Challenger, Professor (Fictitious character) -- Fiction; Spiritualism -- Fiction
“We will try to get a little closer. He has deep lines on his face. I
should say he was an irritable man in his lifetime. He was quick and
nervous in his ways. Does that help you?”
Again Malone shook his head.
“Rot! Perfect rot,” he muttered.
“Well, he seems very anxious so we must do what we can for him. He holds
up a book. It is a learned book. He opens it and I see diagrams in it.
Perhaps he wrote it--or perhaps he taught from it. Yes, he nods. He
taught from it. He was a teacher.”
Malone remained unresponsive.
“I don’t know that I can help him any more. Ah! there is one thing. He
has a mole over his right eyebrow.”
Malone started as if he had been stung.
“One mole?” he cried.
The spectacles flashed round again.
“Two moles--one large, one small.”
“My God!” gasped Malone. “It’s Professor Summerlee!”
“Ah, you’ve got it. There’s a message: Greetings to old----’ It’s a
long name and begins with a C. I can’t get it. Does it mean anything?”
“Yes.”
In an instant she had turned and was describing something or someone
else. But she had left a badly-shaken man upon the platform behind her.
It was at this point that the orderly service had a remarkable
interruption which surprised the audience as much as it did the two
visitors. This was the sudden appearance beside the chairman of a tall,
pale-faced, bearded man dressed like a superior artisan, who held up his
hand with a quietly impressive gesture as one who was accustomed to
exert authority. He then half turned and said a word to Mr. Bolsover.
“This is Mr. Miromar of Dalston,” said the Chairman. “Mr. Miromar has a
message to deliver. We are always glad to hear from Mr. Miromar.”
The reporters could only get a half-view of the newcomer’s face, but
both of them were struck by his noble bearing and by the massive outline
of his head which promised very unusual intellectual power. His voice
when he spoke rang clearly and pleasantly through the hall.
“I have been ordered to give the message wherever I think that there are
ears to hear it. There are some here who are ready for it, and that is
why I have come. They wish that the human race should gradually
understand the situation so that there shall be the less shock or panic.
I am one of several who are chosen to carry the news.”
“A lunatic, I’m afraid!” whispered Malone, scribbling hard upon his
knee. There was a general inclination to smile among the audience. And
yet there was something in the man’s manner and voice which made them
hang on every word.
“Things have now reached a climax. The very idea of progress has been
made material. It is progress to go swiftly, to send swift messages, to
build new machinery. All this is a diversion of real ambition. There is
only one real progress--spiritual progress. Mankind gives it a lip
tribute but presses on upon its false road of material science.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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