Many Dimensions, Charles Williams [black authors fiction TXT] 📗
- Author: Charles Williams
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think you believe in it enough for it to reveal its will. What of this
friend of yours?”
“Who?” Lord Arglay said blankly.
“This Miss Burnett,” Ibrahim answered. “Does she believe?”
Lord Arglay stared at him. “What if she does? What can she believe in?”
he said. “Are you proposing to play some such trick on her as Giles did
on Pondon? Because if so, Hajji, I may as well tell you I shall stop
it. Besides, why do you think she’d find out?”
“If—no, it is impossible,” the Hajji said. “But I dreamed that I saw
the Name of Allah written on her forehead as it is written on the
Stone. And it is certain that the way to the Stone is in the Stone.”
“Then,” Lord Arglay said, not unreasonably, “why don’t you take it?”
“Those of my house,” the Hajji answered reluctantly, “who were of the
Keepers have sworn always to guard and never to use the Relics they
keep. Neither this nor a yet more sacred thing. “
“What else is there then?” Arglay asked.
“There is that which is in the Innermost,” the Hajji answered, “that
which controls all things. And I fear lest by the knowledge of the
Stone any shall come to find this other thing, For it is said that even
Asmodeus when he wore it sat on the throne of Suleiman ben Daood in
Jerusalem, and if your Giles Tumulty-”
I expect even Asmodeus was a gentleman compared with Giles,” Lord
Arglay said. “But seriously, Hajji, do you mean that there is something
else behind? And if so what is it?”
“I must not tell you,” Ibrahim said.
“Quite,” Lord Arglay answered, half as a gibe, half as a submission.
“It’s all very useful, isn’t it? Well, Hajji, will you help me to find
this Pondon man? Is there any particular formula?”
“I think you had need be careful,” Ibrahim answered. “For if you will
to return to the worlds that were you will not have the Stone with
you.”
“Giles’s idea seemed to be,” Lord Arglay said, “that one could will to
return to the past for ten minutes or so.”
“I do not see how you can bring this man back from the past without the
Stone, and if you return to the past you will not have the Stone,” the
Hajji said doubtfully. “Besides, though you can return to your own
past, I do not know whether you can return to his.”
“But why can’t I go to him now,” Lord Arglay said, “wherever he is now?
Damn it, man, he must be somewhere now.”
“If you are right, he is nowhere at all now,” the Hajji said. “He has
not yet reached now. He is in yesterday.”
“O Lord!” the Chief Justice said. “But he must be somewhere in space.”
“O in space he is no doubt here or there or anywhere,” Ibrahim
answered. “For yesterday’s space is exactly where to-day’s space is.”
“And tomorrow’s also?” Lord Arglay said.
“I think that is true,” the Hajji told him. “But tomorrow’s exists
only in a greAter knowledge than ours and it can only be experienced in
that diviner knowledge. Therefore to experience the future, though not
perhaps to foresee the future,. it is necessary to enter the soul of
the world with the inward being.”
“Then Giles did not miss that half-hour?” Lord Arglay said, and
explained the situation. The Hajji shook his head. “I think,” he
answered, “that he has known, in an infinitely small fraction of time,
all his future until he enters the End of Desire.
“He has foreknown that which he is now experiencing?” Lord Arglay
asked.
“I think so,” Ibrahim answered. “But though he knew it I do not think
it is now within his memory, nor will be until he reaches the end. For
to remember the future he must have foreknown his memory of that
future, and yet that he could not do without first foreknowing it
without memory. So I think he is spared that evil. Exalted for ever be
the Mercy of the Compassionate!”
THE CONFERENCE
The room at the Foreign Office was large enough not to be crowded. Lord
Birlesmere sat in a chair dexterously arranged at the corner of a
table, thus allowing him to control without compelling him to preside.
Next to him sat Lord Arglay with Chloe by his side; opposite was Mr.
Sheldrake in a state of very bitter irritation. Reginald Montague was
in an equal state of nervousness next to Chloe. Mr. Doncaster was next
to Sheldrake, and a little apart were Professor Palliser and Sir Giles
Tumulty. At the bottom of the table were Mr. Bruce Cumberland and a
high police official. The Persian Embassy was not represented. It was
about 11 o’clock on Monday.
Lord Birlesmere leant a little forward. “Gentlemen,” he began, “you
know, I think, why we have troubled you and why you have consented to
come here. The very surprising demonstrations at Rich during the week-end are a matter which do not concern this particular Office, but—as
most of you at any rate know—those demonstrations are said to be
connected with a substance, reputedly a relic, in the existence and
preservation of which a foreign Power has declared itself to be
interested. I need not detain you now to explain to what extent that
Power’s representatives have taken official action. But I may say, in
passing, that I myself have reason to believe that certain agitations
and disturbances in the Near East during the last two months have the
same cause……”
“What cause?” Mr. Sheldrake interrupted irritably.
“A concern,” Lord Birlesmere flowed on, “with the existence and
disposal of this hypothetical relic. I am anxious to
discover, on behalf of the Government, of what nature this is, whether
it is one or many, to whom it now belongs, and in whose Possession it
now is, and how far the claims of any foreign Power can be justified. I
need not say that I and any other representatives of the authorities
here will treAt every communication made: as confidential, or that if
any of you wish to make a private statement we shall be pleased to give
you immediate opportunities.”
