Karl Grier: The Strange Story of a Man with a Sixth Sense

A novel written in the early 20th century. It follows Karl Grier, a vigorous, big-hearted man endowed with a “sixth sense” he and his friend dub telegnomy—an ability to see and hear events at a distance and to intuit the meanings behind animal and human sounds. Told by a close confidant in a brisk, semi-scientific tone, the story blends adventure, detection, and speculative psychology. Early episodes span India, the sea, and Oxford, as Karl’s gift draws him toward Maggie Hutchinson, the Armenian Constantine, and a shady New York agent named Steindal. The opening of the novel frames Karl’s uncanny faculty and its first proofs: as a child in India he “knows” of a planned tea-garden raid and saves the Hutchinsons, and later on a homeward voyage he pinpoints an overboard passenger, Constantine, for rescue. A sympathetic doctor, Macpherson, muses on Karl’s abnormal sensory power, while schooling in Britain dulls it until a menagerie brawl and other triggers revive it. At Oxford, with his American friend Frank Hooper observing, Karl’s trances sharpen: he glimpses Manhattan Beach and a storm-tossed liner, the Merlin, likely carrying Maggie Hutchinson. Testing himself again, he “travels” to New York, watches Constantine with the theatrical agent Steindal, deciphers a coded cable meant to snare Maggie with a concert offer, and—when a restaurant band begins to play—finds he can hear across the ocean as well as see. The tension peaks when Karl’s focused attention seems to spark Constantine’s shark-vision panic, echoing his earlier near-drowning. The narrator then reveals his long-standing tie to Karl’s family, foreshadowing his role in the unfolding account.