Three More John Silence Stories
Page 24
clock, he saw a round luminous disc gazing steadily at him.It was a human eye, looking straight into his own, pressed there againstthe spy-hole. And it was bright with intelligence. Dr. Silence held hisbreath for a moment--and stared back at it.
Then, like some one moving out of deep shadow into light, he saw thefigure of a man come sliding sideways into view, a whitish facefollowing the eye, and the perpendicular line he had first observedbroadening out and developing into the complete figure of a human being.It was the patient. He had apparently been standing there in front ofthe fire all the time. A second eye had followed the first, and both ofthem stared steadily at the spy-hole, sharply concentrated, yet with asly twinkle of humour and amusement that made it impossible for thedoctor to maintain his position any longer.
He opened the door and went in quickly. As he did so he noticed for thefirst time the sound of a German band coming in gaily through the openventilators. In some intuitive, unaccountable fashion the musicconnected itself with the patient he was about to interview. This sortof prevision was not unfamiliar to him. It always explained itselflater.
The man, he saw, was of middle age and of very ordinary appearance; soordinary, in fact, that he was difficult to describe--his onlypeculiarity being his extreme thinness. Pleasant--that is,good--vibrations issued from his atmosphere and met Dr. Silence as headvanced to greet him, yet vibrations alive with currents and dischargesbetraying the perturbed and disordered condition of his mind and brain.There was evidently something wholly out of the usual in the state ofhis thoughts. Yet, though strange, it was not altogether distressing; itwas not the impression that the broken and violent atmosphere of theinsane produces upon the mind. Dr. Silence realised in a flash that herewas a case of absorbing interest that might require all his powers tohandle properly.
"I was watching you through my little peep-hole--as you saw," he began,with a pleasant smile, advancing to shake hands. "I find it of thegreatest assistance sometimes--"
But the patient interrupted him at once. His voice was hurried and hadodd, shrill changes in it, breaking from high to low in unexpectedfashion. One moment it thundered, the next it almost squeaked.
"I understand without explanation," he broke in rapidly. "You get thetrue note of a man in this way--when he thinks himself unobserved. Iquite agree. Only, in my case, I fear, you saw very little. My case, asyou of course grasp, Dr. Silence, is extremely peculiar, uncomfortablypeculiar. Indeed, unless Sir William had positively assured me--"
"My friend has sent you to me," the doctor interrupted gravely, with agentle note of authority, "and that is quite sufficient. Pray, beseated, Mr.--"
"Mudge--Racine Mudge," returned the other.
"Take this comfortable one, Mr. Mudge," leading him to the fixed chair,"and tell me your condition in your own way and at your own pace. Mywhole day is at your service if you require it."
Mr. Mudge moved towards the chair in question and then hesitated.
"You will promise me not to use the narcotic buttons," he said, beforesitting down. "I do not need them. Also I ought to mention that anythingyou think of vividly will reach my mind. That is apparently part of mypeculiar case." He sat down with a sigh and arranged his thin legs andbody into a position of comfort. Evidently he was very sensitive to thethoughts of others, for the picture of the green buttons had onlyentered the doctor's mind for a second, yet the other had instantlysnapped it up. Dr. Silence noticed, too, that Mr. Mudge held on tightlywith both hands to the arms of the chair.
"I'm rather glad the chair is nailed to the floor," he remarked, as hesettled himself more comfortably. "It suits me admirably. The factis--and this is my case in a nutshell--which is all that a doctor ofyour marvellous development requires--the fact is, Dr. Silence, I am avictim of Higher Space. That's what's the matter with me--Higher Space!"
The two looked at each other for a space in silence, the little patientholding tightly to the arms of the chair which "suited him admirably,"and looking up with staring eyes, his atmosphere positively tremblingwith the waves of some unknown activity; while the doctor smiled kindlyand sympathetically, and put his whole person as far as possible intothe mental condition of the other.
"Higher Space," repeated Mr. Mudge, "that's what it is. Now, do youthink you can help me with _that_?"
