EDITOR'S NOTE—Dr. de Castro was author with Ambrose Bierce of TheMonk and the Hangman's Daughter. (At that time he used his full name,Gustaf Adolf de Castro Danziger, which he has since shortened to hisancestral Spanish form, Adolphe de Castro.) We commend The Last Testto those who appreciate a truly artistic story, with its suggestions ofunthinkable horrors from the elder world, which sweep through the storylike a cold breeze from the tomb.
[Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from
Weird Tales November 1928.
Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that
the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.]
Few persons know the inside of the Clarendon story, or even that thereis an inside not reached by the newspapers. It was a San Franciscosensation in the days before the fire, both because of the panic andmenace that kept it company, and because of its close linkage withthe governor of the state. Governor Dalton, it will be recalled, wasClarendon's best friend, and later married his sister. Neither Daltonnor Mrs. Dalton would ever discuss the painful affair, but somehow thefacts have leaked out to a limited circle. But for that, and for theyears which have given a sort of vagueness and impersonality to theactors, one would still pause before probing into secrets so strictlyguarded at the time.
The appointment of Dr. Alfred Clarendon as medical director of SanQuentin Penitentiary in 189- was greeted with the keenest enthusiasmthroughout California. San Francisco had at last the honor of harboringone of the greatest biologists and physicians of the period, and solidpathological leaders from all over the world might be expected to flockthither to study his methods, profit by his advice and researches, andlearn how to cope with their own local problems. California, almostover night, would become a center of medical scholarship with earthwideinfluence and reputation.
Governor Dalton, anxious to spread the news in its fullestsignificance, saw to it that the press carried ample and dignifiedaccounts of his new appointee. Pictures of Dr. Clarendon and his newhome near old Goat Hill, sketches of his career and manifold honors,and popular accounts of his salient scientific discoveries were allpresented in the principal California dailies, till the public soonfelt a sort of reflected pride in the man whose studies of pyemia inIndia, of the pest in China, and of every sort of kindred disorderelsewhere would soon enrich the world of medicine with an antitoxin ofrevolutionary importance—a basic antitoxin combating the whole febrileprinciple at its very source, and ensuring the ultimate conquest andextirpation of fever in all its diverse forms.
Back of the appointment stretched an extended and not wholly unromantichistory of early friendship, long separation, and dramatically renewedacquaintance. James Dalton and the Clarendon family had been friendsin New York ten years before—friends and more than friends, since thedoctor's only sister, Georgina, was the sweetheart of Dalton's youth,while the doctor himself had been his closest associate and almost hisprotegé in the days of school and college. The father of Alfred andGeorgina, a Wall Street pirate of the ruthless elder breed, had knownDalton's father well; so well, indeed, that he had finally strippedhim of all he possessed in a memorable afternoon's fight on the stockexchange. Dalton Senior, hopeless of recuperation and wishing to givehis one adored child the benefit of his insurance, had promptly blownout his brains; but James had not sought to retaliate. It was, as heviewed it, all in the game;