“Yes,” said Elizabeth, as he stopped.
“Well,” said David frowning, “now comes the difficult part to put into words. What I’m going to say may sound rubbish; but, for the life of me, I don’t think it is. I’m going to get to symbols now. Can you figure to yourself a man finding a mighty powerful telescope; and, looking through it, he sees a sack of gold lying in a place some thousands of miles away, and he knows that the sack is his for the seeking. Well, he doesn’t think much about the wisdom of the search, or its difficulties, or what he’s going to do with the gold when he gets it. He just knows it’s there, and it’s his if he can get to it. It isn’t easy to find, and there are other people who think they’ve got the right to it. But anyhow he gets there, and establishes his claim. He’s got nothing to do now, but put in his hand and take everything that is in the sack. It seems simple enough, doesn’t it?”
“It does,” said Elizabeth smiling. The naïveté of his words amused her.
“But,” went on David, “just as he’s waiting to take possession of the whole thing, he suddenly gets a glimpse of something else, a bit further on. Now, he doesn’t for the life of him know exactly what it is, or what use he’s going to make of it, only there’s some kind of voice telling him all the time that it’s worth going for. That’s pretty nearly all he knows about it. Common-sense seems to say to him, ‘Empty your sack first, and then go on and have a look.’ But way back in his mind he has three thoughts,—one is that he hasn’t any darned use for the gold in the sack, he doesn’t know what to make of it—you remember I’m speaking in symbols; the second is that somehow it will be a bother carrying it along with him on this other quest; and the third is a queer sort of idea as to whether the gold is really his after all. Of course everybody tells him it is. Even the folk, who originally had the handling of it, are bound to say it must be, and yet he doesn’t feel dead sure. Do you see what I’m driving at?”
“Perfectly,” said Elizabeth.
“Well,” he demanded, “what does it all mean?”
For a moment Elizabeth was silent.
“Can’t you tell me a little more?” she suggested. “Haven’t you the smallest idea what this other quest is?”
David hesitated.
“Not an atom clearly,” he said slowly, “at least—” he stopped.