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diff --git a/1577.txt b/1577.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..a344e4a --- /dev/null +++ b/1577.txt @@ -0,0 +1,7801 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Grey Room, by Eden Phillpotts + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Grey Room + +Author: Eden Phillpotts + +Posting Date: August 20, 2008 [EBook #1577] +Release Date: December, 1998 +[Last updated: July 2, 2011] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE GREY ROOM *** + + + + +Produced by An Anonymous Volunteer + + + + + +THE GREY ROOM + +by Eden Phillpotts + + + + +CONTENTS + + + CHAPTER + I. THE HOUSE PARTY + II. AN EXPERIMENT + III. AT THE ORIEL + IV. "BY THE HAND OF GOD" + V. THE UNSEEN MOVES + VI. THE ORDER FROM LONDON + VII. THE FANATIC + VIII. THE LABORS OF THE FOUR + IX. THE NIGHT WATCH + X. SIGNOR VERGILIO MANNETTI + XI. PRINCE DJEM + XII. THE GOLDEN BULL + XIII. TWO NOTES + + + + +CHAPTER I. THE HOUSE PARTY + + +The piers of the main entrance of Chadlands were of red brick, and upon +each reposed a mighty sphere of grey granite. Behind them stretched away +the park, where forest trees, nearly shorn of their leaves at the +edge of winter, still answered the setting sun with fires of thinning +foliage. They sank away through stretches of brake fern, and already +amid their trunks arose a thin, blue haze--breath of earth made visible +by coming cold. There was frost in the air, and the sickle of a new moon +hung where dusk of evening dimmed the green of the western sky. + +The guns were returning, and eight men with three women arrived at the +lofty gates. One of the party rode a grey pony, and a woman walked on +each side of him. They chattered together, and the little company of +tweed-clad people passed into Chadlands Park and trudged forward, where +the manor house rose half a mile ahead. + +Then an old man emerged from a lodge, hidden behind a grove of laurel +and bay within the entrance, and shut the great gates of scroll iron. +They were of a flamboyant Italian period, and more arrestive than +distinguished. Panelled upon them, and belonging to a later day than +they, had been imposed two iron coats of arms, with crest above and +motto beneath--the heraldic bearings of the present owner of Chadlands. +He set store upon such things, but was not responsible for the work. A +survival himself, and steeped in ancient opinions, his coat, won in a +forgotten age, interested him only less than his Mutiny medal--his sole +personal claim to public honor. He had served in youth as a soldier, but +was still a subaltern when his father died and he came into his kingdom. + +Now, Sir Walter Lennox, fifth baronet, had grown old, and his invincible +kindness of heart, his archaic principles, his great wealth, and the +limited experiences of reality, for which such wealth was responsible, +left him a popular and respected man. Yet he aroused much exasperation +in local landowners from his generosity and scorn of all economic +principles; and while his tenants held him the very exemplar of a +landlord, and his servants worshipped him for the best possible reasons, +his friends, weary of remonstrance, were forced to forgive his bad +precedents and a mistaken liberality quite beyond the power of the +average unfortunate who lives by his land. But he managed his great +manor in his own lavish way, and marvelled that other men declared +difficulties with problems he so readily solved. That night, after a +little music, the Chadlands' house party drifted to the billiard-room, +and while most of the men, after a heavy day far afield, were content to +lounge by a great open hearth where a wood fire burned, Sir Walter, who +had been on a pony most of the time, declared himself unwearied, and +demanded a game. + +"No excuses, Henry," he said; and turned to a young man lounging in an +easy-chair outside the fireside circle. + +The youth started. His eyes had been fixed on a woman sitting beside the +fire, with her hand in a man's. It was such an attitude as sophisticated +lovers would only assume in private but the pair were not sophisticated +and lovers still, though married. They lacked self-consciousness, and +the husband liked to feel his wife's hand in his. After all, a thing +impossible until you are married may be quite seemly afterwards, and +none of their amiable elders regarded their devotion with cynicism. + +"All right, uncle!" said Henry Lennox. + +He rose--a big fellow with heavy shoulders, a clean-shaven, youthful +face, and flaxen hair. He had been handsome, save for a nose with a +broken bridge, but his pale brown eyes were fine, and his firm mouth and +chin well modelled. Imagination and reflection marked his countenance. + +Sir Walter claimed thirty points on his scoring board, and gave a miss +with the spot ball. + +"I win to-night," he said. + +He was a small, very upright man, with a face that seemed to belong to +his generation, and an expression seldom to be seen on a man younger +than seventy. Life had not puzzled him; his moderate intellect had taken +it as he found it, and, through the magic glasses of good health, good +temper, and great wealth, judged existence a desirable thing and quite +easy to conduct with credit. "You only want patience and a brain," he +always declared. Sir Walter wore an eyeglass. He was growing bald, but +preserved a pair of grey whiskers still of respectable size. His face, +indeed, belied him, for it was moulded in a stern pattern. One had +guessed him a martinet until his amiable opinions and easy-going +personality were manifested. The old man was not vain; he knew that a +world very different from his own extended round about him. But he was +puzzle-headed, and had never been shaken from his life-long complacency +by circumstances. He had been disappointed in love as a young man, and +only married late in life. He had no son, and was a widower--facts that, +to his mind, quite dwarfed his good fortune in every other respect. He +held the comfortable doctrine that things are always levelled up, and he +honestly believed that he had suffered as much sorrow and disappointment +as any Lennox in the history of the race. + +His only child and her cousin, Henry Lennox, had been brought up +together and were of an age--both now twenty-six. The lad was his +uncle's heir, and would succeed to Chadlands and the title; and it had +been Sir Walter's hope that he and Mary might marry. Nor had the youth +any objection to such a plan. Indeed, he loved Mary well enough; there +was even thought to be a tacit understanding between them, and they +grew up in a friendship which gradually became ardent on the man's part, +though it never ripened upon hers. But she knew that her father keenly +desired this marriage, and supposed that it would happen some day. + +They were, however, not betrothed when the war burst upon Europe, and +Henry, then one-and-twenty, went from the Officers' Training Corps to +the Fifth Devons, while his cousin became attached to the Red Cross and +nursed at Plymouth. The accident terminated their shadowy romance and +brought real love into the woman's life, while the man found his +hopes at an end. He was drafted to Mesopotamia, speedily fell sick of +jaundice, was invalided to India, and, on returning to the front, saw +service against the Turks. But chance willed that he won no distinction. +He did his duty under dreary circumstances, while to his hatred of war +was added the weight of his loss when he heard that Mary had fallen +in love. He was an ingenuous, kindly youth--a typical Lennox, who had +developed an accomplishment at Harrow and suffered for it by getting +his nose broken when winning the heavy-weight championship of the public +schools in his nineteenth year. In the East he still boxed, and after +his love story was ended, the epidemic of poetry-making took Henry also, +and he wrote a volume of harmless verse, to the undying amazement of his +family. + +For Mary Lennox the war had brought a sailor husband. Captain Thomas +May, wounded rather severely at Jutland, lost his heart to the plain +but attractive young woman with a fine figure who nursed him back to +strength, and, as he vowed, had saved his life. He was an impulsive man +of thirty, brown-bearded, black-eyed, and hot-tempered. He came from a +little Somerset vicarage and was the only son of a clergyman, the +Rev. Septimus May. Knowing the lady as "Nurse Mary" only, and falling +passionately in love for the first time in his life, he proposed on the +day he was allowed to sit up, and since Mary Lennox shared his emotions, +also for the first time, he was accepted before he even knew her name. + +It is impossible to describe the force of love's advent for Mary Lennox. +She had come to believe herself as vaguely committed to her cousin, and +imagined that her affection for Henry amounted to as much as she was +ever likely to feel for a man. But reality awakened her, and its glory +did not make her selfish, since her nature was not constructed so to +be; it only taught her what love meant, and convinced her that she could +never marry anybody on earth but the stricken sailor. And this she knew +long before he was well enough to give a sign that he even appreciated +her ministry. The very whisper of his voice sent a thrill through her +before he had gained strength to speak aloud. And his deep tones, when +she heard them, were like no voice that had fallen on her ear till then. +The first thing that indicated restoring health was his request that his +beard might be trimmed; and he was making love to her three days after +he had been declared out of danger. Then did Mary begin to live, and +looking back, she marvelled how horses and dogs and a fishing-rod had +been her life till now. The revelation bewildered her and she wrote her +emotions in many long pages to her cousin. The causes of such changes +she did not indeed specify, but he read between the lines, and knew it +was a man and not the war that had so altered and deepened her outlook. +He had never done it, and he could not be angry with her now, for she +had pretended no ardor of emotion to him. Young though he was, he always +feared that she liked him not after the way of a lover. He had hoped to +open her eyes some day, but it was given to another to do so. + +He felt no surprise, therefore, when news of her engagement reached him +from herself. He wrote the letter of his life in reply, and was at pains +to laugh at their boy-and-girl attachment, and lessen any regret she +might feel on his account. Her father took it somewhat hardly at first, +for he held that more than sufficient misfortunes, to correct the +balance of prosperity in his favor, had already befallen him. But he was +deeply attached to his daughter, and her magical change under the new +and radiant revelation convinced him that she had now awakened to an +emotional fulness of life which could only be the outward sign of love. +That she was in love for the first time also seemed clear; but he would +not give his consent until he had seen her lover and heard all there was +to know about him. That, however, did not alarm Mary, for she believed +that Thomas May must prove a spirit after Sir Walter's heart. And so he +did. The sailor was a gentleman; he had proposed without the faintest +notion to whom he offered his penniless hand, and when he did find out, +was so bewildered that Mary assured her father she thought he would +change his mind. + +"If I had not threatened him with disgrace and breach of promise, I do +think he would have thrown me over," she said. + +And now they had been wedded for six months, and Mary sat by the great +log fire with her hand in Tom's. The sailor was on leave, but +expected to return to his ship at Plymouth in a day or two. Then his +father-in-law had promised to visit the great cruiser, for the Navy was +a service of which he knew little. Lennoxes had all been soldiers or +clergymen since a great lawyer founded the race. + +The game of billiards proceeded, and Henry caught his uncle in the +eighties and ran out with an unfinished fifteen. Then Ernest Travers and +his wife--old and dear friends of Sir Walter--played a hundred up, the +lady receiving half the game. Mr. Travers was a Suffolk man, and had +fagged for Sir Walter at Eton. Their comradeship had lasted a lifetime, +and no year passed without reciprocal visits. Travers also looked at +life with the eyes of a wealthy man. He was sixty-five, pompous, large, +and rubicund--a "backwoodsman" of a pattern obsolescent. His wife, ten +years younger than himself, loved pleasure, but she had done more than +her duty, in her opinion, and borne him two sons and a daughter. They +were colorless, kind-hearted people who lived in a circle of others like +themselves. The war had sobered them, and at an early stage robbed them +of their younger boy. + +Nelly Travers won her game amid congratulations, and Tom May challenged +another woman, a Diana, who lived for sport and had joined the +house party with her uncle, Mr. Felix Fayre-Michell. But Millicent +Fayre-Michell refused. + +"I've shot six partridges, a hare, and two pheasants to-day," said the +girl, "and I'm half asleep." + +Other men were present also of a type not dissimilar. It was a +conventional gathering of rich nobodies, each a big frog in his own +little puddle, none known far beyond it and none with sufficient +intellect or ability to create for himself any position in the world +save that won by the accident of money made by their progenitors. + +Had it been necessary for any of them to earn his living, only in some +very modest capacity and on a very modest plane might they have done +so. Of the entire company only one--the youngest--could claim even the +celebrity that attached to his little volume of war verses. + +And now upon the lives of these every-day folk was destined to break an +event unique and extraordinary. Existence, that had meandered without +personal incident save of a description common to them all, was, within +twelve hours, to confront men and women alike with reality. They were +destined to endure at close quarters an occurrence so astounding and +unparalleled that, for once in their lives, they would find themselves +interesting to the wider world beyond their own limited circuit, and, +for their friends and acquaintance, the centre of a nine days' wonder. + +Most of them, indeed, merely touched the hem of the mystery and were not +involved therein, but even for them a reflected glory shone. They were +at least objects of attraction elsewhere, and for many months furnished +conversation of a more interesting and exciting character than any could +ever claim to have provided before. + +The attitude to such an event, and the opinions concerning it, of such +people might have been pretty accurately predicted; nor would it be fair +to laugh at their terror and bewilderment, their confusion of tongues +and the fatuous theories they adventured by way of explanation. For +wiser than they--men experienced in the problems of humanity and trained +to solve its enigmas--were presently in no better case. + +A very trivial and innocent remark was prelude to the disaster; and had +the speaker guessed what his jest must presently mean in terms of human +misery, grief, and horror, it is certain enough that he would not have +spoken. + +The women were gone to bed and the men sat around the fire smoking and +admiring Sir Walter's ancient blend of whisky. He himself had just flung +away the stump of his cigar and was admonishing his son-in-law. "Church +to-morrow, Tom. None of your larks. When first you came to see me, +remember, you went to church twice on Sunday like a lamb. I'll have no +backsliding." + +"Mary will see to that, governor." + +"And you, Henry." + +Sir Walter, disappointed of his hopes respecting his nephew and +daughter, had none the less treated the young man with tact and +tenderness. He felt for Henry; he was also fond of him and doubted not +that the youth would prove a worthy successor. Thomas May was one with +whom none could quarrel, and he and his wife's old flame were now, after +the acquaintance of a week, on friendly terms. + +"I shan't fail, uncle." + +"Will anybody have another whisky?" asked Sir Walter, rising. + +It was the signal for departure and invariably followed the stroke of +a deep-mouthed, grandfather clock in the hall. When eleven sounded, the +master rose; but to-night he was delayed. Tom May spoke. + +"Fayre-Michell has never heard the ghost story, governor," he said, "and +Mr. Travers badly wants another drink. If he doesn't have one, he won't +sleep all night. He's done ten men's work to-day." + +Mr. Fayre-Michell spoke. + +"I didn't know you had a ghost, Sir Walter. I'm tremendously interested +in psychical research and so on. If it's not bothering you and keeping +you up--." + +"A ghost at Chadlands, Walter?" asked Ernest Travers. "You never told +me." + +"Ghosts are all humbug," declared another speaker--a youthful "colonel" +of the war. + +"I deprecate that attitude, Vane. It may certainly be that our ghost is +a humbug, or, rather, that we have no such thing as a ghost at all. +And that is my own impression. But an idle generality is always +futile--indeed, any generality usually is. You have, at least, no right +to say, 'Ghosts are all humbug.' Because you cannot prove they are. The +weight of evidence is very much on the other side." + +"Sorry," said Colonel Vane, a man without pride. "I didn't know you +believed in 'em, Sir Walter." + +"Most emphatically I believe in them." + +"So do I," declared Ernest Travers. "Nay, so does my wife--for the best +possible reason. A friend of hers actually saw one." + +Mr. Fayre-Michell spoke. + +"Spiritualism and spirits are two quite different things," he said. "One +may discredit the whole business of spiritualism and yet firmly believe +in spirits." + +He was a narrow-headed, clean-shaven man with grey hair and moustache. +He had a small body on very long legs, and though a veteran now, was +still one of the best game shots in the West of England. + +Ernest Travers agreed with him. Indeed, they all agreed. Sir Walter +himself summed up. + +"If you're a Christian, you must believe in the spirits of the dead," +he declared; "but to go out of your way to summon these spirits, to call +them from the next world back to ours, and to consult people who profess +to be able to do so--extremely doubtful characters, as a rule--that I +think is much to be condemned. I deny that there are any living mediums +of communication between the spirit world and this one, and I should +always judge the man or woman who claimed such power to be a charlatan. +But that spirits of the departed have appeared and been recognized by +the living, who shall deny? + +"My son-in-law has a striking case in his own recent experience. He +actually knows a man who was going to sail on the Lusitania, and his +greatest friend on earth, a soldier who fell on the Maine, appeared to +him and advised him not to do so. Tom's acquaintance could not say that +he heard words uttered, but he certainly recognized his dead friend as +he stood by his bedside, and he received into his mind a clear warning +before the vision disappeared. Is that so, Tom?" + +"Exactly so, sir. And Jack Thwaites--that was the name of the man in New +York--told four others about it, and three took his tip and didn't sail. +The fourth went; but he wasn't drowned. He came out all right." + +"The departed are certainly proved to appear in their own ghostly +persons--nay, they often have been seen to do so," admitted Travers. +"But I will never believe they are at our beck and call, to bang +tambourines or move furniture. We cannot ring up the dead as we ring +up the living on a telephone. The idea is insufferable and indecent. +Neither can anybody be used as a mouth-piece in that way, or tell us the +present position or occupation and interests of a dead man--or what he +smokes, or how his liquor tastes. Such ideas degrade our impressions +of life beyond the grave. They are, if I may say so, disgustingly +anthropomorphic. How can we even take it for granted that our spirits +will retain a human form and human attributes after death?" + +"It would be both weak-minded and irreligious to attempt to get at these +things, no doubt," declared Colonel Vane. + +"And they make confusion worse confounded by saying that evil spirits +pretend sometimes to hoodwink us by posing as good spirits. Now, that's +going too far," said Henry Lennox. + +"But your own ghost, Sir Walter?" asked Fayre-Michell. "It is a curious +fact that most really ancient houses have some such addition. Is it +a family spectre? Is it fairly well authenticated? Does it reign in a +particular spot of house or garden? I ask from no idle curiosity. It +is a very interesting subject if approached in a proper spirit, as the +Psychical Research Society, of which I am a member, does approach it." + +"I am unprepared to admit that we have a ghost at all," repeated Sir +Walter. "Ancient houses, as you say, often get some legend tacked on to +them, and here a garden walk, or there a room, or passage, is associated +with something uncanny and contrary to experience. This is an old Tudor +place, and has been tinkered and altered in successive generations. +We have one room at the eastern end of the great corridor which always +suffered from a bad reputation. Nobody has ever seen anything in our +time, and neither my father nor grandfather ever handed down any story +of a personal experience. It is a bedroom, which you shall see, if you +care to do so. One very unfortunate and melancholy thing happened in it. +That was some twelve years ago, when Mary was still a child--two years +after my dear wife died." + +"Tell us nothing that can cause you any pain, Walter," said Ernest +Travers. + +"It caused me very acute pain at the time. Now it is old history and +mercifully one can look back with nothing but regret. One must, however, +mention an incident in my father's time, though it has nothing to do +with my own painful experience. However, that is part of the story--if +story it can be called. A death occurred in the Grey Room when I was +a child. Owing to the general vague feeling entertained against it, +we never put guests there, and so long ago as my father's day it was +relegated to a store place and lumber-store. But one Christmas, when we +were very full, there came quite unexpectedly on Christmas Eve an aunt +of my father--an extraordinary old character who never did anything that +might be foreseen. She had never come to the family reunion before, yet +appeared on this occasion, and declared that, as this was going to be +her last Christmas on earth, she had felt it right to join the clan--my +father being the head of the family. Her sudden advent strained our +resources, I suppose, but she herself reminded us of the Grey Room, and, +on hearing that it was empty, insisted on occupying it. The place is a +bedroom, and my father, who personally entertained no dislike or dread +of it, raised not the least objection to the strong-minded old lady's +proposal. She retired, and was found dead on Christmas morning. She had +not gone to bed, but was just about to do so, apparently, when she had +fallen down and died. She was eighty-eight, had undergone a lengthy +coach journey from Exeter, and had eaten a remarkably good dinner before +going to bed. Her maid was not suspected, and the doctor held her end +in no way unusual. It was certainly never associated with anything but +natural causes. Indeed, only events of much later date served to remind +me of the matter. Then one remembered the spoiled Christmas festivities +and the callous and selfish anger of myself and various other young +people that our rejoicings should be spoiled and Christmas shorn of all +its usual delights. + +"But twelve years ago Mary fell ill of pneumonia--dangerously--and a +nurse had to be summoned in haste, since her own faithful attendant, +Jane Bond, who is still with us, could not attend her both day and +night. A telegram to the Nurses' Institute brought Mrs. Gilbert +Forrester--'Nurse Forrester,' as she preferred to be called. She was a +little bit of a thing, but most attractive and capable. She had been a +nurse before she married a young medical man, and upon his unfortunate +death she returned to her profession. She desired her bedroom to be as +near the patient as possible, and objected, when she found it arranged +at the other end of the corridor. 'Why not the next room?' she inquired; +and I had to tell her that the next room suffered from a bad name +and was not used. 'A bad name--is it unwholesome?' she asked; and I +explained that traditions credited it with a sinister influence. 'In +fact,' I said, 'it is supposed to be haunted. Not,' I added, 'that +anything has ever been seen, or heard in my lifetime; but nervous +people do not like that sort of room, and I should never take the +responsibility of putting anybody into it without telling them.' She +laughed. 'I'm not in the least afraid of ghosts, Sir Walter,' she said, +'and that must obviously be my room, if you please. It is necessary I +should be as near my patient as possible, so that I can be called at +once if her own nurse is anxious when I am not on duty.' + +"Well, we saw, of course, that she was perfectly right. She was a +fearless little woman, and chaffed Masters and the maids while they +lighted a fire and made the room comfortable. As a matter of fact, it +is an exceedingly pleasant room in every respect. Yet I hesitated, and +could not say that I was easy about it. I felt conscious of a discomfort +which even her indifference did not entirely banish. I attributed it to +my acute anxiety over Mary--also to a shadow of--what? It may have +been irritation at Nurse Forrester's unconcealed contempt for my +superstition. The Grey Room is large and commodious with a rather fine +oriel window above our eastern porch. She was delighted, and rated me +very amusingly for my doubts. 'I hope you'll never call such a lovely +room haunted again after I have gone,' said she. + +"Mary took to her, and really seemed easier after she had been in the +sick-room an hour. She loved young people, and had an art to win them. +She was also a most accomplished and quick-witted nurse. There seemed +to be quite a touch of genius about her. Her voice was melodious and her +touch gentle. I could appreciate her skill, for I was never far from +my daughter's side during that anxious day. Mrs. Forrester came at the +critical hours, but declared herself very sanguine from the first. + +"Night fell; the child was sleeping and Jane Bond arrived to relieve the +other about ten o'clock. Then the lady retired, directed that she should +be called at seven o'clock, or at any moment sooner, if Jane wanted her. +I sat with Jane I remember until two, and then turned in myself. Before +I did so, Mary drank some milk and seemed to be holding her strength +well. I was worn out, and despite my anxiety fell into deep sleep, and +did not wake until my man called me half an hour earlier than usual. +What he told me brought me quickly to my senses and out of bed. Nurse +Forrester had been called at seven o'clock, but had not responded. Nor +could the maid open the door, for it was locked. A quarter of an hour +later the housekeeper and Jane Bond had loudly summoned her without +receiving any reply. Then they called me. + +"I could only direct that the door should be forced open as speedily as +possible, and we were engaged in this task when Mannering, my medical +man, who shot with us to-day, arrived to see Mary. I told him what had +happened. He went in to look at my girl, and felt satisfied that she was +holding her own well--indeed, he thought her stronger; and just as +he told me so the door into the Grey Room yielded. Mannering and my +housekeeper, Mrs. Forbes, entered the room, while Masters, Fred Caunter, +my footman, who had broken down the lock, and I remained outside. + +"The doctor presently called me, and I went in. Nurse Forrester was +apparently lying awake in bed, but she was not awake. She slept the +sleep of death. Her eyes were open, but glazed, and she was already +cold. Mannering declared that she had been dead for a good many hours. +Yet, save for a slight but hardly unnatural pallor, not a trace of death +marked the poor little creature. An expression of wonder seemed to sit +on her features, but otherwise she was looking much as I had last seen +her, when she said 'Good-night.' Everything appeared to be orderly in +the room. It was now flooded with the first light of a sunny morning, +for she had drawn her blind up and thrown her window wide open. The poor +lady passed out of life without a sound or signal to indicate trouble, +for in the silence of night Jane Bond must have heard any alarm had she +raised one. To me it seemed impossible to believe that we gazed upon +a corpse. But so it was, though, as a matter of form, the doctor took +certain measures to restore her. But animation was not suspended; it had +passed beyond recall. + +"There was held a post-mortem examination, and an inquest, of course; +and Mannering, who felt deep professional interest, asked a friend +from Plymouth to conduct the examination. Their report astounded all +concerned and crowned the mystery, for not a trace of any physical +trouble could be discovered to explain Nurse Forrester's death. She was +thin, but organically sound in every particular, nor could the slightest +trace of poison be reported. Life had simply left her without any +physical reason. Search proved that she had brought no drugs or any sort +of physic with her, and no information to cast the least light came from +the institution for which she worked. She was a favorite there, and the +news of her sudden death brought sorrow to her many personal friends. + +"The physicians felt their failure to find a natural and scientific +cause for her death. Indeed, Dr. Mordred, from Plymouth, an eminent +pathologist, trembled not a little about it, as Mannering afterwards +told me. The finite mind of science hates, apparently, to be faced with +any mystery beyond its power to explain. It regards such an incident +as a challenge to human intellect, and does not remember that we are +encompassed with mystery as with a garment, and that every day and every +night are laden with phenomena for which man cannot account, and never +will. + +"Nurse Forrester's relations--a sister and an old mother--came to the +funeral. Also her dearest woman friend, another professional nurse, +whose name I do not recollect. She was buried at Chadlands, and her +grave lies near our graves. Mary loves to tend it still, though to her +the dead woman is but a name. Yet to this day she declares that she can +remember Nurse Forrester's voice through her fever--gentle, yet musical +and cheerful. As for me, I never mourned so brief an acquaintance +so heartily. To part with the bright creature, so full of life and +kindliness, and to stand beside her corpse but eight or nine hours +afterwards, was a chastening and sad experience." + +Sir Walter became pensive, and did not proceed for the space of a +minute. None, however, spoke until he had again done so: + +"That is the story of what is called our haunted room, so far as this +generation is concerned. What grounds for its sinister reputation +existed in the far past I know not--only a vague, oral tradition came to +my father from his, and it is certain that neither of them attached any +personal importance to it. But after such a peculiar and unfortunate +tragedy, you will not be surprised that I regarded the chamber as ruled +out from my domiciliary scheme, and denied it to any future guests." + +"Do you really associate the lady's death with the room, Walter?" asked +Mr. Travers. + +"Honestly I do not, Ernest. And for this reason: I deny that any +malignant, spiritual personality would ever be permitted by the Creator +to exercise physical powers over the living, or destroy human beings +without reason or justice. The horror of such a possibility to the +normal mind is sufficient argument against it. Causes beyond our +apparent knowledge were responsible for the death of Nurse Forrester; +but who shall presume to say that was really so? Why imagine anything so +irregular? I prefer to think that had the post-mortem been conducted by +somebody else, subtle reasons for her death might have appeared. Science +is fallible, and even specialists make outrageous mistakes." + +"You believe she died from natural causes beyond the skill of those +particular surgeons to discover?" asked Colonel Vane. + +"That is my opinion. Needless to say, I should not tell Mannering so. +But to what other conclusion can a reasonable man come? I do not, of +course, deny the supernatural, but it is weak-minded to fall back upon +it as the line of least resistance." + +Then Fayre-Michell repeated his question. He had listened with intense +interest to the story. + +"Would you deny that ghosts, so to call them, can be associated with one +particular spot, to the discomfort and even loss of reason, or life, of +those that may be in that spot at the psychological moment, Sir Walter?" + +"Emphatically I would deny it," declared the elder. "However tragic the +circumstances that might have befallen an unfortunate being in life at +any particular place, it is, in my opinion, monstrous to suppose his +disembodied spirit will hereafter be associated with the place. We +must be reasonable, Felix. Shall the God Who gave us reason be Himself +unreasonable?" + +"And yet there are authentic--However, I admit the weight of your +argument." + +"At the same time," ventured Mr. Travers, "none can deny that many +strange and terrible things happen, from hidden causes quite beyond +human power to explain." + +"They do, Ernest; and so I lock up my Grey Room and rule it out of our +scheme of existence. At present it is full of lumber--old furniture and +a pack of rubbishy