The valley of eyes unseen
have anticipated by some centuries the surprising discoveries made by
ourselves during recent years. In psychics, a marvellous advancement is
ascribed to them, but is this beyond belief? We ourselves have sanely
and soberly studied the subject for barely half a century, yet already
we have made some progress; we have even recorded cases of projected
personality, though in most instances the act was probably involuntary
and the power unreliable. Is it too much to suppose that a race
originally of great intellectual and nervous force, which had studied
these matters for centuries, should have so perfected their control of
the human mind as to be able to launch it forth _at will_? I think not.
Nor, I fancy, is it unthinkable that an actual visible shape of the
projected personality might appear to the person who was the subject of
the visitation. But that the mind-wizards of Hellas, by willing such a
visitation and infusing it with hostile intention, should be able to
cause the death of the person visited--on this point, I must confess, I
am sceptic.
That brings me to the death of Ronald Mirlees. Frankly, in spite of the
mysterious and inexplicable nature of his end, which baffled doctors
and public alike, I incline to think that he himself was under a
delusion as to its cause--particularly as a far simpler explanation
occurs to me. Men of Mirlees' stamp, who in their quest of knowledge
plunge into the perilous underworld of native life, with its secret
organisations and obscure religious cults, often meet with a fate as
dark as the matters they went out to explore. Many such cases lie
buried in the dusty official files of the East. Sometimes it is a
jealously guarded secret filched, sometimes a criminal betrayed to
justice, but always there is the possibility that sooner or later the
rash foreigner who has ventured into such deep waters will pay for his
temerity with his life. Mirlees, as I knew, was in the habit of thus
diving into the underworld, where his knowledge of native life and
language enabled him to move in a way that would have been possible to
few other foreigners living; and he was, as I also knew, a man utterly
devoid of fear and not greatly gifted with common prudence. In this
manuscript he represents himself as having incurred the wrath of a
secret, semi-religious society whose members were also on the track of
the hidden land of diamonds. Blood had been shed--it may have been the
blood of men highly placed in the organisation; and his story of the
renewed attempts on his life when he had ventured back into China bears
to my mind the character of extreme probability. Also, I am inclined
to believe that one of these attempts finally succeeded. The murder
may have been effected by means of some subtle native poison which no
European doctor could detect--it will be remembered that he records
an attempt of the kind as having been already made and frustrated.
His own belief--that he was being done to death by mental force
acting at a great distance--seems wild enough, but by no means hard
to understand after the experiences through which he had passed. The
amazing powers of the people of Hellas had obviously left a profound
impression upon his mind, so much so that he was able to put forward
the astonishing hypothesis that the mechanism of those artificial
wings on which he fled from the valley was actuated by _isolated brain
force_; the grim mystery surrounding the death of Major Poyning would
still further deepen this impression; and Mirlees' dream-interview with
the Princess Euphrosune--I prefer to regard this as merely a dream,
since at his meeting with Saunders Philipson on the following night
the latter appears to have made no mention either of it or of Mirlees'
supposed oath of secrecy--may well have rendered the delusion complete.
All this, taken in conjunction with the cumulative horror of the
several attempts on his life, would seem to me to afford an adequate
explanation of Mirlees' extraordinary belief.
I come, in conclusion, to my reason for now breaking the silence of
thirteen years and giving Mirlees' manuscript to the world. When the
document reached me I read it several times from beginning to end, with
astonishment that deepened rather than dwindled, and then put it away
in a place of safety as the writer had requested. This was not because
I believed--to quote Mirlees' words--there was "a doom in it"; as I
have made clear in the foregoing paragraph, I found myself unable to
accept that theory. But there were other considerations. It seemed to
me that the statements made by Mirlees were so daring, so sensational,
so flatly contradictory of what has passed for history during two
millenniums, that they would be greeted with incredulity--perhaps even
resentment--on all sides, and that the ultimate result would be to
damage Mirlees' well-earned repute as an orientalist and scholar. There
were, as I knew, rival "authorities" who would possibly even welcome
such an opportunity to throw discredit on the whole of his life-work.
Now, however, the aspect of affairs is rapidly changing. With the
great strides recently made in the art of air-travel it seems likely
that before long the last secrets of this vast continent of Asia will
be wrenched from her. Where previously a mere handful of indomitable
adventurers have been able to cross the awful heights of Northern Tibet
on foot, taking months of the most tremendous exertion and peril in the
crossing, soon the perfected swift planes of modern explorers will be
traversing that unique region of the globe in a few days. Then the race
which Mirlees describes as lurking hidden beyond the great mountain
barrier will be discovered willy-nilly to the world at large; and it is
my most earnest wish that the fame of having first placed upon record
a description of this people and their supposed origin and history
should be awarded to the man who struggled so gallantly and suffered
so much in winning through to their secret land. I knew Mirlees as a
trusty comrade, a brilliant scholar, and a most disinterested seeker
after truth. He deserved greatly of his fellow man for his services in
exploring and making better known these little-known portions of the
earth, and it is no more than common justice that the credit for his
last and greatest discovery should go to him and no other.
Whether subsequent exploration will confirm his assertions, only the
future can show. For myself I will say candidly and without fear of
derision that I believe that somewhere deep amid the mountain solitudes
there _does_ exist that Navel of Light; that it is peopled by a race
from whom the outer world has much to learn, not only in scientific
ingenuity but in breadth and humanity of ideas; that it is ruled by
a modern Greek of great personal beauty and strength of body and
mind, whom the folk of Hellas believe, rightly or wrongly, to be the
reincarnated personality of their great founder. Whether my belief is
warranted or not, let the reader of this narrative decide. I have done
my part in publishing, literally and without so much as the addition
or removal of one comma, the manuscript which reached me from the
representatives of Ronald Mirlees shortly after his lamented and most
mysterious death.
_Terminat hora diem: terminat auctor opus._
* * * * *
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THE PRIMROSE PATH
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THE VALLEY OF EYES UNSEEN
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REVOLVING LIGHTS
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BLOWING WEATHER
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* * * * *
THE VALLEY OF EYES UNSEEN
_By the same Author._
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