The Argosy, Christmas 1912 — page 120: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

106 The page located him in the smoking- room. Osgood found him there a min- ute later. He was smoking a pipe and reading the evening paper. On seeing Osgood he got up. ‘Why, hello, Osgood! What brings you here? Haven’t seen you for a long time.” ° “No. I suppose you’ve been pretty busy, too?” “Very,” said the other, drawing up another chair. “Sit down, Osgood. iYes, I’ve been busy, all right. The days whirl by. In a way, I’m very thankful for it. I might be doing little or nothing.” ‘“T suppose many are.” “You bet they are. I seem to have got started much quicker than the aver- age. And, so far, things have kept up excellently.” He continued to chat in the same strain. Osgood, with his usual tact and diplomacy, listened with a rapt expres- sion. He listened for about ten min- utes. Then his impatience got the bet- ter of him, and he abandoned finesse. He became direct and _ forceful. There was a slight lull in the conversa- tion, and, instead of supplying another lead, he plunged into the matter that was uppermost in his mind. “Walling,” he said, ‘“ I came to see you about something particular. It is important. Can we get by ourselves? ”’ “Certainly. We’ll go over into that corner. There isn’t anybody within yards.” The two men got up and went into the corner. Walling ordered drinks and cigars, and settled himself back in his seat. Although they had been friends at college, the two had seen little of each other since; and, except for nods and casual remarks when they ran across each other at the club, of which Wal- ling was a new member, they had not often come into contact. Walling was curious now as to the nature of Os- good’s business with him. He was not long kept in doubt. Os- good waited until the waiter brought THE ARGOSY. the order and had gone again. Then he narrated the day’s happenings. He mentioned the coincidence of the two predictions about Bennett—the re- marks Bennett himself had made and Miss Trevor’s recalling the incident of the coin. Finally he told about the salute error. Walling listened attentively. ““T am sorry to hear this,” he said, when Osgood had finished. “ It sounds bad. Still, there may not be so much wrong with him as it would seem. These things can sometimes be ex- plained by a stretch of coincidence.” “I don’t see how you're going to ex- plain this sequence of events,” rejoined Osgood. : “You don’t? It can be done.” “Go ahead.” “All right. In the first place, the girl’s prophecy was simply fun. It means nothing. ‘Then the old gipsy’s to-day was the usual junk, perhaps with an extra touch of gloom.” Osgood’s mouth curled doubtfully. “Oh, I know you believe in them,” went on Walling; “but more often than not they're fakes, just the same. Well, to proceed. Bennett’s groping for the coin could easily have been due to the fact that he didn’t happen to catch sight of it at once. A man with perfect eyes might do a thing like that several times in a day.” ; “Curious that the girl could see it when she was much farther back,” sug- gested Osgood. “Not at all. The actual distance from the object cuts little figure. The point is that the person fails complete- ly to locate it. It is a phenomenon which frightens a great many people. Often they come to me greatly fright- ened, and with the idea that their sight is going. I reassure them by telling them what Dr. W. B. Cannon said in a lecture at the Harvard Medical School. I’ve repeated it so many times that I know it rather well now. The idea is this: “The spot at which the optic nerve is attached to the eye is a blind spot CoOMmicbook CO