Kraken Sneaks Back into Narbondo’s Laboratory to Steal the Keeble Box

Bill Kraken’s return to Ignacio Narbondo’s laboratory turns a planned theft into a test of nerve: he finds the Keeble box, witnesses Joanna Southcote’s remains move, and takes the box just as someone approaches the room. The episode links Kraken’s immediate aim to the laboratory’s unsettling work on reanimation, while ending before he can discover who is at the door or whether he will escape.

Background and Stakes

Narbondo’s laboratory is a place where living materials and attempts to restore the dead intersect. In one earlier view of the workroom, Narbondo studies carp in aquaria and collects a gland from one of them for use in his experiments. When Shiloh arrives, Narbondo puts the specimen away and disposes of the fish. Later, Narbondo and Willis Pule bring a cadaver to a work slab alongside a sluggish carp, preparing another attempt at reanimation. These details establish that the box lies within a laboratory where animal material, corpses, and experimental equipment are part of the same ongoing enterprise.

The box matters beyond its presence as a valuable object. Theophilus Godall has reasoned that Narbondo may be able to supply Kelso Drake with workers who cannot be controlled through ordinary labor organization; he also considers whether Drake wants to acquire what Sebastian Owlesby sought and believes Narbondo can provide. Godall connects those possibilities to the creature said to be aboard Dr. Birdlip’s dirigible. His account does not establish the exact terms of any bargain, but it places the box and Narbondo’s experiments in a wider contest over what their results might make possible.

Kraken’s Return and the Theft

Kraken enters the laboratory alone, frightened but determined. He hears the carp moving in their tank, his own labored breathing, and a recurring clatter from elsewhere in the room. The sounds matter because they make the supposedly empty laboratory difficult to treat as secure: even before he sees anything, Kraken is aware that activity may be hidden from him. He finds no corpse on the slab or table, and the absence initially seems to leave him a clear route to the box.

The Keeble box lies on top of the piano, visible in the candlelight. Kraken plans to take it quickly and leave by the way he came. If Narbondo or Pule arrives, he intends to retreat to an upper floor and wait for an opportunity to get out. He is not trying to confront either man; the plan depends instead on avoiding them. Before moving farther, he drags a chair beneath the laboratory door’s latch and adjusts it, trying to delay anyone who might enter. That improvised barrier gives him a small measure of control but cannot remove the danger of being discovered.

The Remains and the Rising Suspense

The attempt to make the room safe is interrupted when Kraken notices the remains of Joanna Southcote. They begin to shift and partly gather themselves, then fall back. Kraken sees another unsuccessful effort, during which a hand moves across the floor, before the remains become still again. The brief activity does not amount to a successful return to life, but it confirms that the laboratory’s experiments can produce movement even when they do not produce a stable, functioning body.

Kraken reacts by drinking from his flask and deciding not to keep watching the remains. He tells himself that, if they rise, he can outrun them or use a poker from the hearth. This reasoning does not establish that he is unafraid; the scene has already shown how badly the sight unsettles him. Instead, his resolve is practical and narrow: he will not let the event drive him away from the object he came to take. The remains’ repeated movement also echoes the laboratory’s broader, unfinished work, in which reanimation is attempted but does not always proceed as intended.

The Box and the Unresolved Exit

Kraken takes the box from the piano and turns toward the door. At that moment, the latch begins to turn slowly; he hears footsteps and sees the light of a covered lantern at the threshold. The episode ends with the approach of an unidentified person, not with a confirmed confrontation, escape, or recovery of the box. The chair Kraken wedged beneath the latch has not prevented the door from being opened, and his plan to leave without meeting Narbondo or Pule is now in immediate doubt.

The ending makes the stolen object both the goal of the episode and the source of its unfinished peril. Kraken has succeeded in taking the Keeble box, but possession does not yet amount to safety. Elsewhere, a reanimated corpse confronts Langdon St. Ives and Hasbro, reinforcing that the laboratory’s experiments have consequences beyond the specimens and work surfaces inside the room. The two scenes establish a spreading threat without proving that the figure at Kraken’s door is the same corpse or identifying the visitor. The theft therefore closes on a reversal: Kraken has found what he sought, but the laboratory’s hidden activity and an approaching presence leave his escape unresolved.