The Blind Spot, Homer Eon Flint and Austin Hall [books to read for 13 year olds txt] 📗

“Drive slowly,” I told him. “I think we shall be followed.”

And I was right; in a few minutes there were two cars dogging our wheel-tracks. I had no doubt concerning the Rhamda; but I couldn't understand the other. At No. 288 Chatterton Place we stopped and I alighted. The Rhamda's car passed, then the other. Neither stopped. Both disappeared round the corner. I took the numbers; then I went into the house. In about a half hour a car drew up at the curb. I stepped to the window. It was the car that had tracked the Rhamda's. The stubby individual stepped out; without ceremony he ran up the steps and opened the door. It was a bit disconcerting, I think, for both. He was plain and blunt—and honest.

“Well,” he said, “where's Watson? Who are you? What do you want?”

“That,” I answered, “is a question for both of us. Who are you, and what do you want? Where is Watson?”

Just then his eyes dropped and his glance fell and eyes widened.

“My name is Jerome,” he said simply. “Has something happened to Watson? Who are you?”

We were standing in the library; I made an indication towards the other room. “In there,” I said. “My name is Wendel.”

He took off his hat and ran the back of his hand across his forehead.

“So that pair got him, too! I was afraid of them all the while. And I had to be away. Do you know how they did it? What's the working of their game? It's devilish and certainly clever. They played that boy for a year; they knew they would get him in the end. So did I.

“He was a fine lad, a fine lad. I knew this morning when I came down from Nevada that they had him. Found your duds. A stranger. House looked queer. But I had hopes he might have gone over to see his girl. Just thought I'd wander over to Berkeley. Found that bird Rhamda under a palm tree watching the Holcomb bungalow. It was the first time I'd seen him since that day things went amiss with the professor. In about ten minutes you came out. I stayed with him while he tracked you back here; I followed him back down town and lost him. Tell me about Watson.”

He sat down; during my recital he spoke not a word. He consumed one cigar after another; when I stopped for a moment he merely nodded his head and waited until I continued. He was sturdy and frank, of an iron way and vast common sense. I liked him. When I had finished he remained silent; his grief was of a solid kind! he had liked poor Watson.

“I see,” he said. “It is as I thought. He told you more than he ever told me.”

“He never told you?”

“Not much. He was a strange lad—about the loneliest one I've ever seen. There was something about him from the very first that was not natural; I couldn't make him out. You say it is the ring. He always wore it. I laid it to this Rhamda. He was always meeting him. I could never understand it. Try as I would, I could not get a trace of the phantom.”

“The phantom?”

“Most assuredly. Would you call him human?” His grey eyes were flecked with light. “Come now, Mr. Wendel, would you?”

“Well,” I answered, “I don't know. Not after what I have seen. But for all that, I have proof of his sinews. I am inclined to blend the two. There is a law somewhere, a very natural one. The Blind Spot is undoubtedly a combination of phenomena; it has a control. We do not know what it is, or where it leads to; neither do we know the motive of the Rhamda. Who is he? If we knew that, we would know everything.”

“And this ring?”

“I shall wear it.”

“Then God help you. I watched Watson. It's plain poison. You have a year; but you had better count on half a year; the first six months aren't so bad; but the last—it takes a man! Wendel, it takes a man! Already you're eating your heart out. Oh, I know—you have opened the windows; you want sunshine and air. In six months I shall have to fight to get one open. It gets into the soul; it is stagnation; you die by inches. Better give me the ring.”

“This Budge Kennedy,” I evaded, “we must find him. We have time. One clue may lead us on. Tell me what you know of the Blind Spot.”

“Very easy,” he answered; “you have it all. I have been here a number of years. You will remember I fell into the case through intuition. I never had any definite proof, outside the professor's disappearance, the old lady, and that bell; unless perhaps it is the Rhamda. But from the beginning I've been positive.

“Taking that lecture in ethics as a starter, I built up my theory. All the clues lead to this building. It's something that I cannot understand. It's out of the occult. It's a bit too much for me. I moved into the place and waited. I've never forgotten that bell, nor that old lady. You and Fenton are the only ones who have seen the Blind Spot.”

I had a sudden thought.

“The Rhamda! I have read that he has the manner of inherent goodness. Is it true? You have conversed with him. I haven't.”

“He has. He didn't strike me as a villain. He's intrinsic, noble, out of self. I have often wondered.”

I smiled. “Perhaps we are thinking the same thing. Is this it? The Blind Spot is a secret that man may not attain to. It is unknowable and akin to death. The Rhamda knows it. He couldn't head off the professor. He simply employed Dr. Holcomb's wisdom to trap him; now that he has him secure, he intends to hold him. It is for our own good.”

“Exactly. Yet—”

“Yet?”

“He was very anxious to put you and Fenton into this very Spot.”

“That is so. But may it not be that we, too, knew a bit too much?”

He couldn't answer that.

Nevertheless, we were both of us convinced concerning the Rhamda. It was merely a digression of thought, a conjecture. He might be good; but we were both positive of his villainy. It was his motive, of course, that weighed up his character; could we find that, we would uncover everything.