room, and while Boyce talked to him there, and humoured him about this ship idea, I went along the corridor and asked old Wade to come and look at him. The voice of our Dean sobered him a little, but not very much. He asked where his hands were, and why he had to walk about up to his waist in the ground. Wade thought over him a long time—you know how he knits his brows—and then made him feel the couch, guiding his hands to it. 'That's a couch,' said Wade. 'The couch in the private room of Professor Boyce. Horsehair stuffing.'
Davidson felt about, and puzzled over it, and answered presently that he could feel it all right, but he couldn't see it.
'What do you see?' asked Wade. Davidson said he could see nothing but a lot of sand and broken-up shells. Wade gave him some other things to feel, telling him what they were, and watching him keenly.
'The ship is almost hull down,' said Davidson presently, apropos of nothing.
'Never mind the ship,' said Wade. 'Listen to me, Davidson. Do you know what hallucination means?'
'Rather,' said Davidson.
'Well, everything you see is hallucinatory.'
'Bishop Berkeley,' said Davidson.
'Don't mistake me,' said Wade. 'You are alive and in this room of Boyce's. But something has happened to your eyes. You cannot see; you can feel and hear, but not see. Do you follow me?'
'It seems to me that I see too much.' Davidson rubbed his knuckles into his eyes. 'Well?' he said.
'That's all. Don't let it perplex you. Bellows here and I will take you home in a cab.'
'Wait a bit.' Davidson thought. 'Help me to sit down,' said he presently; 'and now—I'm sorry to trouble you—but will you tell me all that over again?'
