Chapter Two, Part Three
Colonel Broome's Discovery; The 'Geminate' Fish
Colonel Broome’s Discovery
Colonel Broome was of an odd sort, for while a successful businessman in the textiles industry, and enjoying all the luxuries such a standing implies—a massive Madison Avenue residence, a good reputation among his peers, a habit of being quoted in the papers as a champion for big business and small government—the colonel was also a staunch believer in the professor’s work. That is to say, he thrived upon stories and tales of the supernatural, and the more fantastic the better. This was to our benefit, as he was helpful with funds when we needed them. There was, however, a downside to the colonel’s interest in our work, this being his numerous enthusiastic recommendations of cases, very few of which ever amounted to anything at all. The few that did lead to some excitement quickly proved to be hoaxes of the sort we had just exposed.
“Professor Quay!” Colonel Broome boomed as we entered the door. The professor gave a small wave and nodded from behind the handkerchief he held to his mouth. He dropped the cloth as soon as Morgan and I had entered, and the door was closed.
The colonel stood in the professor’s parlor, his arms wide with pleasure at the sight of us. A large man, with a ruddy complexion that spoke of the boundless energy that was his trademark, Colonel Broome always spoke as if addressing a great crowd. He did little without at least one servant in his company, and calling unexpectedly upon an acquaintance a few hours before dawn seemed no exception, for beside the colonel stood a slight young man of Far Eastern descent. The Chinese gentleman was obviously a servant, for Broome did not introduce him. Instead, the colonel took a package from him, a long bundle of newspaper tied with the sort of string used to wrap meat at the butcher shop. He laid the package upon the parlor table and cut the strings with a folding knife he drew from a small leather case he wore upon his belt.
“Now, Quay, I’ll have your opinion on this. It is a most fantastic thing, right up your alley,” Colonel Broome said as he pulled the paper aside and closed his knife.
“Herring!” I exclaimed, surprised by the mediocrity of the contents. I had been expecting a severed human hand or something of that nature.
“They’re alewives,” Morgan corrected.
Laid out on the table were four small, dead fish, alike in size, and wholly intact, as if he had just plucked them from the ocean that morning. Professor Quay at once put the cloth back to his nose.
Colonel Broome had lost none of his enthusiasm. “I know what they are,” he said. “But do you see anything about them that is strange?”
Morgan picked them up by their tails, giving the small Chinese man a scowl as he did so. “They’d cook up well,” Morgan said. Always one for fads, Morgan was then a vegetarian and ate no beef or fowl. He did, however, consume a prodigious number of fish. He was also a surprisingly good cook.
Colonel Broome gave a grin in anticipation of our discovery of whatever compelling secret the ordinary-seeming fish represented. “Look closer.”
The ‘Geminate’ Fishes
The professor and I leaned in. I saw nothing remarkable about the fish at all. The professor mumbled something into his handkerchief.
“Oh, come on, man,” Colonel Broome exclaimed. “There’s hardly a smell to them at all.” The colonel had little tolerance for the professor’s apparent frailty.
Professor Quay removed the cloth. “They appear to be geminate,” he said, leaning so far over the mackerel that he had to hold his spectacles in place with his left hand.
“Meaning?” Morgan groaned, his patience with Professor Quay’s specificity of language already worn thin.
“They are the same fish.” the professor explained. He was so entranced with the display he was addressing his words more to the fishes than to us. “Identical in every measurable way.”
Colonel Broome grinned widely and held his arms out in triumph. “You see, Quay?” he boomed. “These four fishies are identical, the same in every aspect!”
Morgan lifted the two he held closer to his face as the colonel explained. “They are matched in length, in width, in every detail! Even the number of scales is the same; I’ve counted, haven’t I, Ping?” His servant nodded. “What’s more, I have a barrelful of these fish, each more alike than the last. Ping knows the shop where they come from, and he tells me that I could have a dozen barrels of just the same. Now you tell me, Professor Quay, if I haven’t discovered something of the strange!”
“They do look remarkably similar,” I offered, taking in some of the details that Colonel Broome had described.
Morgan laid the fish on the paper and showed an ugly grin. “Perhaps the Christ is returned and doing trade in New York?” He gave me an acerbic look. “That would put paid to you and your kind, wouldn’t it, doctor?” Although not truly an anti-Semite, Morgan never missed an opportunity to mock my heritage. I accounted this to his disdain for all institutionalized worship and his personal dislike of me.
Colonel Broome did laugh at this jibe, and in his laughter, I detected the odium that Morgan only played at. “Well, what of it, professor? Shall I bring in the whole barrel so you can see how remarkable this phenomenon is?”
“That will not be necessary,” Professor Quay replied, taking the cloth from his mouth for the moment. “You may have something there,” he admitted, “but I will need to study them further, over time.” Colonel Broome looked frustrated at this apparent lack of enthusiasm. Professor Quay added, “I may have these examples, of course?”
“Well, most certainly,” Colonel Broome replied. The professor’s cold reception had left the colonel feeling let down; that much was clear.
“Thank you,” Professor Quay said. “Doctor, if you wouldn’t mind compensating the colonel for the cost of the specimens?”
Colonel Broome puffed up at this. “Really, Quay, do you think the pennies I spent out for these fish will be missed?” said so loudly that I winced. “It’s not fish I bring you, but wonder, perhaps even a miracle!”
“If so, it would be the first miracle that I have ever observed,” the professor replied in his usual, mild tone. “Morgan, please bring the specimens to my laboratory.” He looked to Colonel Broome. “If you will excuse me,” he said. And with a small bow, the professor made his exit, leaving the colonel a bit stunned by this rudeness.
Part Six Posts Wednesday December 16th