(Sessio 16)
We arrived to Darwin 10th July 1925. It’s a small town of 1000 inhabitants, and is basically a shantytown. We book rooms at Victoria Hotel. Dr. Paynesworth and me call on Dr. Anthony Cowles, the professor who was in New York as a visiting lecturer while our friend Elias was still alive. He was lecturing about polynesian cults. The professor was a real gentleman, and his daughter a beautiful young woman. Dr. Cowles offered us dinner, and we had wonderful time with them. He told us about an expedition to the mid-Australia in 1921, where Arthur MacWhirr had met aboriginals, who had beaten their enemies with clubs studded with poisoned bat fangs. The expedition had ended prematurely, and the last leads of it reside in Concudgerie, in northwestern Australia, where Robert McKenzie lives, in Port Hedland. He also mentioned Mr. David Dodge, a local man, who could serve as a guide to us. Good Dr. Cowles even wrote a letter of recommendation for us.
Mr. Stahl and Mr. Walker sought out the lead of Randolph Shipping Company, by asking for work there. They had a hard day’s work ahead of them, but still had time to locate a crate sent by Mortimer Whycroft, Concudgerie, to Ho Fong Imports. According to the stamp on the crate, it had arrived four days earlier.
Mr. Moore visited customs and found indications that Randolph Shipping Company had left taxes unpaid, and a lot of them. This was a start to a plan – Mr. Moore enters the Shipping Company, with the company of Mr. Borel, and blackmails the men there for the crate and their shipping ledger. The plan works wonderfully, the crate is packed to our car and driven to our hotel.
Inside the crate we find a strange device, a mechanical one with tubes, pulleys and gears. There are also oculars on the side of the device, but they seem a bit too wide for human eyes. Mr. Borel somehow manages to start the device, and for a while we wonder the device, Dr. Descours feels brave enough to take a look throgh the oculars. After a while he starts shaking, and as strong as our companions are, they cannot remove him from the device. At last, Mr. Stahl shoots at the device, and it is broken. Mr. Descours is left in a catatonic state, and Mr. Troxler helps him into a bed, and administers a dose of barbiturates to him.
We board a ship on saturday, June 13th, to Port Hedland. The unconscious body of Dr. Descours is explained to the ship crew with a heatstroke. On a second day, he awakes, but to the astonishment of Mr. Troxler, he seems to be a different man. His accent is strange, and he acts quite differently – not realising his hunger or what food is. While Mr. Troxler brings him food, he disappears from his cabin, and is found in the corridor, looking at a sea chart.
Dr. Descours tries to use the device, when it’s brought to his cabin. He is very distrought when he realizes that it is broken. Then he asks for tools and parts to repair the device. He asks for more things to read, and is brought some science books from Mr. Griswold’s belongings. He reads the thick stack of books in a night, and asks for more.
During the night, while Walker is on guard duty, Dr. Descours leaves his cabin and walks to the deck to look at the stars. He had built a sextant-like device from the remains of the large device. He uses the sextant to locate himself on the sea chart. While coming back to his cabin, he sees a canary in a cage. He takes the bird out of the cage, breaks its neck, and starts examining the corpse. After this, he walks back into his cabin and starts dissecting the corpse. Walker fetches Troxler, they medicate Descours and tie him to his bed.
On the July 15th 1925, we arrive to Port Hedland and leave the ship.
