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.'It surprises me I didn't think of it that way myself.''Oh?' I said, 'I hardly find it surprising.Time-travel is something out ofscience fiction, surely? Not something for merely mundane speculation.''And what of telepathy?' she returned, smiling.I had to allow her that, it's my belief, at any rate,' Icontinued, 'that Titus is indeed lost in time.Peaslee and I have talked aboutit; the professor agrees with me.But I suppose I'd better tell you the wholestory.That way perhaps -''No need,' she quickly answered, stretching out a trembling hand to touch myforehead, 'simply let yourself think back on it.'Her eyes clouded over and she swayed.Belatedly remembering my manners Isteadied her and sat her down in a chair, and all the while her cool,trembling hand rested upon my forehead.Finally her eyes brightened and shewithdrew her hand.'So that is how it was,' she said.'That old clock of his.Until now I had notknown.'Now it was my turn to express surprise.I had been on the point of telling herabout Crow's departure from Blowne House into time, but should that reallyhave been necessary? Surely, as a member of the Foundation.? Her laststatement, if she was all she made out to be, struck me as being more thanpeculiar.'But that's strange,' I said, 'I should have thought that you, ofall people, would be the very one to know such things?'She looked at me searchingly, questioningly for a moment, and then hereyebrows knitted in a frown of displeasure, 'I said I can receive the thoughtsof others, young man, not that I steal them.I would not dream of looking intothe mind of another uninvited either by word or gesture.That would be ahideous curiosity.I would no sooner do that than enter another's houseunbidden or read another's diary.''But when you first knocked at my door - ' I started toprotest.'Do you think you are the only one who fears the CCD?' she quickly asked.'When I came to your house I instinctively checked that it was a man waitingfor mebehind the door.I merely brushed your mind, sufficiently to read your ownfear.''But it's been ten years since we departed.Surely, as a member of theFoundation, and as a personal friend of Titus Crow you -'"About the Wilmarth Foundation,' she answered.'I accept what I'm told; Idon't probe where I'm unwelcome.This is an unspoken rule among all telepathswho work for the Foundation.If Peaslee had wanted to tell me about you andTitus he would have done so.I respect his leadership and where work isconcerned I only interest myself in those projects and experiments which heauthorizes.This does not mean, however, that the Foundation governs meutterly; on the contrary, I retain my own private interests.I have my ownfriends and I am loyal to them, as I hope they are to me.Titus Crow has beena friend for many years.''And you say that he has.contacted you?' 'He has, yes, and now that Iknow his predicament I am sure that I was right to come and see you.You werecorrect, he is lost in space and time, trying to find his way home.He is likea sailor of the old times, lost on alien seas, compass gone and the starsunreadable.I think you have some link between you, you and Titus, some senseperhaps akin to ESP, by which you feel for each other without being trulytelepathic.He needs to home in on you, Mr de Marigny.He wants you to holdout a light in the darkness, one that he can follow back to his own time andspace.'I thought about what she had said for a moment, trying hard to understand.'Are there no others with better qualifications?' I finally asked.'Surelythere are telepaths within the Foundation who -''But he does not want the Foundation to know,' she answered.'And in any case,this link between you two isnot truly telepathic.It is something grown of long and close friendship,closer even than my own with Titus.Are you not aware of this psychicaffinity.? Have you not experienced anything of it before?'I nodded.'At the very start of all this, when Titus first discovered theburrowers, I was in Paris.Suddenly I had to get back to England.I came homeand I knew as soon as I found Crow's letter waiting for me that somehow he hadunconsciously called me back.Since then the occasion has not arisen when -''Well, now he is calling you again.' She nodded decisively."This timeconsciously, knowing what he is about.Has it not been apparent to you? Hasthere been no hint that he has tried to contact you? No phenomena, dreamsperhaps, or -''Dreams!' I cried, snapping my fingers."There have been the most terrifyingdreams, of Crow in his great coffin of a clock, hurtling through endless alienuniverses and crying out to me, searching for me, wanting to know where I-'Finally the last piece of the puzzle had dropped into place.'Good Lord! And Ithought I needed a psychiatrist!'I thought about it for a moment longer before slapping my thigh with an angryhand.'But why the devil haven't I realized before just what the dreamsmeant?''The devil indeed,' she answered me, her eyes narrowing.'It occurs to me thatyou may well, though perhaps inadvertently, have answered your own question.Perhaps Peaslee told you that for some time now there's been a decidedslacking off of specific CCD interference? While the telepathic output of theCCD has not noticeably lessened, for some time they have not been directingtheir hatred at any recognizable target, neither at specific groups nor anyindividuals that we have been able to discover.It has been almost as thoughCthulhu wereshielding his damned dreams from the Foundation, as though he were intent uponmatters very important to him and that he feared the Foundation'sinterference.Could it be, I wonder, that Cthulhu and the other prime membersof the CCD are expending this awful mental energy of theirs in an attempt to-''To foul Crow's return to Earth?''I wonder,' she answered.'And my failure to realize that Crow needed my help, you see that also asevidence of CCD interference?''It's possible, but I don't think that they're aiming at you in particular.Ifthat were so the Foundation would soon know about it [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]