family portraits that only deserve to be burned, but +will some day be restored, I suppose." + +"Not on my account, Uncle Walter," said Henry Lennox. "I have no more +respect for them than yourself. They are hopeless as art." + +"No, no one must restore them. The art is I believe very bad, as you +say, but they were most worthy people, and this is the sole memorial +remaining of them." + +"Do let us see the room, governor," urged Tom May. "Mary showed it to me +the first time I came here, and I thought it about the jolliest spot in +the house." + +"So it is, Tom," said Henry. "Mary says it should be called the Rose +Room, not the grey one." + +"All who care to do so can see it," answered Sir Walter, rising. "We +will look in on our way to bed. Get the key from my key-cabinet in the +study, Henry. It's labelled 'Grey Room.'" + + + + +CHAPTER II. AN EXPERIMENT + + +Ernest Travers, Felix Fayre-Michell, Tom May, and Colonel Vane followed +Sir Walter upstairs to a great corridor, which ran the length of the +main front, and upon which opened a dozen bedrooms and dressing-rooms. +They proceeded to the eastern extremity. It was lighted throughout, and +now their leader took off an electric bulb from a sconce on the wall +outside the room they had come to visit. + +"There is none in there," he explained, "though the light was installed +in the Grey Room as elsewhere when I started my own plant twenty years +ago. My father never would have it. He disliked it exceedingly, and +believed it aged the eyes." + +Henry arrived with the key. The door was unlocked, and the light +established. The party entered a large and lofty chamber with ceiling +of elaborate plaster work and silver-grey walls, the paper on which was +somewhat tarnished. A pattern of dim, pink roses as large as cabbages +ran riot over it. A great oriel window looked east, while a smaller one +opened upon the south. Round the curve of the oriel ran a cushioned seat +eighteen inches above the ground, while on the western side of the room, +set in the internal wall, was a modern fireplace with a white Adams +mantel above it. Some old, carved chairs stood round the walls, and in +one corner, stacked together, lay half a dozen old oil portraits, grimy +and faded. They called for the restorer, but were doubtfully worth his +labors. Two large chests of drawers, with rounded bellies, and a very +beautiful washing-stand also occupied places round the room, and against +the inner wall rose a single, fourposter bed of Spanish chestnut, also +carved. A grey, self-colored carpet covered the floor, and on one of the +chests stood a miniature bronze copy of the Faun of Praxiteles. + +The apartment was bright and cheerful of aspect. Nothing gloomy or +depressing marked it, nor a suggestion of the sinister. + +"Could one wish for a more amiable looking room?" asked Fayre-Michell. + +They gazed round them, and Ernest Travers expressed admiration at the +old furniture. + +"My dear Walter, why hide these things here?" he asked. "They are +beautiful, and may be valuable, too." + +"I've been asked the same question before," answered the owner. "And +they are valuable. Lord Bolsover offered me a thousand guineas for +those two chairs; but the things are heirlooms in a sort of way, and +I shouldn't feel justified in parting with them. My grandfather +was furniture mad--spent half his time collecting old stuff on the +Continent. Spain was his happy hunting ground." + +"It's positively a shame to doom these chairs to a haunted room, uncle," +declared Henry. + +But the other shook his head and smothered a yawn. + +"The house is too full as it is." he said. + +"Mary wants you to scrap dozens of things," replied his nephew. "Then +there'd be plenty of room." + +"You'll do what you please when your turn comes, and no doubt cast out +my tusks and antlers and tiger-skins, which I know you don't admire. +Wait in patience, Henry. And we will now go to bed," answered the elder. +"I am fatigued, and it must be nearly midnight." + +Then Tom May brought their thoughts back to the reason of the visit. + +"Look here, governor," he said. "It's a scandal to give a champion room +like this a bad name and shut it up. You've fallen into the habit, +but you know it's all nonsense. Mary loves this room. I'll make you a +sporting offer. Let me sleep in it to-night, and then, when I report +a clean bill to-morrow, you can throw it open again and announce it is +forgiven without a stain on its character. You've just said you don't +believe spooks have the power to hurt anybody. Then let me turn in +here." + +Sir Walter, however, refused. + +"No, Tom; most certainly not. It's far too late to go over the ground +again and explain why, but I don't wish it." + +"A milder-mannered room was never seen," said Ernest Travers. "You must +let me look at it by daylight, and bring Nelly. The ceiling, too, is +evidently very fine--finer even than the one in my room." + +"The ceilings here were all the work of Italians in Tudor times," +explained his friend. "They are Elizabethan. The plaster is certainly +wonderful, and my ceilings are considered as good as anything in the +country, I believe." + +He turned, and the rest followed him. + +Henry removed the electric bulb, and restored it to its place outside. +Then his uncle gave him the key. + +"Put it back in the cabinet," he said. "I won't go down again." + +The party broke up, and all save Lennox and the sailor went to their +rooms. The two younger men descended together and, when out of ear-shot +of his uncle, Henry spoke. + +"Look here, Tom," he said, "you've given me a tip. I'm going to camp out +in the Grey Room to-night. Then, in the morning, I'll tell Uncle Walter +I have done so, and the ghost's number will be up." + +"Quite all right, old man--only the plan must be modified. I'll +sleep there. I'm death on it, and the brilliant inspiration was mine, +remember." + +"You can't. He refused to let you." + +"I didn't hear him." + +"Oh, yes, you did--everybody did. Besides, this is fairly my task--you +won't deny that. Chadlands will be mine, some day, so it's up to me to +knock this musty yarn on the head once and for all. Could anything be +more absurd than shutting up a fine room like that? I'm really rather +ashamed of Uncle Walter." + +"Of course it's absurd but, honestly, I'm rather keen about this. I'd +dearly love to add a medieval phantom to my experiences, and only wish I +thought anything would show up. I beg you'll raise no objection. It was +my idea, and I very much wish to make the experiment. Of course, I don't +believe in anything supernatural." + +They went back to the billiard-room, dismissed Fred Caunter, the +footman, who was waiting to put out the lights, and continued their +discussion. The argument began to grow strenuous, for each proved +determined, and who owned the stronger will seemed a doubtful question. + +For a time, since no conclusion could satisfy both, they abandoned +the centre of contention and debated, as their elders had done, on +the general question. Henry declared himself not wholly convinced. He +adopted an agnostic attitude, while Tom frankly disbelieved. The one +preserved an open mind, the other scoffed at apparitions in general. + +"It's humbug to say sailors are superstitious now," he asserted. "They +might have been, but my experience is that they are no more credulous +than other people in these days. Anyway, I'm not. Life is a matter of +chemistry. There's no mumbo jumbo about it, in my opinion. Chemical +analysis has reached down to hormones and enzymes and all manner of +subtle secretions discovered by this generation of inquirers; but +it's all organic. Nobody has ever found anything that isn't. Existence +depends on matter, and when the chemical process breaks down, the +organism perishes and leaves nothing. When a man can't go on breathing, +he's dead, and there's an end of him." + +But Henry had read modern science also. + +"What about the vital spark, then? Biologists don't turn down the theory +of vitalism, do they?" + +"Most of them do, who count, my dear chap. The presence of a vital +spark--a spark that cannot be put out--is merely a theory with nothing +to prove it. When he dies, the animating principle doesn't leave a man, +and go off on its own. It dies too. It was part of the man--as much as +his heart or brain." + +"That's only an opinion. Nobody can be positive. We don't know anything +about what life really means, and we haven't got the machinery to find +out." + +"By analogy we can," argued Tom. "Where are you going to draw the line? +Life is life, and a sponge is just as much alive as a herring; a nettle +is just as much alive as an oak-tree; and an oak-tree is just as much +alive as you are. What becomes of its vital spark when you eat an +oyster?" + +"You wouldn't believe in a life after death at all, then?" + +"It's a pure assumption, Henry. I'd like to believe in it--who wouldn't? +Because, if you honestly did, it would transform this life into +something infinitely different from what it is." + +"It ought to--yet it doesn't seem to." + +"It ought to, certainly. If you believe this life is only the portal to +another of much greater importance, then--well, there you are. Nothing +matters but trying to make everybody else believe it, too. But as a +matter of fact, the people who do believe it, or think they do, seem +to me just as concentrated on this life and just as much out to get the +very best they can from it, and wring it dry, as I am, who reckon it's +all." + +"They believe as a matter of course, and don't seem to realize how much +their belief ought to imply," confessed Henry. + +"Why do they believe? Because most of them haven't really thought about +it more than a turnip thinks. They dwell in a foggy sort of way on the +future life when they go to church on Sundays; then they return home and +forget all about it till next Sunday." + +Lennox brought him back to the present difference. + +"Well, seeing you laugh at ghosts, and I remain doubtful, it's only fair +that I sleep in the Grey Room. You must see that. Ghosts hate people +who don't believe in them. They'd cold shoulder you; but in my case they +might feel I was good material, worth convincing. They might show up for +me in a friendly spirit. If they show for you, it will probably be to +bully you." + +Tom laughed. + +"That's what I want. I'd like to have it out and talk sense to a spook, +and show him what an ass he's making of himself. The governor was right +about that. When Fayre-Michell asked if he believed in them loafing +about a place where they'd been murdered or otherwise maltreated, he +rejected the idea." + +"Yet a woman certainly died there, and without a shadow of reason." + +"She probably died for a very good reason, only we don't happen to know +it." + +Henry tried a different argument. + +"You're married, and you matter; I'm not married, and don't matter to +anybody." + +"Humbug!" + +"Mary wouldn't like it, anyway; you know that." + +"True--she'd hate it. But she won't know anything about it till +to-morrow. She always sleeps in her old nursery when she comes here, and +I'm down the corridor at the far end. She'd have a fit if she knew I'd +turned in next door to her and was snoozing in the Grey Room; but she +won't know till I tell her of my rash act to-morrow. Don't think I'm a +fool. Nobody loves life better than I do, and nobody has better reason +to. But I'm positive that this is all rank nonsense, and so are +you really. We know there's nothing in the room with a shadow of +supernatural danger about it. Besides, you wouldn't want to sleep there +so badly if you believed anything wicked was waiting for you. You're +tons cleverer than I am--so you must agree about that." + +Lennox was bound to confess that he entertained no personal fear. They +still argued, and the clock struck midnight. Then the sailor made a +suggestion. + +"Since you're so infernally obstinate, I'll do this. We'll toss up, and +the winner can have the fun. That's fair to both." + +The other agreed; he tossed a coin, and May called "tails," and won. + +He was jubilant, while Henry showed a measure of annoyance. The other +consoled him. + +"It's better so, old man. You're highly strung and nervy, and a poet and +all that sort of thing. I'm no better than a prize ox, and don't know +what nerves mean. I can sleep anywhere, anyhow. If you can sleep in a +submarine, you bet you can in a nice, airy Elizabethan room, even if it +is haunted. But it's not; that's the whole point. There's not a haunted +room in the world. Get me your service revolver, like a good chap." + +Henry was silent, and Tom rose to make ready for his vigil. + +"I'm dog-tired, anyhow," he said. "Nothing less than Queen Elizabeth +herself will keep me awake, if it does appear." + +Then the other surprised him. + +"Don't think I want to go back on it. You've won the right to make the +experiment--if we ignore Uncle Walter. But--well, you'll laugh, yet, +on my honor, Tom, I've got a feeling I'd rather you didn't. It isn't +nerves. I'm not nervy any more than you are. I'm not suggesting that I +go now, of course. But I do ask you to think better of it and chuck the +thing." + +"Why?" + +"Well, one can't help one's feelings. I do feel a rum sort of conviction +at the bottom of my mind that it's not good enough. I can't explain; +there are no words for it that I know, but it's growing on me. +Intuition, perhaps." + +"Intuition of what?" + +"I can't tell you. But I ask you not to go." + +"You were going if you'd won the toss?" + +"I know." + +"Then your growing intuition is only because I won it. Hanged if I don't +think you want to funk me, old man!" + +"I couldn't do that. But it's different me going and you going. I've got +nothing to live for. Don't think I'm maudlin, or any rot of that sort; +but you know all about the past. I've never mentioned it to you, and, +of course, you haven't to me; and I never should have. But I will now. +I loved Mary with all my heart and soul, Tom. She didn't know how much, +and probably I didn't either. But that's done, and no man on earth +rejoices in her great happiness more than I do. And no man on earth is +going to be a better or a truer friend to you and her than, please God, +I shall be. But that being so, can't you see the rest? My life ended in +a way when the dream of my life ended. I attach no importance to living +for itself, and if anything final happened to me it wouldn't leave a +blank anywhere. You're different. In sober honesty you oughtn't to run +into any needless danger--real or imaginary. I'm thinking of Mary only +when I say that--not you." + +"But I deny the danger." + +"Yes; only you might listen. So did I, but I deny it no longer. The case +is altered when I tell you in all seriousness--when I take my oath if +you like--that I do believe now there is something in this. I don't +say it's supernatural, and I don't say it isn't; but I do feel deeply +impressed in my mind now, and it's growing stronger every minute, +that there's something here out of the common and really infernally +dangerous." + +The other looked at him in astonishment. + +"What bee has got into your bonnet?" + +"Don't call it that. It's a conviction, Tom. Do be guided by me, old +chap!" + +The sailor flushed a little, emptied his glass, and rose. + +"If you really wanted to choke me off, you chose a funny way to do +so. Surely it only needed this to determine anybody. If you, as a sane +person, honestly believe there's a pinch of danger in that blessed +place, then I certainly sleep there to-night, or else wake there." + +"Let me come, too, then, Tom." + +"That be damned for a yarn! Ghosts don't show up for two people--haven't +got pluck enough. If I get any sport, I'll be quite straight about it, +and you shall try your luck to-morrow." + +"I can only make it a favor; and not for your own sake, either." + +"I know. Mary will be sleeping the sleep of the just in the next room. +How little she'll guess! Perhaps, if I see an apparition worthy of the +Golden Age, I'll call her up." + +"Do oblige me, May." + +"In anything on earth but this thing. It's really too late now. Don't +you see you've defeated your own object? You mustn't ask me to throw +up the sponge to your sudden intuition of danger sprung on me at the +eleventh hour. I won the toss, and can't take my orders from you, old +chap, can I?" + +The other, in his turn, grew a little warm. + +"All right. I've spoken. I think you're rather a fool to be so +obstinate. It isn't as if a nervous old woman was talking to you. But +you'll go your own way. It doesn't matter a button to me, and I only +made it a favor for somebody else's sake." + +"We'll leave it at that, then. May I trouble you for the key? And your +revolver, too. I haven't got mine here." + +Henry hesitated. The key was in the pocket of his jacket. + +"It is a matter of honor, Lennox," said the sailor. + +The other handed over the key on this speech, and prepared to go. + +"I'll get the revolver," he said. + +"Thanks. Look me up in the morning, if you're awake first," added May; +but the other did not answer. + +He let Tom precede him, and then turned out the lights. Other lights +he also extinguished as they left the hall and ascended the stairs. +The younger's pride was struggling for mastery; but he conquered it and +spoke again. + +"I wish to Heaven you could see it from another point of view than your +own, Tom." + +"I have no point of view. You're rather exasperating, and don't seem +to understand that, even if I might have changed my mind before, it's +impossible now." + +"That's really only a foolish sort of pride. If I chose my words +clumsily--" + +"You did. The devil and all his angels wouldn't make me climb down now." + +The younger left him, and returned in a minute or two with the revolver. + +"Good-night," he said. + +"Good-night, old boy. Thank you. Loaded?" + +"In all the chambers. Funny you should want it." + +"Take it back, then." + +But Henry did not answer, and they parted. Each sought his own bedroom, +and while Lennox retired at once and might have been expected to pass a +night more mentally peaceful than the other, in reality it was not so. + +The younger slept ill, while May suffered no emotion but annoyance. He +was contemptuous of Henry. It seemed to him that he had taken a rather +mean and unsporting line, nor did he believe for a moment that he was +honest. Lennox had a modern mind; he had been through the furnace of +war; he had received a first-class education. It seemed impossible to +imagine that he spoke the truth, or that his sudden suspicion of real +perils, beyond human power to combat, could be anything but a spiteful +attempt to put May off, after he himself had lost the toss. Yet that +seemed unlike a gentleman. Then the allusion to Mary perturbed the +sailor. He could not quarrel with the words, but he resented the advice, +seeing what it was based upon. + +His anger lessened swiftly, however, and before he started his +adventure he had dismissed Henry from his mind. He put on pyjamas and a +dressing-gown, took a candle, a railway-rug, his watch, and the loaded +revolver. + +Then he walked quietly down the corridor to the Grey Room. On reaching +it his usual good temper returned, and he found himself entirely happy +and contented. He unlocked the forbidden entrance, set his candle by +the bed, and locked the door again from inside. He rolled up his +dressing-gown for a pillow, and placed his watch and revolver and candle +at his hand on a chair. A few broken reflections drifted through his +mind, as he yawned and prepared to sleep. His brain brought up events +of the day--a missed shot, a good shot, lunch under a haystack with Mary +and Fayre-Michell's niece. She was smart and showy and slangy--cheap +every way compared with Mary. What would his wife think if she knew he +was so near? Come to him for certain. He cordially hoped that he might +not be recalled to his ship; but there was a possibility of it. It would +be rather a lark to show the governor over the Indomitable. She was a +"hush-hush" ship--one of the wonders of the Navy still. Funny that the +Italian roof of the Grey Room looked like a dome, though it was really +flat. A cunning trick of perspective. + +It was a still and silent night, moonless, very dark, and very tranquil. +He went to the window to throw it open. + +Only a solitary being waked long that night at Chadlands, and only +a solitary mind suffered tribulation. But into the small hours Henry +Lennox endured the companionship of disquiet thoughts. He could not +sleep, and his brain, clear enough, retraced no passage from the past +day. Indeed the events of the day had sunk into remote time. He was only +concerned with the present, and he wondered while he worried that he +should be worrying. Yet a proleptic instinct made him look forward. He +had neither lied nor exaggerated to May. From the moment of losing the +toss, he honestly experienced a strong, subjective impression of danger +arising out of the proposed attack on the mysteries of the Grey Room. +It was, indeed, that consciousness of greater possibilities in the +adventure than May admitted or imagined which made Lennox so insistent. +Looking back, he perceived many things, and chiefly that he had taken a +wrong line, and approached Mary's husband from a fatal angle. Too late +he recognized his error. It was inevitable that a hint of suspected +danger would confirm the sailor in his resolution; and that such a hint +should follow the spin of the coin against Lennox, and be accompanied by +the assurance that, had he won, Henry would have proceeded, despite his +intuitions, to do what he now begged Tom not to do--that was a piece of +clumsy work which he deeply regretted. + +At the hour when his own physical forces were lowest, his errors of +diplomacy forced themselves upon his mind. He wasted much time, as all +men do upon their beds, in anticipating to-morrow; in considering what +is going to happen, or what is not; in weighing their own future words +and deeds given a variety of contingencies. For reason, which at first +kept him, despite his disquiet, in the region of the rational, grew +weaker with Henry as the night advanced; the shadow of trouble deepened +as his weary wits lost their balance to combat it. The premonition was +as formless and amorphous as a cloud, and, though he could not see any +shape to his fear, or define its limitations, it grew darker ere he +slept. He considered what might happen and, putting aside any lesser +disaster, tried to imagine what the morning would bring if May actually +succumbed. + +For the moment the size of such an imaginary disaster served curiously +to lessen his uneasiness. Pushed to extremities, the idea became merely +absurd. He won a sort of comfort from such an outrageous proposition, +because it brought him back to the solid ground of reason and the +assurance that some things simply do not happen. From this extravagant +summit of horror, his fears gradually receded. Such a waking nightmare +even quieted his nerves when it was past; for if a possibility presents +a ludicrous side, then its horror must diminish by so much. Moreover, +Henry told himself that if the threat of a disaster so absolute could +really be felt by him, it was his duty to rise at once, intervene, and, +if necessary, summon his uncle and force May to leave the Grey Room +immediately. + +This idea amused him again and offered another jest. The tragedy really +resolved into jests. He found himself smiling at the picture of May +being treated like a disobedient schoolboy. But if that happened, and +Tom was proclaimed the sinner, what must be Henry's own fate? To win +the reputation of an unsportsmanlike sneak in Mary's opinion as well as +Tom's. He certainly could call upon nobody to help him now. But he +might go and look up May himself. That would be very sharply resented, +however. He travelled round and round in circles, then asked himself +what he would do and say to-morrow if anything happened to Tom--nothing, +of course, fatal, but something perhaps so grave that May himself would +be unable to explain it. In that case Henry could only state facts +exactly as they had occurred. But there would be a deuce of a muddle +if he had to make statements and describe the exact sequence of recent +incidents. Already he forgot the exact sequence. It seemed ages since he +parted from May. He broke off there, rose, drank a glass of water, +and lighted a cigarette. He shook himself into wakefulness, condemned +himself for this debauch of weak-minded thinking, found the time to be +three o'clock, and brushed the whole cobweb tangle from his mind. He +knew that sudden warmth after cold will often induce sleep--a fact +proved by incidents of his campaigns--so he trudged up and down and +opened his window and let the cool breath of the night chill his +forehead and breast for five minutes. + +This action calmed him, and he headed himself off from returning to the +subject. He felt that mental dread and discomfort were only waiting to +break out again; but he smothered them, returned to bed, and succeeded +in keeping his mind on neutral-tinted matter until he fell asleep. + +He woke again before he was called, rose and went to his bath. He +took it cold, and it refreshed him and cleared his head, for he had a +headache. Everything was changed, and the phantoms of his imagination +remained only as memories to be laughed at. He no longer felt alarm or +anxiety. He dressed presently, and guessing that Tom, always the first +to rise, might already be out of doors, he strolled on to the terrace +presently to meet him there. + +Already he speculated whether an apology was due from him to May, or +whether he might himself expect one. It didn't matter. He knew perfectly +well that Tom was all right now, and that was the only thing that +signified. + + + + +CHAPTER III. AT THE ORIEL + + +Chadlands sprang into existence when the manor houses of England--save +for the persistence of occasional embattled parapets and other +warlike survivals of unrestful days now past--had obeyed the laws of +architectural evolution, and begun to approach a future of cleanliness +and comfort, rising to luxury hitherto unknown. The development of this +ancient mass was displayed in plan as much as in elevation, and, at its +date, the great mansion had stood for the last word of perfection, when +men thought on large lines and the conditions of labour made possible +achievements now seldom within the power of a private purse. Much had +since been done, but the main architectural features were preserved, +though the interior of the great house was transformed. + +The manor of Chadlands extended to some fifty thousand acres lying in a +river valley between the heights of Haldon on the east and the frontiers +of Dartmoor westerly. The little township was connected by a branch with +the Great Western Railway, and the station lay five miles from the manor +house. No more perfect parklands, albeit on a modest scale, existed in +South Devon, and the views of the surrounding heights and great vale +opening from the estate caused pleasure alike to those contented with +obvious beauty and the small number of spectators who understood the +significance of what constitutes really distinguished landscape. + +Eastward, long slopes of herbage and drifts of azaleas--a glorious +harmony of gold, scarlet, and orange in June--sloped upwards to larch +woods; while the gardens of pleasure, watered by a little trout stream, +spread beneath the manor house, and behind it rose hot-houses and the +glass and walled gardens of fruit and vegetables. To the south and west +opened park and vale, where receded forest and fallow lands, until the +grey ramparts of the moor ascending beyond them hemmed in the picture. + +Sir Walter Lennox had devoted himself to the sporting side of the estate +and had made it famous in this respect. His father, less interested in +shooting and hunting, had devoted time and means to the flower gardens, +and rendered them as rich as was possible in his day; while earlier yet, +Sir Walter's grandfather had been more concerned for the interior, and +had done much to enrich and beautify it. + +A great terrace stretched between the south front and a balustrade of +granite, that separated it from the gardens spreading at a lower level. +Here walked Henry Lennox and sought Tom May. It was now past eight +o'clock on Sunday morning, and he found himself alone. The sun, breaking +through heaviness of morning clouds, had risen clear of Haldon Hills +and cast a radiance, still dimmed by vapour, over the glow of the autumn +trees. Subdued sounds of birds came from the glades below, and far +distant, from the scrub at the edge of the woods, pheasants were +crowing. The morning sparkled, and, in a scene so fair, Henry found his +spirits rise. Already the interview with Mary's husband on the preceding +night seemed remote and unreal. He was, however, conscious that he had +made an ass of himself, but he did not much mind, for it could not be +said that May had shone, either. + +He called him, and, for reply, an old spaniel emerged from beneath, +climbed a flight of broad steps that ascended to the terrace, and +paddled up to Henry, wagging his tail. He was a very ancient hero, whose +record among the wild duck still remained a worthy memory and won him +honour in his declining days. The age of "Prince" remained doubtful, +but he was decrepit now--gone in the hams and suffering from cataract of +both eyes--a disease to which it is impossible to minister in a dog. +But his life was good to him; he still got about, slept in the sun, and +shared the best his master's dish could offer. Sir Walter adored +him, and immediately felt uneasy if the creature did not appear when +summoned. Often, had he been invisible too long, his master would wander +whistling round his haunts. Then he would find him, or be himself found, +and feel easy again. + +"Prince" went in to the open window of the breakfast-room, while Henry, +moved by a thought, walked round the eastern angle of the house and +looked up at the oriel window of the Grey Room, where it hung aloft +on the side of the wall, like a brilliant bubble, and flashed with the +sunshine that now irradiated the casement. To his surprise he saw the +window was thrown open and that May, still in his pyjamas, knelt on the +cushioned recess within and looked out at the morning. + +"Good lord, old chap!" he cried, "Needn't ask you if you have slept. +It's nearly nine o'clock." + +But the other made no response whatever. He continued to gaze far away +over Henry's head at the sunrise, while the morning breeze moved his +dark hair. + +"Tom! Wake up!" shouted Lennox again; but still the other did not move +a muscle. Then Henry noticed that he was unusually pale, and something +about his unwinking eyes also seemed foreign to an intelligent +expression. They were set, and no movement of light played upon them. It +seemed that the watcher was in a trance. Henry felt his heart jump, +and a sensation of alarm sharpened his thought. For him the morning was +suddenly transformed, and fearing an evil thing had indeed befallen the +other, he turned to the terrace and entered the breakfast-room from it. +The time was now five minutes to nine, and as unfailing punctuality had +ever been a foible of Sir Walter, his guests usually respected it. Most +of them were already assembled, and Mary May, who was just stepping into +the garden, asked Henry if he had seen her husband. + +"He's always the first to get up and the last to go to bed," she said. + +Bidding her good-morning, but not answering her question, the young man +hastened through the room and ascended to the corridor. Beneath, Ernest +Travers, a being of fussy temperament with a heart of gold, spoke +to Colonel Vane. Travers was clad in Sunday black, for he respected +tradition. + +"Forgive me, won't you, but this is your first visit, and you don't look +much like church." + +"Must we go to church, too?" asked the colonel blankly. He was still a +year under forty, but had achieved distinction in the war. "There is +no 'must' about it, but Sir Walter would appreciate the effort on your +part. He likes his guests to go. He is one of those men who are a light +to this generation--an ancient light, if you like, but a shining one. +He loves sound maxims. You may say he runs his life on sound maxims. He +lives charitably with all men and it puzzles him, as it puzzles me, to +understand the growing doubt, the class prejudice--nay, class hatred +the failure of trust and the increasing tension and uneasiness between +employer and employed. He and I are agreed that the tribulations of +the present time can be traced to two disasters only--the lack of +goodwill--as shown in the proletariat, whose leaders teach them to +respect nobody, and the weakening hold of religion as also revealed in +the proletariat. Now, to combat these things and set a good example is +our duty--nay, our privilege. Don't you think so?" + +Such a lecture on an empty stomach depressed the colonel. He looked +uneasy and anxious. + +"I'll come, of course, if he'd like it; but I'm afraid I shared my men's +dread of church parade, though our padre was a merciful being on the +whole and fairly sensible." + +Overhead, Henry had tried the door of the Grey Room, and found it +locked. As he did so, the gong sounded for breakfast. Masters always +performed upon it. First he woke a preliminary whisper of the great +bronze disc, then deepened the note to a genial and mellow roar, and +finally calmed it down again until it faded gently into silence. He +spoke of the gong as a musical instrument, and declared the art of +sounding it was a gift that few men could acquire. + +Neither movement nor response rewarded the summons of Lennox, and now in +genuine alarm, he went below again, stopped Fred Caunter, the footman, +and asked him to call out Sir Walter. + +Fred waited until his master had said a brief grace before meat; then he +stepped to his side