human
What in the world are we going to do? bleated Chichester, thin, nervous, dry-skinned, secretary and treasurer of the company.
gpt
Weems is the biggest stockholder. He is nationally famous. His attack of illness here on the very night of opening will give us publicity so unfavorable that it might put Blue Bay in the red for months. You know how a disaster can sometimes kill a place.
human
Most unfortunate,
gpt
Unfortunate, hell! snapped Kroner, vice president. Kroner was a self-made man, slightly overcolored, rather loud, with dinner clothes cut a little too modishly.
human
It's curtains if anything more should happen.
gpt
Hasn't the doctor found out yet what's the matter with Weems?
human
You heard the last report, same as the rest of us. Doctor Grays has never seen anything like it. Weems seems to be paralyzed; yet there are none of the symptoms of paralysis save lack of movement. There is no perceptible heart-beat--yet he certainly isn't dead; the complete absence of rigor mortis and the fact that there is a trace of blood circulation prove that. He simply stays in that same position. When you move arm or hand, it moves slowly back to the same position again on being released. He has no reflex response, doesn't apparently hear or feel or see.
gpt
Like catalepsy,
human
Just like catalepsy. Only it isn't. Grays swears to that. But what it is, he can't say.
gpt
You two laughed at me this evening when I got worried about getting that note. You talked me down again a few minutes ago. But I'm telling you once more, I believe there's a connection. I believe whoever wrote the note really has made Weems like he is--not that the note was penned by a crank and that Weems' illness is coincidence.
human
Nonsense! said Gest.
gpt
The note was either written by a madman, or by some crook who adopted a crazy, melodramatic name.
human
But he predicted what happened to Weems, faltered Chichester.
gpt
And he says there will be more--much more--enough to ruin Blue Bay for ever if we don't meet his demands----
human
Nuts! said Kroner bluntly.
gpt
Weems just got sick, that's all. Something so rare that most doctors can't spot it, but normal just the same. We can keep it quiet, and have him treated secretly by Grays. That'll stop publicity.
human
This is a fraud, a thin-air idea of some small shot to get money out of us.