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THE STORY
Part I
"I see my mistake," said the Professor,
throwing away the rock as if disgusted with himself at his blundering. "To try
to knock the wall down is to admit that it is there and but adds to its
solidity by hammering away at it. The truth is, the wall does not exist as an
objective fact. I should have walked on and not slapped, kicked and hammered at
it; and I should have looked on it only as a form of thought which the Magician
would have me accept as an objective reality, but which I deny." So saying, he
closed his eyes and walked straight ahead and passed the apparent obstruction
without hindrance, the wall disappearing as mist before the sun.
As von Scholtz hastened on deeper into
the cave, he heard the voices of men some distance ahead of him. They seemed to
be in distress; he peered into the gloomy distance in front of him and soon
descried two men running toward him, pursued by a Bengal tiger. The man in
front, in his haste to escape, brushed so close to the Professor that the
learned man was knocked off his feet. When he arose, he saw the tiger had
caught and was eating the other man, but a few yards from him.
The mangling of the human form was
sickening. Instinctively the Professor started to leave the cave, but he did
not go far when he began to realize that this was shirking his duty. So, facing
about again, he reasserted himself and leaving the evidence of his senses,
advanced toward the scene of carnage. Not without difficulty, however.
Aside from the sight of the ferocious
beast and his half–eaten prey, the sound of cracking bones in the
ferocious jaws, one sense seeming to corroborate the testimony of the other, a
hard proposition to get over. Yet, nevertheless, the scientist said, "These are
also illusions," and in saying it showed his faith in his reasoning and
advanced. But in doing so, he received a stunning blow from the tiger's paw,
managing only to stagger past before he fell, rising as quickly, seeing neither
beast nor his prey. They had vanished!
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