“The Blind Spot.”

XLV

THE ARADNA

Thus had the professor got into actual touch with the occult—­by sheer accident.  Up to that time it had been only a hypothesis; now it was a fact.  Next step was to open up direct communication.

“That was difficult.  To begin with, I worked to repeat the phenomena I had seen, getting some haphazard results from the start.  My purpose throughout was to exchange intelligent comment with the individual I had beheld on that snow-stone within the Spot; and in the end I succeeded.

“He gave me fairly explicit warning as to when the Blind Spot should open, not only to the eye, but in its entirety, as it had done for the young man of whom the old lady had told me.  We agreed through signs that he would come through first.

“Understand, up to the instant of his actual arrival, I didn’t know just what he was like.  I had to be content with his sign-talk, by which he assured me he was a real man, material, of life and the living.

“I made my announcement.  You know most of what followed.  The Rhamda came to Berkeley; together we returned to Chatterton Place, for it was imperative that we hold the Spot open or at least maintain the phenomenon at such a point that we could reopen it at will.  Both of us were guessing.

“Neither of us knew, at the time, just how long the Rhamda could endure our atmosphere.  He had risked his life to come through; it was no more than fair that I should accede to his caution and insure him a safe return to his own world.

“But things went wrong.  It was ignorance as much as accident.  At Chatterton Place I was caught in the Blind Spot, and without a particle of preparation was tossed into the Thomahlia.

“When I came through, the Nervina went out.  Thus I found myself in this strange place with no one to guide me.  And unfortunately, or rather, fortunately, I fell into the hands of the Bar Senestro.

“Now, for all that he is a sceptic, the Senestro is a brave man; and like many another unbeliever, he has a sense of humour.  My coming had been promised by Avec; so he knew that somehow I was a part of the Prophecy—­the prophecy which, for reasons of his own, he did not want fulfilled.

“So he isolated me here in the house of the Jarados.  A bold sort of humor, I call it—­to defy the Prophecy in the very spot where it was written!

“But it was fortunate.  I was in the house of the old prophet, with its stores of wisdom, secrets, raw elements and means for applying the laws of nature.  All that I hitherto had only guessed at, I now had at my disposal:  libraries, laboratories, everything.  I was a recluse with no interruptions and perfect facility for study.

“First of all I went into their philosophy.  Then into their science, and afterwards into their history.  Whereupon I made a rather startling discovery.