man’s intelligence?”
Arley packed his pipe in his smoking pouch and closed the flap. “Good day, gentlemen,” he said without tipping his hat. “I’ve enjoyed our conversation.” As he walked away, he swore he heard the crackle and splinter of his hardening bones with every trudging step. Every McGowan was a damned fool and it will be a cold day in hell before a Caldwell joins them.
CHAPTER 6
Monday, August 27
Doctor Caden Augustus Hellreich stood straight and confident on the sidewalk in front of the office of The Galveston Daily News, skimming through the pages of the morning paper. With a steady, practiced movement of his eyes, he scanned the text of each article, searching for important words and ideas that might be of topical use in his lectures.
The war between the Boers and the British raged on in South Africa, more Boxer uprisings against Europeans in China, while fears of anarchist plots and takeovers were on the lips of every international leader in the wake of the assassination of King Umberto in Italy.
Not a page was exempt—not even the weather. Each was filled with stories of natural strife and turmoil like the thunderstorms in the Caribbean near the Windward and Leeward Islands, and on the last page . . .
Nothing. Not even a passing mention of the Society today. Caden finished reading the paper and dropped it into an old fish barrel on the sidewalk. Every day out of the public eye was another day of social blindness. Persistence and penetration were the only ways to shape the fickle into the well-formed, or eugenics would remain forever only scant words in old newspaper columns.
The smells of fresh fish and horse manure curled around his nostrils, making him squint. He pushed his way through the afternoon crowds in the town square, edging his way toward the teeming wharves.
His daily schedule of observation and note-taking were essential to good science and none more so than eugenics, the youngest of the disciplines.
Caden kicked away a rotting rind of melon and stepped up onto the side stairs of a produce market. He took out his leather-bound pocket journal and looked out across the churning mass of common folk, his grin creasing the corners of his mouth.
If sorrow knew a depth past which it could no longer descend, then that is where Caden’s heart had settled. These people were slaves to fears and passions that held dominion over their souls from the womb to the worm.
Caden completed his journal entries for the day and stepped down into the crowd where he towered over the rest of his fellow men. Walking at his customary brisk pace, he paused when he approached a group of unfamiliar businessmen congregated around the gray marble doorstep of his new Theogenesis Society Hall on 33rd Street at the corner of Mechanic Street.
The building had been only recently renovated and reopened to the public after some protest from certain conservative merchants and ministers who had complained of what they called its “drab, almost crypt-like exterior.” Not a welcome addition, no doubt, to a city of pretty, floral-colored homes.
The press was to blame; sensationalism feeds the hysterical appetite but never quells the hunger. Only the truth can fill the belly of the beast.
Caden straightened his lapels, brushed the road dust from the sleeves of his coat, and advanced toward the men, who turned to acknowledge his presence in a cautious manner.
“I should say, Doctor Hellreich,” one said, “you’ve been very fortunate not having the city reverse its decision to allow you to open.”
“My thanks go to the generous donations and interventions from sympathetic souls here and abroad. Now, gentlemen, if you will excuse me, I have much work to attend to before my next presentation.”
As he moved between the men, a hand came from behind him and rested firmly on his shoulder.
“Hold there a moment, Doctor.”
Caden turned to face the person preventing him from carrying on his work and saw a familiar face of a man with a pipe.
“During my lunch,” Arley Caldwell said, “I was intrigued to read in the paper that you and your Society are arguing in favor of extending the renewed Chinese Exclusion Act well into the new century.” Arley pointed at the men with his pipe. “Perhaps you could explain your position, sir, to these fine gentlemen to prevent any misunderstanding on the matter.”
Caden smiled at his friend with gratitude. Arley puffed on his pipe and nodded. Mr. Arley Falkner Caldwell had been one of his early financial supporters