The Man who Found Out

Name: The Man who Found Out
Author: Roger Dee Aycock

"The Man Who Found Out" is a satirical science-fantasy tale that pits journalistic cynicism against cosmic irony. Fortenay, a nationally syndicated columnist famous for debunking supposed frauds and marvels, forces his way aboard the oceanographic tug Cormorant to cover Dr. Hans Weigand's discovery of a colossal artifact in the six-mile abyss of Bartlett Deep, near Cuba. Public speculation about the object ranges from a frozen volcanic bubble to a secret Soviet submarine base to a drowned Atlantean city, but Fortenay dismisses every possibility, vowing to expose the "truth" behind what he assumes is another scientist-manufactured myth designed to milk government funding. Using his syndicate's political leverage, Fortenay bullies Dr. Weigand into taking him down in the tug's quartz-glass bathysphere. During the descent, Fortenay needles the oceanographer mercilessly, boasting of his career spent destroying supposed frauds — a levitating child, hoaxers with a fake flying-saucer corpse, a dowser exposed as a charlatan — and accuses Weigand of exploiting public gullibility just as he claims all scientists do, comparing him unfavorably even to Plato and the Atlantis legend. He deduces, correctly by his own logic, that the bathysphere can only descend one mile of the six-mile deep, meaning Weigand's dramatic "investigation" is mere theater to justify continued funding. Wounded by Fortenay's accurate reading of his motives, and horrified at the prospect of public disgrace that would destroy his family's future along with his life's work, Dr. Weigand makes a fatal decision: rather than let Fortenay's exposure ruin his reputation and legacy, he yanks the release lever, disconnecting the bathysphere from its cable and sending it plummeting toward the bottom of Bartlett Deep — far beyond its safety limits — hoping the world will believe some sea monster claimed them both, preserving his name and his project. Fortenay is initially too outraged and disbelieving to fully register the danger, and as the sphere sinks past crush depth, he consoles himself with the certain "knowledge" that a famous, invincible man like himself cannot possibly die in so absurd a fashion — surely this must be an unusually vivid dream. Even as structural fissures spread across the quartz shell and the vast artifact's true nature as a construction, not a natural formation, becomes apparent, Fortenay's professional smugness persists; he feels satisfaction at having "seen through" the scientist's game even in his final moments. The bathysphere is crushed instantly under the ocean's pressure. Rather than ending in death, the story pivots into the fantastic: Fortenay awakens — not from a dream but into a genuine afterlife — standing before an enormous, misty facade on the sea floor, phosphorescent creatures drifting through his now-insubstantial form, with glittering fragments of the shattered bathysphere raining down around him like diamonds. Dr. Weigand stands beside him, calm and oddly satisfied, his beard floating in the current, telling Fortenay that they will go inside once the door opens. When Fortenay asks "inside to what," Weigand answers: to a myth — one made expressly for lost souls like themselves. Looking up, Fortenay finally makes out the ancient legend inscribed above the entrance: DAVY JONES' LOCKER. The door that opens leads downward and outward into an enigmatic green beyond, and Fortenay, having no choice left, follows Weigand inside. The story's irony is total: Fortenay, the self-styled scourge of myths and superstitions who insisted on personally "finding out" the truth, discovers that the oldest maritime myth of all — the drowned sailors' afterlife of Davy Jones' Locker — is literally real, and that his own smug rationalism has delivered him straight into it. His crusading skepticism, which claimed to liberate the public from ignorant belief, is revealed as itself a kind of blindness; the very superstition he mocked as scientist-manufactured falsehood turns out to be the one truth that outlives him. The tale closes on that bleakly comic reversal, framed by the introduction's promise of a "spectral chuckle" — Fortenay's power over reputations and public opinion proves meaningless before the genuinely mythic, and the man who prided himself on finding out everything finds out, too late, the one thing he never suspected: that some legends need no debunking because they are simply true.

By Roger Dee Aycock · First published 1954 · Genre: Science Fiction, Satire, Fantasy · 3,246 words

First lines

It's one thing to blow a bubble of glib, journalistic lies. Quite another to have that bubble burst in a nightmarish, green beyond.

_Roger Dee! The name has a fine, myth-making flavor, hasn't it? You'd almost know that our ebullient author -- his work has appeared in many magazines -- would excel in just such superb fancy-free flights of humorous scientific fantasy as he has brought you here with a spectral chuckle._

What this Textopian page supports

The Man who Found Out is listed on Textopian as a short story by Roger Dee Aycock, dated 1954 CE.

This source record anchors work identity, reading entry points, and catalog context for checking claims about the work.

Work type: Short story
Author: Roger Dee Aycock
Date: 1954 CE
Language: English
Genres: Science Fiction, Satire, Fantasy, Philosophical Fiction, Mystery
Length: 3,246 words
Structure: 1 section, 72 paragraphs
Reading fit: Standard (8th-9th Grade)

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Genres

Science Fiction — The story prominently features advanced oceanographic technology, a bathysphere for deep-sea exploration, and speculative elements regarding the mysterious underwater artifact, establishing a technological and speculative foundation for the narrative.
Satire — The work delivers sharp social commentary on sensationalist journalism, professional skepticism divorced from integrity, and the manipulation of public opinion through Fortenay's character, who serves as a vehicle for critiquing media and intellectual dishonesty.
Fantasy — The narrative culminates in a supernatural transition to a mythological afterlife realm—Davy Jones' Locker—where the protagonists encounter a fantastical beyond, infusing the work with elements of the impossible and otherworldly.
Philosophical Fiction — The story explores profound themes concerning the nature of myth versus reality, the reliability of scientific inquiry, the power of belief over skepticism, and existential questions about truth and illusion, central to its intellectual architecture.