It was a tiny thing, and most amazingly beautiful. It could not have
stood as high as a canary; and had its feathers been made of gleaming
silver they could not have been lovelier. And its black-plumed head, and
long, blossom-like tail, were such as no man on earth ever set eyes on.
Like a flash it was gone. Not more than a half a second was this
enchanting apparition visible to us. Before we could discern any more
than I have mentioned, it not only vanished but it ceased to make any
sounds whatever. And each of us drew a long breath, as one might after
being given a glimpse of an angel.
Right now, five or six hours after the events I have just described, it
is very easy for me to smile at my emotions of the time. How startled
and mystified I was! And--why not confess it?--just a trifle afraid.
Why? Because I didn't understand! Merely that.
At this moment I sit in my laboratory upstairs in that house, rejoicing
in having reached the end of the mystery. For the enigma of the Blind
Spot is no more. I have solved it!
Now twenty feet away, in another room, lies Ariadne. Already there is
a faint trace of colour in her cheeks, and her heart is beating more
strongly. Another hour, says Dr. Higgins, and she will be restored to
us!
The time is seven p.m. I didn't sleep at all last night; I haven't slept
since. For the past five hours we have been working steadily on the
mystery, ever since our finding that little, red pebble in the basement.
The last three hours of the time I have been treating Ariadne, using
means which our discoveries indicated. And in order to keep awake I have
been dictating this account to a stenographer.
This young lady, a Miss Dibble, is downstairs, where her typewriter will
not bother. Yes, put that down, too, Miss Dibble; I want people to know
everything! She has a telephone clamped to her ears, and I am talking
into a microphone which is fixed to a stand on my desk.
On that desk are four switches. All are of the four-way two-pole type;
and from them run several wires, some going to one end of the room,
where they are attached to the Holcomb gem. Others, running to the
opposite end, making contact with the tiny heavy stone we found in the
basement. Other wires run from the switches to lead bands around my
wrists. Also, between switches are several connections--one circuit
containing an amplifying apparatus. By throwing these switches in
various combinations, I can secure any given alteration of forces, and
direct them where I choose.
For there are two other wires. These run from my own lead bracelets to
another room; a pair clamped around the wrists of Ariadne.
For I, Hobart Fenton, am now a living, human transforming station. I am
converting the power of the Infinite into the Energy of Life. And I am
transmitting that power directly out of the ether, as conduced through
these two marvellous stones, back into the nervous system of the girl I
love. Another hour, and she will Exist!
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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