would soon return
safely to us. Dr. Kent is an old man now, unnaturally old, with, it
seems, the full weight of eighty years pressing upon him. He cannot
stand this emotion. I think he is despairingly summoning strength to
work upon his drugs, fearful that at any moment, he will not be equal to
it. Yet more fearful to disclose the secret and unloose such a diabolic
power.

There are nights when with Dr. Kent asleep, Babs and I slip away and go
to the Museum. We dismiss the guard for a time, and in that private room
we sit by the microscope to watch. The fragment of golden quartz lies on
its clean white slab with a brilliant light upon it.

Mysterious little golden rock! What secrets are there, down beyond the
vanishing point in the realm of the infinitely small? Our human longings
go to Alan and Glora.

But sometimes we are swept by the greater viewpoint. Awed by the
mysteries of nature, we realize how very small and unimportant we are in
the vast scheme of things. We envisage the infinite reaches of
astronomical space overhead. Realms of largeness unfathomable. And at
our feet, everywhere, a myriad entrances into the infinitely small. With
ourselves in between--with our fatuous human consciousness that we are
of some importance to it all!

Truly there are more things in Heaven and Earth than are dreamed of in
our philosophy!

Transcriber's Note:

This etext was first published in _Astounding Stories_ March 1931.
Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that the U.S. copyright
on this publication was renewed. Minor spelling and typographical errors
have been corrected without note.

End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Beyond the Vanishing Point, by
Raymond King Cummings

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