and explained, that his nephew desired to see him. + +"Good patience! What's the matter?" asked the old man as he rose and +joined Henry in the hall. + +Then his nephew spoke, and indicated his alarm. He stammered a little, +but strove to keep calm and state facts clearly. + +"It's like this. I'm afraid you'll be rather savage, but I can't talk +now. Tom and I had a yarn when you'd gone to bed, and he was awfully +keen to spend the night in the Grey Room." + +"I did not wish it." + +"I know--we were wrong--but we were both death on it, and we tossed up, +and he won." + +"Where is he?" + +"Up there now, looking out of the window. I've called him and made a row +at the door, but he doesn't answer. He's locked himself in, apparently." + +"What have you done, Henry? We must get to him instantly. Tell +Caunter--no, I will. Don't breathe a syllable of this to anybody unless +necessity arises. Don't tell Mary." + +Sir Walter beckoned the footman, bade him get some tools and ascend +quickly to the Grey Room. He then went up beside his nephew, while Fred, +bristling with excitement, hastened to the toolroom. He was a handy man, +had been at sea during the war, and now returned to his old employment. +His slow brain moved backwards, and he remembered that this was a task +he had already performed ten or more years before. Then the ill-omened +chamber had revealed a dead woman. Who was in it now? Caunter guessed +readily enough. + +Lennox spoke to his uncle as they approached the locked door. + +"It was only a lark, just to clear the room of its bad character +and have a laugh at your expense this morning. But I'm afraid he's +ill--fainted or something. He turned in about one o'clock. I was rather +bothered, and couldn't explain to myself why, but--" + +"Don't chatter!" answered the other. "You have both done a very wrong +thing and should have respected my wishes." + +At the door he called loudly. + +"Let us in at once, Tom, please! I am much annoyed! If this is a jest, +it has gone far enough--and too far! I blame you severely!" + +But none replied. Absolute silence held the Grey Room. + +Then came the footman with a frail of tools. The task could not be +performed in a moment, and Sir Walter, desirous above all things to +create no uneasiness at the breakfast-table, determined to go down +again. But he was too late, for his daughter had already suspected +something. She was not anxious but puzzled that her husband tarried. She +came up the stairs with a letter. + +"I'm going to find Tom," she said. "It's not like him to be so lazy. +Here's a letter from the ship, and I'm awfully afraid he may have to go +back." + +"Mary," said her father, "come here a moment." + +He drew her under a great window which threw light into the corridor. + +"You must summon your nerve and pluck, my girl! I'm very much afraid +that something has gone amiss with Tom. I know nothing yet, but last +night, it seems, after we had gone to bed, he and Henry determined that +one of them should sleep in the Grey Room." + +"Father! Was he there, and I so near him--sleeping in the very next +room?" + +"He was there--and is there. He is not well. Henry saw him looking out +of the window five minutes ago, but he was, I fear, unconscious." + +"Let me go to him," she said. + +"I will do so first. It will be wiser. Run down and ask Ernest to join +me. Do not be alarmed; I dare say it is nothing at all." + +Her habit of obedience prompted her to do as he desired instantly, but +she descended like lightning, called Travers, and returned with him. + +"I will ask you to come in with me, Ernest," explained Sir Walter. "My +son-in-law slept in the Grey Room last night, and he does not respond to +our calls this morning. The door is locked and we are breaking it open." + +"But you expressly refused him permission to do so, Walter." + +"I did--you heard me. Let sleeping dogs lie is a very good motto, but +young men will be young men. I hope, however, nothing serious--" + +He stopped, for Caunter had forced the door and burst it inward with +a crash. During the moment's silence that followed they heard the key +spring into the room and strike the wainscot. The place was flooded with +sunshine, and seemed to welcome them with genial light and attractive +art. The furniture revealed its rich grain and beautiful modelling; +the cherubs carved on the great chairs seemed to dance where the light +flashed on their little, rounded limbs. The silvery walls were bright, +and the huge roses that tumbled over them appeared to revive and display +their original color at the touch of the sun. + +On a chair beside the bed stood an extinguished candle, Tom's watch, and +Henry's revolver. The sailor's dressing-gown was still folded where he +had placed it; his rug was at the foot of the bed. He himself knelt +in the recess at the open window upon the settee that ran beneath. His +position was natural; one arm held the window-ledge and steadied him, +and his back was turned to Sir Walter and Travers, who first entered the +room. + +Henry held Mary back and implored her to wait a moment, but she shook +off his hand and followed her father. + +Sir Walter it was who approached Tom and grasped his arm. In so doing he +disturbed the balance of the body, which fell back and was caught by the +two men. Its weight bore Ernest Travers to the ground, but Henry was in +time to save both the quick and the dead. For Tom May had expired many +hours before. His face was of an ivory whiteness, his mouth closed. No +sign of fear, but rather a profound astonishment sat upon his features. +His eyes were opened and dim. In them, too, was frozen a sort of +speechless amazement. How long he had been dead they knew not, but none +were in doubt of the fact. His wife, too, perceived it. She went to +where he now lay, put her arms around his neck, and fainted. + +Others were moving outside, and the murmur of voices reached the Grey +Room. It was one of those tragic situations when everybody desires to be +of service, and when well-meaning and small-minded people are often hurt +unintentionally and never forget it, putting fancied affronts before the +incidents that caused them. + +The man lay dead and his wife unconscious upon his body. + +Sir Walter rose to the occasion as best he might, issued orders, and +begged all who heard him to obey without question. He and his friend +Travers lifted Mary and carried her to her room. It was her nursery of +old. Here they put her on her bed, and sent Caunter for Mrs. Travers and +Mary's old servant, Jane Bond. She had recovered consciousness before +the women reached her. Then they returned to the dead, and the master of +Chadlands urged those standing on the stairs and in the corridor to go +back to their breakfast and their duties. + +"You can do no good," he said. "I will only ask Vane to help us." + +Fayre-Michell spoke, while the colonel came forward. + +"Forgive me, Sir Walter, but if it is anything psychical, I ask, as a +member--" + +"For Heaven's sake do as I wish," returned the other. "My son-in-law +is dead. What more there is to know, you'll hear later. I want Vane, +because he is a powerful man and can help Henry and my butler. We have +to carry--" + +He broke off. + +"Dead!" gasped the visitor. + +Then he hastened downstairs. Presently they lifted the sailor among +them, and got him to his own room. They could not dispose him in a +comely position--a fact that specially troubled Sir Walter--and Masters +doubted not that the doctor would be able to do it. + +Henry Lennox started as swiftly as possible for the house of the +physician, four miles off. He took a small motor-car, did the journey +along empty roads in twelve minutes, and was back again with Dr. +Mannering in less than half an hour. + +The people, whose visit of pleasure was thus painfully brought to a +close, moved about whispering on the terrace. They had as yet heard no +details, and were considering whether it would be possible to get off at +once, or necessary to wait until the morrow. + +Their natural desire was to depart, since they could not be of any +service to the stricken household; but no facilities existed on Sunday. +They walked about in little groups. One or two, desiring to smoke but +feeling that to do so would appear callous, descended into the seclusion +of the garden. Then Ernest Travers joined them. He was important, but +could only tell them that May had disobeyed his father-in-law, slept in +the Grey Room, and died there. He gave them details and declared that in +his opinion it would be unseemly to attempt to leave until the following +day. + +"Sir Walter would feel it," he said. "He is bearing up well. He will +lunch with us. My wife tells me that Mary, Mrs. May, is very sadly. That +is natural--an awful blow. I find myself incapable of grasping it. To +think of so much boyish good spirits and such vitality extinguished in +this way." + +"Can we do anything on earth for them?" asked Millicent Fayre-Michell. + +"Nothing--nothing. If I may advise, I think we had all better go to +church. By so doing we get out of the way for a time and please dear Sir +Walter. I shall certainly go." + +They greeted the suggestion--indeed, clutched at it. Their bewildered +minds welcomed action. They were hushed and perturbed. Death, crashing +in upon them thus, left them more than uncomfortable. Some, at the +bottom of their souls, felt almost indignant that an event so horrible +should have disturbed the level tenor of their lives. They shared the +most profound sympathy for the sufferers as well as for themselves. +Some discovered that their own physical bodies were upset, too, and felt +surprised at the depth of their emotions. + +"It isn't as if it were natural," Felix Fayre-Michell persisted. "Don't +imagine that for a moment." + +"It's too creepy--I can't believe it," declared his niece. She was +incapable of suffering much for anybody, and her excitement had a +flavour not wholly bitter. She saw herself describing these events at +other house parties. It would be unfair to say that she was enjoying +herself; still she knew nobody at Chadlands very well, it was her first +visit, and adventures are, after all, adventures. Her uncle discussed +the psychic significance of the tragedy, and gave instances of similar +events. One or two listened to him for lack of anything better to do. +There was a general sensation of blankness. They were all thrown. Life +had let them down. Under the circumstances, to most of them it seemed an +excellent idea to go to church. Vane joined them presently. He was able +to give them many details and excite their interest. They crowded round +him, and he spoke nakedly. Death was nothing to him--he had seen so +much. They heard the motor return with Dr. Mannering. + +"We're so out of it," said Mr. Miles Handford, a stout man from +Yorkshire--a wealthy landowner and sportsman. + +He was unaccustomed to be out of anything in his environment, and he +showed actual irritation. + +"Thank Heaven we are, I should think!" answered another; and the first +speaker frowned at him. + +Ernest Travers joined them presently. He had put on a black tie and wore +black gloves and a silk hat. + +"If you accompany me," he said, "I can show you the short way by a +field path. It cuts off half a mile. I have told Sir Walter we all go to +church, and he asked me if we would like the motors; but I felt, the day +being fine, you would agree with me that we might walk. He is terribly +crushed, but taking it like the man he is." + +Miles Handford and Fayre-Michell followed the church party in the rear, +and relieved their minds by criticizing Mr. Travers. + +"Officious ass!" said the stout man. "A typical touch that black tie! A +decent-minded person would have felt this appalling tragedy far too much +to think of such a trifle. I hope I shall never see the brute again." + +"It seems too grotesque marching to church like a lot of children, +because he tells us to do so," murmured Fayre-Michell. + +"I don't want to go. I only want distraction. In fact, I don't think I +shall go," added Mr. Handford. But a woman urged him to do so. + +"Sir Walter would like it," she said. + +"It's all very sad and very exasperating indeed," declared the +Yorkshireman; "and it shows, if that wanted showing, that there's far, +far less consideration among young men for their elders than there used +to be in my young days. If my father-in-law had told me not to do a +thing, the very wish to do it would have disappeared at once." + +"Sir Walter was as clear as need be," added Felix. "We all heard him. +Then the young fool--Heaven forgive him--behind everybody's back goes +and plays with fire in this insane way." + +"The selfishness! Just look at the inconvenience--the upset--the +suffering to his relations and the worry for all of us. All our plans +must be altered--everything upset, life for the moment turned upside +down--a woman's heart broken very likely--and all for a piece of +disobedient folly. Such things make one out of tune with Providence. +They oughtn't to happen. They don't happen in Yorkshire. Devonshire +appears to be a slacker's county. It's the air, I shouldn't wonder." + +"Education, and law and order, and the discipline inculcated in the Navy +ought to have prevented this," continued Fayre-Michell. "Who ever heard +of a sailor disobeying--except Nelson?" + +"He's paid, poor fellow," said his niece, who walked beside him. + +"We have all paid," declared the north countryman. "We have all paid the +price; and the price has been a great deal of suffering and discomfort +and stress of mind that we ought not have been called upon to endure. +One resents such things in a stable world." + +"Well, I'm not going to church, anyway. I must smoke for my nerves. +I'm a psychic myself, and I react to a thing of this sort," replied +Fayre-Michell. + +From a distant stile between two fields Mr. Travers, some hundred yards +ahead, was waving directions and pointing to the left. + +"Go to Jericho!" snapped Mr. Handford, but not loud enough for Ernest +Travers to hear him. + +A little ring of bells throbbed thin music. It rose and fell on the +easterly breeze and a squat grey tower, over which floated a white +ensign on a flagstaff, appeared upon a little knoll of trees in the +midst of the village of Chadlands. + +Presently the bells stopped, and the flag was brought down to half-mast. +Mr. Travers had reached the church. + +"A maddening sort of man," said Miles Handford, who marked these +phenomena. "Be sure Sir Walter never told him to do anything of that +sort. He has taken it upon himself--a theatrical mind. If I were the +vicar--" + +Elsewhere Dr. Mannering heard what Henry Lennox could tell him as they +returned to the manor house together. He displayed very deep concern +combined with professional interest. He recalled the story that Sir +Walter had related on the previous night. + +"Not a shadow of evidence--a perfectly healthy little woman; and it will +be the same here as sure as I'm alive," he said. "To think--we shot side +by side yesterday, and I remarked his fine physique and wonderful high +spirits--a big, tough fellow. How's poor Mary?" + +"She is pretty bad, but keeping her nerve, as she would be sure to do," +declared the other. + +Sir Walter was with his daughter when Mannering arrived. The doctor had +been a crony of the elder for many years. He was about the average of +a country physician--a hard-bitten, practical man who loved his +profession, loved sport, and professed conservative principles. +Experience stood in place of high qualifications, but he kept in touch +with medical progress, to the extent of reading about it and availing +himself of improved methods and preparations when opportunity offered. +He examined the dead man very carefully, indicated how his posture might +be rendered more normal, and satisfied himself that human power was +incapable of restoring the vanished life. He could discover no visible +indication of violence and no apparent excuse for Tom May's sudden end. +He listened with attention to the little that Henry Lennox could tell +him, and then went to see Mary May and her father. + +The young wife had grown more collected, but she was dazed rather than +reconciled to her fate; her mind had not yet absorbed the full extent of +her sorrow. She talked incessantly and dwelt on trivialities, as people +will under a weight of events too large to measure or discuss. + +"I am going to write to Tom's father," she said. "This will be an awful +blow to him. He was wrapped up in Tom. And to think that I was troubling +about his letter! He will never see the sea he loved so much again. He +always hated that verse in the Bible that says there will be no more +sea. I was asleep so near him last night. Yet I never heard him cry out +or anything." + +Mannering talked gently to her. + +"Be sure he did not cry out. He felt no pain, no shock--I am sure of +that. To die is no hardship to the dead, remember. He is at peace, Mary. +You must come and see him presently. Your father will call you soon. +There is just a look of wonder in his face--no fear, no suffering. Keep +that in mind." + +"He could not have felt fear. He knew of nothing that a brave man might +fear, except doing wrong. Nobody knows how good he was but me. His +father loved him fiercely, passionately; but he never knew how good he +was, because Tom did not think quite like old Mr. May. I must write and +say that Tom is dangerously ill, and cannot recover. That will break it +to him. Tom was the only earthly affection he had. It will be terrible +when he comes." + +They left her, and, after they had gone, she rose, fell on her knees, +and so remained, motionless and tearless, for a long time. Through her +own desolation, as yet unrealized, there still persisted the thought +of her husband's father. It seemed that her mind could dwell on his +isolation, while powerless to present the truth of her husband's death +to her. By some strange mental operation, not unbeneficent, she saw his +grief more vividly than as yet she felt her own. She rose presently, +quick-eared to wait the call, and went to her desk in the window. Then +she wrote a letter to her father-in-law, and pictured his ministering at +that moment to his church. Her inclination was to soften the blow, yet +she knew that could only be a cruel kindness. She told him, therefore, +that his son must die. Then she remembered that he was so near. A +telegram must go rather than a letter, and he would be at Chadlands +before nightfall. She destroyed her letter and set about a telegram. +Jane Bond came in, and she asked her to dispatch the telegram as quickly +as possible. Her old nurse, an elderly spinster, to whom Mary was the +first consideration in existence, had brought her a cup of soup and some +toast. It had seemed to Jane the right thing to do. + +Mary thanked her and drank a little. She passed through a mental phase +as of dreaming--a sensation familiar in sleep; but she knew that this +was not a sleeping but a waking experience. She waited for her father, +yet dreaded to hear him return. She thought of human footsteps and the +difference between them. She remembered that she would never hear Tom's +long stride again. + +It often broke into a run, she remembered, as he approached her; and +she would often run toward him, too--to banish the space that separated +them. She blamed herself bitterly that she had decreed to sleep in her +old nursery. She had loved it so, and the small bed that had held her +from childhood; yet, if she had slept with him, this might not have +happened. + +"To think that only a wall separated us!" she kept saying to herself. +"And I sleeping and dreaming of him, and he dying only a few yards +away." + +Death was no disaster for Tom, so the doctor had said. What worthless +wisdom! And perhaps not even wisdom. Who knows what a disaster death +may be? And who would ever know what he had felt at the end, or what his +mind had suffered if time had been given him to understand that he was +going to die? She worked herself into agony, lost self-control at last +and wept, with Jane Bond's arms round her. + +"And I was so troubled, because I thought he had been called back to his +ship!" she said. + +"He's called to a better place than a ship, dear love," sobbed Jane. + +After they left her, Sir Walter and Dr. Mannering had entered the Grey +Room for a moment and, standing there, spoke together. + +"I have a strange consciousness that I am living over the past again," +declared the physician. "Things were just so when that poor woman, Nurse +Forrester--you remember." + +"Yes. I felt the same when Caunter was breaking open the door. I faced +the worst from the beginning, for the moment I heard what he had done, +I somehow knew that my unfortunate son-in-law was dead. I directly +negatived his suggestion last night, and never dreamed that he would +have gone on with it when he knew my wish." + +"Doubtless he did not realize how much in earnest you were on the +subject. This may well prove as impossible to understand as the nurse's +death. I do not say it will; but I suspect it will. A perfectly healthy +creature cut off in a moment and nothing to show us why--absolutely +nothing." + +"A death without a cause--a negation of science surely?" + +"There is a cause, but I do not think this dreadful tragedy will reveal +it," answered the doctor. "I pray it may, however, for all our sakes," +he continued. "It is impossible to say how deeply I feel this for +her, but also for you, and myself, too. He was one of the best, a good +sportsman and a good man." + +"And a great loss to the Service," added Sir Walter. "I have not +considered all this means yet. My thoughts are centred on Mary." + +"You must let me spare you all I can, my friend. There will be an +inquest, of course, and an inquiry. Also a post-mortem. Shall I +communicate with Dr. Mordred to-day, or would you prefer that somebody +else--" + +"Somebody else. The most famous man you know. From no disrespect to Dr. +Mordred, or to you, Mannering. You understand that. But I should like +an independent examination by some great authority, some one who knew +nothing of the former case. This is an appalling thing to happen. I +don't know where to begin thinking." + +"Do not put too great a strain upon yourself. Leave it to those who will +come to the matter with all their wits and without your personal sorrow. +An independent inquirer is certainly best, one who, as you say, knows +nothing about the former case." + +"I don't know where to begin thinking," repeated the other. "Such a +thing upsets one's preconceived opinions. I had always regarded my +aversion to this room as a human weakness--a thing to be conquered. Look +round you. Would it be possible to imagine an apartment with less of +evil suggestion?" + +The other made a perfunctory examination, went into every corner, tapped +the walls and stared at the ceiling. The clean morning light showed its +intricate pattern of interwoven circles converging from the walls to +the centre, and so creating a sense of a lofty dome instead of a flat +surface. In the centre was a boss of a conventional lily flower opening +its petals. + +"The room should not be touched till after the inquest, I think. Indeed, +if I may advise, you will do well to leave it just as it is for the +police to see." + +"They will want to see it, I imagine?" + +"Unless you communicate direct with Scotland Yard, ask for a special +inquiry, and beg that the local men are not employed. There is reason in +that, for it is quite certain that nobody here would be of any greater +use to you than they were before." + +"Act for me then, please. Explain that money is no object, and ask them +to send the most accomplished and experienced men in the service. But +they are only concerned with crime. This may be outside their scope." + +"We cannot say as to that. We cannot even assert that this is not a +crime. We know nothing." + +"A crime needs a criminal, Mannering." + +"That is so; but what would be criminal, if human agency were +responsible for it, might, nevertheless, be the work of forces to which +the word criminal cannot be applied." + +Sir Walter stared at him. + +"Is it possible you suggest a supernatural cause for this?" + +The doctor shook his head. + +"Emphatically not, though I am not a materialist, as you are aware. My +generation of practitioners has little difficulty in reconciling our +creed with our cult, though few of the younger men are able to do so, +I admit. But science is science, and not for a moment do I imagine +anything supernatural here. I think, however, there are unconscious +forces at work, and those responsible for setting those forces in action +would be criminals without a doubt, if they knew what they were doing. +The man who fires a rifle at an animal, if he hits and kills it, is the +destroyer, though he may operate from half a mile away. On the other +hand, the agents may be unconscious of what they are doing." + +"There is no human being in this house for whom I would not answer." + +"I know it. We beat the wind. It will be time enough to consider +presently. Indeed, I should rather that you strove to relieve your mind +of the problem. You have enough to do without that. Leave it to those +professionally trained in such mysteries. If a man is responsible for +this atrocious thing, then it should be within the reach of man's wits +to find him. We failed before; but this time no casual examination of +this place, or the antecedents of your son-in-law's life, will serve the +purpose. We must go to the bottom, or, rather, skilled minds, trained +to do so, must go to the bottom. They will approach the subject from a +different angle. They will come unprejudiced and unperturbed. If +there has been foul play, they will find it out. In my opinion it is +incredible that they will be baffled." + +"The best men engaged in such work must come to help us. I cannot bring +myself to believe the room is haunted, and that this is the operation +of an evil force outside Nature, yet permitted by the Creator to destroy +human life. The idea is too horrible--it revolts me, Mannering." + +"Well, it may do so. Banish any such irrational thought from your mind. +It is not worthy of you. I must go now. I will telegraph to London--to +Sir Howard Fellowes--also, I think to the State authorities on forensic +medicine. A Government analyst must do his part. Shall I communicate +with Scotland Yard to-day?" + +"Leave that until the evening. You will come again to see Mary, please." + +"Most certainly I shall. At three o'clock I should have a reply to my +messages. I will go into Newton Abbot and telephone from there." + +"I thank you, Mannering. I wish it were possible to do more myself. My +mind is cruelly shaken. This awful experience has made an old man of +me." + +"Don't say that. It is awful enough, I admit. But life is full of awful +things. Would that you might have escaped them!" + +"Henry will help you, if it is in his power. It would be well if we +could give him something to do. He feels guilty in a way. I have little +time to observe other people; but--" + +"He's all right. He can run into Newton with me now. It looks to me as +though his own life had hung on the pitch of a coin. They tossed up! +After that--so he tells me--he tried to dissuade your son-in-law, but +failed. Lennox is rather cowed and dismayed--naturally. The young, +however, survive mental and physical disasters and recover in the most +amazing manner. Their mental recuperation is on a par with their bodily +powers of recovery. Nature is on their side. Let me urge you to go down +and take food. If you can even lunch with your party I should. It will +distract your mind." + +Sir Walter declared that he had intended to do so. + +"I am an old soldier," he said. "It shall not be thought I evade my +obligations for personal sorrow. As for this room, it is accursed and I +am in a mind to destroy it utterly." + +"Wait--wait. We shall see what our fellow-men can find out for us. Do +not think, because I am practical and business-like, I am not feeling +this. Seldom have I had such a shock in nearly forty years' work. You +know, without my telling you, how deep and heartfelt is my sympathy. I +feel for you both from my soul." + +"I am sure of that. I will try and forget myself for the present. I +must go to my guests. I am very sorry for them also. It is a fearful +experience to crash upon their party of pleasure." + +"I hope Travers may stay. He is a comfort to you, is he not?" + +"Nobody can be a comfort just now. I shall not ask him to stay. +Fortunately Henry is here. He will stop for the present. Mary is all +that matters. I shall take her away as quickly as possible and devote my +every thought to her." + +"I'm sure you will. It is a sad duty, but may prove a very necessary +one. Their devotion was absolute. It must go hard with her when she +realizes the whole meaning of this." + +He went his way, and Sir Walter returned to his child again. With her +he visited the dead, when told that he could do so. She was now very +self-controlled. She stopped a little while only beside her husband. + +"How beautiful and happy he looks," she said. "But what I loved is gone; +and, going, it has changed all the rest. This is not Tom--only the least +part of him." + +Her father bowed his head. + +"I felt so when your mother died, my dearest child." + +Then she knelt down and put her hand on the hand of the dead man and +prayed. Her father knelt beside her, and it was he, not the young widow, +who wept. + +She rose presently. + +"I can think of him better away from him now," she said. "I will not see +him again." + +They returned to her old nursery, and he told her that he was going to +face life and take the head of his table at luncheon. + +"How brave of you, dear father," she said. Sir Walter waited for the +gong to sound, but it did not, and he rebuked himself for thinking +that it would sound. Masters had a more correct sense of the fitness of +things than he. He thought curiously upon this incident, and suspected +that he must be unhinged a little. Then he remembered a thing that he +had desired to say to Mary and returned to her. + +"I do not wish you to sleep in this room to-night, my darling," he said. + +"Jane has begged me not to. I am going to sleep with her," she answered. + + + + +CHAPTER IV. "BY THE HAND OF GOD" + + +Sir Walter always remembered that Sunday luncheon and declared that +it reminded him of a very painful experience in his early life. When +big-game shooting in South Africa, he had once been tossed by a wounded +buffalo bull. By good chance the creature threw him into a gully some +feet lower than the surrounding bush. Thus it lost him, and he was safe +from destruction. There, however, he remained with a broken leg for +some hours until rescued; and during that time the mosquitoes caused him +unspeakable torments. + +To-day the terrible disaster of the morning became temporarily +overshadowed by the necessity of enduring his friends' comments upon it. +The worst phase of the ordeal was their pity. Sir Walter had never been +pitied in his life, and detested the experience. This stream of sympathy +and the chastened voices much oppressed him. He was angry with himself +also, for a guilty conviction that, in truth, the interest of the +visitors exceeded their grief. He felt it base to suspect them of any +such thing; but the buzz of their polite expressions, combined with +their cautious questions and evident thirst for knowledge, caused him +exquisite uneasiness. + +They all wanted to know everything he could tell them concerning Tom +May. Had he enemies? Was it conceivable that he might have even bitter +and unscrupulous enemies? + +"Dear Mary is keeping up splendidly," said Mrs. Travers. "She is +magnificent. Thank Heaven I have been some little help to her." + +"You have, Nelly, without a doubt." + +"Do try to eat more, Walter," urged Ernest Travers. "Much lies before +you. Indeed, the worst has yet to come. You must keep up for all our +sakes. How thankfully I would share your load if I could!" + +"I hope you are going to make this an official matter, Sir Walter, +and communicate with the Society for Psychical Research," urged Felix +Fayre-Michell. "It is just a case for them. In fact, when this gets +known widely, as it must, of course, a great many skilled inquirers will +wish to visit Chadlands and spend a night in the room." + +"The police will have to be considered first," declared Colonel Vane. +"This is, of course, a police affair. I should think they will so +regard it. There is the Service, too. The Admiralty will be sure to do +something." + +"Is he to be buried at Chadlands? I suppose so, poor fellow," murmured +Ernest Travers. "I think your family graves so distinguished, Walter--so +simple and fine and modest--just perfectly kept, grassy mounds, and +simple inscriptions. I was looking at them after service to-day. The +vicar made a very tactful allusion to the great grief that had overtaken +the lord of the manor at the end of his sermon." + +Henry assisted his uncle to the best of his power. It was he who went +into the question of the Sunday service from the neighboring market +town, and proved, to the relief of Colonel Vane and Mr. Miles Handford, +that they might leave in comfort before nightfall and catch a train to +London. + +"A car is going in later, to meet poor Tom's father," he said, "and if +it's any convenience, it would take you both." + +The pair thankfully agreed. + +Then Colonel Vane interested Sir Walter in spite of himself. The latter +had spoken of an inquiry, and Vane urged a distinguished name upon him. + +"Do get Peter Hardcastle if you can," he said. "He's absolutely top hole +at this sort of thing at present--an amazing beggar." + +"I seem to have heard the name." + +"Who hasn't? It was he who got to the bottom of that weird murder in +Yorkshire." + +"It was weird," said Handford. "I knew intimate friends of the murdered +man." + +"A crime for which no logical