Chapter 24: Lylda Acts

“She’ll do it,” the Very Young Man murmured, staring at the doorway through which Lylda had disappeared. “She can do anything.”

The Chemist rose to his feet. “I’ll send Oteo. Will you wait here gentlemen? And will you have some of the drugs ready for Lylda? You have them with you?” The men nodded.

“How about Lylda carrying the drugs?” asked the Very Young Man. “And what about her clothes?”

“I have already made a belt for Lylda and for myself--some time ago,” the Chemist answered. “During the first year I was here I made several experiments with the drugs. I found that almost anything within the immediate--shall I say influence of the body, will contract with it. Almost any garment, even a loose robe will change size. You found that to be so to some extent. Those belts you wore down--”

“That’s true,” agreed the Doctor, “there seems to be considerable latitude----”

“I decided,” the Chemist went on, “that immediately after your arrival we should all wear the drugs constantly. You can use the armpit pouches if you wish; Lylda and I will wear these belts I have made.”

Oteo, the Chemist’s personal servant, a slim youth with a bright, intelligent face, listened carefully to his master’s directions and then left the house hurriedly, running up the street towards the center of the city. Once or twice he stopped and spoke to passers-by for a moment, gathering a crowd around him each time.

The Chemist rejoined his friends on the balcony. “There will be a thousand people here in half an hour,” he said quietly. “I have sent a message to the men in charge of the government workshops; they will have their people cease work to come here.”

Lylda appeared in a few moments more. She was dressed as the Chemist had seen her first through the microscope--in a short, grey skirt reaching from waist to knees. Only now she wore also two circular metal discs strapped over her breasts. Her hair was unbound and fell in masses forward over her shoulders. Around her waist was a broad girdle of golden cloth with small pouches for holding the chemicals. She took her place among the men quietly.

“See, I am ready,” she said with a smile. “Oteo, you have sent him?” The Chemist nodded.

Lylda turned to the Doctor. “You will tell me, what is to do with the drugs?”

They explained in a few words. By now a considerable crowd had gathered before the house, and up the street many others were hurrying down. Directly across from the entrance to Lylda’s garden, back of the bluff at the lake front, was a large open space with a fringe of trees at its back. In this open space the crowd was collecting.

The Chemist rose after a moment and from the roof-top spoke a few words to the people in the street below. They answered him with shouts of applause mingled with a hum of murmured anger underneath. The Chemist went back to his friends, his face set and serious.

As he dropped in his chair Lylda knelt on the floor before him, laying her arms on his knees. “I go to do for our people the best I can,” she said softly, looking up into his face. “Now I go, but to you I will come back soon.” The Chemist tenderly put his hand upon the glossy smoothness of her hair.

“I go--now,” she repeated, and reached for one of the vials under her arm. Holding it in her hand, she stared at it a moment, silently, in awe. Then she shuddered like a frightened child and buried her face in the Chemist’s lap, huddling her little body up close against his legs as if for protection.

The Chemist did not move nor speak, but sat quiet with his hand gently stroking her hair. In a moment she again raised her face to his. Her long lashes were wet with tears, but her lips were smiling.

“I am ready--now,” she said gently. She brushed her tears from her eyes and rose to her feet. Drawing herself to her full height, she tossed back her head and flung out her arms before her.

“No one can know I am afraid--but you,” she said. “And I--shall forget.” She dropped her arms and stood passive.

“I go now to take the drug--there in the little garden behind, where no one can notice. You will come down?”

The Big Business Man cleared his throat. When he spoke his voice was tremulous with emotion.

“How long will you be gone--Lylda?” he asked.

The woman turned to him with a smile. “Soon will I return, so I believe,” she answered. “I go to Orlog, to Raito, and to Tele. But never shall I wait, nor speak long, and fast will I walk ... Before the time of sleep has descended upon us, I shall be here.”

In the little garden behind the house, out of sight of the crowd on the other side, Lylda prepared to take the drug. She was standing there, with the four men, when Loto burst upon them, throwing himself into his mother’s arms.

“Oh, mamita, mamita,” he cried, clinging to her. “There in the street outside, they say such terrible things----of you mamita. ‘The master’s woman’ I heard one say, ‘She has the evil magic.’ And another spoke of Targo. And they say he must not die, or there will be death for those who kill him.”

Lylda held the boy close as he poured out his breathless frightened words.

“No matter, little son,” she said tenderly. “To mamita no harm can come--you shall see. Did my father teach you well to-day?”

“But mamita, one man who saw me standing, called me an evil name and spoke of you, my mother Lylda. And a woman looked with a look I never saw before. I am afraid, mamita.”