The Northwest times. [volume] (Seattle, Wash.) 1947-1955, 1954-09-22
a Short Story.
Dusk Is The Best Time. e..

The laboratory smelled the same
as it always had, antiseptic and
pungent. If I had sensitive type
of olfactory apparatus I suppose l
could have identified the smells in
thnt glaringly clean place. The
spider webbing of interlaced tubes
and retorts and bubbling TASKS re-
minded me of modern alchem-
lists lair johnson, swathed in an
overly large white smock. his
hands rubber-gloved, his bony lin
ed face intent as usual would have
been a prime subject for an an
cient painters creation The Oc-
cult Alchemist at Work"
Johnson saw me and jerked his
head in greeting. He Strengthened
up slowly from his scrutiny of a
glass tube bubbling and Tuning
with mysterious, internal intensity
and came over to me. "Harrod's
gone" he said
I knew I didn't look surprised
1 wasn't surprised. In the porce-
lain and glass rooms = the abode
of the research people noted for
utter absorption, Harrod had been
known as a queer duck. Wild eyed,
| absent minded and brilliant, his
long sequence of irrationalities had
marked him as being a slightly
off-balance scientist He had had
jolting theories about flying sau-
GERS, he had mystic beliefs about
evolution, he had contemtpous re-
marks about respected pundits
had always privately consider
ed Harrod as a man balancing on
the thin edge of lunacy.
Now I watched johnson strip off
his rubber gloves and I carefully
phased a question, Johnson
been fond of Harrod There was
no use in abrading him, I said,
idly, Nervous breakdown"
MISUNDERSTANDING std. Fan
tastes and delusions." He sounded
bitter
You must admit that newell,
he DID have some startling OBJ
| ServationS."
johnson didn't answer. He went
to his office, a book-strewn den,
| as untidy as his labratory was
clean I followed him. watching
, his head for that offended can't
it assumed whenever I ruffled his
feelings 1 was devilishly unfortun-
ate about Johnson's sensibilities l
invariably managed to ruffle him
| johnson sat down and tamped to-
bacco into his antediluvian briar.
He said, not looking up, He made
the mistake of addressing a certain
group about his latest ideas They
sent an alienist who happened to
be an unimaginative type. Instead
of finding Johnson eccentric, he
found him unbalanced. He's under
observation"
What was the subject of his
lecture the lecture that ex-
cited people?
oh you've heard him expound
He said that cosmos is merely a
mass of globules, the smallest of
which we look at under micro
scopes, the largest beyond our
knowledge. He said that the earth
was only intermediary to h g
chain and that all life could end
whenever something crushed us
advertendy or inadvertently-like
you would crush speck of sand 4"
That's not too new" said,
P go p lie have advanced similar
theories-the earth is minutae
o m p osed of minutiae and all
heavens are but part of a complex
system that is only speck in the
greater order Of things
johnson nodded soberly and
puffed his pipe, IF that was all
he said there would have been Pc
lite interest and yelled smiles but
III said that this particular mi
eroism, this earth, was being stud
led through instruments by some.
one, something beyond our know.
ledge. They think he's screwy"
"And your"
johnson puffed a few times and
took the pipe from his mouth