reason existed," continued the colonel. +"It puzzled everybody, till Hardcastle succeeded where his superior +officers at Scotland Yard had failed. I believe he's still young. But +that was less amazing than the German spy--you remember now, Sir Walter? +The spy had been too clever for England and France--thanks to a woman +who helped him. Peter Hardcastle got to know her; then he +actually disguised himself as the woman--of course without her +knowledge--arrested her, and kept an appointment that she had made with +the spy. What was the spy called? I forget." + +"Wundt," said Felix Fayre-Michell. + +"No, I don't think so. Hardt or Hardfelt, or something like that." + +"Anyway, a jolly wonderful thing. He's the first man at this business, +and I hope you'll be able to secure him." + +"If he comes, Sir Walter, don't let it be known that he is here. Keep it +a secret. If Hardcastle could come down as your guest, and nobody know +he was here, it might help him to succeed." + +"And if he fails, then I hope you'll invite the Psychical Research +Society." + +Sir Walter let the chatter flow past him; but he concentrated on the +name of Peter Hardcastle. He remembered the story of the spy, and the +sensation it had aroused. + +Millicent Fayre-Michell also remembered it. + +"Mr. Hardcastle declined to let his photograph be published in +the halfpenny papers, I remember," she said. "That struck me as so +wonderful. There was a reason given--that he did not wish the public to +know him by sight. I believe he is never seen as himself, and that he +makes up just as easily to look like a woman as a man." + +"Some people believe he is a woman." + +"No! You don't say that?" + +"To have made up as that German's friend and so actually reached his +presence--nay, secured him! It is certainly one of the most remarkable +pages in the annals of crime," said Ernest Travers. + +"Is he attached to Scotland Yard still, or does he work independently?" +asked Miles Handford. + +"I don't know yet. Mannering has already urged me to consult Scotland +Yard at once. Indeed, he was going to approach them to-day. Mr. +Hardcastle shall certainly be invited to do what he can. I shall leave +no stone unturned to reach the truth. Yet what even such a man can do is +difficult to see. The walls of the Grey Room are solid, the floor is +of sound oak, the ceiling is nine or ten inches thick, and supported by +immense beams. The hearth is modern, and the chimney not large enough to +admit a human being. This was proved twelve years ago." + +"Give him a free hand all the same--with servants and everybody. I +should ask him to come as your guest, then nobody need know who he is, +and he can pursue his investigations the more freely." + +Felix Fayre-Michell made this suggestion after luncheon was ended, and +Masters and Fred Caunter had left the room. Then the conversation showed +signs of drifting back to sentimentality. Sir Walter saw it coming in +their eyes, and sought to head them off by inquiring concerning their +own movements. + +"Can I be of any service to simplify your plans? I fear this terrible +event has put you all to great inconvenience." + +"Our inconvenience is nothing beside your sorrow, dear Walter," said +Nelly Travers. + +All declared that if they could serve the cause in any way they would +gladly stop at Chadlands, but since they were powerless to assist, they +felt that the sooner they departed the better. + +"We go, but we leave our undying sympathy and commiseration, dear +friend," declared Mr. Travers. "Believe me, this has aged my wife and +myself. Probably it would not be an exaggeration to say it has aged us +all. That he should have come through Jutland, done worthy deeds, won +honorable mention and the D. S. O., then to be snatched out of life in +this incomprehensible manner--nay, perhaps even by supernatural means, +for we cannot yet actually declare it is not so. All this makes it +impossible to say much that can comfort you or dear Mary. Time must pass +I fear, Walter. You must get her away into another environment. Thank +Heaven she has youth on her side." + +"Yes, yes, I shall live for her, be sure of that." He left them and +presently spoke to his nephew alone in his study. + +"Do what you can for them. Handford and Vane are getting off this +afternoon, the rest early to-morrow. I don't think I shall be able to +dine with them to-night. Tom's father will be here. I fear he is likely +to be prostrated when he knows that all is over." + +"No, he's not that kind of man, uncle. Mary tells me he will want to get +to the bottom of this in his own way. He's one of the fighting sort, +but he believes in a lot of queer things. I'm going in to Newton with +Colonel Vane, and shall meet Mannering there about--about Sir Howard +Fellowes. He'll come down to-morrow, no doubt, perhaps to-night. +Mannering will know." + +"And tell Mannering to insist on a detective called Peter Hardcastle for +the inquiry. If he's left Scotland Yard and acting independently, none +the less engage him. I shall, of course, thankfully pay anything to get +this tragedy explained." + +"Be sure they will explain it." + +"If they do not I shall be tempted to leave altogether. Indeed, I may do +so in any case. Mary will never reconcile herself to live here now." + +"Don't bother about the future, don't think about it. Consider yourself, +and take a little rest this afternoon. Everybody is very concerned for +you, they mean to be awfully decent in their way; but I know how they +try you. They can't help it. Such a thing takes them out of their +daily round, and beggars their experience, and makes them excited and +tactless. There's no precedent for them, and you know how most people +depend on precedent and how they're bowled over before anything new." + +"I will go to Mary, I think. Has the undertaker been?" + +"Yes, uncle." + +"I want him to be buried with us here. I should not suppose his father +will object." + +"Not likely. Mary would wish it so." + +"It was so typical of Mary to think of Septimus May before everybody. +She put her own feelings from her that she might soften the blow for +him." + +"She would." + +"Are you equal to telling the clergyman at the station that his son is +dead, or can't you trust yourself to do it?" + +"I expect he'll know it well enough, but I'll tell him everything +there is to tell. I remember long ago, after the wedding, that he was +interested in haunted rooms, and said he believed in such things on +Scriptural grounds." + +Sir Walter took pause at this statement. + +"That is news to me. Supposing he--However, we need not trouble +ourselves with him yet. He will, of course, be as deeply concerned to +get to the bottom of this as I am, though we must not interfere, or make +the inquiry harder for Hardcastle than he is bound to find it." + +"Certainly nobody must interfere. I only hope we can get Peter +Hardcastle." + +"Tell them to call me when Mr. May arrives, and not sooner. I'll see +Mary, then lie down for an hour or two." + +"You feel all right? Should you care to see Mannering?" + +"I am right enough. Say 'Good-bye' to Vane and Miles Handford for +me. They may have to return here presently. One can't tell who may be +wanted, and who may not be. I don't know--these things are outside my +experience; but they had better both leave you their directions." + +"I'll ask them." + +Sir Walter visited his daughter, and changed his mind about sleeping. +She was passing through an hour of unspeakable horror. The dark temple +of realization had opened for her and she was treading its dreary +aisles. Henceforth for long days--she told herself for ever--sorrow and +sense of unutterable loss must be her companions and share her waking +hours. + +They stopped together alone till the dusk came down and Mannering +returned. He stayed but a few minutes, and presently they heard his car +start again, while that containing the departing guests and Henry Lennox +immediately followed it. + +In due course Septimus May returned to Chadlands with him. The clergyman +had heard of his son's end, and went immediately to see the dead +man. There Mary joined him, and witnessed his self-control under very +shattering grief. He was thin, clean-shaven--a grey man with smouldering +eyes and an expression of endurance. A fanatic in faith, by virtue of +certain asperities of mind and a critical temperament, he had never made +friends, won his parish into close ties, nor advanced the cause of his +religion as he had yearned to do. With the zeal of a reformer, he had +entered the ministry in youth; but while commanding respect for his own +rule of conduct and the example he set his little flock, their affection +he never won. The people feared him, and dreaded his stern criticism. +Once certain spirits, smarting under pulpit censure, had sought to +be rid of him; but no grounds existed on which they could eject the +reverend gentleman or challenge his status. He remained, therefore, as +many like him remain, embedded in his parish and unknown beyond it. +He was a poor student of human nature and life had dimmed his old +ambitions, soured his hopes; but it had not clouded his faith. With a +passionate fervor he believed all that he tried to teach, and held that +an almighty, all loving and all merciful God controlled every destiny, +ordered existence for the greatest and least, and allowed nothing +to happen upon earth that was not the best that could happen for the +immortal beings He had created in His own image. Upon this assurance +fell the greatest, almost the only, blow that life could deal Septimus +May. He was stricken suddenly, fearfully with his unutterable loss; but +his agony turned into prayer while he knelt beside his son. He prayed +with a fiery intensity and a resonant vibration of voice that scorched +rather than comforted the woman who knelt beside him. The fervor of the +man's emotion and the depth of his conviction, running like a torrent +through the narrow channels of his understanding, were destined +presently to complicate a situation sufficiently painful without +intervention; for a time swiftly came when Septimus May forced his +beliefs upon Chadlands and opposed them to the opinions of other people +as deeply concerned as himself to explain the death of his son. + +Mr. May, learning that most of the house party could not depart until +the following morning, absented himself from dinner; indeed, he spent +his time almost entirely with his boy, and when night came kept vigil +beside him. Something of the strange possession of his mind already +appeared, in curious hints that puzzled Sir Walter; but it was not until +after the post-mortem examination and inquest that his extraordinary +views were elaborated. + +Millicent Fayre-Michell and her uncle were the first to depart on the +following day. The girl harbored a grievance. + +"Surely Mary might have seen me a moment to say 'Good-bye,'" she +said. "It's a very dreadful thing, but we've been so sympathetic and +understanding about it that I think they ought to feel rather grateful. +They might realize how trying it is for us, too. And to let me go +without even seeing her--she saw Mrs. Travers over and over again." + +"Do not mind. Grief makes people selfish," declared Felix. "Probably we +should not have acted so. I think we should have hidden our sufferings +and faced our duty; but perhaps we are exceptional. I dare say Mrs. May +will write and express regret and gratitude later. We must allow for her +youth and sorrow." + +Mr. Fayre-Michell rather prided himself on the charity of this +conclusion. + +When Mr. and Mrs. Travers departed, Sir Walter bade them farewell. +The lady wept, and her tears fell on his hand as he held it. She was +hysterical. + +"For Heaven's sake don't let Mary be haunted by that dreadful priest," +she said. "There is something terrible about him. He has no bowels +of compassion. I tried to console him for the loss of his son, and he +turned upon me as if I were weak-minded." + +"I had to tell him he was being rude and forgetting that he spoke to a +lady," said Ernest Travers. "One makes every allowance for a father's +sufferings; but they should not take the form of abrupt and harsh speech +to a sympathetic fellow-creature--nay, to anyone, let alone a woman. His +sacred calling ought to--" + +"A man's profession cannot alter his manners, my dear Ernest; they come +from defects of temperament, no doubt. May must not be judged. His faith +would move mountains." + +"So would mine," said Ernest Travers, "and so would yours, Walter. But +it is perfectly possible to be a Christian and a gentleman. To imply +that our faith was weak because we expressed ordinary human emotions and +pitied him unfeignedly for the loss of his only child--" + +"Good-bye, good-bye, my dear friends," answered the other. "I cannot say +how I esteem your kindly offices in this affliction. May we meet again +presently. God bless and keep you both." + +The post-mortem examination revealed no physical reason why Thomas May +should have ceased to breathe. Neither did the subsequent investigations +of a Government analytical chemist throw any light upon the sailor's +sudden death. No cause existed, and therefore none could be reported at +the inquest held a day later. + +The coroner's jury brought in a verdict rarely heard, but none dissented +from it. They held that May had received his death "by the hand of God." + +"All men receive death from the hand of God," said Septimus May, when +the judicial inquiry was ended. "They receive life from the hand of +God also. But, while bowing to that, there is a great deal more we +are called to do when God's hand falls as it has fallen upon my son. +To-night I shall pray beside his dust, and presently, when he is at +peace, I shall be guided. There is a grave duty beside me, Sir Walter, +and none must come between me and that duty." + +"There is a duty before all of us, and be sure nobody will shrink +from it. I have done what is right, so far. We have secured a famous +detective--the most famous in England, they tell me. He is called Peter +Hardcastle, and he will, I hope, be able to arrive here immediately." + +The clergyman shook his head. + +"I will say nothing at present," he answered. "But, believe me, a +thousand detectives cannot explain my son's death. I shall return to +this subject after the funeral, Sir Walter. But my conviction grows that +the reason of these things will never be revealed to the eye of science. +To the eye of faith alone we must trust the explanation of what has +happened. There are things concealed from the wise and prudent--to be +revealed unto babes." + +That night the master of Chadlands, his nephew, and the priest dined +together, and Henry Lennox implored a privilege. + +"I feel I owe it to poor Tom in a way," he said. "I beg that you will +let me spend the night in the Grey Room, Uncle Walter. I would give my +soul to clear this." + +But his uncle refused with a curt shake of the head, and the clergyman +uttered a reproof. + +"Do not speak so lightly," he said. "You use a common phrase and a very +objectionable phrase, young man. Do you rate your soul so low that you +would surrender it for the satisfaction of a morbid craving? For that is +all this amounts to. Not to such an inquirer will my son's death reveal +its secret." + +"I have already received half-a-dozen letters from people offering and +wishing to spend a night in that accursed room," said Sir Walter. + +"Do not call it 'accursed' until you know more," urged Septimus May. + +"You have indeed charity," answered the other. + +"Why withhold charity? We must approach the subject in the only spirit +that can disarm the danger. These inquirers who seek to solve the +mystery are not concerned with my son's death, only the means that +brought it about. Not to such as they will any answer be vouchsafed, and +not to the spirit of materialistic inquiry, either. I speak what I know, +and will say more upon the subject at another time." + +"You cannot accept this awful thing without resentment or demur, Mr. +May?" asked Henry Lennox. + +"Who shall demur? Did not even the unenlightened men who formed the +coroner's jury declare that Tom passed into another world by the hand +of God? Can we question our Creator? I, too, desire as much as any human +being can an explanation; what is more, I am far more confident of an +explanation than you or any other man. But that is because I already +know the only road by which it will please God to send an explanation. +And that is not the road which scientists or rationalists are used to +travel. It is a road that I must be allowed to walk alone." + +He left them after dinner, and returned to his daughter-in-law. She +had determined not to attend the funeral, but Mr. May argued with her, +examined her reasons, found them, in his opinion, not sufficient, and +prevailed with her to change her mind. + +"Drink the cup to the dregs," he said. "This is our grief, our trial. +None feel and know what we feel and know, and your youth is called to +bear a burden heavy to be borne. You must stand beside his grave as +surely as I must commit him to it." + +Men will go far to look upon the coffin of one whose end happens to be +mysterious or terrible. The death of Sir Walter's son-in-law had +made much matter for the newspapers, and not only Chadlands, but the +countryside converged upon the naval funeral, lined the route to the +grave, and crowded the little burying ground where the dead man would +lie. Cameras pointed their eyes at the gun-carriage and the mourners +behind it. The photographers worked for a sort of illustrated paper +that tramples with a swine's hoofs and routs up with a swine's nose the +matter its clients best love to purchase. Mary, supported by her father +and her cousin, preserved a brave composure. Indeed, she was less +visibly moved than they. It seemed that the ascetic parent of the dead +had power to lift the widow to his own stern self-control. The chaplain +of Tom May's ship assisted at the service, but Septimus May conducted +it. Not a few old messmates attended, for the sailor had been popular, +and his unexpected death brought genuine grief to many men. Under a +pile of flowers the coffin was carried to the grave. Rare and precious +blossoms came from Sir Walter's friends, and H. M. S. Indomitable sent +a mighty anchor of purple violets. Mr. May read the service without a +tremor, but his eyes blazed out of his lean head, and there lacked not +other signs to indicate the depth of emotion he concealed. Then the +bluejackets who had drawn the gun-carriage fired a volley, and the +rattle of their musketry echoed sharply from the church tower. + +Upon the evening of the day that followed Septimus May resumed the +subject concerning which he had already fitfully spoken. His ideas were +now in order, and he brought a formidable argument to support a strange +request. Indeed, it amounted to a demand, and for a time it seemed +doubtful whether Sir Walter would deny him. The priest, indeed, declared +that he could take no denial, and his host was thankful that other and +stronger arguments than his own were at hand to argue the other side. +For Dr. Mannering stayed at the manor house after the funeral, and the +Rev. Noel Prodgers, the vicar of Chadlands, a distant connection of +the Lennoxes, was also dining there. Until now Mannering could not well +speak, but he invited himself to dinner on the day after the funeral +that he might press a course of action upon those who had suffered so +severely. He wished Sir Walter to take his daughter away at once, for +her health's sake, and while advancing this advice considered the elder +also, for these things had upset the master of Chadlands in mind and +body, and Mannering was aware of it. + +On the morrow Peter Hardcastle would arrive, and he had urgently +directed that his coming should be in a private capacity, unknown to the +local police or neighborhood. Neither did he wish the staff of Chadlands +to associate him with the tragedy. + +An official examination of the room had been made by the local +constabulary, as upon the occasion of Nurse Forrester's death; but it +was a perfunctory matter, and those responsible for it understood that +special attention would presently be paid to the problem by the supreme +authority. + +"After this man has been and gone, I do earnestly beg you to leave +England and get abroad, Sir Walter," said Mannering. "I think it your +duty, not only for your girl's sake, but your own. Do not even wait for +the report. There is nothing to keep you, and I shall personally be +very thankful and relieved if you will manage this and take Mary to some +fresh scenes, a place or country that she has not visited before. There +is nothing like an entirely novel environment for distracting the mind, +bracing the nerves, and restoring tone." + +"I must do my duty," answered the other, "and that remains to be seen. +If Hardcastle should find out anything, there may be a call upon me. At +least, I cannot turn my back upon Chadlands till the mystery is threshed +out to the bottom, as far as man can do it." + +It was then that Septimus May spoke and astounded his hearers. + +"You give me the opportunity to introduce my subject," he said, "for it +bears directly on Sir Walter's intentions, and it is in my power, as +I devoutly believe, to free him swiftly of any further need to remain +here. I am, of course, prepared to argue for my purpose, but would +rather not do so. Briefly, I hold it a vital obligation to spend this +night in the Grey Room, and I ask that no obstacle of any kind be raised +to prevent my doing so. The wisdom of man is foolishness before the wit +of God, and what I desire to do is God's will and wish, impressed upon +me while I knelt for long hours and prayed to know it. I am convinced, +and that should be enough. In this matter I am far from satisfied that +all has yet been done, within the Almighty's purpose and direction, to +discover the mystery of our terrible loss. But He helps those who help +themselves, remember, and I owe it to my son, Sir Walter, and you owe it +to your daughter Mary first, and the community also, to take such steps +as Heaven, through me, has now directed." + +They were for a moment struck dumb by this extraordinary assertion and +demand. A thousand objections leaped to the lips of the elder men, +and Mr. Prodgers, a devout young Christian of poor physique but great +spiritual courage, found himself as interested by this fearless demand +of faith as the others were alarmed by it. + +Sir Walter spoke. + +"We know it is so, May. None recognizes our obligations, both to the +living and the dead, more acutely than I do. A very famous man of +European reputation will be here to-morrow, and if you, too, desire a +representative, you have only got to say so." + +"I desire no representative armed with material craft or knowledge of +criminal procedure. I am my own representative, and I come armed with +greater power than any you can command on earth, Sir Walter. I mean my +Maker's response to my prayer. I must spend the night in that room, +and cannot leave Chadlands until I have done so. I trust to no human +expedient or precaution, for such things would actually disarm me; but +my faith is in the God I have served to the best of my power from my +youth up. I entertain not the least shadow of fear or doubt. To fear or +doubt would be to fail. I rely absolutely on the Supreme Being who +has permitted this unspeakable sorrow to fall upon us, and there is +no living man less likely than myself to fall a victim to the unknown +spirit hidden here and permitted to exercise such awful control over us. +The time has come to challenge that spirit in the name of its Maker, and +to cleanse your house once and for all of something which, potent for +evil though it is allowed to be, must yield to the forces of the Most +High, even in the feeble hand of His minister." + +The doctor spoke. + +"Is it possible, sir, that you attribute your son's death to anything +but natural physical forces?" he asked. + +"Is it possible to do otherwise? How can you, of all men, ask? Science +has spoken--or, rather, science has been struck dumb. No natural, +physical force is responsible for his end. He died without any cause +that you could discover. This is no new thing, however. History records +that men have passed similarly under visitations beyond human power to +explain. If the Lord could slay multitudes in a night at a breath, as +we know from the pages of the Old Testament, then it is certain He can +still end the life of any man at any moment, and send His messengers to +do so. I believe in good and evil spirits as I believe in my Bible, +and I know that, strong and terrible though they may be and gifted with +capital powers against our flesh, yet the will of God is stronger than +the strongest of them. These things, I say, have happened before. They +are sent to try our faith. I do not mourn my son, save with the blind, +natural pang of paternity, because I know that he has been withdrawn +from this world for higher purposes in another; but the means of his +going I demand to investigate, because they may signify much more than +his death itself. One reason for his death may be this: that we are now +called to understand what is hidden in the Grey Room. My son's death +may have been necessary to that explanation. Human intervention may be +demanded there. One of God's immortal souls, for reasons we cannot tell, +may be chained in that room, waiting its liberation at human hands. We +are challenged, and I accept the challenge, being impelled thereto by +the sacred message that has been put into my heart." + +Even his fellow-priest stared in bewilderment at Septimus May's +extraordinary opinions, while to the physician this was the chatter of a +lunatic. + +"I will take my Bible into that haunted room to-night," concluded the +clergyman, "and I will pray to God, Who sits above both quick and dead, +to protect me, guide me, and lead me to my duty." + +Sir Walter spoke. + +"You flout reason when you say these things, my dear May." + +"And why should I not flout reason? What Christian but knows well enough +that reason is the staff that breaks in our hands and wounds us? Much +of our most vital experience has no part nor lot with reason. A thousand +things happen in the soul's history which reason cannot account for. A +thousand moods, temptations, incitements prompt us to action or deter +us from it--urge us to do or avoid--for which reason is not responsible. +Reason, if we bring these emotions to it, cannot even pronounce upon +them. Yet in them and from them springs the life of the soul and the +conviction of immortality. 'To act on impulse'--who but daily realizes +that commonplace in his own experience? The mind does not only play +tricks and laugh at reason in dreams while we sleep. It laughs at reason +while we wake, and the sanest spirit experiences inspired moments, mad +moments, unaccountable impulses the reason for which he knows not. +The ancients explained these as temptations of malicious and malignant +spirits or promptings from unseen beings who wish man well. And where +the urge is to evil, that may well be the truth; and where it is to +good, who can doubt whence the inspiration comes?" + +"And shall not my inspiration--to employ the cleverest detective in +England--be also of good?" asked Sir Walter. + +"Emphatically not. Because this thing is in another category than that +of human crime. It is lifted upon a plane where the knowledge of man +avails nothing. You are a Christian, and you should understand this as +well as I do. If there is danger, then I am secure, because I have the +only arms that can avail in a battle of the spirit. My trust is shield +enough against any evil being that may roam this earth or be held by +invisible bonds within the walls of the Grey Room. I will justify the +ways of God to man and, through the channel of potent prayer, exorcise +this presence and bring peace to your afflicted house. For any living +fellow-creature would I gladly pit my faith against evil; how much more, +then, in a matter where my very own life's blood has been shed? You +cannot deny me this. It is my right." + +"I will ask you to listen to the arguments against you, nevertheless," +replied Mannering. "You have propounded an extraordinary theory, and +must not mind if we disagree with you." + +"Speak for yourself alone, then," answered May. "I do not ask or expect +a man of your profession to agree with me. But the question ceases to be +your province." + +"Do not say that, sir," urged Henry Lennox. "I don't think my uncle +agrees with you either. You are assuming too much." + +"Honestly, I can't quite admit your assumption, my dear May," declared +Sir Walter. "You go too far--farther than is justified at this stage of +events, at any rate. Were we in no doubt that a spirit is granted +power within my house to destroy human life, then I confess, with due +precautions, I could not deny you access to it in the omnipotent Name +you invoke. I am a Christian and believe my Bible as soundly as you do. +But why assume such an extraordinary situation? Why seek a supernatural +cause for dear Tom's death before we are satisfied that no other +exists?" + +"Are you not satisfied? What mortal man can explain the facts on any +foundation of human knowledge?" + +"Consider how limited human knowledge is," said Mannering, "and grant +that we have not exhausted its possibilities yet. There may be some +physical peculiarity about the room, some deadly but perfectly natural +chemical accident, some volatile stuff, in roof or walls, that reacts to +the lowered temperatures of night. A thousand rare chance combinations +of matter may occur which are capable of examination, and which, +under skilled experiment, will resolve their secret. Nothing it more +bewildering than a good conjuring trick till we know how it is done, and +Nature is the supreme conjurer. We have not found out all her tricks, +and never shall do so; but we very well know that a solution to all of +them exists." + +"A material outlook and arrogant," said the priest. + +Whereupon Mannering grew a little warm. + +"It is neither material nor arrogant. I am humbler than you, and your +positive assertion seems much the more arrogant. This is the twentieth +century, and your mediaeval attitude would win no possible sympathy or +support from any educated man." + +"Truth can afford to be patient," answered May. "But I, too, am quite +sane, though your face doubts it. I do not claim that human prayer can +alter physical laws, and I do not ask my Maker to work a miracle on my +behalf or suspend the operations of cause and effect. But I am satisfied +that we are in a region outside our experience and on another plane and +dimension than those controlled by natural law. God has permitted us to +enter such a region. He has opened the door into this mystery. He has +spoken to my soul and so directed me that I cannot sit with folded +hands. This is, I repeat, a challenge to me personally. + +"There is, as I potently believe, a being in bondage here which only the +voice of God, speaking through one of His creatures, can liberate. If +I am wrong, then I shall pray in vain; if right, as I know by deepest +conviction and intuition, then my prayer must avail. In any case, I do +my duty, and if I myself was called to die while so doing, what nobler +death can I desire?" + +Mannering regarded the speaker with growing concern. But he still +assumed sanity on the part of the reverend gentleman, and still felt +considerable irritation mix with his solicitude. + +"You must consider others a little," he said. + +"No, Dr. Mannering; they must consider me. Providence sends me a message +denied to the rest of you, because I am a fit recipient; you are not. It +is Newman's 'Illative Sense'--a conviction arising from well-springs +far deeper and purer than those that account for human reason. I know +because I know. Reasoning, at best, is mere inference deduced from +observation, but I am concerned with an inspiration--a something akin to +the gift of prophecy." + +"Then I can only hope that Sir Walter will exercise his rights and +responsibilities and deny you what you wish." + +"He has faith, and I am sorry that you lack it." + +"No, Mr. May, you must not say that. It is entirely reasonable that +Mannering should ask you to consider others," said Sir Walter. "To you +a sudden and peaceful death might be no ill; but it would be a very +serious ill to the living--a loss to your work on earth, which is not +done, a shock and grief to those who respect you, and a reflection on +all here." + +"Let the living minister to the living and put their trust in God." + +Mannering spoke to the vicar of Chadlands. + +"What do you think, Prodgers? You are a parson, too, yet may be able +to see with our eyes. Surely common sense shouldn't be left out of our +calculations, even if they concern the next world?" + +"I respect Mr. May's faith," answered the younger priest, "and assuredly +I believe that if we eliminate all physical and natural causes from poor +Captain May's death, then no member of our sacred calling should fear +to spend the night alone in that room. Jacob wrestled with the angel of +light. Shall the servants of God fear to oppose a dark angel?" + +"Well spoken," said Mr. May. + +"But that is not all, sir," continued Noel Prodgers. "It is impossible +that we can share such certainty as you claim. Probability lies entirely +against it. This has happened twice, remember, and each time a valuable +and precious life disappears, for causes beyond our knowledge. That, +however, is no reason for assuming the causes are beyond all human +knowledge. We do not all possess learning in physics. I would venture +most earnestly to beg you to desist, at least until much more has been +done and this famous professional man has made such researches as his +genius suggests. That is only reasonable, and reason, after all, is a +mighty