# Mr. Dyson — Short Fiction character guide

> Mr. Dyson in Short Fiction by Arthur Machen.

**Role:** supporting

**Also known as:** Dyson

**First appearance:** 0000-the-great-god-pan

## Snapshot

A shabby, sharp-witted idler who trades in obscure knowledge, walking into a Holborn curiosity shop and speaking a passphrase that makes the proprietor go white.

## Who they are

Dyson is the kind of man who notices a name above a shop and a lamppost's lettering at the same moment, and who enjoys watching perplexity dawn on a stranger's face. He wields a phrase about grass and lasses and maple-trees like a weapon, invoking a shadowy figure called Q until the terrified Travers surrenders a brown-paper parcel. His appetite for the queer and the hidden makes him a useful ally — and a man who cannot leave a locked box unopened.

## In the story

### [The Inmost Light](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_6_se/chapters/the-inmost-light)

Reunites with Salisbury in Soho and becomes obsessed with the mystery of Dr. Black.

### [The Harlesden Case](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_6_se/chapters/i)

Reunites with Salisbury after five years; describes himself as a student of 'the science of the great city' and recounts the Harlesden case.

### [II](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_6_se/chapters/ii)

Mentioned as the teller of improbable stories during dinner; Salisbury speculates on his fate.

### [III](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_6_se/chapters/iii)

Listens gravely to Salisbury's tale and writes down the doggerel, suggesting it might have a meaning.

### [The Opal of Dr. Black](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_6_se/chapters/iv)

Deciphers the clue and retrieves the opal and Dr. Black's pocketbook.

### [V](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_6_se/chapters/v)

Reads the narrator's record and destroys the opal in horror.

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_6_se/characters/dyson
- Book: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_6_se
- All characters: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_6_se/characters