CHANCE. THAT WAS IT! The laws of probability, the bell-shaped curve, normal distribution, rectilinear regression. More people per square foot in New York than elsewhere. The first person who died was from New York, so the last person who gave way to the disease should come from here too. Spin the wheel; throw the dice; toss the coin.
So simple to explain by the laws of chance. No need for any underlying assumptions about good and evil, no need for teleological arguments concerning cause and effect. Simply explain it by chance. Somebody had to be the last to go and that was—
“No,” Charles said, standing up in the quiet of the spring evening. “No, chance won’t do it. No man can reckon with chance. The mind rejects such things. There must be something beyond mere accident. There must be!”