gift of God--a gift, no doubt, often abused by finite beings, +who actually use it to defy the Giver--yet none the less, in its proper +place, the handmaid of faith and the light of true progress." + +But Septimus May argued against him. "To shelter behind reason at such +a moment is to blunt the sword of the spirit," he replied, "and human +reason is never the handmaid of faith, as you wrongly suggest, but her +obdurate, unsleeping foe. That which metaphysicians call intuition, and +which I call the voice of God, tells me in clear tones that my boy died +by no human agency whatever and by no natural accident. He was wrapt +from this life to the next in the twinkling of an eye by forces, or a +force, concerning which we know nothing save through the Word of God. +I will go farther. I will venture to declare that this death-dealing +ghost, or discarnate but conscious being, may not be, as you say, a dark +angel--perhaps not wholly evil--perhaps not evil at all. One thing none +can question--it did the will of its Creator, as we all must, and we +are not, therefore, justified in asserting that a malignant force was +exerted. To say so is to speak in terms of our own bitter loss and our +own aching hearts. But we are justified in believing that a fearful, +unknown power was liberated during the night that Tom died, and I desire +to approach that power upon my knees and with my life in my Maker's +hands." + +The conviction of this righteous but superstitious soul was uttered with +passionate zeal. He puzzled to understand how fellow Christians could +argue against him, and much resented the fact that Sir Walter withstood +his claim and declined to permit the experiment he desired to make. A +formalist and precisian, he held any sort of doubt to be backsliding +before the message in his own heart. They argued unavailingly with him, +and Henry Lennox suggested a compromise. + +"Why is it vital, after all, that only one should undertake this +ordeal?" he asked. "I begged you to let me try--for revenge." + +"Do not use that word," said Mr. Prodgers. + +"Well, at any rate, I feel just as great a call to be there as Tom's +father can feel--just as pressing a demand and desire. There may have +been foul play. At any rate, the thing was done by an active agency, and +Tom was taken in some way at a disadvantage. There was no fair fight, +I'll swear. He was evidently kneeling, calmly enough looking out of +the window, when he died, and the blow must have been a coward's blow, +struck from behind, whoever struck it." + +"There was no blow, Henry," said Sir Walter. + +"Death is a blow, uncle--the most awful blow a strong man can be called +to suffer, surely. And I beg this, that if you won't let me face the +infernal thing alone you'll let me share this business with Mr. May. He +can pray and I can--watch." + +But the dead man's father made short work of Henry's proposition. + +"You are introducing that very element of rationalism to be, before all +things, distrusted here. The mere introduction of human precaution and +human weapons would sully faith and make of no avail the only sure means +of winning light on this solemn problem. Reason, so employed, would be a +hindrance--an actual danger. Only absolute faith can unravel the mystery +before us." + +"Then, frankly, I tell you that I lack any such absolute faith," +declared Sir Walter. + +"Do not say that--you libel yourself and are letting a base and material +fear cloud your own trust," answered May. "As there is no human reason +for what has happened, so no human reason will be found to explain it. +By denying me, you are denying the sole means by which this dark terror +can be banished. You are denying God's offer of peace. We must not only +seek peace, but ensure it. That means that we are now called to take +such steps as the Almighty puts at our service by the road of conscience +and faith. I have a right to this revelation as my boy's father. The cup +is mine, and you will do very wrongly if you deny me the right to drink +it. I desire to say, 'Peace be to this house' before I leave it, and, +Christian to Christian, you cannot deny me, or hesitate as to your +answer." + +No argument would bend his obstinate conviction, and he debated with +great force from his own standpoint. He presented a man overmastered and +mentally incapable of appreciating any argument against his possession. + +But Sir Walter, now determined, was as obstinate as the clergyman. +Mannering bluntly declared that it would be suicide on May's part, and a +conniving at the same by any who permitted him to attempt his vigil. + +"I, too, must do my duty as I see it," summed up the master of +Chadlands, "and after I have done so, then we may be in a position to +admit the case is altered." + +The other suddenly rose and lifted his hands. He was trembling with +emotion. + +"May my God give a sign, then!" he cried. + +They were silent a moment, for courtesy or astonishment. Nothing +happened, and presently Sir Walter spoke: + +"You must bear with me. You are upset, and scarcely know the gravity of +the things you say. To-morrow the physical and material investigation +that I consider proper, and the world has a right to demand, will be +made--in a spirit, I hope, as earnest and devout as your own. And if +after that no shadow of explanation is forthcoming, and no peril to life +can be discovered, then I should feel disposed to consider your views +more seriously--with many reserves, however. At any rate, it will be +your turn then, if you still adhere to your opinions; and I am sure +all just persons who hear of your purpose would join their prayers with +you." + +"Your faith is weak, though you believe it strong," answered the other. + +And he was equally curt when the physician advised him to take a +sleeping-draught before retiring. He bade them "Good-night" without +more words, and went to his room, while after further conversation, Dr. +Mannering and Mr. Prodgers took their leave. + +The former strongly urged Sir Walter to set some sort of guard outside +the door of the Grey Room. + +"That man's not wholly sane to-night," he declared, "and he appears to +glory in the fact that he isn't. He must surely be aware that much he +said was superstitious bosh. Look after him. Guard his own apartment. +That will be the simplest plan." + +When they had gone, Sir Walter addressed his nephew. They went upstairs +together and stood for a moment outside the Grey Room. The door was wide +open, and the place brilliantly lighted by a high-powered bulb. So had +it been by night ever since the disaster. None of the household entered +it, and none, save Sir Walter or Henry, was willing to do so until more +should be known. + +"I have your word of honor you will not go into that room to-night," +said his uncle; "but such is the mental condition of this poor clergyman +that I can but feel Mannering is right. May might, from some fancied +call of the spirit, take the law into his own hands and do what he +wishes to do. This must be prevented at any cost. I will ask you, Henry, +to follow the doctor's suggestion on my behalf, and keep guard over him. +Oppose him actively if he should appear, and call me. I would suggest +that Caunter or Masters accompanied you, but that is only to make gossip +and mystery." + +"On no account. I'll look after him. You can trust me. I expect he's +pretty worn out after such a harrowing day, poor old beggar. He'll +probably sleep soundly enough when he gets to bed." + +"I trust so. I cannot offer to aid you myself, for I am dead beat," said +the other. + +Then they parted, and the younger presently took up a position in the +west wing of the house, where Septimus May had his bedroom. + +Not until sunrise did Henry Lennox go to his own chamber, but his +sleepless night proved a needless precaution, for Septimus May gave no +sign. + + + + +CHAPTER V. THE UNSEEN MOVES + + +Before ten o'clock on the following morning Peter Hardcastle, who had +travelled by the night train from Paddington, was at Chadlands. A car +had gone into Newton Abbot to meet him, as no train ran on the branch +line until a later hour. + +The history of the detective was one of hard work, crowned at last by +a very remarkable success. His opportunity had come, and he had grasped +it. The accident of the war and the immense publicity given to his +capture of a German secret agent had brought him into fame, and raised +him to the heights of his profession. Moreover, the extraordinary +histrionic means taken to achieve his purpose, and the picturesqueness +of the details, captured that latent love of romance common to all +minds. Hardcastle had become a lion; women were foolish about him; +he might have made a great match and retired into private life had +he desired to do so. At the present time an American heiress ardently +wished to wed the man. + +But he was not fond of women, and only in love with his business. A hard +life in the seamy places of the world had made him something of a cynic. +He had always appreciated his own singular powers, and consciousness of +ability, combined with a steadfast patience and unconquerable devotion +to his "art," as he called it, had brought him through twenty years in +the police force. He began at the bottom and reached the top. He was the +son of a small shopkeeper, and now that his father was dead his mother +still ran a little eating-house for her own satisfaction and occupation. + +Peter Hardcastle was forty. He had already made arrangements to leave +Scotland Yard and set up, single-handed, as a private inquiry agent. +The mystery of Chadlands would be the last case to occupy him as a +Government servant. In a measure he regretted the fact, for the death of +Captain Thomas May, concerning which every known particular was now in +his possession, attracted him, and he knew the incident had been widely +published. It was a popular mystery, and, as a man of business, he well +understood the professional value of such sensations to the man who +resolves the puzzle. His attitude toward the case appeared at the +outset, and Sir Walter, who had been deeply impressed by the opinions +of the dead man's father, and even unconsciously influenced by them, now +found himself in the presence of a very different intellect. There was +nothing in the least superstitious about Peter Hardcastle. He uttered +the views of a remorseless realist, and at the outset committed himself +to certain definite assumptions. The inhabitants of the manor house were +informed that a friend of Sir Walter's had come to visit Chadlands, and +they saw nothing to make them doubt it. For Peter was a great actor. +He had mixed with all classes, and the detective had the imitative +cleverness to adapt himself in speech and attire to every society. He +even claimed that he could think with the brains of anybody and adapt +his inner mind, as well as his outer shape, to the changing environment +of his activities. He appreciated the histrionics that operate out of +sight, and would adopt the blank purview of the ignorant, the deeper +attitude of the cultured, or the solid posture of that class whose +education and inherent opinions is based upon tradition. He had made a +study of the superficial etiquette and manners and customs of what is +called "the best" society, and knew its ways as a naturalist patiently +masters the habits of a species. + +Chadlands saw a small, fair man with scanty hair, a clean-shaven face, a +rather feminine cast of features, a broad forehead, slate-grey eyes, +and a narrow, lipless mouth which revealed very fine white teeth when he +spoke. It was a colorless face and challenged no attention; but it was a +face that served as an excellent canvas, and few professional actors had +ever surpassed Peter in the art of making up their features. + +Similarly he could disguise his voice, the natural tones of which were +low, monotonous, and of no arrestive quality. Mr. Hardcastle surprised +Sir Walter by his commonplace appearance and seeming youth, for he +looked ten years younger than the forty he had lived. A being so +undistinguished rather disappointed his elder, for the master of +Chadlands had imagined that any man of such wide celebrity must offer +superficial marks of greatness. + +But here was one so insignificant and so undersized that it seemed +impossible to imagine him a famous Englishman. His very voice, in its +level, matter-of-fact tones, added to the suggestion of mediocrity. + +Sir Walter found, however, that the detective did not undervalue +himself. He was not arrogant, but revealed decision and immense will +power. From the first he imposed his personality, and made people forget +the accidents of his physical constitution. He said very little during +breakfast, but listened with attention to the conversation. + +He observed that Henry Lennox spoke seldom, but studied him +unobtrusively, as a man concerning whom he specially desired to know +more. Hardcastle proved himself well educated; indeed, his reading, +studiously pursued, and his intellectual attainments, developed by hard +work and ambition, far exceeded those of any present. + +The clergyman returned to his own ground, and expressed his former +opinions, to which Hardcastle listened without a shadow of the secret +surprise they awoke in him. + +"The Witchcraft Act assumes that there can be no possible communication +between living men and spirits," he said in answer to an assertion; +whereon Septimus May instantly took up the challenge. + +"A fatuous, archaic assumption, and long since destroyed by actual, +human experience," he replied. "It is time such blasphemous folly should +be banished from the Statute Book. I say 'blasphemous' because such an +Act takes no cognizance of the Word of God. Outworn Acts of Parliament +are responsible for a great deal of needless misery in this world, and +it is high time these ordinances of another generation were sent to the +dust heap." + +"In that last opinion I heartily agree with you," declared the +detective. + +Henry ventured a quotation. He was much interested to learn whether +Hardcastle had any views on the ghost theory. + +"Goethe says that matter cannot exist without spirit, or spirit without +matter. Would you sub-scribe to that, Mr. Hardcastle?" + +"Partially. Matter can exist without spirit, which you may prove by +getting under an avalanche; but I do most emphatically agree that spirit +cannot exist without matter. 'Divorced from matter, where is life?' asks +Tyndall, and nobody can answer him." + +"You misunderstand Goethe," declared Mr. May. "In metaphysics--" + +"I have no use for metaphysics. Believe me, the solemn humbug of +metaphysics doesn't take in a policeman for a moment. Juggling with +words never advanced the world's welfare or helped the cause of truth. +What, for any practical purpose, does it matter how subjectively true a +statement may be if it is objectively false? Life is just as real as I +am myself--no more and no less--and all the metaphysical jargon in the +world won't prevent my shins from bleeding wet, red blood when I bark +them against a stone." + +"You don't believe in the supernatural then?" asked Mr. May. + +"Most emphatically not." + +"How extraordinary! And how, if I may ask, do you fill the terrible +vacuum in your life that such a denial must create?" + +"I have never been conscious of such a vacuum. I was a sceptic from my +youth up. No doubt those who were nurtured in superstition, when reason +at last conquers and they break away, may experience a temporary blank; +but the wonders of nature and the achievements of man and the demands +of the suffering world--these should be enough to fill any blank for a +reasonable creature." + +"If such are your opinions, you will fail here," declared the clergyman +positively. + +"Why do you feel so sure of that?" + +"Because you are faced with facts that have no material explanation. +They are supernatural, or supernormal, if you prefer the word." + +"'One world at a time,' is a very good motto in my judgment," replied +Hardcastle. "We will exhaust the possibilities of this world first, +sir." + +"They have already been exhausted. Only a simple, straightforward +question awaits your reply. Do you believe in another world or do you +not?" + +"In the endless punishment or the endless happiness of men and women +after they are dead?" + +"If you like to confuse the issue in that way you are at liberty, of +course, to do so. As a Christian, I cannot demur. The problem for the +rationalist is this: How does he ignore the deeply rooted and universal +conviction that there is a life to come? Is such a sanguine assurance +planted in the mind of even the lowest savage for nothing? Where did the +aborigines win that expectation?" + +"My answer embraces the whole question from my own point of view," +replied Hardcastle. "The savages got their idea of dual personality +from phenomena of nature which they were unable to explain--from their +dreams, from their own shadows on the earth and reflections in water, +from the stroke of the lightning and the crash of the thunder, from the +echo of their own voices, thrown back to them from crags and cliffs. +These things created their superstitions. Ignorance bred terror, and +terror bred gods and demons--first out of the forces of nature. That +is the appalling mental legacy handed down in varying shapes to all the +children of men. We labor under them to this day." + +"You would dare to say our most sacred verities have sprung from the +dreams of savages?" + +Hardcastle smiled. + +"It is true. And dreams, we further know, are often the result of +indigestion. Early man didn't understand the art of cookery, and +therefore no doubt his stomach had a great deal to put up with. We +have to thank his bear steaks and wolf chops for a great deal of our +cherished nonsense, no doubt." + +Sir Walter, marking the clergyman's flashing eyes, changed the subject, +and Septimus May, who observed his concern, restrained a bitter answer. +But he despaired of the detective from that moment, and proposed +to himself a future assault on such detested modern opinions when +opportunity occurred. + +After breakfast Mr. Hardcastle begged for a private interview with the +master of Chadlands, and for two hours sat in his study and took him +through the case from the beginning. + +He put various questions concerning the members of the recent house +party, and presently begged that Henry Lennox might join them. + +"I should like to hear the account of what passed on the night between +him and Captain May," he said. + +Henry joined them, and detailed his experience. While he talked, +Hardcastle appraised him, and perceived that certain nebulous opinions, +which had begun to crystallize in his own mind, could have no real +foundation. The detective believed that he was confronted with a common +murder, and on hearing Henry's history, as part of Sir Walter's story +with the rest, perceived that the old lover of Mary Lennox had last seen +her husband alive, had drunk with him, and been the first to find him +dead. Might not Henry have found an eastern poison in Mesopotamia? But +his conversation with the young man, and the unconscious revelation of +Henry himself, shattered the idea. Lennox was innocent enough. + +For a moment, the information of uncle and nephew exhausted, Hardcastle +returned to the matter of the breakfast discussion. + +"You will, of course, understand that I am quite satisfied a material +and physical explanation exists for this unfortunate event," he said. "I +need hardly tell you that I am unprepared to entertain any supernatural +theory of the business. I don't believe myself in ghosts, because in my +experience, and it is pretty wide, ghost stories break down badly under +anything like skilled and independent examination. There is a natural +reason for what has happened, as there is a natural reason for +everything that happens. We talk of unnatural things happening, but that +is a contradiction in terms. Nothing can happen that is not natural. +What we call Nature embraces every conceivable action or event or +possibility. We may fail to fathom a mystery, and we know that a +thousand things happen every day and night that seem beyond the power +of our wits to explain; but that is only to say our wits are limited. +I hold, however, that very few things happen which do not yield an +explanation, sooner or later, if approached by those best trained to +examine them without predisposition or prejudice. And I earnestly hope +that this tragic business will give up its secret." + +"May you prove the correctness of your opinions, Mr. Hardcastle," +answered Sir Walter. "Would you like to see the Grey Room now?" + +"I should; though I tell you frankly it is not in the Grey Room that I +shall find what I seek. It does not particularly interest me, and for +this reason. I do not associate Captain May's death in any way with the +earlier tragedy--that of the hospital nurse, Mrs. Forrester. It is a +coincidence, in my opinion, and probably, if physiology were a more +perfect science than, in my experience of post-mortem examinations, it +has proved to be, the reason for the lady's death would have appeared. +And, for that matter, the reason for Captain May's death also. To say +there was no reason is, of course, absurd. Nothing ever yet happened, or +could happen, without a reason. The springs of action were arrested and +the machine instantly ran down. But a man is not a clock, which can be +stopped and reveal no sign of the thing that stopped it. Life is a far +more complex matter than a watch-spring, and if we knew more we might +not be faced with so many worthless post-mortem reports. But Sir Howard +Fellowes is not often beaten. I repeat, however, I do not associate the +two deaths in the Grey Room or connect them as the result of one and the +same cause. I do not state this as a fact beyond dispute, but that, for +the present, is my assumption. The gap in time seems too considerable. +I suspect other causes, and shall have to make researches into the dead +man's past life. I should wish also to examine all his property. He +has been in foreign countries, and may have brought back something +concerning the nature of which he was ignorant. He may possess enemies, +of whom neither you nor Mrs. May have heard anything. Your knowledge of +him, recollect, extends over only a short time--eight or ten months, I +suppose. I shall visit his ship and his cabin in H. M. S. Indomitable +also, and learn all that his fellow officers can tell me." + +Sir Walter looked at his watch. + +"It is now nearly one o'clock," he said, "and at two we usually take +luncheon. What would you wish to do between now and then? None here but +ourselves and my butler--an old friend in all my secrets--knows you have +come professionally. I concealed the fact and called you 'Forbes,' at +your wish, though they cannot fail to suspect, I fear." + +"Thank you. I will see the room, then, and look round the place. Perhaps +after luncheon, if she feels equal to the task, Mrs. May will give me a +private interview. I want to learn everything possible concerning your +late son-in-law--his career before Jutland, his philosophy of life, his +habits and his friends." + +"She will very gladly tell you everything she can." + +They ascended to the Grey Room. + +"Not the traditional haunt of spooks, certainly," said Peter Hardcastle +as they entered the bright and cheerful chamber. The day was clear, and +from the southern window unclouded sunshine came. + +"Nothing is changed?" he asked. + +"Nothing. The room remains as it has been for many years." + +"Kindly describe exactly where Captain May was found. Perhaps Mr. Lennox +will imitate his posture, if he remembers it?" + +"Remember it! I shall never forget it," said Henry. "I first saw him +from below. He was looking out of the open window and kneeling here on +this seat." + +"Let us open the window then." + +The situation and attitude of the dead on discovery were imitated, and +Hardcastle examined the spot. Then he himself occupied the position and +looked out. + +"I will ask for a ladder presently, and examine the face of the wall. +Ivy, I see. Ivy has told me some very interesting secrets before to-day, +Sir Walter." + +"I dare say it has." + +"If you will remind me at luncheon, I can tell you a truly amazing story +about ivy--a story of life and death. A man could easily go and come by +this window." + +"Not easily I think," said Henry. "It is rather more than thirty-five +feet to the ground." + +"How do you know that?" + +"The police, who made the original inquiry and were stopped, as you +will remember, from Scotland Yard, measured it the second morning +afterwards--on Monday." + +"But they did not examine the face of the wall?" + +"I think not. They dropped a measure from the window." + +The other pursued his examination of the room. "Old furniture," he said; +"very old evidently." + +"It was collected in Spain by my grandfather many years ago." + +"Valuable, no doubt?" + +"I understand so." + +"Wonderful carving. And this door?" + +"It is not a door, but a cupboard in the solid wall." + +Sir Walter opened the receptacle as he spoke. The cupboard--some six and +a half feet high--was empty. At the back of it appeared a row of pegs +for clothes. + +"I can finish with the room for the present at any rate, in an hour, +gentlemen," said Hardcastle. "I'll spend the time here till luncheon. +Had your son-in-law any interest in old furniture, Sir Walter?" + +"None whatever to my knowledge. He was interested, poor fellow, not in +the contents, but in the evil reputation of the room. Its bad name dated +back far beyond the occupation of my family. Captain May laughed at my +mistrust, and, as you know, he came here, contrary to my express wishes, +in order that he might chaff me next morning over my superstition. He +wanted 'to clear its character,' as he said." + +Hardcastle was turning over the stack of old oil-paintings in tarnished +frames. + +"Family portraits?" + +"Yes." + +"You mistrusted the room yourself, Sir Walter?" + +"After Nurse Forrester's death I did. Not before. But while attaching no +importance myself to the tradition, I respected it." + +"Nobody else ever spent a night here after the lady's death?" + +"Nobody. Of that I am quite certain." + +"Have you not left the house since?" + +"Frequently. I generally spend March, April, and May on the +Continent--in France or Italy. But the house is never closed, and my +people are responsible to me. The room is always locked, and when I am +not in residence Abraham Masters, my butler, keeps the key. He shares my +own feelings so far as the Grey Room is concerned." + +The detective nodded. He was standing in the middle of the room with his +hands in his pockets. + +"A strange fact--the force of superstition," he said. "It seems to feed +on night, where ghosts are involved. What, I suppose, credulous people +call 'the powers of darkness.' But have you ever asked yourself why the +spiritualists must work in the dark?" + +"To simplify their operations, no doubt, and make it easier for the +spirits." + +"And themselves! But why is the night sacred to apparitions and +supernatural phenomena generally?" + +"Tradition associates them with those hours. Spiritualists say it is +easier for spectres to appear in the dark by reason of their material +composition. It is then that we find the most authentic accounts of +their manifestations." + +"Yes; because at that time human vitality is lowest and human reason +weakest. Darkness itself has a curious and depressing effect on the +minds of many people. I have won my advantage from that more than +once. I once proved a very notorious crime by the crude expedient of +impersonating the criminal's victim--a murdered woman--and appearing +to him at night before a concealed witness. But spirits are doomed. The +present extraordinary wave of superstition and the immense prosperity +of the dealers in the 'occult' is a direct result of the war. They are +profiteers--every one of them--crystal gazers, mediums, fortune tellers, +and the rest. They are reaping a rare harvest for the moment. We punish +the humbler rogues, but we don't punish the fools who go to see them. +If I had my way, the man or woman who visited the modern witch or wizard +should get six months in the second division. Fools should be punished +oftener for their folly. But education will sweep these things into the +limbo of man's ignorance and mental infancy. Ghosts cannot stand the +light of knowledge any better than they can operate in the light of +day." + +"You are very positive, Mr. Hardcastle." + +"Not often--on this subject--yes, Sir Walter Lennox. I have seen too +much of the practitioners. Metaphysics is largely to blame. Physics, the +strong, you will find far too merciful to metaphysics, the weak." + +Sir Walter found himself regarding Hardcastle with dislike. He spoke +quietly, yet there was something mocking and annoying in his dogmatism. + +"You must discuss the subject with Mr. May, who breakfasted with us. He +will, I think, have no difficulty in maintaining the contrary opinion." + +"They never have any difficulty--clergymen I mean--and argument with +them is vain, because we cannot find common ground to start from. What +is the reverend gentleman's theory?" + +"He believes that the room holds an invisible and conscious presence +permitted to exercise powers of a physical character antagonistic to +human life. He is guarded, you see, and will not go so far as to say +whether this being is working for good or evil." + +"But it has done evil, surely?" + +"Evil from our standpoint. But since the Supreme Creator made this +creature as well as He made us, therefore Mr. May holds that we are +not justified in declaring its operations are evil--save from a human +standpoint." + +"How was he related to Captain Thomas May?" + +"His father." + +Peter Hardcastle remained silent for a moment; then he spoke again. + +"Have you observed how many of the sons of the clergy go into the Navy +or Merchant Marine?" + +"I have not." + +"They do, however." + +Sir Walter began to dislike the detective more than before. + +"We will leave you now," he said. "You will find me in my study if you +want me. That bell communicates with the servants. The lock of the door +was broken when we forced our way in, and has not been mended; but you +can close the door if you wish to do so. It has been kept open since and +the electric light always turned on at night." + +"Many thanks. I will consider a point or two here and rejoin you. Was +the chimney examined?" + +"No. It would not admit a human being." + +Then Sir Walter and his nephew left the room, and Hardcastle, waiting +until they were out of earshot, shut the door and thrust a heavy chair +against it. + +They heard no more of him for an hour, and joined Mary and Septimus May, +who were walking on the terrace together. The former was eager to learn +the detective's opinions, but her husband's father had already warned +her that Peter Hardcastle was doomed to fail. + +The four walked up and down together, and Prince, Sir Walter's ancient +spaniel, went beside them. + +Henry told his cousin the nature of their conversation and the direction +in which the professional inquiry seemed to turn. + +"He wants to see you and hear everything you can tell him about dear +Tom's past," he said. + +"Of course I will tell him everything; and what I do not know, Mr. May +will remember." + +"He is very quiet and very open-minded about some things, but jolly +positive about others. Your father-in-law won't get far with him. He +scoffs at any supernatural explanation of our terrible loss." + +Mr. May overheard this remark. + +"As I have already told Mary, his failure is assured. He is wasting his +time, and I knew he probably would do so before he came. Not to such +a man, however clever he may be, will an explanation be vouchsafed. I +would rather trust an innocent child to discover these things than such +a person. He is lost in his own conceit and harbors vain ideas." + +"There is something about him I cordially dislike already," confessed +Sir Walter. "And yet it is a most unreasonable dislike on my part, for +he is exceedingly well mannered, speaks and conducts himself like a +gentleman, and does nothing that can offend the most sensitive." + +"A prejudice, Uncle Walter." + +"Perhaps it is, Henry; yet I rarely feel prejudice." + +"Call it rather an intuition," said the clergyman. "What your +antipathetic attitude means is that you already unconsciously know this +man is not going to avail, and that his assumption of superiority in the +matter of knowledge--his opinions and lack of faith--will defeat him if +nothing else does. He approaches his problem in an infidel spirit, and +consequently the problem will evade his skill; because such skill is not +merely futile in this matter, but actually destructive." + +Mary left them, and they discussed the probable chances of the detective +without convincing each other. Henry, who had been much impressed by +Hardcastle, argued in his favor; but Septimus May was obdurate, and Sir +Walter evidently inclined to agree with him. + +"The young men think the old men fools, and the old men know the young +ones are," said Sir Walter. + +"But he is not young, uncle; he's forty. He told me so." + +"I thought him ten years less, and he spoke with the dogmatism of +youth." + +"Only on that subject." + +"Which happens to be the one subject of all others on which we have a +right to demand an open and reverent mind," said the clergyman. + +Henry noticed that Sir Walter spoke almost spitefully. + +"Well, at any rate, he thought rather small beer of the Grey Room. He +felt quite sure that the secret lay outside it. He was going to exhaust +the possibilities of the place in no time." + +As he spoke the gong sounded, and Prince, pricking his ears, led the way +to the open French window of the dining-room. + +"Call our friend, Henry," said his uncle. And young Lennox, glad of the +opportunity, entered