"It WOULD do," I said.



"If you were a statesman in a corner, for example, time rushing up

against you, something urgent to be done, eh?"



"He could dose his private secretary," I said.



"And gain--double time. And think if YOU, for example, wanted

to finish a book."



"Usually," I said, "I wish I'd never begun 'em."



"Or a doctor, driven to death, wants to sit down and think out

a case. Or a barrister--or a man cramming for an examination."



"Worth a guinea a drop," said I, "and more to men like that."



"And in a duel, again," said Gibberne, "where it all depends on

your quickness in pulling the trigger."



"Or in fencing," I echoed.



"You see," said Gibberne, "if I get it as an all-round thing it will

really do you no harm at all--except perhaps to an infinitesimal

degree it brings you nearer old age. You will just have lived twice

to other people's once--"



"I suppose," I meditated, "in a duel--it would be fair?"



"That's a question for the seconds," said Gibberne.



I harked back further. "And you really think such a thing IS

possible?" I said.



"As possible," said Gibberne, and glanced at something that went

throbbing by the window, "as a motor-bus. As a matter of fact--"



He paused and smiled at me deeply, and tapped slowly on the edge

of his desk with the green phial. "I think I know the stuff. . . .

Already I've got something coming." The nervous smile upon his

face betrayed the gravity of his revelation. He rarely talked of

his actual experimental work unless things were very near the end.

"And it may be, it may be--I shouldn't be surprised--it may even

do the thing at a greater rate than twice."



"It will be rather a big thing," I hazarded.



"It will be, I think, rather a big thing."



But I don't think he quite knew what a big thing it was to be, for



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