To the left of the clock was an old-fashioned static calendar of paper. The date was obscured, but the letters above the calendar proper were large and legible: New York World's Fair - Souvenir of the World of Tomorrow. Waldo's eyes widened a little and went back to something he had noticed before, sticking into a pincushion on the edge of the desk. It was a round plastic button mounted on a pin whereby it could be affixed to the clothing. It was not far from Waldo's eyes; he could read the lettering on it:
FREE SILVER SIXTEEN TO ONE
Schneider must be - old! There was a narrow archway, which led into another room. Waldo could not see into it very well; the arch was draped with a fringe curtain of long strings of large ornamental beads
The room was rich with odours, many of them old and musty, but not dirty
Schneider straightened up and looked down at Waldo. ‘There is nought wrong with your body. Up get yourself and walk.
Waldo shook his head feebly. ‘I am sorry, Grandfather. I cannot.
‘You must reach for the power and make it serve you. Try.
‘I am sorry. I do not know how.
‘That is the only trouble. All matters are doubtful, unless one knows. You send your force into the Other World. You must reach into the Other World and claim it.
‘Where is this "Other World", Grandfather?
Schneider seemed a little in doubt as to how to answer this. ‘The Other World,' he said presently, ‘is the world you do not see. It is here and it is there and it is everywhere. But it is especially here.' He touched his forehead. ‘The mind sits in it and sends its messages through it to the body. Wait.' Hc shuffled away to a little cupboard, from which he removed a small jar. It contained a salve, or unguent, which he rubbed on his hands
He returned to Waldo and knelt down beside him. Grasping one of Waldo's hands in both of his, he began to knead it very gently. ‘Let the mind be quiet)' he directed. ‘Feel for the power. The Other World is close and full of power. Feel it.' The massage was very pleasant to Waldo's tired muscles
The salve, or the touch of the old man's hand, produced a warm, relaxing tingle. If he were younger, thought Waldo, I would hire him as a masseur. He has a magnetic touch
Schneider straightened up again and said, ‘There - that betters you? Now you rest while I some coffee make.
Waldo settled back contentedly. He was very tired. Not only was the trip itself a nervous strain, but he was still in the grip of this damnable, thick gravitational field, like a fly trapped in honey. Gramps Schneider's ministrations had left him relaxed and sleepy. He must have dozed, for the last thing he remembered was seeing Schneider drop an eggshell into the coffeepot. Then the old man was standing before him, holding the pot in one hand and a steaming cup in the other. He set them down, got three pillows, which he placed at Waldo's back, then offered him the coffee. Waldo laboriously reached out both hands to take it. Schneider held it back. ‘No,' he reproved, ‘one hand makes plenty. Do as I showed. Reach into the Other World for the strength.' He took Waldo's right hand and placed it on the handle of the cup, steadying Waldo's hand with his own. With his other hand he stroked Waldo's right arm gently, from shoulder to fingertips. Again the warm tingle
Waldo was surprised to find himself holding the cup alone. It was a pleasant triumph; at the time he left Earth, seventeen years before, it had been his invariable habit never to attempt to grasp anything with only one hand. In Freehold, of course, he frequently handled small objects one-handed, without the use of waldoes. The years of practice must have improved his control. Excellent! So, feeling rather cocky, he drank the cupful with one hand, using extreme care not to slop it onhimself. It was good coffee, too, he was bound to admit - quite as good as the sort he himself made from the most expensive syrup extract - better, perhaps
When Schneider offered him coffeecake, brown with sugar and cinnamon and freshly rewarmed, he swaggeringly accepted it with his left hand, without asking to be relieved of the cup. He continued to eat and drink, between bites and sips resting and steadying his forearms on the edges of the tank
The conclusion of the Kaffeeklatsch seemed a good time to broach the matter of the deKalbs. Schneider admitted knowing McLeod and recalled, somewhat vaguely it seemed, the incident in which he had restored to service McLeod's broomstick. ‘Hugh Donald is a good boy,' he said. ‘Machines I do not like, but it pleasures me to fix things for boys.
‘Grandfather,' asked Waldo, ‘will you tell me how you fixed Hugh Donald McLeod's ship?
‘Have you such a ship you wish me to fix?
‘I have many such ships which I have agreed to fix, but I must tell you that I have been unable to do so. I have come to you to find out the right way.
Schneider considered this. ‘That is difficult. I could show you, but it is not so much what you do as how you think about it. That makes only with practice.
Waldo must have looked puzzled, for the old man looked at him and added, ‘It is said that there are two ways of looking at everything. That is true and less than true, for there are many ways. Some of them are good ways and some are bad. One of the ancients said that everything either is, or is not. That is less than true, for a thing can both be and not he. With practice one can see it both ways. Sometimes a thing which is for this world is a thing which is not for the Other World. Which is important, since we live in the Other World.
‘We live in the Other World?
‘How else could we live? The mind - not the brain, but the mind - is in the Other World, and reaches this world through the body. That is one true way of looking at it, though there are others.
‘Is there more than one way of looking at deKalb receptors?
‘Certainly.
‘If I had a set which is not working right brought in here, would you show me how to look at it?
‘It is not needful,' said Schneider, ‘and I do not like for machines to be in my house. I will draw you a picture.
Waldo felt impelled to insist, but he squelched his feeling. ‘You have come here in humility,' he told himself, ‘asking for instruction. Do not tell the teacher how to teach.
Schneider produced a pencil and a piece of paper, on which he made a careful and very neat sketch of the antennae sheaf and main axis of a skycar. The sketch was reasonably accurate as well, although it lacked several essential minor details
‘These fingers,' Schneider said, ‘reach deep into the Other World to draw their strength. In turn it passes down this pillar' - he indicated the axis - to where it is used to move the car.
A fair allegorical explanation, thought Waldo. By considering the ‘Other World' simply a term for the hypothetical ether, it could be considered correct if not complete. But it told him nothing. ‘Hugh Donald,' Schneider went on, ‘was tired and fretting. He found one of the bad truths.
‘Do you mean,' Waldo said slowly, ‘that McLeod's ship failed because he was worried about it?
‘How else?
Waldo was not prepared to answer that one. It had become evident that the old man had some quaint superstitions; nevertheless he might still be able to show Waldo what to do, even though Schneider did not know why. ‘And what did you do to change it?
‘I made no change; I looked for the other truth.
‘But how? We found some chalk marks-
‘Those? They were but to aid me in concentrating my attention in the proper direction. I drew them down so,' - he illustrated with pencil on the sketch - ‘and thought how the fingers reached out for power. And so they did.