the house. He desired a word with Hardcastle in +private, and ascended to join him. + +The door of the Grey Room was still closed, and Henry found some +obstacle within that prevented it from yielding to his hand. At once +disturbed by this incident, he did not stand upon ceremony. He pushed +the door, which gave before him, and he perceived that a heavy chair had +been thrust against it. His noisy entrance challenged no response, and, +looking round, it appeared for an instant that the room was empty; +but, lowering his eyes, he saw first the detective's open notebook and +stylograph lying upon the ground, then he discovered Peter Hardcastle +himself upon his face with his arms stretched out before him. He lay +beside the hearth, motionless. + +Lennox stooped, supported, and turned him over. He was still warm and +relaxed in every limb, but quite unconscious and apparently dead. An +expression of surprise marked his face, and the corner of each open eye +had not yet lost its lustre, but the pupil was much dilated. + + + + +CHAPTER VI. THE ORDER FROM LONDON + + +Henry Lennox suffered as he had not suffered even during the horrors +of war. For the first time in his life he felt fear. He lowered the +unconscious man to the ground, and knew that he was dead, for he had +looked on sudden death too often to feel in any doubt. Others, however, +were not so ready to credit this, and after he hastened downstairs with +his evil message, both Sir Walter and Masters found it hard to believe +him. + +When he descended, his uncle and May were standing at the dining room +door, waiting for him and Peter Hardcastle. Mary had just joined them. + +"He's dead!" was all the youth could say; then, thoroughly unnerved, he +fell into a chair and buried his face in his hands. + +Again through his agency had a dead man been discovered in the Grey +Room. In each case his had been the eyes first to confront a tragedy, +and his the voice to report it. The fact persisted in his mind with a +dark obstinacy, as though some great personal tribulation had befallen +him. + +Mary stopped with her cousin and asked terrified questions, while Sir +Walter, calling to Masters, hastened upstairs, followed by Septimus May. +The clergyman was also agitated, yet in his concern there persisted a +note almost of triumph. + +"It is there!" he cried. "It is close to us, watching us, powerless to +touch either you or me. But this unhappy sceptic proved an easy victim." + +"Would to God I had listened to you yesterday," said Sir Walter. "Then +this innocent man had not perhaps been snatched from life." + +"You were directed not to listen. Your heart was hardened. His hour had +come." + +"I cannot believe it. We may restore him. It is impossible that he can +be dead in a moment." + +They stood over the detective, and Masters and Fred Caunter, with +courage and presence of mind, carried him out into the corridor. + +The butler spoke. + +"Run for the brandy, Fred," he said. "We must get some down his neck if +we can. I don't feel the gentleman's heart, but it may not have stopped. +He's warm enough." + +The footman obeyed, and Hardcastle was laid upon his back. Then Sir +Walter directed Masters. + +"Hold his head up. It may be better for him." + +They waited, and, during the few moments before Caunter returned, Sir +Walter spoke again. His mind wandered backward and seemed for the moment +incapable of grasping the fact before him. + +"Almost the last thing the man said was to ask me why ghosts haunted the +night rather than the day." + +"Poor fool--poor fool! He is answered," replied the priest. + +All attempts to restore the vanished life proved useless, and they +carried Hardcastle downstairs presently. Henry Lennox was already gone +for the doctor, and when, within an hour, Mannering joined them, he +could only pronounce that the man was dead. No sign of life rewarded +their protracted efforts to restore circulation. How he had come by his +end, how death had broken into his frame, it was impossible to +determine. Not an unusual sign marked the body. It revealed neither +wound nor outward evidence of shock. The case seemed parallel with that +of Thomas May. Death had struck the man like a flash of lightning and +dropped him, where he stood, making his notes by the fireplace. + +Whereupon a complication faced Dr. Mannering. Mary came to him, where he +spoke in the library with Sir Walter and Henry Lennox. She implored him +to use his influence with her father-in-law; for they had forgotten +Septimus May, while hastily deliberating as to what telegrams should be +dispatched; but now they learned that Mr. May was in the Grey Boom and +refused to leave it. + +"He is very excited," she said. "He is walking up and down, speaking +aloud, quoting texts from Scripture, addressing the spirit that he +believes to be listening to him. It would be grotesque were it not so +horrible. He must be made to come away." + +"He is justified of his faith," declared Sir Walter. "I have withstood +him until now, but I can do so no longer." + +"Indeed you must. He is playing with death," said Mannering. + +They sought Tom's father, to find him, as Mary had said, walking up and +down, with fierce joy of battle on his thin, stern face and in his +shining eyes. + +"Now shall the powers of Light triumph and the will of God be done!" he +said to them. + +He made no demur, however, when they drew him away. + +"The future is mine," he declared, and grew calm. "You cannot stand +between me and my duty again, Sir Walter. You have gravely erred, and +this is the result of your error. But you will not err a second time." + +His excitation ceased, and it was he who proposed that they should +return to their forgotten meal. In the matter of the man just dead, he +revealed an indifference almost callous. + +"His God will justly judge him according to his deserving," he declared. +"If he sinned through ignorance and false teaching, his punishment will +not be heavy; if he hardened his heart against truth and rejected the +faith from pride--but even then the Father of Mercy may pardon him. He +has failed, even as I knew he must, and paid a terrible penalty for +failure." + +Sir Walter, sorely stricken, hardly heard the other. He ate a little at +Mary's entreaty, then, driven by some impulse to leave his +fellow-creatures and court solitude, excused himself, begged Lennox and +Mannering to bring him news when the telegram dispatched to Scotland +Yard was answered, and prepared to leave them. + +As he rose, he marked his old spaniel standing whimpering by his side. + +"What is the matter with Prince?" he asked. + +"He has not had his dinner," said Mary. + +"Let him be fed at once," answered her father, and went out alone. + +She rose to follow him immediately, but Mannering, who had stopped and +was with them, begged her not to do so. + +"Leave him to himself," he said. "This has shaken your father, as well +it may. He's all right. Make him take his bromide to-night, and let +nobody do anything to worry him." + +The master of Chadlands meantime went afield, walked half a mile to a +favorite spot, and sat down upon a seat that he had there erected. A +storm was blowing up from the south-west, and the weather of his mind +welcomed it. He alternated between bewilderment and indignation. His +own life-long philosophy and trust in the ordered foundations of human +existence threatened to fail him entirely before this second stroke. It +seemed that the punctual universe was suddenly turned upside down, and +had emptied a vial of horror upon his innocent head. + +Reality was a thing of the past. A nightmare had taken its place, a +nightmare from which there was no waking. He considered the stability +of his days--a lifetime followed upon high principles and founded on +religious convictions that had comforted his sorrows and countenanced +his joys. It seemed a trial undeserved, that in his old age he should be +thrust upon a pinnacle of publicity, forced into the public eye, +robbed of dignity, denied the privacy he esteemed as the most precious +privilege that wealth could command. Stability was destroyed; to +count upon the morrow seemed impossible. His thought, strung to a new +morbidity, unknown till now, ran on and pictured, with painful, vivid +stroke upon stroke, the insufferable series of events that lay before +him. + +Life was become a bizarre and brutal business for a man of fine feeling. +He would be thrust into the pitiless mouth of sensation-mongers, +called to appear before tribunals, subjected to an inquisition of +his fellow-men, made to endure a notoriety infinitely odious even +in anticipation. Indeed, Sir Walter's simple intellect wallowed in +anticipation, and so suffered much that, given exercise of restraint, he +might have escaped altogether. He was brave enough, but personal bravery +would not be called for. He sat now staring dumbly at an imaginary +series of events abominable and unseemly in every particular to his +order of mind. He was so concerned with what the future must hold in +store for him that for a time the present quite escaped his thoughts. + +He returned to it, however, and it was almost with the shock of a new +surprise he remembered that Peter Hardcastle, a man of European repute, +had just died in his house. But he could not in the least realize the +new tragedy. He had as yet barely grasped the truth of his son-in-law's +end, and still often found himself expecting Tom's footfall and his +jolly voice. That such an abundant vitality was stilled, that such an +infectious laugh would never sound again on mortal ear he yet sometimes +found it hard to believe. + +But now it seemed that the impact of this second blow rammed home the +first. He brooded upon his dead son-in-law, and it was long before he +returned to the event of that day. A thought struck him, and though +elementary enough, it seemed to Sir Walter an important conclusion. +There could be no shadow of doubt that Tom May and Peter Hardcastle had +died by the same secret force. He felt that he must remember this. + +Again he puzzled, and then decided with himself that, if he meant to +keep sane, he must practice faith and trust in God. Septimus May had +said that such unparalleled things sometimes happened in the world to +try man's faith. Doubtless he was right. + +Henceforth the old man determined to stand firmly on the side of +the supernatural with the priest. He went further, and blamed his +scepticism. It had cost the world a valuable life. He could not, indeed, +be censured for that in any court of inquiry. Sceptical men would +doubtless say that he had done rightly in refusing Mr. May his +experiment. But Sir Walter now convinced himself that he had done +wrongly. At such a time, with landmarks vanishing and all accepted laws +of matter resolved into chaos, there remained only God to trust. Such +a burden as this was not to be borne by any mortal, and Sir Walter +determined that he would not bear it. + +Were we not told to cast our tribulations before the Almighty? Here, if +ever, was a situation beyond the power of human mind to approach, unless +a man walked humbly with his hand in his Maker's. Septimus May had been +emphatically right. Sir Walter repeated this conviction to himself again +and again, like a child. + +He descended to details presently. The hidden being, that it had been +implicitly agreed could only operate by night in the Grey Room, proved +equally potent under noonday sun. But why should it be otherwise? To +limit its activities was to limit its powers, and the Almighty alone +knew what powers had been granted to it. He shrank from further +inquiries or investigations on any but a religious basis. He was now +convinced that no natural explanation would exist for what had happened +in the Grey Room, and he believed that only through the paths of +Christian faith would peace return to him or his house. + +Then the present dropped out of his thoughts. They wandered into the +past, and he concerned himself with his wife. She it was who had taught +him to care for foreign travel. Until his marriage he had hardly left +England, save when yachting with friends, and an occasional glimpse of a +Mediterranean port was all that Sir Walter knew of the earth outside his +own country. But he remembered with gratitude the opportunities won from +her. He had taken her round the world, and found himself much the richer +in great memories for that experience. + +He was still thinking when Mary found him, with his old dog asleep at +his feet. She brought him a coat and umbrella, for the threatened storm +advanced swiftly under clouds laden with rain. Reluctantly enough he +returned to the present. A telegram had been received from London, +directing Dr. Mannering to reach the nearest telephone and communicate +direct. The doctor was gone to Newton Abbot, and nothing could be done +until he came back. Not knowing what had occupied Sir Walter's mind, +Mary urged him to leave Chadlands without delay. + +"Put the place into the hands of the police and take me with you," she +said. "Nothing can be gained by our stopping, and, after this, it is +certain the authorities will not rest until they have made a far more +searching examination than has ever yet been carried out. They will feel +this disaster a challenge." + +"Thankfully I would go," he answered. "Most thankfully I would avoid +what is hanging over my head. It was terrible enough when your dear +husband died; but now we shall be the centre of interest to half +England. Every instinct cries to me to get out of it, but obviously that +is impossible, even were I permitted to do so. It is the duty of the +police to suspect every man and woman under my roof--myself with the +rest. These appalling things have occurred in my home, and I must bear +the brunt of them and stand up to all that they mean. No Lennox ever ran +from his duty, however painful it might be. The death of this man--so +eminent in his calling--will attract tremendous attention and be, as you +say, a sort of direct challenge to the authorities for whom he worked. +They will resent this second tragedy, and with good reason. The poor +man, though I cannot pretend that I admired him, was a force for good in +the world, and his peculiar genius was devoted to the detection of crime +and punishment of criminals--a very worthy occupation, however painful +to our ideas." + +They sat in the library now, and Henry Lennox spoke to his uncle, with +his eye on the window, waiting for the sight of the doctor's car. + +"They'll want to tear the place down, very likely. They'll certainly +have no mercy on the stones and mortar, any more than they will on us." + +"They can spare themselves that trouble, and you your fears," declared +Septimus May, who had joined them. "It is impossible that they will be +here until to-morrow. Meantime--" + +"It is easy to see what they will do," proceeded young Lennox, "and what +they will think also. Nor can we prevent them, even if we wanted to. I +image their theory will be this. They will suppose that Mr. Hardcastle, +left in that room alone, was actually on the track of those responsible +for Tom's death. They will guess that, in some way, or by some accident, +he surprised the author of the tragedy, and the assassin, seeing his +danger, resorted to the same unknown means of murder as before. They may +imagine some hidden lunatic concealed here, whose presence is only known +to some of us. They may suspect a homicidal maniac in me, or my uncle, +or Masters, or anybody. Certainly they will seek a natural explanation +and flout the idea of any other." + +The clergyman protested, but Henry was not prepared to traverse the old +ground again. + +"I have as much right to my opinions as you to yours," he said. "And I +am positive this is man's work." + +Then Mary announced that Mannering's car was in sight. The library +windows opened on the western side of the house and afforded a view of +the main drive, along which the doctor's little hooded car came flying, +like a dead leaf in a storm. But it was not alone. A hospital motor +ambulance followed behind it. + +They soon learned of curious things, and the house was first thrown into +a great bustle and then restored to peace. + +Mannering had spoken for half an hour with London, and received +directions that puzzled him not a little by their implication. For a +moment he seemed unwilling to speak before Mary. Then he begged her +bluntly to leave them for a while. + +"It's this way," he said when she was gone. "They're harboring a mad +idea in London, though, of course, the facts will presently convince +them to the contrary. Surely I must know death when I see it? But a +divisional surgeon, or some other medical official, directs me to bring +this poor fellow's body to London to-night. Every care must be taken, +warmth and air applied, and so on. They've evidently got a notion +that, since life appears to go so easily in the Grey Room, and leave +no scratch or wound, either life has not gone at all, or that it may be +within the power of science to bring it back again. In a sense this is +a reflection upon me--as though it were possible that I could make any +mistake between death and suspended animation; but I must do as I'm +ordered. I travel to town with the dead man to-night, and if they find +he is anything but dead as a doornail, I'll--" + +The doctor was writing his reminiscences, "The Recollections of a +Country Physician," and he could not fail to welcome these events, +for they were destined to lend extraordinary attraction to a volume +otherwise not destined to be much out of the common. + +He spoke again. + +"I should be very glad if you would accompany me, Lennox. I shall have +a police inspector from Plymouth; but it would be a satisfaction if you +could come. Moreover, you would help me in London." + +"I'll come up, certainly. You don't mind, Uncle Walter?" + +"Not if Mannering wishes it. We owe him more than we can ever repay. +Anything that we can do to lessen his labors ought to be done." + +"I should certainly welcome your company. A small saloon carriage is +to be put on to the Plymouth train that leaves Newton for London before +midnight. We shall be met at Paddington by some of their doctors. And as +to Chadlands, four men arrive to-morrow morning by the same train that +Peter Hardcastle came down in last night. We shall pass them on the way. +They will take charge both of the Grey Room and the house as soon as +they arrive." + +"And they will be welcome. I would myself willingly pull down Chadlands +to the foundations if by so doing I could discover the truth." + +"It demands no such sacrifice," declared May, who had listened to these +facts. "Bricks and mortar, stone and timber are innocent things. One +might as soon dissect a thunder-cloud to find the lightning as destroy +material substances to discover what is hidden in this house. The +unknown being, about his Master's business here, will no more yield its +secret to four detectives, or an army of them, than it did to one. 'What +I do thou knowest not now.' It is all summed up in that." + +He turned to Mannering and asked a sudden question. + +"Why did you object to Mary hearing these facts? In what way should they +distress her particularly?" + +"Can you not see? Indeed, one might fairly have objected to your +presence also. But you are a man. There is an implied horror of the +darkest sort for poor Mary in the suggestion that Hardcastle may still +live. If he can be brought back to life, then she would surely think +that perhaps her husband and your son might have been. Imagine the agony +of that. I speak plainly; indeed, there is no rational or sentimental +reason why I should not, for the truth is, of course, that the signs of +death were clearly evident on your poor boy before what we had to do was +done. But the bare thought must have shocked Mary. We know emphatically +that Hardcastle is dead, and we need not mention to her this fantastic +theory from London." + +"I appreciate your consideration," said Sir Walter; and the clergyman +also acknowledged it. + +"There can be no shadow of doubt concerning my son," he said; "nor is +there any in the matter of this unfortunate man." + +Henry Lennox went to prepare for the journey. Then, obeying the +doctor's directions and treating the dead man as though he were merely +unconscious, they carried him to the ambulance car. It was an unseemly +farce in Mannering's opinion, and he only realized the painful nature +of his task when he came to undertake it; but he carried it through in +every particular as directed, conveyed the corpse to Newton after dark, +and had the ambulance bed, in which it reposed, borne to the saloon +carriage when the night mail arrived from Plymouth, between eleven and +twelve. He was able to regulate the temperature with hot steam, and kept +hot bottles to the feet and sides of the dead. + +He felt impatient and resentful; he poured scorn on the superior +authority for the benefit of the inspector and Henry Lennox, who +accompanied him; but in secret he experienced emotions of undoubted +satisfaction that life had broken from its customary monotonous round +to furnish him with an adventure so unique. He pointed out a fact to the +policeman before they had started. + +"You will observe," he said, with satire, "that, despite the heat we +are directed to apply to this unfortunate man, rigor mortis has set in. +Whether the authority in London regards that as an evidence of death, of +course I cannot pretend to say. Perhaps not. I may be behind the times." + +Neither Mannering nor Lennox had spared much thought for those left +behind them at Chadlands. The extraordinary character of the task put +upon them sufficed to fill their minds, and it was not until the small +hours, when they sat with their hands in their pockets and the train +ran steadily through darkness and storm, that the younger spoke of his +cousin. + +"I hope those old men won't bully Mary to-night," he said. "I'd meant to +ask you to give Uncle Walter a caution. May's not quite all there, in my +opinion, and very likely, now you're out of the way, he'll get round Sir +Walter about that infernal room." + +Mannering became interested. + +"D'you mean for an instant he wants to try his luck after what's +happened?" + +"You forget. Your day has been so full that you forget what did happen." + +"I do not, Lennox. Mary begged me to tackle the man. I calmed him, and +he came down to his luncheon. He must have thought over the matter since +then, and seen that he was playing with death." + +"Far from it, 'The future is mine!' That's what he said. And that means +he'll try and be in the Grey Room alone to-night." + +"I wish to Heaven you'd made this clear before we'd started. But +surely we can trust Sir Walter; he knows what this means, even if that +superstitious lunatic doesn't." + +"I don't want to bother you," answered Henry; "but, looking back, I'm +none so sure that we can trust my uncle. He's been pretty wild to-day, +and who shall blame him? Things like this crashing into his life leave +him guessing. He's very shaken, and has lost his mental grip, too. +Reality's played him such ugly tricks that he may be tempted to fall +back on unreality now." + +"You don't mean he'll let May go into that room to-night?" + +"I hope not. He was firm enough last night when the clergyman clamored +to do so. In fact, he made me keep watch to see he didn't. But I think +he's weakened a lot since Hardcastle came to grief in broad daylight. +And I sha'n't be there to do anything." + +"All this comes too late," answered the other. "If harm has happened--it +has happened. We can only pray they've preserved some sanity among +them." + +"That's why I say I hope they're not bullying Mary," answered Lennox. +"Of course, she'd be dead against her father-in-law's idea. But she +won't count. She can't control him if Sir Walter goes over to his side." + +"Let us not imagine anything so unreasonable. We'll telegraph to hear if +all's well at the first moment we can." + +The storm sent a heavy wash of rain against the side of the carriage. It +was a famous tempest, that punished the South of England from Land's End +to the North Foreland. + +They were distracted from their thoughts by the terrific impact of the +wind. + +"Wonder we can stop on the rails," said Mannering. "This is a fifty-knot +gale, or I'm mistaken." + +"I'm thinking of the Chadlands trees," answered the other. "It's rum +how, in the middle of such an awful business as this, the mind switches +off to trifles. Does it on purpose, I suppose, to relieve the strain. +Yes, the trees will catch it to-night. I expect I shall hear a grim tale +of fallen timber from Sir Walter by the time I get back to-morrow." + +"If nothing's fallen but timber, I sha'n't mind," answered Mannering; +"but you've made me devilish uneasy now. If anything further went +wrong--well, to put it mildly, they would say your uncle ought to have +known a great deal better." + +"He does know a great deal better. It's only that temporarily he's +knocked off his balance. But I hardly feel as anxious as you do. There's +Mary against May; and even if my uncle were for him, on a general, vague +theory of something esoteric and outside nature, which you can't fairly +call unreasonable any more, Mannering, seeing what's happened--even if +Sir Walter felt tempted to let him have his way, I don't believe he'd +really consent when it came to the point." + +"I hope not--I hope not," answered the other. "Such a concession would +take a lot of explanation if the result were another of these disasters. +There ought to be an official guard over the room." + +"After to-morrow there certainly will be," replied Henry. "You may be +sure the police won't leave it again till they've satisfied themselves. +All the same, I don't see how a dozen of them will be any safer than +one--even if it's some material and physical thing that happens, as +we must suppose. And for that matter, if it's really supernatural, why +should a dozen be safer than one? Obviously they wouldn't. Whatever it +is, it can strike as it likes and without being struck back." + +But Dr. Mannering did not answer these questions. He was considering +a little book in his pocket, which he would hand over to the police in +London next morning. + +"Poor chap--if he could have begun by taking the problem by the throat, +as he has written here. But, instead, it took him by the throat!" + +He took Hardcastle's notebook from his pocket and read again the last +few pages. + +"He was dreaming of his theories to the last, when he should surely +have been girt up in every limb to face facts," said Lennox. "He never +realized the horrible danger." + +Perusal of the detective's data had revealed an interesting fact. It +was known by his colleagues that he designed a book on the theory and +practice of criminal investigations, and in many of his pocket-books, +subsequently examined, were found memoranda and jottings, doubtless +destined to be worked out at another time. It was clear that he had, for +a few moments, drifted away from the Grey Room in thought when his +death overtook him. Past events, not present problems, were apparently +responsible for the reflections that occupied his mind. He was not +concentrating on the material phenomena actually under his observation +when he died, but following some private meditations provoked by his +experiences. + +"Elimination embraces the secret of success," he had written. "Exercise +the full force of your intelligence and spare no pains to eliminate from +every case all matter not bearing directly upon the actual problem. Nine +times out of ten the issue is direct, and once permit side issues to +draw their tracks across it, once admit metaphysical lines of reasoning, +the result will be confusion and a problem increasing in complexity +at every stage. Only in romances, where a plot is invented and then +complicated by deliberate art, shall we find the truth ultimately +permitted to appear in some subordinate incident, or individual, +studiously kept in the background--that is the craft of telling +detective stories. But, in truth, one needs to lay hold of the problem +by the throat at the outset. Deception is too much the province of the +criminal and too little the business of the investigator; and where it +may be possible to creep, like a snake, into a case, unknown for what +you truly are, then your opportunities and chances of success are +enormously increased. It is, however, the exception when one can start +without the knowledge of anybody involved, and the Scotland Yard of the +future will pursue its business under very different circumstances from +the present. The detective's work should be made easier and not +more difficult. None should know who is working on a case. The law's +representatives should be disguised and move among the characters +surrounding the crime as something other than they really are. They +will--" + +Here Hardcastle's reflections came to an end. Some previous notes there +were of superficial accidents in the Grey Room and a rough ground plan +of it; but nothing more. He had evidently, for the time being, broken +away from his environment and was merely thinking, with a pen on paper, +when he died. + + + + +CHAPTER VII. THE FANATIC + + +A succession of incidents, that must have perturbed the doctor and his +companion in earnest, had followed upon their departure from Chadlands, +and Mary soon discovered that she was faced with a terrible problem. + +For one young woman had little chance of winning her way against an old +man and the religious convictions that another had impressed upon him. +Sir Walter and the priest were now at one, nor did the common sense of +a fourth party to the argument convince them. At dinner Septimus May +declared his purpose. + +"We are happily free of any antagonistic and material influence," he +said. "Providence has willed that those opposed to us should be taken +elsewhere, and I am now able to do my duty without more opposition." + +"Surely, father, you do not wish this?" asked Mary. "I thought you--" + +But the elder was fretful. + +"Let me eat my meal in peace," he answered. "I am not made of iron, and +reason cuts both ways. It was reasonable to deny Mr. May before these +events. It would be unreasonable to pretend that the death of Peter +Hardcastle has not changed my opinions. To cleave to the possibility of +a physical explanation any longer is mere folly and obstinacy. I believe +him to be right." + +"This is fearful for me--and fearful for everybody here. Don't you see +what it would mean if anything happened to you, Mr. May? Even supposing +there is a spirit hidden in the Grey Room with power and permission to +destroy us--why, that being so, are you any safer than dear Tom was or +this poor man?" + +"Because I am armed, Mary, and they were defenseless. Unhappily youth +is seldom clothed in the whole armor of righteousness. My dear son was +a good and honorable man, but he was not a religious man. He had yet +to learn the incomparable and vital value of the practice of Christian +faith. Hardcastle invited his own doom. He admitted--he even appeared to +pride himself upon a crude and pagan rationalism. It is not surprising +that such a man should be called away to learn the lessons of which he +stood so gravely in need." + +"I know that our dear Tom was bidden to higher work--to labor in a +higher cause than here, to purer knowledge of those things that matter +most to the human soul," said Mary. "But that is not to say God chose +to take him by a miracle. For what you believe amounts to a miracle. +You know that I am bearing my loss in the same spirit as yourself, but, +granted it had to be at God's will, that is no reason why we should +suppose the means employed were outside nature." + +"How can you pretend they are inside nature, as we know it?" asked her +father. + +"We know nothing at all yet, and I implore Mr. May to wait until we are +at least assured that science cannot find a reason." + +"Fear not for me, my child," answered Septimus May. "You forget certain +details that have assisted to decide me. Remember that Hardcastle had +openly denied and derided the possibility of supernatural peril. He had +challenged this potent thing not an hour before he was brought face +to face with it. Tom went to his death innocently; this man cannot +be absolved so easily. In my case, with my knowledge and faith, the +conditions are very different, and I oppose an impregnable barrier +between myself and the secret being. I am an old priest, and I go +knowing the nature of my task. My weapons are such that a good spirit +would applaud them and an evil spirit be powerless against them. Do you +not see that the Almighty could never permit one of His creatures--for +even the devils also are His--to defeat His own minister or trample on +the name of Christ? It would amount to that. So armed one might walk in +safety through the lowermost hell, for hell can only believe and tremble +before the truth." + +Mary looked hopelessly at her father; but he offered her small comfort. +Sir Walter still found himself conforming to the fierce piety and +dogmatic assurance of the man of God. In this welter and upheaval his +modest intellect found only a foothold here, and his judgment now firmly +inclined to the confident assertions of religion. He was himself a +devout and conventional believer, and he turned to the support of faith, +and shared, with increasing conviction, the opinion of Septimus May, as +uttered in a volume of confident words. He became blind to the physical +danger. He even showed a measure of annoyance at Mary's obstinate +entreaties. She strove to calm him, and told him he was not himself--an +assertion that, by his inner consciousness of its truth, seemed to +incense Sir Walter. + +He begged her to be silent, and declared that her remarks savored of +irreverence. Startled and bewildered by such a criticism, the woman +was indeed silent for some time, while her