The Last Adventure of Dr. Yngve Hogalum

Chapter 7 ~ Magnetron Waxes Irresolute

"And yet, if I were wrong, if I did not succeed in my intricate and demanding plan, then I would have succeeded only in desecrating Dr. Hogalum's remains."

When I finally returned to my Contrivance Conservatory, it was late the evening of September 23rd.  The house was dark and the shades drawn.  Pung had evidently made good on his promise to return to his gardening duties; the hardy japonica hedges had recently survived another hacking butchery under his razor-sharp trimmers.  The mutilated plants cast eerie moon-shadows as I made my way up the walk.

Petión had not yet arrived, I deduced.  His presence was always marked by a booming laughter that was as much felt as heard, but there was not a sound emanating from my home.  I entered quietly, changed my clothing, and set to work immediately.  As I was transferring Dr. Hogalum's head into a large beaker of a briny preservative I had prepared earlier, Mrs. Mackenzie startled me by entering the Masterstroke Mill unannounced.  The poor woman fainted dead away at the sight of the good doctor's disembodied head, first letting out a shriek that nearly caused me to drop it on the tiled laboratory floor.

I dragged Mrs. Mackenzie to her room and returned to my Masterstroke Mill.  Sitting for many unproductive hours, I ruminated feeble-mindedly about the enormous project ahead and the abomination I had committed in its pursuance.  I surmised that Mrs. Mackenzie, once she had regained consciousness, would fire at me a fresh cannonade of disparaging remarks and pointed questions.  How could I make her understand that I had already subjected myself to far more intense scrutiny and arrived at a single inarguable conclusion?  Justification was pointless, and yet…

And yet, if I were wrong, if I did not succeed in my intricate and demanding plan, then I would have succeeded only in desecrating Dr. Hogalum's remains.  I had violated the laws of Man and Nature.  Would it be for naught?  There was no precedent upon which my conviction might repose with any measure of certainty.  I had only a profound confidence in my own tenacity.  But what if that were to prove inadequate?

Lao Tse, one of Pung's ubiquitous cats, jumped up on the table at which I sat and purred loudly.  Soon he became infatuated with Dr. Hogalum's head, which bobbed torpidly in its beaker, and I was obliged to remove the inquisitive creature from the laboratory.  I began for the first time to consider reversing course and putting my scheme to rest.

When I opened the laboratory door, I heard what sounded like knocking from down a series of corridors leading from my front door.  I confirmed the egregious hour by my pocket watch and cursed the cheeky oaf who intruded now on my contemplation.  I made my way down the halls with my hands balled up into fists.  "Who is calling?"  I shouted through the closed door.