Amazing Stories, August 1927 — page 63: what you’re looking at

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

THE ULTRA-ELIXIR OF YOUTH 5 ROM time immemorial mankind has nj] for some means to prevent the ravages aia] Of age. In many lands and in many es] ways men have devoted their lives to endeaventite to make this dream of perpetual youth a reality. They have concocted weird mixtures or elixirs, they have wrought spells and practiced Magic, they have searched in strange lands for a fabulous life-giving fountain, and they have been jeered at, ridiculed, scoffed at for their pains. Hence it will come as a most amazing surprise to the world to learn that one man actually accomplished his purpose, and discovered the secret which had so eagerly and vainly been sought for during count- less centuries. Moreover, his discovery was made recently—within the past three years in fact, while more astonishing yet, the secret has been forever lost to the world. Now that the man responsible for the results can never repeat his performance, and has left no de- tailed explanation of the means whereby the con- ditions were brought about, there is no reason why an account of the whole matter should not be pub- lished. Undoubtedly many of my readers will recollect the excitement caused by the inexplicable disap- pearance of Doctor Elias Henderson, the well known and prominent biologist of McCracken College. Probably, too, it will also be remembered that, al- most coincidentally with his disappearance, a num- ber of the University students vanished, as well as two private citizens and a physician. As a great many more or less conflicting accounts were published in the newspapers o* ‘he time, and as many of these were far from accurate, it may be well to give a brief resumé of the events, for, strange as it may seem, ‘ the disappearance, which for a time supplied head- line material for the press, had a very direct bearing upon the dis- covery of perpetual youth, or rather, I might say, the discovery had a direct bearing upon the disap- pearances. The facts in the case the Elixir of Life. were simple and were well established. Five students, two private citizens, an instructor and a female doctor, together with Doctor Hen- derson, completely vanished without any ap- parent or determinable reason. The investigations which followed, and which oddly enough were only instituted after the disappearance of Doctor Hen- derson, revealed the fact that the ten missing per- sons had been absent from their accustomed haunts for some days before they had been missed. It was also established that all had been very friendly and that they had frequently met, apparently in secret, and that the other nine had made periodical visits to Dr. Henderson’s laboratory. This, however, was not strange, as it was well known that all, with the exception of the two citizens—one a merchant and the other a banker—had been taking cours in pial MovERN science is deeply invnersed in experiments to bring forth the Elixir of Youth. knowledge is progressing rapidly and the time will come, so our scientists assure us, when man can stay reasonably young for several hundred years. deft and original manner, images a gas which will prove That his experiments exceeded his wildest expectations and proved an Ultra-Elixir and a disaster to all concerned, only makes the story more com- plicated and absorbing. It is a picturesque tale of the biological possibilities in the field of modern science. 477 ogy from Dr. Henderson. It was therefore assumed that the meetings referred to were in the nature of purely scientific affairs, although why the unscien- tific merchant and banker should have been present, or should have visited Dr. Henderson’s laboratory, was a mystery. Had Dr. Henderson not vanished, it is highly probable that he would have been suspected of mak- ing away with the others, but as he, too, had dis- appeared, any such theory was of course discarded. It was also determined that not one of the ten had any apparent reason for vanishing; not one was in debt or involved in any scandal, and no one could advance any reasonable theory for any person wish- ing to murder them, for with the exception of the banker and merchant, all were persons of very mod- erate means, while the banker and merchant were known never to carry large sums of money on their persons, but conducted practically all of their busi- ness by means of checks. INALLY, and making the case even more baf- fling, the garments of all the ten were found intact though carelessly tossed aside. The students’ clothes were found in their several rooms, the gar- ments of the merchant and banker were discovered in their private offices, the lady physician’s gar- ments were in her office, and Doctor Henderson’s street clothes were found in a corner of his labora- tory. No one who was questioned, and hundreds of persons were examined, could definitely swear as to when they had last seen the missing persons, and not one witness could be located who was positive as to the last person seen with any of the missing people. Doctor Henderson was a rather retiring, secretive man, and frequently slept on a cot in his laboratory, and as no one really knew when he had vanished, no one could remember hav- ing seen any stranger or other person with him when he was last seen. The janitor of the build- ing, after striving his best to revisualize the events of the past few weeks, stated that he was under the impression that he had seen a young man ——a youth of fifteen or thereabouts, entering and leaving the doctor’s laboratory on several occasions, but he could not be sure whether or not he had ever geen the scientist in the young fellow’s company. The servant at the home of Dr. Elvira Flagg, also was hazy in her memory, although she, too, declared that she had noticed a young man, and a girl of about the same age, who frequently entered and left the office; but whether in company with Dr. Flagg she was not sure. As the office boys of both the merchant and banker also remembered seeing a youth make frequent visits to their employers the police at once began a search for a stripling an- swering the rather vague descriptions of the several witnesses. No trace of such a person could be found, but, to Kas surprise and con n. the gar- omicbooks*com Glandular Our author, in his