father-in-law flowed on and +uttered his conviction. Yet not all his intensity and asseverations +could justify such extravagant assertion. At another time they might +even have amused Mary; but in sight of the fact that her father was +yielding, and that the end of the argument would mean the clergyman +in the Grey Room, she could win nothing but frantic anxiety from the +situation. Sir Walter was broken; he had lost his hold on reality, +and she realized that. His unsettled intelligence had gone over to the +opposition, and there was none, as it seemed, to argue on her side. + +Septimus May had acted like a dangerous drug on Sir Walter; he appeared +to be intoxicated in some degree. But only in mind, not in manner. He +argued for his new attitude, and he was not as excited as the priest, +but maintained his usual level tones. + +"I agreed with Mannering and Henry yesterday, as you know, Mary," he +said, "and at my desire Mr. May desisted from his wish. We see how +mistaken I was, how right he must have been. I have thought it out this +afternoon, calmly and logically. These unfortunate young men have died +without a reason, for be sure no explanation of Peter Hardcastle's death +will be forthcoming though the whole College of Surgeons examines his +corpse. Then we must admit that life has been snatched out of these +bodies by some force of which we have no conception. Were it natural, +science would have discovered a reason for death; but it could not, +because their lives flowed away as water out of a bottle, leaving the +bottle unchanged in every particular. But life does not desert its +physical habitation on these terms. It cannot quit a healthy, human body +neither ruined nor rent. You must be honest with yourself, my child, +as well as with your father-in-law and me. A physical cause being +absolutely ruled out, what remains? To-night I emphatically support Mr. +May, and my conscience, long in terrible concern, is now at rest again. +And because it is at rest, I know that I have done well. I believe that +what dear Tom's father desires to do--namely, to spend this night in +the Grey Room--is now within his province and entirely proper to his +profession, and I share his perfect faith and confidence." + +"It is you who lack faith, Mary," continued Septimus May. "You lack +faith, otherwise you would appreciate the unquestionable truth of what +your father tells you. Listen," he continued, "and understand something +of what this means from a larger outlook than our own selfish and +immediate interests. Much may come of my action for the Faith at large. +I may find an answer to those grave questions concerning the life beyond +and the whole problem of spiritualism now convulsing the Church and +casting us into opposing sections. It is untrodden and mysterious +ground; but I am called upon to tread it. For my part, I am never +prepared to flout inquirers if they approach these subjects in a +reverent spirit. We must not revile good men because they think +differently from ourselves. We must examine the assertions of such +inquirers as Sir Oliver Lodge and Sir Conan Doyle in a mood of reverence +and sympathy. Some men drift away from the truth in vital particulars; +but not so far that they cannot return if the road is made clear to +them. + +"We must remember that our conviction of a double existence rests on the +revelation of God through His Son, not on a mere, vague desire toward +a future life common to all sorts and conditions of men. They suspected +and hoped; we know. Science may explain that general desire if it +pleases; it cannot explain, or destroy, the triumphant certainty born +of faith. Spiritualism has succeeded to the biblical record of +'possession,' and I, for my part, of course prefer what my Bible +teaches. I do not myself find that the 'mediums' of modern spiritualism +speak with tongues worthy of much respect up to the present, and it is +certain that rogues abound; but the question is clamant. It demands +to be discussed by our spiritual guides and the fathers of the Church. +Already they recognize this fact and are beginning to approach it--some +priests in a right spirit, some--as at the Church Congress last +month--in a wrong spirit." + +"A wrong spirit, May?" asked Sir Walter. + +"In my opinion, a wrong spirit," answered the other. "There is much, +even in a meeting of the Church Congress, that makes truly religious men +mourn. They laughed when they should have learned. I refer to incidents +and criticisms of last October. There the Dean of Manchester, who shows +how those, who have apparently spoken to us from Beyond through +the mouths of living persons, describe their different states and +conditions. Stainton Moses gave us a vision of heaven such as an Oxford +don and myself might be supposed to appreciate. + +"Raymond describes a heaven wherein the average second lieutenant could +find all that, for the moment, he needs. But why laugh at these things? +If we make our own hells, shall we not make our own heavens? We must go +into the next world more or less cloyed and clogged with the emotions +and interests of this one. It is inevitable. We cannot instantly throw +off a lifetime of interests, affections, and desires. We are still human +and pass onward as human beings, not as angels of light. + +"Therefore, we may reasonably suppose that the Almighty will temper +the wind to the shorn lamb, nor impose too harsh and terrible a +transformation upon the souls of the righteous departed, but lead one +and all, by gradual stages and through not unfamiliar conditions, to the +heaven of ultimate and absolute perfection that He has designed for His +conscious creatures." + +"Well spoken," said Sir Walter. + +But Mr. May had not finished. He proceeded to the immediate point. + +"Shall it be denied that devils have been cast out in the name of God?" +he asked. "And if from human tenements, then why not from dwellings made +with human hands also? May not a house be similarly cleansed as well as +a soul? This unknown spirit--angel or fiend, or other sentient being--is +permitted to challenge mankind and draw attention to its existence. A +mystery, I grant, but its Maker has now willed that some measure of this +mystery shall be revealed to us. We are called to play our part in this +spirit's existence. + +"It would seem that it has endured a sort of imprisonment in this +particular room for more years than we know, and it may actually be the +spirit of some departed human being condemned, for causes that humanity +has forgotten, to remain within these walls. The nameless and unknown +thing cries passionately to be liberated, and is permitted by its +Maker to draw our terrified attention upon itself by the exercise of +destructive functions transcending our reason. + +"God, then, has willed that, through the agency of devout and living +men, the unhappy phantom shall now be translated and moved from this +environment for ever; and to me the appointed task is allotted. So I +believe, as firmly as I believe in the death and resurrection of the +Lord. Is that clear to you, Sir Walter?" + +"It is. You have made it convincingly clear." + +"So be it, then. I, too, Mary, am not dead to the meaning of science in +its proper place. We may take an illustration of what I have told you +from astronomy. As comets enter our system from realms of which we +have no knowledge, dazzle us a little, awaken our speculations and then +depart, so may certain immortal spirits also be supposed to act. We +entangle them possibly in our gross air and detain them for centuries, +or moments, until their Creator's purpose in sending them is +accomplished. Then He takes the means to liberate them and set them on +their eternal roads and to their eternal tasks once more." + +The listening woman, almost against her reason, felt herself beginning +to share these assumptions. But that they were fantastic, unsupported by +any human knowledge, and would presently involve an experiment full of +awful peril to the life of the man who uttered them, she also perceived. +Yet her reasonable caution and conventional distrust began to give way a +little under the priest's magnetic voice, his flaming eyes, his positive +and triumphant certainty of truth. He burned with his inspiration, +and she felt herself powerless to oppose any argument founded on facts +against the mystic enthusiasm of such religious faith. His honesty +and fervor could not, however, abate Mary's acute fear. Her father had +entirely gone over to the side of the devotee and she knew it. + +"It is well we have your opportunity to-night," he said, "for had the +police arrived, out of their ignorance they might deny it to you." + +Yet Mary fought on against them. In despair she appealed to Masters. He +had been an officer's orderly in his day, and when he left the Army and +came to Chadlands, he never departed again. He was an intelligent man, +who occupied a good part of his leisure in reading. He set Sir Walter +and Mary first in his affections; and that Mary should have won him so +completely she always held to be a triumph, since Abraham Masters had no +regard or admiration for women. + +"Can't you help me, Masters?" she begged. "I'm sure you know as well as +I do that this ought not to happen." + +The butler eyed his master. He was handing coffee, but none took it. + +"By all means speak," said Sir Walter. "You know how I rate your +judgment, Masters. You have heard Mr. May upon this terrible subject, +and should be convinced, as I am." + +Masters was very guarded. + +"It's not for me to pass an opinion, Sir Walter. But the reverend +gentleman, no doubt, understands such things. Only there's the Witch +of Endor, if I may mention the creature, she fetched up more than she +bargained for. And I remember a proverb as I heard in India, from +a Hindoo. I've forgot the lingo now, but I remember the sense. They +Hindoos say that if you knock long enough at a closed door, the devil +will open it--excuse my mentioning such a thing; but Hindoos are awful +wise." + +"And what then, Masters? I know not who may open the door of this +mystery; but this I know, that, in the Name of the Most High God, I can +face whatever opens it." + +"I ain't particular frightened neither, your reverence," said Masters. +"But I wouldn't chance it alone, being about average sinful and not near +good enough to tackle that unknown horror hid up there single-handed. +I'd chance it, though, in high company like yours. And that's +something." + +"It is, Masters, and much to your credit," declared Sir Walter. "For +that matter, I would do the like. Indeed, I am willing to accompany Mr. +May." + +While Septimus May shook his head and Mary trembled, the butler spoke +again. + +"But there's nobody else in this house would. Not even Fred Caunter, who +doesn't know the meaning of fear, as you can testify, Sir Walter. +But he's fed up with the Grey Room, if I may say so, and so's the +housekeeper, Mrs. Forbes, and so's Jane Bond. Not that they would desert +the ship; but there's others that be going to do so. I may mention that +four maids and Jackson intend to give notice to-morrow. Ann Maine, the +second housemaid, has gone to-night. Her father fetched her. Excuse me +mentioning it, but Mrs. Forbes will give you the particulars to-morrow, +if you please." + +"Hysteria," declared Sir Walter. "I don't blame them. It is natural. +Everybody is free to go, if they desire to do so. But tell them what you +have heard to-night, Masters. Tell them that no good Christian need fear +to rest in peace. Explain that Mr. May will presently enter the Grey +Room in the name of God; and bid them pray on their knees for him before +they go to sleep." + +Masters hesitated. + +"All the same, I very much wish the reverend gentleman would give +Scotland Yard a chance. If they fall, then he can wipe their eye +after--excuse my language, Sir Walter. I've read a lot about the +spirits, being terrible interested in 'em, as all human men must be; and +I hear that running after 'em often brings trouble. I don't mean to your +life, Sir Walter, but to your wits. People get cracked on 'em and +have to be locked up. I stopped everybody frightening themselves into +'sterics at dinner to-day; but you could see how it took 'em; and, +whether or no, I do beg Mr. May to be so kind as to let me sit up along +with him to-night. + +"You never hear of two people getting into trouble with these here +customers, and while he was going for this blackguard ghost in the name +of the Lord, I could keep my weather eye lifting for trouble. 'Tis a +matter for common sense and keeping your nerve, in my opinion, and we +don't want another death on our hands, I suppose. There'll be half +the mountebanks and photograph men and newspaper men in the land here +to-morrow, and 'twill take me all my time to keep 'em from over-running +the house. Because if they could come in their scores for the late +captain--poor gentleman!--what won't they try now this here famous +detective has been done in?" + +"Henry deplored the same thing," said Mary. "And I answer again, as I +answered then," replied Septimus May. "You mean well, Sir Walter, and +your butler means well; but you propose an act in direct opposition to +the principle that inspires me." + +"What do you expect to happen?" asked Mary. "Do you suppose you will +see something, and that something will tell you what it is, and why it +killed dear Tom?" + +"That, at any rate, would be a very great blessing to the living," said +her father. + +"The least the creature could do, in my humble opinion," ventured +Masters. + +But Septimus May deprecated such curiosity. + +"Hope for no such thing, and do not dwell upon what is to happen until +I am able to tell you what does happen," he answered. "Allow no human +weakness, no desire to learn the secrets of another world, to distract +your thoughts. I am only concerned with what I know beyond possibility +of doubt is my duty--to be entered upon as swiftly as possible. I hear +my call in the very voice of the wind shouting round the house to-night. +But beyond my duty I do not seek. Whether information awaits me, whether +some manifestation indicating my success and valuable to humanity will +be granted, I cannot say. I do not stop now to think about that. + +"Alone I do this thing--yet not alone, for my hand is in my Maker's +hand. Your part will not be to accompany me. Let each man and woman be +informed of what I do, and let them lift a petition for me, that my work +be crowned with success. But let them not assume that to-morrow I shall +have anything to impart. The night may be one of peace within, though +so stormy without. I may pray till dawn with no knowledge how my prayer +prospers, or I may be called to face a being that no human eye has ever +seen and lived. These things are hidden from us." + +"You are wonderful, and it is heartening to meet with such mighty +faith," replied Sir Walter. "You have no fear, no shadow of hesitation +or doubt at the bottom of your mind?" + +"None. Only an overmastering desire to obey the message that throbs in +my heart. I will be honest with you, for I recognize that many might +doubt whether you were in the right to let me face this ordeal. But I +am driven by an overwhelming mandate. Did I fear, or feel one tremor of +uncertainty, I would not proceed; for any wavering might be fatal and +give me helpless into the power of this watchful spirit; but I am as +certain of my duty as I am that salvation awaits the just man. + +"I believe that I shall liberate this arrested being with cathartic +prayer and cleansing petition to our common Maker. And have I not the +spirit of my dead boy on my side? Could any living man, however well +intentioned, watch with me and over me as he will? Fear nothing; go to +your rest, and let all who would assist me do so on their knees before +they sleep." + +Even Masters echoed some of this fierce and absolute faith when he +returned to the servants' hall. + +"His eyes blaze," he said. "He's about the most steadfast man ever I saw +inside a pulpit, or out of it. You feel if that man went to the window +and told the rain to stop and the wind to go down, they would. No ghost +that ever walked could best him anyway. They asked me to talk and say +what I felt, and I did; but words are powerless against such an iron +will as he's got. + +"I doubted first, and Sir Walter said he doubted likewise; but he's dead +sure now, and what's good enough for him is good enough for us. I'll bet +Caunter, or any man, an even flyer that he's going to put the creature +down and out and come off without a scratch himself. I offered to sit +up with him, so did Sir Walter; but he wouldn't hear of it. So all we've +got to do is to turn in and say our prayers. That's simple enough for +God-fearing people, and we can't do no better than to obey orders." + +It was none the less a nervous and highly strung household that +presently went to bed, and no woman slept without another woman to keep +her company. Sir Walter found himself worn out in mind and body. Mary +made him take his bromide, and he slept without a dream, despite the din +of the great "sou'-wester" and the distant, solemn crash of more than +one great tree thrown upon the lap of mother earth at last. + +Before he retired, however, something in the nature of a procession had +escorted the priest to his ordeal. Mr. May donned biretta, surplice, +and stole, for, as he explained, he was to hold a religious service as +sacred and significant as any other rite. + +"Lord send him no congregation then," thought Masters. + +But, with Sir Walter and Mary, he followed the ministrant, and left him +at the open door of the Grey Room. The electric light shone steadily; +but the storm seemed to beat its fists at the windows, and the leaded +panes shook and chattered. With no bell and candle, but his Bible alone, +Septimus May entered the room, having first made the sign of the Cross +before him; then he turned and bade good-night to all. + +"Be of good faith!" were the last words he spoke to them. + +Having done so he shut the door, and they heard his voice immediately +uplifted in prayer. They waited a little, and the sound roiled steadily +on. Sir Walter then bade Masters extinguish all the lights and send the +household to bed, though the time was not more than ten o'clock. + +As for Masters, the glamour and appeal of those strenuous words at the +dinner-table had now passed, and presently, as he prepared to retire, he +found himself far less confident and assured than his recent words had +implied. He sank slowly from hope to fear, even pictured the worse, and +asked himself what would follow if the worst happened. He believed that +it might mean serious disaster for Sir Walter. If another life were +sacrificed to this unknown peril, and it transpired that his master had +sanctioned what would amount to suicide in the eyes of reason; then he +began to fear that grave trouble must result. Already the burning words +of Septimus May began to cool and sound unreal, and Masters suspected +that, if they were repeated in other ears, which had not heard him utter +them, or seen the fervor of religious earnestness and reverence in which +they had been spoken, this feverish business of exorcising a ghost in +the twentieth century might only awake derision and receive neither +credence nor respect. His entire concern was for Sir Walter, not Mr. +May. He could not sleep, lighted a pipe, considered whether it was in +his power to do anything, felt a sudden impulse to take certain steps, +yet hesitated--from no fear to himself, but doubt whether action might +not endanger another. Mary did not sleep either, and she suffered more, +for she had never approved, and now she blamed herself not a little for +her weak opposition. A thousand arguments occurred to her while she lay +awake. Then, for a time, she forgot present tribulations, and her own +grief overwhelmed her, as it was wont to do by night. For while the +events that had so swiftly followed each other since her husband's death +banished him now and again, save from her subconscious mind, when alone +he was swift to return and her sorrow made many a night sleepless. She +was herself ill, but did not know it. The reaction had yet to come, and +could not be long delayed, for her nervous energy was worn out now. +She wept and lived days with the dead; then the present returned to her +mind, and she fretted and prayed--for Septimus May and for daylight. She +wondered why stormy nights were always the longest. She heard a +thousand unfamiliar sounds, and presently leaped from her bed, put on a +dressing-gown, and crept out into the house. To know that all was well +with the watcher would hearten her. But then her feet dragged before +she had left the threshold of her own room, and she stood still and +shuddered a little. For how if all were not well? How if his voice no +longer sounded? + +She hesitated to make the experiment, and balanced the relief of +reassurance against the horror of silence. She remembered a storm at +sea, when through a long night, not lacking danger to a laboring steamer +with weak engines, she had lain awake and felt her heart warm again when +the watch shouted the hour. + +She set out, then, determined to know if all prospered with her +father-in-law. Nor would she give ear to misgiving or ask herself what +she would do if no voice were steadily uplifted in the Grey Room. + +The great wind seemed to play upon Chadlands like a harp. It roared +and reverberated, now stilled a moment for another leap, now died away +against the house, yet still sounded with a steady shout in the neighbor +trees. At the casements it tugged and rattled; against them it flung +the rain fiercely. Every bay and passage of the interior uttered its own +voice, and overhead was creaking of old timbers, rattling of old slates, +and rustling of mortar fragments dislodged by sudden vibrations. + +Mary proceeded on her way, and then, to her astonishment, heard a +footfall, and nearly ran into an invisible figure approaching from +the direction of the Grey Room. Man and woman startled each other, but +neither exclaimed, and Mrs. May spoke. + +"Who is it?" she asked; and Masters answered: + +"Oh, my gracious! Terrible sorry, ma'am! If I didn't think--" + +"What on earth are you doing, Masters?" + +"Much the same as you, I expect, ma'am. I thought just to creep along +and see if the reverend gentleman was all right. And he is. The light's +burning--you can see it under the door--and he's praying away, steady +as a steam-threshing machine. I doubt he's keeping the evil creature at +arm's length, and I'm a tidy lot more hopeful than what I was an hour +ago. The thing ain't strong enough to touch a man praying to God like +what he can. But if prayers keep it harmless, then it's got ears and +it's alive!" + +"Can you believe that, Masters?" she whispered. + +"Got to, ma'am. If it was just a natural horror beyond the reach of +prayer, it would have knocked his reverence out long before now, like +other people. It settled the police officer in under an hour, and Mr. +May's been up against it for three--nearly four hours, so far. He'll +bolt it yet, I shouldn't wonder, like a ferret bolts a rat." + +"You really feel more hopeful?" + +"Yes, I do, ma'am; and if he can fire the creature and signal 'All's +clear' for Chadlands, it will calm everybody and be a proper feather in +his cap, and he did ought to be made a bishop, at the least. Not that +Scotland Yard men will believe a word of it to-morrow, all the same. +Ghosts are bang out of their line, and I never met even a common +constable that believed in 'em, except Bob Parrett, and he had bats in +the belfry, poor chap. No; they'll reckon it's somebody in the house, I +expect, who wanted to kill t' others, but ain't got no quarrel with Mr. +May. And you'd be wise to get back to bed, ma'am, and try to sleep, else +you'll catch a cold. I'll look round again in an hour or to, if I don't +go to sleep my self." + +They parted, while the storm still ran high, and through the empty +corridor, when it was lulled, a voice rolled steadily on from the Grey +Boom. + +When it suddenly ceased, an hour before dawn, the storm had already +begun to sink, and through a rack of flying and breaking cloud the +"Hunter" wheeled westerly to his setting. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII. THE LABORS OF THE FOUR + + +Despite the storm, Sir Walter slept through the night, and did not waken +until his man drew the blinds upon a dawn sky so clear that it seemed +washed of its blue. He had directed to be wakened at six o'clock. + +"What of Mr. May?" he asked. + +"Masters wants to know if we shall call him, Sir Walter." + +"Not if he has returned to his room, but immediately if still in the +Grey Room." + +"He's not in his own room, sir." + +"Then seek him at once." + +The valet hesitated. + +"Please, Sir Walter, there's none much cares to open the door." + +He heard his daughter's voice outside at the same moment. + +"Mr. May has not left the Grey Room, father." + +"I'll be with you in a moment," he answered. + +Then he rose, dressed partially, and joined her. She was full of active +fear. + +"All went well at two o'clock," she said, "for I crept out to listen. So +did Masters. Mr. May's voice sounded clear and steady." + +They found the butler at the door of the Grey Room. He was pale and +mopping his forehead. + +"I've called to him, but it's as silent as the grave in there," he said. +"It's all up with the gentleman; I know it!" + +"He may not be there; he may have gone out," answered Sir Walter. + +Then he opened the door widely and entered. The electric light still +shone and killed the pallid white stare of the morning. Upon a little +table under it they observed Septimus May's Bible, open at an epistle of +St. Paul, but the priest himself was on the floor some little distance +away. He lay in a huddled heap of his vestments. He had fallen upon his +right side apparently, and, though the surplice and cassock which he had +worn were disarranged, he appeared peaceful enough, with his cheek on +a foot stool, as though disposed deliberately upon the ground to sleep. +His biretta was still upon his head; his eyes were open, and the fret +and passion manifested by his face in life had entirely left it. He +looked many years younger, and no emotion of any kind marked his placid +countenance. But he was dead; his heart had ceased to beat and his +extremities were already cold. The room appeared unchanged in every +particular. As in the previous cases, death had come by stealth, yet +robbed, as far as the living could judge, of all terror for its victim. + +Masters called Caunter and Sir Walter's valet, who stood at the door. +The latter declined to enter or touch the dead, but Caunter obeyed, and +together the two men lifted Mr. May and carried him to his own room. In +a moment it seemed that the house knew what had happened. + +A scene of panic and hysteria followed below stairs, and, without Jane +Bond's description of it, Mary knew the people were running out of the +house as from a plague. She left her father with Masters, and strove to +calm the frightened domestics. She spoke well, and explained that the +event, horrible though it was, yet proved that no cause for their alarm +any longer existed. + +"If it had been a wicked spirit we do not understand, it would have had +no power over Mr. May, who was a saint of God," she said. "Be at peace, +restrain yourselves, and fear nothing now. There is no ghost here. Had +it been a demon or any such thing, it must have been conscious, and +therefore powerless against Mr. May. This proves that there is some +fearful natural danger which we have not yet discovered hidden in the +room, but no harm can happen to anybody if they do not go into the room. +The police are coming from Scotland Yard in an hour or two, and you may +feel as sure, as I do, and Sir Walter does, that they will find out the +truth, whatever it is. You must none of you think of leaving before they +come. If you do, they will only send for you again. Please prepare your +breakfast and be reasonable. Sir Walter is terribly upset, and it would +be a base thing if any of you were to desert him at a moment like this." + +They grew steadier before her, and Mrs. Forbes, the housekeeper, who +believed what Mary had said, added her voice. + +Then Sir Walter's daughter returned to her father, who was with Masters +in the study. A man had already started for a doctor, but with Mannering +away there was none nearer than Neon Abbot. + +Mary called on Masters to assert his authority, and reassure the +household as she had done. She told him her argument, and he accepted it +as a revelation. + +"Thank God you could keep your senses and see that, ma'am! Tell the +master the same, and make him drink a drop of spirits and get into his +clothes. He's shook cruel!" + +He had already brought the brandy, which was his panacea for all ills, +and now left Mary and her father together. She found him collapsed, +and forgot the cause for a few moments in her present concern for him. +Indeed, she always thought, and often said afterwards, that but for +the minor needs for action that intervened in this series of terrible +moments she must herself have gone out of her mind. But something always +happened, as in this case, to demand her full attention, and so arrest +and deflect the strain almost at the moment of its impact. + +She found that the ideas she had just employed to pacify the servants' +hall were also in her father's thoughts. From them, however, he won no +consolation, though he stood convinced. But the fact that Septimus May +should have failed, and paid for his failure with his life, now assumed +its true significance for Sir Walter. He was self-absorbed, prostrate, +and desperate. In such a condition one is not master of oneself, and may +say and do anything. The old man's armor was off, and in the course of +his next few speeches, by a selfish forgetfulness that he would have +been the first to condemn in another, he revealed a thing that was +destined to cause the young widow bitter and needless pain. First, +however, he pointed out what she already grasped and made clear to +others. + +"This upsets all May's theories and gives the lie to me as well. Why +did I believe him! Why did I let him convince me against my better +judgment?" + +"Do not fret about that now." + +"You might say, 'I told you so!' but you will not do that. Nevertheless, +you were right to seek to stop this unfortunate man last night, and he +was terribly mistaken. No being from another world had anything to do +with his death. If we granted that, there is an end of religious faith." + +"We can be sure of it, father. Evil spirits would have had no power over +Mr. May, if there is a just God in heaven." + +"Then it is something else. If not a spirit, then a living man--a human +devil--and the police will discover him. In this house, one we have +known and trusted; for all are known and trusted. They will blame me, +with good reason, for sacrificing another life. The irony of fate that +I, of all men, one so much alive to the meaning of mercy--that I, out +of superstitious folly--But how will it look in the eyes of justice? +Black--black! I am well prepared to suffer what I have deserved, Mary. +Nothing that man can do to me equals the shame and dismay I feel when I +consider what I have done to myself!" + +"You must not talk so; it is unworthy of you. You know it, father, while +you speak. Nobody has a right to question you or your opinions. Many +would have been convinced by Mr. May last night. They may still think +that he was right, and that, far from receiving evil treatment, he was +blessed by being taken away into the next world without pain or shock. +We must feel for him as we try to feel for dear Tom. And I do not +mean that I am sorry for him; I am only sorry for us, because of the +difficulty of explaining. Yet to tell the truth will not be difficult. +They must do the best they can. It doesn't matter as much as you think. +Indeed, how should they blame you at all until they themselves find out +the truth?" + +"They will--they must! They will discover the reason. They will hunt +down the murderer, and they will inevitably attach utmost blame to me +for listening to a man possessed. May was possessed, I tell you!" + +"He was exceedingly convincing. When I listened to him he shook me, +too." + +"I should have supported you, instead of going over to him." + +"He knows the truth now. He is with Tom now. We must remember that. We +know they are happy, and that makes the opinion of living people matter +very little." + +Then, out of his weakness, he smote her, and thrust upon her some hours +of agony, very horrible in their nature, which there was no good reason +that Mary should have suffered. + +"Who is alive and who is dead?" he asked. "We don't even know that. The +police demanded to make their own inquiries, and Peter Hardcastle may at +this moment be a living and breathing man, if they are right." + +She stared at him and feared for his reason. + +"What do you mean?" + +"I mean that they were not prepared to grant that he was dead. Henry and +Mannering took him up on that assumption. He may have been restored to +animation and his vital forces recovered. Why not? There was nothing +visible to indicate dissolution. We have heard of trances, catalepsies, +which simulate death so closely that even physicians are deceived. Have +not men been buried alive? Tom's father at this moment might be restored +to life, if we only knew how to act." + +"Then--" she said, with horrified eyes, and stopped. + +He saw what he had done. + +"God forgive me! No, no, not that, Mary! It's all madness and moonshine! +This is delirium; it will kill me! Don't think I believe them, any more +than Mannering did, or Henry did. Henry has seen much death; he could +not have been deceived. Tom was dead, and your heart told you he was +dead. One cannot truly make any mistake in