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He may hereafter be found, and will, no doubt, afford material for a conclusion of Mr. Pym's account. I have no doubt that Poe eventually learned exactly where Peters resided; but no matter how much Poe may have desired to meet with Peters, he could not have done so. In the '40s it was a long, tedious, expensive journey from New York to Illinois.
Suitable to their plots are their informers, skippers, and tailors, spaniels both for the land and water. Good conscionable intelligence! For however Pym's bill may inflame the reckoning, the honest vermin have not so much for lying as the public faith.
"I will digress for a moment longer from the relation of those occurrences which developed out of Pym's love affair, to say a word concerning some of the physical effects of this artificial light, and to explain certain facts related by Poe in his narrative of the earlier adventures of our younger hero I say of our younger hero, because I cannot determine in my own mind which of the two, Pym or Peters, deserves to be called the hero of their strange adventures.
Peters says that on almost every vessel he ever shipped on he was called 'the baboon' because of his great physical power and agility, he says; but as we know, rather because of his extremely short stature, his large mouth in fact, his resemblance in many striking ways to the gorilla, or the orang-outang; and perhaps, also, in part, to his habit, mentioned in Pym's description of him, of feigning mental aberration assuming to be 'simple."
Then slowly a great tear gathered in Henry Pym's eyes and fell unheeded upon Diana's hand. He held her fast and made no attempt to speak. And Diana hid her face because there were great tears in her eyes also. After a moment she got up, and shook the hair back from her face, and rallied him tenderly.
The sides were now entirely uniform in substance, in color and in lateral direction, the material being a very black and shining granite, and the distance between the two sides, at all points, facing each other, exactly twenty yards. The diary goes on to state that they explored three chasms, and that in a fissure of the third of these Peters discovered some 'singular-looking indentures in the surface of the black marl forming the termination of the cul-de-sac. It is surmised by Pym and Peters that the first of these indentures is possibly the intentional representation of a human figure standing erect, with outstretched arm; and that the rest of them bore a resemblance to alphabetical characters such, at least, it seems from Pym's diary, was the 'idle opinion' of Peters.
I draw my conclusions from Peters' state of mind when he attempts to describe this strange city, rather than from what he says; and also from some of Pym's remarks on the subject, which Peters was able to repeat.
"There was Grizel," Elspeth said, rather thoughtlessly; and then Tommy frowned. Six years afterwards Tommy was a famous man, as I hope you do not need to be told; but you may be wondering how it came about. The whole question, in Pym's words, resolves itself into how the solemn little devil got to know so much about women.
States where no man may have a cigarette, States where any man may have ten wives, very strict prohibition States, very lax divorce States all these large local vagaries had prepared Cyrus Pym's mind for small local vagaries in a smaller country.
Diana laughed. "He wanted to make quite certain sure that there were to be no ladies in the party." "I don't know why he should suppose there were likely to be." "Possibly not, but he is a cautious man. Anyhow, when you tell him I am going he will make ready to start to Edwardstown on business." So they sat on under the stars, each busy with thoughts. Henry Pym's were a trifle anxious.
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