In
another minute the lassitude rapidly crept over me, and the
serious disturbance of my breathing made it apparent to me that
walking, waving my arms, anything, was imperative. My lungs felt
glued up, and the muscles of my chest refused to work. Everything
swam before my eyes, and I was soon reduced to walking up and down
the laboratory floor with halting steps, only preventing falling
on the floor by holding fast to the edge of the table.
"I thought of the tank of oxygen, and managed to crawl over and
turn it on. I gulped at it. It seemed to me that I spent hours
gasping for breath. It reminded me of what I once experienced in
the Cave of the Winds of Niagara, where water is more abundant in
the atmosphere than air. Yet my watch afterward indicated only
about twenty minutes of extreme distress. But that twenty minutes
is one period I shall never forget. I advise you, Leslie, if you
are ever so foolish as to try the experiment, to remain below the
five-centigram limit."
"Believe me, I'd rather lose my job," returned Leslie.
"How much of the stuff was administered to Mendoza," went on
Kennedy, "I cannot say. But it must have been a good deal more
than I took. Six centigrams which I recovered from these small
samples are only nine-tenths of a grain.
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