Chapter XLIII: Dr. Holcomb's Story

If there was the least doubt in Chick’s mind that this was really Harry, it was dispelled by the sight of the person who the next moment stepped up to his side. It was none other than the Nervina.

“Harry Wendel!” gasped Watson. It was too good to be true!

“Surest thing you know, Chick. It’s me, alive and kicking!” as they grabbed one another.

“How did you get here?”

“Search me! Ask the lady; I’m just a creature of circumstance. I merely act; she does all the thinking.”

The Nervina smiled and nodded. Her eyes were just as wonderful as Chick remembered them, full of elusiveness, of the moonbeam’s light, of witchery past understanding.

“Yes,” she affirmed. “You see, Mr. Watson, it is the will of the Prophet. Harry is of the Chosen. We have come for the great Dr. Holcomb--for the Jarados!”

And she led the way. Watson followed in silent wonder; behind him came the Geos and the rest, quiet and reverent. The soft glow still held, so that they seemed to be walking through the walls of cold fire. At the end of the passage they came to a door.

The Nervina touched three unmarked spots on the walls. The door opened. The queen stood aside, and motioned for Chick and Harry to enter.

It was a long room, pear-shaped, and fitted up like the most elaborate sort of laboratory. And at the far end, seated in the midst of a strange array of crystals, retorts and unfamiliar apparatus, was a man whom the two instantly recognised.

It was the missing professor, looking just as they remembered him from the days when they sat in his class in Berkeley. There was the same trim figure, the same healthy cheeks, pleasant eyes and close-cropped white beard. Always there had been something imperturbable about the doctor--he had that poise and equanimity which is ever the balance of sound judgment. Neither Chick nor Harry expected any rush of emotion, and they were not disappointed.

Holcomb rose to his feet, revealing on the table before him a queer, dancing light which he had been studying. He touched something; the light vanished, and simultaneously there came an unnameable change in the appearance of certain of those puzzling crystals. The doctor stepped forward, hand extended, smiling; surely he did not look or act like a prisoner.

“Well, well,” spoke he; “at last! Chick Watson and Harry Wendel! You’re very welcome. Was it a long journey?”

His eyes twinkled in the old way. He didn’t wait for their replies. He went on:

“Have we solved the Blind Spot? It seems that my pupils never desert me. Let me ask: have you solved the Blind Spot?”

“We’ve solved nothing, professor. What we have come for is, first, yourself; and second, for the secrets you have found. It is for us to ask--what is the Blind Spot?”

The professor shook his head.

“You were always a poor guesser, Mr. Wendel. Perhaps Chick, now--”

“Put me down as unprepared,” answered Chick. “I’m like Harry--I want to know!”

“Perhaps there are a lot of us in the same fix,” laughed Holcomb. “We, who know more than any men who ever lived, want to know still more! It may be, after all, that we know very little; even though we have solved the problem.” His eyes twinkled again, aggravatingly.

“Tell us, then!” from Harry, on impulse as always. “What is the Blind Spot?”

But Holcomb shook his head. “Not just now, Harry; we have company.” The Geos and the Jan had entered. “Besides, I am not quite ready. There remain several tangles to be unravelled.”

As he shook hands with the Geos, he spoke in the Thomahlian tongue. “You are more than welcome.”

The Rhamda bent low in reverence and awe. His voice was hushed. He spoke:

“Art thou the Jarados, my lord?”

“Aye,” stated the doctor. “I am he; I am the Jarados!”

It was a stagger for both young men. Neither could reconcile the great professor of his schooldays with this strange, philosophic prophet of the occult Thomahlians. What was the connection? What was the fate that was leading, urging, compelling it all?

“Professor, you will pardon our eagerness. Both Harry and I have had adventures, without understanding what it was all about. Can’t you explain? Where are we? And--why?” And then:

“Your lecture on the Blind Spot! You promised it to us--can you deliver it now?”

The professor smiled his acknowledgement.

“Part of it,” he said; “enough to answer your questions to some extent. Had I stayed in Berkeley I could have delivered it all, but”--and he laughed--”I know a whole lot more, now; and, paradoxically, I know far less! First let me speak to the Geos.” He learned that the struggle outside had terminated successfully for the Rhamda and his men. All was quiet. The Senestro had made his escape in safety back to the Mahovisal. The doctor ordered that he was not to be molested.

The Geos and the others left the room, escorting the Aradna, who was too exhausted for further experiences. There remained with the doctor, Chick, Harry, and the Nervina.

“I will reduce that lecture to synopsis form,” began the professor. “I shall tell you all that I know, up to this moment. First, however, let me show you something.”

He indicated the table from which he had risen. Chief among the objects on its top were fragments of minerals, some familiar, some strange. Above and on all sides were the crystal globes or, at least, what Chick named as such--erected upon as many tripods. One of these the professor moved toward the table.

Simultaneously a tiny dot appeared on a small metal plate in the centre of the table. At first almost invisible, it grew, after a minute or so, to a definite bit of matter.

The professor moved the tripod away. Nearby crystals, inside of which some dull lights had leaped into momentary being, subsided into quiescence. And the three observers looked again and again at the solid fragment of material that had grown before their eyes on that table.

Something had been made out of nothing!

The doctor picked it up and held it unconcernedly in his fingers.

“Can anybody tell me,” asked he, “what this is?”

There was no answer. The professor tossed the thing back on the table. It gave forth a sharp, metallic sound.

“You are looking at ether,” spoke he. “It is the ether itself--nothing else. You call it matter; others would call it iron; but those are merely names. I call it ether in motion--materialised force-coherent vibration.

“Like everything else in the universe it answers to a law. It has its reason--there is no such thing as chance. Do you follow? That fragment is simply a principle, allowed to manifest itself through a natural law!

“Try to follow me. All is out of the ether--all! Variety in matter is simply a question of varying degrees of electronic activity, depending upon a number of ratios. Life itself, as well as materiality and force, comes out of the all-pervading ether.