When he put out the light and sat down, what he
expected--so far as he expected anything--was this, that the addition
of darkness would add a cloud to his mind, and endeavour to give
various finishing-touches to any spurious excitement created in him,
however much against his will, by the enemy's doings. In this expectation
he was entirely deceived. The falling of darkness drew a veil from his
mind, leaving his mental sight singularly, even preternaturally,
clear. The falling of silence gave an amazing acuteness to his inner
sense of hearing. Certain people are so made that they can, under
certain conditions, and at certain moments, hear the workings of their
neighbours' minds, as you and I can hear the whirr of machinery, or the
cry of a child in the street. An ordinary man or woman can only hear a
mind when lips, teeth, and tongue utter it with living sounds that set
the air in vibration. These abnormal people hear, in these abnormal
moments, the silent murmurs of the mind making no effort at all to utter
itself through the usual speech apparatus. Till this moment the doctor
had supposed himself to be an entirely normal man, but he had been
sitting only a very short time before he began to become aware of the
silent murmurs of these three minds around him.
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