CHAPTER IV of The Riddle of Tanye



IT SEEMED to Hoffman the next day that Tate was a different man. He spoke very 
little, as if he had no wish to talk to his friend.
"Take a walk this afternoon," he remarked in response to something Hoffman had 
said. "It is beautiful over the moors." And he added pointedly: "I wish to be 
alone for a while."
Hoffman, thinking it best to humor him, did as he ordered. But he found nothing 
beautiful about the moors. They may have been so in the summer, he thought; 
certainly they were not in the winter.
It was twilight when he made his way back to the home of Tate, aware of a 
strange quickening of his pulse. Grey and somehow threatening, the house lay 
athwart a small rise, a bulk that in the dusk of day seemed full of evil. At 
least it seemed so to Hoffman, and he shook his head as if to dispel the 
illusion.
He knocked and the door opened immediately. Tate stood on the threshold, staring 
at him. "Come in," he said, curtly.
Hoffman did as he ordered. "What's the matter?" he asked. "You do not seem as if 
you wanted me to come back."
"Perhaps I didn't," was the startling answer. "You see, Hoffman, I am afraid."
"Afraid? Of what?"
"I am afraid because I do not like how this thing is going. It is going too far 
for me. Why must you return to this dream-world of Venus? The thought of going 
again to Venus is the predominant thought in your mind, and has been all day."
"I must know this Tanye," the other said, quietly.
"Tanye? Tanye? A dream city, you fool!"
"Tate!"
Tate shook his head slowly. "I am sorry. My nerves are in shreds. I have had a 
bad night . . . Tanye . . . It is a dream; there never was and never will be 
such a place."
"There is a city of Tanye. I know there is. I must go and see it. I shall give 
you facts about it; tell you what it is like and how life is governed, and tell 
you how the rulers of Tanye can see into the future."
"See into the future! A gipsy's dream, my dear Hoffman. Your senses are warped; 
you are not normal. Leave it for tonight. Remember I have a strain to bear in 
this work . . ."
"I understand that. But cannot you see that it is absolutely necessary for me to 
go back to Tanye? I must, I must!"
The last word was almost shrieked out. Tate stared up, bitterly, at his friend.
"Really, there is no need to shout at me. This thing seems to be driving us 
apart. If you are going to carry on in this way I shall refuse to take part in 
another experiment."
"You--you would not do that?"
"Don't tempt me to back out. I have signed no contract to go ahead with it, 
anyway."
Hoffman clasped his hands to his face. "What is this life coming to? Today what 
has it been? It has been like a nightmare to me. How I have hated it, longing as 
I was for that Avina landscape. I am afraid, Tate; afraid! I am afraid of these 
worlds that cross each other as they do; I am afraid of this shadow world we 
live in; for pity's sake let me go to that world where Lulla waits!"
"Lulla," said the other man, sourly. "I think that is the only reason why you 
wish to go back there. It is your dream-ideal--creation that appeals to you; 
that is all. Lulla! You madman, you are in love with a dream and nothing more. 
You talk like a fool."
Hoffman stared at his friend, his hands clenched. "How you have changed! Is this 
a dream? Only yesterday and you were as full of eagerness for the experiment as 
I am, and now . . . ."
Tate glared back at him with burning eyes. "Why don't you understand, you fool? 
You poor deluded idiot! Can you not see that you are the only one getting any 
happiness out of the thing? Can you not see that what means happiness to you 
means hell to me? Can you not see that I, too, want to see this world fully for 
myself?"
"You!" Hoffman hissed the word. He drew nearer to Tate. "You want to go? You? I 
know you! You want to go to Avina, to Tanye and to Lulla, and to rob me of my 
rightful adventures. That is why you are talking like this; you are madly 
jealous of the happiness that I am going to find."
"Hoffman! Don't look at me like that! Are you mad to talk such balderdash? I 
only want to see those worlds from a scientific point of view; I want to see 
them and see if there is any basis of reality in them. I only want to test them 
and see if any part can be true--"
"I know, I know," Hoffman interrupted wearily. "I know what you want. I took the 
first risk, didn't I? It is only right that I should go again."
"How do you mean you took the first risk?"
"Surely you understand that I had to risk going mad when I embarked on this 
strange quest?"
"Mad? If you ask me, I think you have gone mad. There never was any danger of a 
normal person going mad, or I would not have had the experiment."
"I think you are the mad one," returned the other man, steadily. "What could I 
have met in those lives that would have driven me mad? Many things! If I had not 
been abnormally steady in mind I should have gone mad when I was in the future 
world."
"Then let me go this time, and you concentrate."
"To which world would you go?"
"Any--any, I am not particular."
Hoffman laughed harshly. "You wait. I must go back to Avina first. Perhaps some 
other time you will get your turn. Hold fast to your promise and your science, 
Tate. You're older than I, and too scientific for time-travel or interplanetary 
travel, either. I go, and you may go some other time."
"You make me feel like giving you an overdose of Ni-gas!"
"I cannot help that. You have tried my patience to its farthest extent. Come, 
let us get to work."
"You go for only thirty minutes this time."
"That will be long enough. Heaven knows what you are talking about when you say 
it is hard work. The whole thing will be over in thirty minutes."
"That's not it; it is the strain that counts. I will give that half-hour on 
condition that when you return you serve me for half an hour."
"I am agreeable to that. The only fault is that my mind will be full of Venus, 
and you are not going there."
"Why not?"
"Why not?" Hoffman repeated. "Because you are not. I've staked my claim in that 
world and no one else can go. Get ready. Let us have no more arguments."
"As you wish," the other retorted, in a low voice.
TOGETHER they entered the laboratory. Tate switched on some lights and Hoffman, 
without a glance around, went to the glass case and got in, pulling the hinged 
side shut after him. Tate stood staring at him until a muffled curse from the 
case reached him. Then he put his hand out, and turned on the Ni-gas. Carefully 
he watched the regulator which measured every thousandth-part of it. He checked 
it when it reached the point he knew was the safety limit; his scowl had not 
left him. He glanced at the clock and set an alarm for thirty minutes. Then a 
thought struck him. Surely if Hoffman's mind was so full of the thought of Venus 
he could carry himself there? And if so, could he not take himself also if he 
were under the influence of Ni-gas?
Tate crossed to a small cupboard and took from it a thing like a gas-mask. It 
had a long tube attached to it. This he connected to a socket on the Ni-gas 
container. For a moment he held the gas full on, then forced it back as he felt 
his brain slipping.
And suddenly, to Tate, the walls of the laboratory had dematerialized and were 
gone. Around him rose great trees. Warily he stepped behind one as he saw 
Hoffman enter a clearing in front of him. Through narrowed lids he watched the 
man as he crossed the clearing and came out on the grass bank by the steaming 
river. Hoffman stood there a moment, his eyes on the water. Then suddenly his 
cry rang out: "Lulla! Lulla!"
There was no answer. Time after time Hoffman called, and then with a despairing 
cry flung himself on to the grass bank. Presently he set off through the forest, 
Tate at his heels, watching him closely, and never letting him get far in front. 
For many days they journeyed thus, Hoffman never seeming to suspect that he was 
followed. Until a day came when they stood on the edge of the forest, staring 
down into a hollow where lay a shining silvery city.



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