Mortmain

Summary

A candle-lit amphitheatre of eager, white-coated acolytes watches as the magus-surgeon Crisp proclaims the Promethean conquest of flesh: limbs, he insists, can now be borrowed, traded, stitched like mismatched tapestries. Among the dazzled onlookers lounges Mortmain—connoisseur of rarities, debtor to the hilt—whose name already tolls like a funeral bell. His patron, Cordon Russell, once tolerant of IOUs, turns creditor and rival when both men covet the porcelain grace of Bella Forsythe, orphaned ward with a gambler brother, Tom, ripe for blackmail. Russell engineers Tom’s ruin; Bella, cornered, consents to wed Mortmain to save her sibling. Before vows can harden into chains, Flynt the lawyer arrives with a death-knell ledger: Mortmain is bankrupt. Rage erupts—‘I could kill Russell’—and Flaggs, the scribbling shadow in the corner, drinks every syllable. That night Russell is found murdered; police hunt Tom; Mortmain faints, shatters his hand on the hearth. Crisp amputates and offers a stranger’s arm: Tom’s, though neither donor nor recipient knows it. On the operating table Tom dies—or does he? In the fog of ether, guilt grafts itself to Mortmain’s marrow; phantom fingers twitch with accusation. Yet dawn reveals the truth: Tom lives, Flaggs is the killer, and the new hand is Mortmain’s own—fate’s sardonic restoration of wholeness after the soul has already been quartered.

Synopsis

Surgeon Crisp announces to his student doctors and friends that he has solved the problem of limb-grafting, and shows proofs. Among those deeply interested is Mortmain, a friend of Dr. Crisp's. Mortmain is a gentleman of leisure and collector of rare art subjects and is heavily in debt to his friend, Cordon Russell. He is warned of that debt by Russell's lawyer, a friend of Mortmain's. While Russell at first has no desire to call in the loans, when the two men become rivals for the affections of Russel's ward, Bella Forsythe, things change. Knowing the weakness of her brother, Tom, Russell gives the latter a chance to fall into trouble, hoping to turn that fall into his own advantage. Tom falls into the trap and Russell uses this fall against Bella, who has become engaged to Mortmain. Meanwhile, Mortmain is told he is completely ruined by Flynt, Russell's lawyer. He curses Russell and his declaration that he would like to kill the man is overheard by Flaggs, the clerk of Flynt. Mortmain is informed of the murder of Russell, also that the police are after Tom Forsythe. Mortmain faints and in falling injures his hand terribly. Dr. Crisp informs him he must lose his hand and suggests he get another man's hand to graft upon the stump. He consents and Crisp finds a man who will give his hand, it is Tom Forsythe. During the operation Tom dies. Dr. Crisp has recognized Tom and keeps the news from Bella. Mortmain regaining consciousness after the operation, sees an uncanny vision of Flaggs and learns that Tom Forsythe, who gave him his hand died in the operation. He finally awakens from his terrible dream to learn that Tom is alive and well, and that the real murderer was Flaggs' while Mortmain's hand is his own.