Manly Wade Wellman - John Thunstone 02 by The School of Darkness (v1.1) Read Free Book Online

tallish Edgar Allan Poe.
                 “My
name’s Exum Layton,” said the man, his voice faint in the auditorium. “I’m a
graduate student in English. I want to ask Mr. Thunstone, why do you say you
believe in these phenomena?”
                 “Seeing is believing ,” said Thunstone into his microphone.
“When you see something, experience something at first hand, it becomes reality
to you and perhaps you can deal with it.”
                 “You
mentioned the Shonokins,” Exum Layton said. “I’ve heard of them, but I thought
they were fiction.”
                 “They’re
real enough, in their seemingly unreal way,” said Thunstone.
                 “I’d
like to talk to you about them.”
                 “Very
well, you may. I’m staying at the Inn , you
can telephone me there.”
                 Exum
Layton sat down. Pitt pointed toward another lifted hand, a slim, white one.
Grizel Fian rose from her seat.
                 “Yes,”
prompted Pitt.
                 “Mr.
Thunstone,” she said, and her voice was clearer, more resounding, than Layton ’s had been. “Last night, you and X spoke of
Rowley Thome, Would you like to tell us about him?”
                 Behind
her sat the big man with the bald head. Thunstone could make out his face,
heavy-jowled, hook-nosed.
                 “Rowley
Thome was, in his time, the world’s principal figure in the cult of Satanism,”
said Thunstone at once. “He had various disciples, who gave him money to spend
and supported his claims and actions. He didn’t like me, and I didn’t like him.
One day, he vanished. I conjecture that he failed at some rather sinister
magical effort, and got taken into some other plane of existence, away from the
one we know.”
                 A
murmur rose among the listeners. “Do you believe that such a thing happened?”
Grizel Fian half challenged.
                 “I
saw it happen,” Thunstone replied. “There are reports of such things in the
past. I daresay that Father Bundren could give you some instances out of the
Bible. I wouldn’t be surprised if Professor Shimada could tell about such
disappearances in Asia , or if Chief Manco could speak to them
among Indian peoples.”
                 “Thank
you,” said Grizel Fian, and sat down. The bald head behind her leaned close as
though to speak in her ear. Pitt pointed to another in the audience, a
middle-aged man this time, who rose and called himself Hollis Buchanan.
                 “I’m
a member of no church, and I follow no religion,” he said gratingly. “I ask
Father Bundren how science can explain the curious things he believes in.”
                “By and large, science doesn’t
recognize those things and doesn’t try to explain them,” was Father Bundren’s
cheerful answer. “Proof and faith are opposite paths of belief.”
                 “Nothing
is true without scientific proof,” insisted Hollis Buchanan.
                 “Well,
from time to time science catches up with things, with bewildering realities.”
Father Bundren smiled in a way that made his canny face look chubby. “I have
said that I’m a priest, and I’ll add that I’m not unacquainted with scientific
theories that have become recognized facts. But, if I’m to do my duty as a
priest, I can’t help but believe in miracles and wonders. Those happen to be
part of a priest’s business.”
                 Hollis
Buchanan did not look particularly satisfied, but he sat down. Others raised
their hands and asked questions, of Thunstone and all the others, and were
answered as simply and clearly as possible. Most of the questioners wanted to
know if members of the panel truly believed in supernormal phenomena, and if
so, why. It occurred to Thunstone that he and his fellow panelists had no