“I am afraid, professor, that you have promised a bit too much. I am not
entirely free yet, you know. Two hours is the most that I can give you;
and not entirely that. There are some details that may not be neglected.
It is a far venture and now that we have succeeded this far there is
surely no reason why we cannot go on. However, it is necessary that I
return to the house on Chatterton Place. I have but slightly over an
hour left.”
The doctor was plainly disappointed.
“But the lecture?”
“It means my life, professor, and the subsequent success of our
experiment. A few details, a few minutes. Perhaps if we hurry we can get
back in time.”
The doctor glanced at his watch. “Twenty minutes for the train, twenty
minutes for the boat, ten minutes; that's an hour, two hours. These
details? Have you any idea how long, Rhamda?”
“Perhaps not more than fifteen minutes.”
“We have still two hours. Fifteen minutes; perhaps a little bit late.
Tell you what. I shall go with you. You can get on the boat.”
We have said that the detective had intuition. He had it still. Yet
he had no rational reason for suspecting either the professor or his
strange companion. Furthermore he had never heard of the Blind Spot
in any way whatsoever; nor did he know a single thing of philosophy
or anything else in Holcomb's teaching. He knew the doctor as a man
of eminent standing and respectability. It was hardly natural that he
should suspect anything sinister to grow out of this meeting of two
refined scholars. He attached no great importance to the trend of their
conversation. It was strange, to be sure; but he felt, no doubt, that
living in their own world they had a way and a language of their own. He
was no scholar.
Still, he could think. The man Rhamda had made an assertion that he
could not quite uncover. It puzzled him. Something told him that for the
safety of his old friend it might be well for him to shadow the strange
pair to the city.
When the next train pulled out for the pier the two scholars were
seated in the forward part of the car. In the last seat was a man deeply
immersed in a morning paper.
It is rather unfortunate. In the natural delicacy of the situation
Jerome could not crowd too closely. He had no certainty of trouble; no
proof whatever; he was known to the professor. The best he could do was
to keep aloof and follow their movements. At the ferry building they
hailed a taxi and started up Market Street. Jerome watched them. In
another moment he had another driver and was winding behind in their
wheel tracks. The cab made straight for Chatterton Place. In front of a
substantial two-story house it drew up. The two men alighted. Jerome's
taxi passed them.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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