Y. Cheung, Business Detective by Harry Stephen Keeler

Author:Harry Stephen Keeler [Keeler, Harry Stephen]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: mystery;series;classic;chicago;murder
Publisher: Wildside Press LLC
Published: 2018-02-15T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER XXV

The Cards Interpreted

I was still sitting near the telephone, lost amidst the wilderness of my own thoughts, when Burke returned a full half-hour later.

And I was sitting there too, when he bid me good night, fifteen minutes after that—regarding me most troubledly—and went to his bedroom.

And still I sat, waiting, waiting, waiting—

It seemed an eternity while that phone was yet to ring. It seemed that—

And it rang!

I sprang to it.

And it was, of course, Dr. Deventer on the wire.

“Well, Mr. Kew,” he began cheerily, “I have worked out the indubitable interpretations of those three cards—laid out, that is, as they are!—to their most ultimate possible concrete point.” A note of puzzlement, however, came into his voice at this juncture. “Though, my boy, some very odd features are to be found in the interpretation which refuse utterly to conform to the conditions as outlined by you, under which the sym­bolic message was—er—putatively sent you. Though maybe they do conform, at that! For instance, son, is this Chinese girl a former peasant—perhaps educated in astronomy in some Kuomingtang Government School?”

“Good God, no, Dr. Deventer. Why?”

“Well, because, son, there comes forth, absolutely and positively, in the interpretation, that she is addressing somebody ‘above her.’ Are you above her in some aspect—other, say, than social?—or with respect to some false idea she possesses as to social relationship?”

“Oh no, no,” I retorted quickly. “She—she is above me—in every respect. She is wond—That is, I am not above her—however—well—I think, at that, I understand where maybe—yes—she would consider me above her. Yes! It’s—it’s purely a case of relativity. It—but—” And in a very delirium of anxiety, now that I had heard even that fragment of what those cords implied, I pressed him. “The full interpretation, Dr. Deventer—what is it?”

“Well,” he warned, “put into words, it is still highly cryptic. You may have to work upon it yourself—in that form—to clarify it further.”

“Yes, yes,” I said. “I—I will do that—all of that. And please—the interpretation.”

“Well, my very impatient young friend,” he said with a sigh, “it runs perhaps about thus—when couched in language—English language, anyway. But I will repeat it slowly.” And as one groping here and groping there, for the clumsy tools known as words, which in this case most nearly stood for aspects of thought, he repeated: “‘Never overlook utterly’—or,” he added, “‘never fail to perceive’ or—or—yes—‘to keep in mind’—yes—and now comes, son, that relativity allusion, as you so aptly term it—‘in your high-above-me spot’—or—or ‘in your exalted station’—or even, son, possibly, ‘far aloof stage of being and mind’—however, I’ll go on.” And he continued: ‘that we here’—not just ‘I,’ Mr. Kew—that is another puzzling thing: the plurality aspect of ‘self enters the picture there—however—to repeat—‘that we here are blessed’—or ‘endowed’ or ‘fortuned’—yes—‘with the power to see’—no, Mr. Kew—to actually ‘see’—‘visualize’—yes—‘anyone’—‘him-her,’ in double aspect, my boy—so let us call it just: ‘one out of many’—anyway, I’ll continue—‘who thinks of’—or ‘upon’—‘upon us’—or who ‘gazes’—‘surveys’—‘contemplates’—‘us visibly.’ The thought continues there, Mr. Kew, in duplication with that premise ‘Never forget,’ to a new clause ‘and can receive Thought.

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