There was a pause during which the men's eyes steadily searched downbelow the surface of their respective personalities. Then Dr. Silencespoke.
"I am quite sure I can help," he answered quietly; "sympathy must alwayshelp, and suffering always owns my sympathy. I see you have sufferedcruelly. You must tell me all about your case, and when I hear thegradual steps by which you reached this strange condition, I have nodoubt I can be of assistance to you."
He drew a chair up beside his interlocutor and laid a hand on hisshoulder for a moment. His whole being radiated kindness, intelligence,desire to help.
"For instance," he went on, "I feel sure it was the result of no merechance that you became familiar with the terrors of what you term HigherSpace; for Higher Space is no mere external measurement. It is, ofcourse, a spiritual state, a spiritual condition, an inner development,and one that we must recognise as abnormal, since it is beyond the reachof the world at the present stage of evolution. Higher Space is amythical state."
"Oh!" cried the other, rubbing his birdlike hands with pleasure, "therelief it is to be able to talk to some one who can understand! Ofcourse what you say is the utter truth. And you are right that no merechance led me to my present condition, but, on the other hand, prolongedand deliberate study. Yet chance in a sense now governs it. I mean, myentering the condition of Higher Space seems to depend upon the chanceof this and that circumstance. For instance, the mere sound of thatGerman band sent me off. Not that all music will do so, but certainsounds, certain vibrations, at once key me up to the requisite pitch,and off I go. Wagner's music always does it, and that band must havebeen playing a stray bit of Wagner. But I'll come to all that later.Only first, I must ask you to send away your man from the spy-hole."
John Silence looked up with a start, for Mr. Mudge's back was to thedoor, and there was no mirror. He saw the brown eye of Barker glued tothe little circle of glass, and he crossed the room without a word andsnapped down the black shutter provided for the purpose, and then heardBarker snuffle away along the passage.
"Now," continued the little man in the chair, "I can begin. You havemanaged to put me completely at my ease, and I feel I may tell you mywhole case without shame or reserve. You will understand. But you mustbe patient with me if I go into details that are already familiar toyou--details of Higher Space, I mean--and if I seem stupid when I haveto describe things that transcend the power of language and are reallytherefore indescribable."
"My dear friend," put in the other calmly, "that goes without saying. Toknow Higher Space is an experience that defies description, and one isobliged to make use of more or less intelligible symbols. But, pray,proceed. Your vivid thoughts will tell me more than your halting words."
An immense sigh of relief proceeded from the little figure half lost inthe depths of the chair. Such intelligent sympathy meeting him half-waywas a new experience to him, and it touched his heart at once. He leanedback, relaxing his tight hold of the arms, and began in his thin,scale-like voice.
"My mother was a Frenchwoman, and my father an Essex bargeman," he saidabruptly. "Hence my name--Racine and Mudge. My father died before I eversaw him. My mother inherited money from her Bordeaux relations, and whenshe died soon after, I was left alone with wealth and a strange freedom.I had no guardian, trustees, sisters, brothers, or any connection in theworld to look after me. I grew up, therefore, utterly without education.This much was to my advantage; I learned none of that deceitful rubbishtaught in schools, and so had nothing to unlearn when I awakened to mytrue love--mathematics, higher mathematics and higher geometry. These,however, I seemed to know instinctively. It was like the memory of whatI had deeply studied before; the principles were in my blood, and Isimply raced t
hrough the ordinary stages, and beyond, and then did thesame with geometry. Afterwards, when I read the books on these subjects,I understood how swift and undeviating the knowledge had come back tome. It was simply memory. It was simply _re-collecting_ the memories ofwhat I had known before in a previous existence and required no books toteach me."
In his growing excitement, Mr. Mudge attempted to drag the chair forwarda little nearer to his listener, and then smiled faintly as he resignedhimself instantly again to its immovability, and plunged anew into therecital of his singular "disease."
"The audacious speculations of Bolyai, the amazing theories ofGauss--that through a point more than one line could be drawn parallelto a given line; the possibility that the