ; the filling was being pushed out of place by a new growth or deposit of enamel and dentine underneath! Hastily he looked at his other fillings. Without exception they all manifested the same tendency. Too deeply whelmed in astonishment for any words, he stood there staring, gasping open-mouthed in wonder for a minute. His every concept, all his scientific training, his ideas of cause and effect, evolution, development, and progressive decay, the irrecovable nature of catabol- (C(O)