While they could
give an accurate and vivid account of their feelings and
experiences, they could only guess at what lay in the future, at
the events that would unravel it all.
But the present writers have the advantage of working, of seeing,
of weighing in the retrospect. They know just where they are
going.
The coming of Chick Watson brought new perspective. Hitherto we
had been looking into the darkness. Whatever had been caught in
the focus of the Spot had become lost to our five senses.
Yet, facts are facts. It was no mere trickery that had caught Dr.
Holcomb in the beginning. One by one, men of the highest standards
and character had been either victims or witness to its reality
and power.
So the coming of Watson may well be set down as one of the
deciding moments of history. He who had been the victim a year
before was returning through the very Spot that had engulfed him.
He was the herald of the great unknown, an ambassador of the
infinite itself.
It will be remembered that of all the inmates of the house, Dr.
Hansen was the only one who had a personal acquaintance with
Watson. One year before the doctor had seen him a shadow--wasted,
worn, exhausted. He had talked with him on that memorable night in
the cafe. Well he remembered the incident, and the subject of that
strange conversation--the secret of life that had been discovered
by the missing Dr.
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