Nobody leapt at the opportunity.. Lord Birlesmere said across the
table: “I believe, Mr. Sheldrake, you claim that this supposed relic
belongs to you?”
“I know nothing whatever about relics,” Sheldrake answered. “I know
that only last Friday I bought from Mr. Montague a kind of stone which
he assured me could produce certain remarkable results. I tested his
claims and they seemed justified; and as a result of these tests I gave
him my cheque for seventy-three thousand guineas.”
“Did you understand,” Lord Birlesmere asked, “that this was the only
stone of its kind in existence?”
“No,” Sheldrake admitted rather reluctantly, “I understood there were
three or four.”
“And by a series of events this Stone came into the hands of Mr.
Doncaster and thence to the police, performing apparently some
remarkable cures on its way—yes,” Lord Birlesmere said, “we needn’t go
into that now. Except, Mr. Doncaster, that you think these cures may
really have been produced by the Stone? Or anyhow,” he added, seeing
that Oliver was prepared to discuss this for a long time, “you see
nothing against that hypothesis?”
“Well, nothing except-” Oliver began.
“Practically nothing at the moment,” Lord Birlesmere substituted.
“Quite. Well now, Mr. Montague, would you mind telling us where you got
the Stone?”
“My uncle gave it me,” Reginald said very quickly. “Sir Giles.” He met
Sir Giles’s eyes and shivered a little.
Lord Birlesmere, having reached the desired point by a more gentle
method than by mere attack, looked at Sir Giles with an engaging smile.
“I wonder whether you would mind telling us exactly what you know about
the Stone, Sir Giles,” he said.
“I don’t mind telling you,” Sir Giles said, “but I’m damned if I see
why I should. Why on earth should I tell this private detective agency
everything about my personal affairs, because an auriferous Yankee
loses his purse?”
Lord Arglay observed round the table a slight perplexity, except where
Mr. Sheldrake jerked upright and Reginald stared downwards. In an
undertone to Chloe he said: “I don’t really know why he should, do
you?” But Chloe was looking, rather inimically for her, at Sir Giles.
Lord Birlesmere glanced at Bruce Cumberland, who said: “Merely as a
friendly act, Sir Giles, you might be willing to assist the inquiry.”
“But in the first place,” Sir Giles answered, “I don’t see any friends
here—except perhaps the Professor, and secondly, I don’t know what I’ve
got to do with the inquiry. Whoever’s been curing the village idiots of
England it isn’t me. I’ve got something else to do than to cure old
women of paralytic delirium.”
“The properties of the Stone..,” Mr. Cumberland began again.
“The properties of the Stone,” Sir Giles interrupted, “are for
scientists to determine—not politicians, policemen, and prostitutes.”
Mr. Sheldrake jerked again, and kept his eyes away from Chloe with an
effort. So did everyone else, except Lord Arglay who smiled at her and
then looked at Lord Birlesmere. The Foreign Secretary, caught between
ignoring the word and thus appearing to allow it and protesting and
thus permitting the whole conversation to wander off on to a useless
path, said in a perfectly audible voice to Mr. Sheldrake: “Sir Giles,
like
other great men, is a little eccentric in his phrases sometimes, but
Sir Giles refused to be excused.
“Well, I suppose the Foreign Secretary is a politician,” he said, “and
a Scotland Yard Commissioner is a policeman. Eh? Very well then-!”
Bruce Cumberland leaned across towards the Chief Justice. “perhaps,” he
said in a hoarse whisper, “Miss Burnett would like to withdraw. I mean,
you see… “
Chloe’s hand touched Lord Arglay’s arm. “Don’t make me go,” she
breathed to him.
“Ah,” Lord Birlesmere said, delighted at the suggestion,
“now if in the unusual circumstances Miss Burnett would oblige me
personally by rendering the inquiry easier… We want,” he went on
rather vaguely, “to have no restraints imposed, though if the matter
were less urgent…”
“My dear Birlesmere,” Arglay said patiently, “neither Miss Burnett nor
I have the least objection to Sir Giles using any language he finds
congenial. We haven’t even a police-court acquittal against us, and any
apology seems to me to be chiefly due to the English language which is
being wildly misused. Pray consider our feelings unruffled.”
“Very good of you,” Lord Birlesmere, rather perplexed, murmured, and
returned to Sir Giles who was feeling in a waistcoat pocket and
snarling at the Chief Justice. “The point is, Sir Giles,” he said,
“that it is necessary for the Government to know, first, what
justification there is for foreign claims to the Stone; secondly, what
properties the Stone possesses; and thirdly, how many there are in
existence.”
“The answers,” Tumulty said, “are that no foreign claim to the Stone
has any validity, that Professor Palliser and I are at work on an
investigation of its qualities, and that I cannot tell You how many
stones exist for a reason I can show you.” He felt in his pocket again.
“The qualities,” Lord Birlesmere said, “are said to include rapid
transit through space and singular curative powers.”
“Transit through time and space,” Sir Giles corrected him. “Two hundred
miles or two hundred hours.” He pushed his chair a little away from the
table and set another—his own Stone on his knee. “Don’t crowd me,
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