Some law has been missed through the ages. It is inexorable and
insidious; it is concrete. Out of the unknown comes terror. Through the
love for the great professor I have pitted myself against it. From the
beginning it has been almost hopeless. I remember that last digression
in ethics. “The mystery of the occult may be solved. We are five-sensed.
When we bring the thing down to the concrete we may understand.”
Sometimes I wonder at the Rhamda. Is he a man or a phantom? Does he
control the Blind Spot? Is he the substance and the proof that was
promised by Dr. Holcomb? Through what process and what laws did the
professor acquire even his partial control over the phenomena? Where
did the Rhamda and his beautiful companion come from? Who are they? And
lastly--what was the idea that buzzed in the head of Hobart Fenton?
When I look back now I wonder. I have never believed in fate. I do not
believe in it now. Man is the master of his own destiny. We are cowards
else. Whatever is to be known we should know it. One's duty is ever to
one's fellows. Heads up and onward. I am not a brave man, perhaps, under
close analysis; but once I have given my word I shall keep it. I have
done my bit; my simple duty. Perhaps I have failed. In holding myself
against the Blind Spot I have done no more than would have been done by
a million others. I have only one regret. Failure is seldom rewarded. I
had hoped that my life would be the last; I have a dim hope still. If I
fail in the end, there must be still one more to follow.
Understand I do not expect to die. It is the unknown that I am afraid
of. I who thought that we knew so much have found it still so little.
There are so many laws in the weave of Cosmos that are still unguessed.
What is this death that we are afraid of? What is life? Can we solve it?
Is it permissible? What is the Blind Spot? If Hobart Fenton is right it
has nothing to do with death. If so, what is it?
My pen is weak. I am weary. I am waiting for Hobart. Perhaps I shall not
last. When he comes I want him to know my story. What he knows already
will not hurt repeating. It is well that man shall have it; it may be
that we shall both fail-there is no telling; but if we do the world can
profit by our blunders and guide itself--perhaps to the mastery of the
phenomenon that controls the Blind Spot.
I ask you to bear with me. If I make a few mistakes or I am a bit loose,
remember the stress under which I am writing. I shall try to be plain so
that all may follow.
VI
CHICK WATSON
Now to go back.
In due time we were both of us graduated from college. I went into the
law and Hobart into engineering. We were both successful. There was
not a thing to foreshadow that either of us was to be jerked from his
profession. There was no adventure, but lots of work and reward in
proportion.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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