Silas Hamer

In the short story The Call of Wings, Silas Hamer is a self-made millionaire who rose from humble beginnings as a newspaper boy. After dinner one night, his friend, Dick Borrow, an East End parson, comments that Hamer seems a contented man. Hamer agrees. Not that money could buy everything, but it seemed to be able to buy everything that he wants. Hamer confesses to being an out and out materialist. However things will soon change when he starts to see visions and hear the sound of pipes and he thinks that he is going mad. Hamer's friend, the nerve specialist Bertrand Seldon proves unable to help him. How Hamer ultimately resolves his predicament forms the main plot of the story.