The Mystery of the Invisible Dog - M. V. Carey [34]
“After her first night sleeping in the lab, the Montrose housewife didn’t know what the number was. But she was able to describe the envelope, which had a blob of blue sealing wax on it. And yet she had never left her bed the whole night.
“We then had a janitor open the envelope, take out the paper without looking at it, and place it face up on the shelf. The housewife slept under the shelf a second night. In the morning, she was able to tell us the number. We got the paper down and checked, and she was absolutely right!”
“You were watching the whole night?” asked Bob. “She never got up and tried to reach the shelf?”
“She never moved the whole night. But somehow, she was able to leave her body and read that number. Or, as we say, her astral body left her physical body.”
Bob thought for a second. “But that doesn’t prove anything!” he objected.
“It would prove how the wanderer at your client’s apartment knows that your client owns a mandala,” said Dr. Barrister.
“But no one saw that woman move,” said Bob. “Our client has actually seen Sonny Elmquist, or someone who looks like him, in his apartment.”
“And always while Elmquist is asleep?” said Professor Lantine.
“So far as we know.”
“That is rare, but it has happened,” she declared. “Here’s another case, slightly different.”
She opened a second file folder. “A man who lives in Orange,” she said. “All his life he has had disturbing dreams — dreams of being in places and seeing things that he later learned were true events. Unlike the Montrose woman, however, his astral body had actually been seen!
“The man from Orange had a friend in Hollywood — I’ll call him Jones. One night Jones was sitting quietly at home, reading a book. His dog barked, and he thought someone was prowling in his yard. He got up to investigate, and in the entry hall he saw the man who lived in Orange. Jones saw him so clearly that he spoke to him — called him by name. The man didn’t answer. Instead he turned and went upstairs. When Jones followed him, no one was there.
“Jones found the affair so upsetting that he immediately called his friend in Orange, who answered the telephone himself. The man had been sound asleep, dreaming of being in Jones’ house, of seeing Jones reading, and of having Jones confront him in the hall. In his dream, the man from Orange felt threatened when Jones spoke to him, so he fled up the stairs and hid in a closet. The dream ended when the telephone rang.”
“Good grief!” exclaimed Bob.
“Yes,” said Professor Lantine. “It is amazing — and frightening. It frightens the people who have the power to wander about this way, and it frightens the people who glimpse the wanderers.”
“Sonny Elmquist has scared Mr. Prentice, all right!” said Bob. “But how can we be sure that he is a wanderer?”
“You can’t,” said Professor Lantine. “He might consent to come in for some observed experiments. They might prove he has this strange ability. Then again, they might prove nothing.”
“I see,” said Bob. “In the meantime, Mr. Prentice has no way of keeping him out?”
“If he is truly a wanderer, no. However, Mr. Prentice shouldn’t be alarmed. These people are harmless. They can’t do anything. They’re only observers, you see.”
“You mean they can’t touch anything?”
“At least, they apparently can’t move anything,” said Professor Lantine. “The Montrose housewife, for example, couldn’t read the number in the envelope. We had to open the envelope for her.”
“So if Elmquist is a wanderer, he can’t do anything while he’s roaming around,”
concluded Bob.
“So far as we know, he can’t.”
“Sonny Elmquist wants to go to India,” said Bob. “He wants to study there.”
Professor Lantine nodded. “There is a widespread belief that Indian mystics know secrets that are denied to Westerners,” she said. “I doubt it. However, if Mr. Elmquist is truly a wanderer, he may think he’ll find out more about it in India.”
“Well, so much for the shadow in Mr. Prentice’s apartment,” said Bob. “But what about the phantom priest? What about ghosts?”