the presence of death; I know +that." + +Mary was marvellously restrained, despite the fact that she had received +this appalling blow and vividly suffered all that it implied. + +"I will try to put it out of my mind, father," she said quietly. "But if +Mr. Hardcastle is alive, I shall go mad!" + +"He is not. Mannering was positive." + +"Nevertheless, he may be. And if he is, then Mr. May probably is." + +"Grotesque, horrible, worse than death even! Keep your mind away from +it, my darling, for the love of God!" + +"Who knows what we can suffer till we are called to find out? No, I +shall not go mad. But I must know to-day. I cannot eat or sleep until I +know. I shall not live long if they don't tell me quickly." + +Her father trembled and grew very white. + +"This is the worst of all," he said. "These things will leave a burning +brand. I am ruined by them, and my life thrown down. I, that thought I +was strong, prove so weak that I can forget my own daughter, and out of +cowardly misery speak of a thing she should never have known. You have +your revenge, Mary, for I shall go a broken man from this hour. Nothing +can ever be the same again. My self-respect is gone. I could have +endured everything else--the things that I dreaded. All I could have +suffered and survived; but to have forgotten and stabbed you--" + +"Don't, don't--come--we have got each other, father--we have still got +each other. The dead understand everything. Who else matters? Go to your +room, and let your dear mind rest. I am not suffering. We cannot alter +the past, and who would wish it, if they believe in eternal life? I +would not call Tom back if I had the power to do so. Be sure of that." + +She spoke comfortable words to him, and supported him to his room. She +knew the police would soon arrive, and though they could not report +concerning the life, or death, of Peter Hardcastle, she doubted not that +definite information relating to him must come to Chadlands quickly. +Upon that another life might hang. Yet, when the medical man arrived +from Newton, he could only say that Septimus May was dead. He was a +friend of Mannering, and knew the London opinion, that this form +of apparent death might in reality conceal latent possibilities of +resuscitation; but he spoke with absolute certainty. He was old, and had +nearly fifty years of professional experience behind him. + +"The man is dead, or I never saw death," he declared. "By a hundred +independent evidences we can be positive. Post-mortem stains have +already appeared, and were they ever known on a living body? Of the +others who died in this room I know nothing personally; but here is +death, and in twenty-four hours the fact will be plain to the perception +of an idiot. What has happened is this: the London police have heard +of a famous, recent German case mentioned in 'Deutsche Medizinische +Wochenschraft'--an astonishing thing. A woman, who had taken morphine +and barbital, was found apparently dead after a night's exposure in +some lonely spot. There were no reflexes, no pulse, no respiration or +heart-beat. Yet she was alive--existing without oxygen--an impossibility +as we had always supposed. Seeing no actual evidence of death, the +physicians injected camphor and caffein and took other restorative +steps, with the result that in an hour the woman breathed again! +Twenty-four hours later she was conscious and able to speak. It is +assumed that the poison and the cold night air together had paralyzed +her vasomotor nerves and reduced her body to a state akin to +hibernation, wherein physical needs are at their minimum. That case has +doubtless awakened these suspicions, and having regard to them, we will +keep the poor gentleman in a warm room and proceed with the classical +means for restoring respiration." + +The doctor was thus engaged when four men reached Chadlands after their +nightly journey. They were detective officers of wide reputation, and +their chief--a grey-haired man with a round, amiable face and impersonal +manner--listened to the events that had followed upon Peter Hardcastle's +arrival and departure. + +Sir Walter himself narrated the incidents, and perceiving his +excitation, Inspector Frith assumed the gentlest and most forbearing +attitude that he knew. + +The police had come in a fighting humor. They arrived without any +preconceived ideas or plan of action; but they were in bitter earnest, +and knew that a great body of public opinion lay behind them. That +Hardcastle, who had won such credit for his department and earned the +applause of two continents, should have thus been lost, in a manner so +mean and futile, exasperated not only his personal colleagues, but the +larger public interested in his picturesque successes and achievements. + +The new arrivals felt little doubt that their colleague was indeed dead, +nor, when they heard of the last catastrophe, and presently stood by +Septimus May, could they feel the most shadowy suspicion that life might +be restored to him. Sir Walter found his nerve steadied on the arrival +of these men. Indeed, by comparison with other trials, the ordeal before +him now seemed of no complexity. He gave a clear account of events, +admitted his great error, and answered all questions without any further +confusion of mind. + +"I am not concerned to justify my permission in the matter of Mr. May," +he concluded. "I deeply deplore it, and bitterly lament the result; but +my reasons for granting him leave to do what he desired I am prepared to +justify when the time comes. Others also heard him speak, and though he +did not convince my daughter, whose intellect is keener than my own, I +honestly believed him with all my heart. It seemed to me that only +so could any reasonable explanation be reached. Moreover, you have to +consider his own triumphant conviction and power of argument. Rightly or +wrongly, he made me feel that he was not mistaken--indeed, made me share +his resolute convictions. These things I am prepared to explain if need +be. But that will not matter to you. Personally I am now only too sure +that both Septimus May and I were mistaken. I realize that there must +exist some physical causes for these terrible things, that they are +of human origin, and I hope devoutly that you will be permitted by +Providence to discover them, and those responsible for them. But the +peril is evidently still acute. The danger remains, and I need not ask +you to recognize it." + +Inspector Frith answered him, and proved more human than Sir Walter +expected. He was an educated man of high standing in his business. + +"We'll waste no time," he said. "Perhaps it is as well you are +convinced, Sir Walter, that these things have happened inside natural +laws, and don't depend on beings in some unknown fourth dimension. That +is your affair, and I am very sure, as you say, that you can give good +reasons for what you did at a future inquiry, though the results are so +shocking. Poor Peter was taken back to London last night, you tell us, +according to directions. If he's in the same case as this unfortunate +gentleman, then there's not much doubt about his being dead. We +must begin at the beginning, though for us, naturally, Hardcastle's +operations and their failure are the most interesting facts to be dealt +with. You have told us everything that happened to him. But we have not +heard who found him." + +"My nephew, Henry Lennox." + +"He found Captain May, too?" + +"He did. He was the last to see him alive, and the first to see him +afterwards." + +"Is he here?" + +"He will be here in the course of the day. He travelled to London last +night with the body of Mr. Hardcastle." + +"Why?" + +"The doctor, Mr. Mannering, wished him to do so. He desired to have a +companion." + +"Have you anything further that you would care to tell us?" + +"Only this, that I think Mr. Hardcastle, with whom I had a long +conversation on his arrival, gave it as his opinion that it was not in +the Grey Room we must look for an explanation. I believe he regarded +his visit to the room itself as a comparatively unimportant part of the +case. He was really more interested in the life of my son-in-law and his +relations with other people. I think he regarded May's death as a matter +which had been determined outside the Grey Room. But, if I may presume +to advise you, this view of his is surely proved mistaken in the light +of his own destruction and what has happened since. It is certain now +that the cause of danger lies actually in the room itself, and equally +certain that what killed my son-in-law also killed Mr. Hardcastle and, +last night, killed the Reverend Septimus May." + +"On the fact of it, yes," admitted Frith. "I think, after we have +considered the situation now developed and visited the Grey Room, we +shall agree that there, at any rate, we may begin the work that +has brought us. You understand we rule out the possibility of any +supernatural event, as Hardcastle, of course, did. While he very +properly centred on the history of Captain May, and, from his point of +view, did not expect to find the accident of the captain's death in this +particular place would prove important, we shall now assume otherwise, +and give the room, or somebody with access to it, the credit for this +destruction of human life. We shall fasten on the room therefore. Our +inquiry is fairly simple at the outset, simpler than poor Hardcastle's. +It will lie along one of two channels, and it depends entirely upon +which channel we have to proceed whether the matter is going to take +much time, and possibly fail of explanation at the end, or but a short +time, and be swiftly cleared up. I hope the latter." + +"I shall be glad if you can explain that remark," answered Sir Walter; +but Mr. Frith was not prepared immediately to do so. + +"Fully when the time comes, Sir Walter; but for the moment, no--not even +to you. You will understand that our work must be entirely secret, and +the lines on which we proceed known only to ourselves." + +"That is reasonable, for you cannot tell yet whether I, who speak to +you, may not be responsible for everything. At least, command me. I only +hope to Heaven you are not going to discover a great crime." + +"I share your hope. That is why I speak of two channels for inquiry," +answered the detective. "Needless to say, we four men shall discuss the +new light thrown upon the situation very fully. At present the majority +of us are inclined to believe there is no crime, and the death of Mr. +May does not, to my mind, increase the likelihood of such a thing. +Indeed, it supports me, I should judge, in my present opinion. What that +is will appear without much delay. We'll get to our quarters now, and +ask to see the Grey Room later on." + +"May I inquire concerning Mr. Hardcastle? I hope he had no wife or +family to mourn him." + +"He was a bachelor, and lived with his mother, who keeps a shop. The +intention is to examine his body this morning, and submit it to certain +conclusive tests. Nobody expects much from them, but they're not going +to lose half a chance. He was a great man." + +"You will hear at once from London if anything transpires to help you?" + +"We shall hear by noon at latest." + +Sir Walter left them then, and Masters took the four to their +accommodation. Their rooms were situated together in the corridor, as +near the east end of it as possible. But the four were not yet of one +mind, and when they met presently, and walked together in the garden for +an hour, it appeared that while two of them agreed with Inspector Frith, +under whom all acted, the fourth held to a contrary view, and desired to +take the second of the two channels his chief had mentioned. + +Thus three men believed some extraordinary concatenation of +circumstances, probably mechanical in operation, was responsible for +all that had happened in the Grey Room; but the fourth, a man older than +Frith, and in some sort his rival for many years, held to it that the +reason of these things must be sought in an active and conscious agency. +He trusted in a living cause, but felt confident that it was not a sane +one. He had known a case when a madman, unsuspected of madness, had +operated with extraordinary skill to destroy innocent persons and +escape detection, and already he was disposed to believe that among the +household of Chadlands might hide such an insane criminal. + +On a similar plane, it was in his personal experience that weak-minded +persons, possessed with a desire to do something out of the common, had +often planned and perpetrated apparent physical phenomena, and created +an appearance of supernatural visitations, only exposed after great +difficulty by professional research. Along such lines, therefore, this +man was prepared to operate, and he believed it might be possible that a +maniac, in possession of some physical secret, would be found among +the inhabitants of the manor house. He did not, however, elaborate this +opinion, but kept it to himself. Indeed, the human element of jealousy, +so often responsible for the frustration of the worthiest human +ambitions, was not absent from the minds of the four now concerned with +this problem. + +Each desired to solve it, and while no rivalry existed among them, save +in the case of the two older men, it was certain that the eldest of +the four would not lose his hold on his own theory, or be at very vital +pains to stultify it. All, however, were fully conscious of the danger +before them, and Frith, from the first, directed that none was to work +alone, either in the Grey Room or elsewhere. + +At noon a telegram arrived for Mr. Frith from Scotland Yard. It recorded +the fact that Peter Hardcastle was dead, and that examination had +revealed no cause for his end. The news reached Sir Walter at once, and +if ever he rejoiced in the death of a fellow-creature, it was upon this +occasion. It meant unspeakable relief both for him and his daughter. + +The detectives began their operations after a midday meal, and having +first carefully studied the Grey Room in every visible particular, they +emptied it of its contents, and placed the pictures, furniture, and +statuette outside in the corridor. They asked for no assistance, and +desired that none should visit the scene of their labors. The apartment, +empty to the walls, they examined minutely; with the help of ladders, +they investigated the outer walls on the east and south side; and they +probed the chimney from above and below. They searched the adjoining +room--Mary's old nursery--to satisfy themselves that no communication +existed, and they drove an iron rod through the walls in various +directions, only to prove they were of solid stone, eighteen inches +thick within and two feet thick without. There was no apartment on the +other side of the chamber. It completed the eastern angle of the house +front, and behind it, inside, the corridor terminated at an eastern +window parallel with the Grey Room oriel, but flat and undecorated--a +modern window inserted by Sir Walter's grandfather to lighten a dark +corner. Not a foot of the walls they left untested, and they examined +and removed a portion of the paper upon them also. Then, taking up the +carpet, they broke into the flooring and skirting boards, but discovered +no indication that the grime and dust of centuries had ever been +disturbed. The desiccated mummy of a rat alone rewarded their scrutiny. +It lay between great timbers under the planking--beams that supported +the elaborate stucco roof of a dwelling-room below. + +To the ceiling of the Grey Room they next turned their attention, +fastened an electric wire to the nearest point, and, through a trap-door +in the roof of the passage, investigated the empty space between the +ceiling and the roof. Not an inch of the massive oaken struts above did +they fail to scrutinize, and they made experiments with smoke and water, +to learn if, at any point, so much as a pin-hole existed in the face of +the stucco. But it was solid, and spread evenly to a considerable depth. +They studied it, then, from inside the room, to discover nothing but +the beautifully modeled surface, encrusted with successive layers of +whitewash. The workmanship belonged to a time when men knew not to +scamp their labors and art and craft went hand in hand. Such enthusiasms +perished with the improvement of education. They died with the Guilds, +and the Unions are not concerned to revive them. + +The detectives had finished this examination when, at an hour in the +late afternoon, Henry Lennox and Dr. Mannering returned. The authorities +had been informed of the death of Septimus May, and desired that no +more than the ordinary formalities should be taken, unless their +representatives at Chadlands thought otherwise. But they did not. They +were now convinced that no communication existed between the Grey Room +and the outer world, and they declared their determination to watch in +it during the coming night. As a preliminary to this course, however, +they examined each piece of furniture and every picture and other +object that they had removed from the room. These told them nothing, +and presently they restored the chamber in every particular, re-laid +and nailed the carpet, and placed each article as it had stood when they +arrived. They continued to decline assistance, and made it clear that +nobody was to approach the end of the corridor in which they worked. +Alive to the danger, but believing that, whatever its quality, four men +could hardly be simultaneously destroyed, they prepared for their vigil. +Nor did they manifest any fear of what awaited them. Facts, indeed, may +be stubborn things, but even facts will not upset the convictions of +a lifetime. Not one of the four for an instant imagined that a +supernatural explanation of the mystery existed. Their minds were open, +and their wits, long trained in problems obscure and difficult, assured +them that the problem was capable of solution and within the power of +their wits to solve. They apprehended no discovery from the watch to +be undertaken; but, at Frith's orders, they set stolidly about it, as +a preliminary to the proceedings of the following day. Once proved that +the murderous force was powerless against men prepared and armed against +it, and the practical inquiry as to these strange deaths would be +entered upon. + +They came with full powers, and designed to search the house without +warning on the following morning, and examine all who dwelt in it. + +Sir Walter invited them to dine with him, and they did so. There were +present the master of Chadlands, Dr. Mannering--who asked to spend the +night there--and Henry Lennox; while Masters and Fred Caunter waited +upon them. The detectives heard with interest the result of the +post-mortem conducted during the morning, and related incidents in the +life of Peter Hardcastle. They were all unfeignedly amazed that a man +with such a record--one who had carried his life in his hand on many +occasions--should have lost it thus, at noonday and without a sound of +warning to his fellow-creatures. Dr. Mannering told how he had watched +the medical examination, but not assisted at it. All attempts to +galvanize back life failed, as the experts engaged immediately perceived +they must upon viewing the corpse; and during the subsequent autopsy, +when the dead man's body had been examined by chemist and microscopist, +the result was barren of any pathological detail. No indication to +explain his death rewarded the search. Not a clue or suspicion existed. +He was healthy in every particular, and his destruction remained, so +far, inexplicable to science. Hardcastle had died in a syncope, as the +other victims; that was all the most learned could declare. + +Impressed by these facts, the four made ready, and Lennox observed that +they neither drank during their meal nor smoked after it. + +At nine o'clock they began their work of the night, but invited nobody +to assist them, and begged that they might not be approached until +daylight on the following morning. + +Dr. Mannering took it upon himself earnestly to beg they would abandon +the vigil. Indeed, he argued strongly against it. + +"Consider, gentlemen," he said, "you are now possibly convinced in +your own minds that the source of these horrible things is to be found +outside the Grey Room, and not in it. I agree with you, so far. We have +reached a pitch where, in my judgment, we are justified in believing +that some motiveless malignity is at work. But by going into that room, +are you not giving somebody another opportunity to do what has already +been done? Evil performed without motive, as you know better than I +can tell you, must be the work of a maniac, and there may exist in this +house, unsuspected and unguessed, a servant afflicted in this awful way. +One has heard of such things." + +The eldest of his listeners felt unspeakable interest in these remarks, +since his own opinion inclined in the same direction. He was, however, +none the less chagrined that another should thus voice his secret +theory. He did not answer, but his chief replied. + +"It is proved," said Frith, "that no violence overtakes those subjected +to this ordeal. And I have decided that we shall not be in danger, for +this reason. We shall be armed as none of the dead were. Our precautions +will preclude any possibility of foul play from a material assault. +And, needless to say, we contemplate no other. We are free agents, and I +should not quarrel with any among us who shirked; but duty is duty, and +we have all faced dangers as great as this--probably far greater. What +you say is most interesting, doctor, and I agree with you, that outside +the room we must look for the explanation of these murders--if murders +they are. Upon that business we shall start to-morrow. Forgive me for +not going into details, because we have our personal methods. +They embrace the element of surprise, and, of course, prevent any +conversation concerning what we are going to do until we have done it." + +"Supposing you are all found dead to-morrow?" asked Dr. Mannering +bluntly. + +"Then we are all found dead to-morrow; and others will have the +satisfaction of finding out why." + +"You suspect somebody, yet can absolve nobody?" + +"Exactly, Sir Walter. I said pretty much that to the pressmen, who +forced themselves in this afternoon. The accursed daily Press of this +country has saved the skin of more blackguards than I like to count. +Keep them and the photographers away. It ought to be criminal--their +interference." + +"I ordered that none was to be admitted for a moment." + +"It is always very hard to keep them out. They are cunning devils, and +take a perverse pleasure in adding to our difficulties. Little they care +how they defeat justice if they can only get 'copy' for their infernal +newspapers." + +Inspector Frith spoke with some warmth; he had little for which to thank +the popular Press. + +Within an hour the four departed, and it was understood that they should +not be disturbed until they themselves cared to reappear. + +Mannering remained with Sir Walter and Lennox. He was dejected and +exceedingly anxious. But the others did not share his fears. The +younger, indeed, felt hopeful that definite results might presently be +recorded, and he went to his bed very thankful to get there. But +Sir Walter, now calm and refreshed by some hours of sleep during the +afternoon, designed to keep his own vigil. + +"Poor May lies in my library to-night," he said, "and I shall watch +beside him. Mary also wishes to do so. It seems a proper respect to pay +the dead. The inquest takes place to-morrow, and he will be buried in +his parish. We must attend the funeral, Mary and I." + +"If ever a man took his own life, that man did!" declared the doctor. + + + + +CHAPTER IX. THE NIGHT WATCH + + +Though a room had been prepared for Dr. Mannering, he did not occupy it +long. The early hours of night found him in a bad temper, and suffering +from considerable exacerbation of nerves. He troubled little for +himself, and still less concerning the police, for he was human, and +their indifference to his advice annoyed him; but for Sir Walter he was +perturbed, and did not like the arrangements that he had planned. The +doctor, however, designed to go and come and keep an eye upon the old +man, and he hoped that the master of Chadlands would presently sleep, if +only in his study chair. For himself he suffered a somewhat unpleasant +experience toward midnight, but had himself to thank for it. He rested +for an hour in his bedroom, then went downstairs, to find Mary and her +father sitting quietly together in the great library. They were both +reading, while at the farther end, where a risen moon already frosted +the lofty windows above him, lay Septimus May in his coffin. Mary +had plucked a wealth of white hothouse flowers, which stood in an old +Venetian bowl at his feet. + +Sir Walter was solicitous for the doctor. + +"Not in bed!" he exclaimed. "This is too bad, Mannering. We shall have +you ill next. You have been on your feet for countless hours and much +lies before you to-morrow. Do be sensible, my dear fellow, and take some +rest--even if you cannot sleep." + +"There is no sleep to-night for me. Lord knows how soon I may be wanted +by those fools playing with fire upstairs." + +"We cannot interfere. For myself a great peace has descended upon me, +now that initiative and the need for controlling and directing is taken +out of my hands. I began to feel this when poor Hardcastle arrived; but +that composure was sadly shattered. I am even prepared for the needful +publicity now. I can face it. If I erred in the matter of this devoted +priest, I shall not question the judgment of my fellow-men upon me." + +"Fear nothing of that sort," answered Mannering. "Your fellow-man has no +right to judge you, and the law, with all its faults, appreciates logic. +Who can question your right to believe that this is a matter outside +human knowledge? Your wisdom may be questioned, but not your right. +Plenty would have felt the same. When the mind of man finds itself +groping in the dark, you will see that, in the huge majority of cases, +it falls back upon supernatural explanations for mystery. This fact has +made fortunes for not a few who profit by the credulity of human nature. +Faiths are founded on it. May carried too many guns for you. He honestly +convinced you that his theory of his son's death was the correct theory; +and I, for one, though I deplore the fact that you came to see with his +eyes, and permitted him to do what he believed was his duty, yet should +be the last to think your action open to judicial blame. No Christian +judge, at any rate, would have the least right to question you. In a +word, there is no case yet against anybody. The force responsible for +these things is utterly unknown, and if ill betides the men upstairs, +that is only another argument for you." + +Sir Walter put down his book--a volume of pious meditations. Events had +drawn him into a receptive attitude toward religion. He was surprised at +Dr. Mannering. + +"I never thought to hear you admit as much as that. How strangely the +currents of the mind ebb and flow, Mannering. Here are you with your +scepticism apparently weakening, while I feel thankfully assured, at +any rate for the moment, that only a material reason accounts for these +disasters." + +"Why?" asked the physician. + +"Because against the powers of any dark spirit Septimus May was safe. +Even had he been right and his prayer had freed such a being and cast +it out of my house, would the Almighty have permitted it to rend and +destroy the agent of its liberation? May could not have suffered death +by any conscious, supernatural means if our faith is true; but, as he +himself said, when he came here after the death of his boy, he did not +pretend that faith in God rendered a human being superior to the laws of +matter. If, as was suggested at dinner to-day, there is somebody in +this house with a mind unhinged who has discovered a secret of nature +by which human life can be destroyed and leave no sign, then this dead +clergyman was, of course, as powerless against such a hideous danger as +any other human being." + +"But surely such a theory is quite as wild as any based on supernatural +assumptions? You know the occupants of this house--every one of them, +Sir Walter. Mary knows them, Henry knows them. I have attended most of +them at one time or another. Is there one against whom such a suspicion +can be entertained?" + +"Not one indeed." + +"Could the war have made a difference?" asked Mary. "We know how shell +shock and wounds to a poor man's head had often left him apparently +sound, yet in reality weakened as to his mind." + +"Yes, that is true enough. And when the unfortunate men get back into +everyday life from the hospitals, or endeavor to resume their old work, +the weakness appears. I have seen cases. But of all the men in Chadlands +there are only three examples of any such catastrophe. I know a few in +the village--none where one can speak of actual insanity, however. Here +there is only Fred Caunter, who was hurt about the head on board ship, +but the injury left no defect." + +"Fred is certainly as sane as I am--perhaps saner," admitted Sir Walter. + +"Don't think I really imagine there is anything of the kind here," added +Mannering. "But if these four men are in a condition to proceed +with their work to-morrow, you must expect them to make a searching +examination of everybody in the house. And they may find a good number +of nervous and hysterical women, if not men. It is not their province, +however, to determine whether people are weak in the head, and I +know, as well as you do, that none in this house had any hand in these +disasters." + +"Never was a family with fewer secrets than mine," declared Sir Walter. + +"The morning may bring light," said Mary. + +"I feel very little hope that it will," answered Mannering. "The inquiry +will proceed, whatever happens to-night, and we may all have to go to +London to attend it. After they have turned Chadlands and everybody +in it upside down, as they surely will, then we may be called, if they +arrive at no conclusion." + +"I am prepared to be. I shall not leave the country, of course, until I +receive permission to do so. It must be apparent to everybody that I am, +of all men, if not the most involved, at least the most anxious to clear +this mystery--that nobody can doubt." + +"Then you must conserve your strength and be guided," said Mannering. +"I do beg of you to retire now, and insist upon Mary doing the same. +Nothing can be gained by the dead, and necessary energy is lost to the +living by this irrational vigil. It is far past midnight; I beg you to +retire, Sir Walter, and Mary, too. There is nothing that should keep you +out of bed, and I urge you to go to it." + +But the elder refused. + +"Few will sleep under this roof to-night," he said. "There is a spirit +of human anxiety and distress apparent, and naturally so. I will stay +here with this good man. He is better company than many of the living. I +feel a great peace here. The dead sustains me." + +He joined Mannering, however, in an appeal to his daughter, and, +satisfied that their friend would not be far off at any time, Mary +presently left them. She declared herself as not anxious or nervous. She +had never believed that anything but natural causes were responsible for +her husband's death, and felt an assurance that morning would bring +some measure, at least, of explanation. She went out of the room with +Mannering, and, promising her to keep a close watch on her father, the +doctor left Mary, lighted his pipe, and strolled to the billiard-room. +Presently he patrolled the hall and pursued his own reflections. Where +his thoughts bent, there his body unconsciously turned, and, forgetting +the injunction of the silent men aloft--indeed, forgetting them also for +a moment--Mannering ascended the stairs and proceeded along the corridor +toward the Grey Room. But he did not get far. Out of the darkness a +figure rose and stopped him. The man turned an electric torch on Dr. +Mannering, and recognized him. It appeared that while one detective kept +guard outside, the others watched within. At the sound of voices the +door of the Grey Room opened, and in the bright light that streamed from +it a weird figure stood--a tall, black object with huge and flashing +eyes and what looked like an elephant's trunk descending from between +them. The watchers, wearing hoods and gas masks, resembled the fantastic +demons of a Salvator Rosa, or Fuselli. Their chief now accosted the +doctor somewhat sharply. He knew his name and received his apology, +but bade him leave the corridor at once. "I must, however, search you +first," said Frith. "You were wrong to come," he continued. "This is no +time to distract us. Explain to-morrow, please." + +The doctor, after holding up his hands and submitting to a very close +scrutiny, departed and swore at his own inadvertence. He had forgotten +that, in common with everybody else involved, he must bear the brunt of +suspicion, and he perceived that his approach to the Grey Room, after it +was clearly understood that none should on any account attempt to do +so, must attract unpleasant attention to himself. And he could offer no +better excuse than that he had forgotten the order. He apprehended an +unpleasantness on the following day, and wondered at himself that he +could have done anything so open to question. Brain fag was a poor +excuse, but he had none better. + +In an hour he returned to Sir Walter, hoping to find him asleep; but the +master of Chadlands was still reading, and in a frame of mind very quiet +and peaceful. He regretted the forgetfulness that had taken his friend +into the forbidden gallery. + +"I am concerned for Mary," he said. "She is only keeping up at a +terrible cost of nervous power. It is more than time that she was away; +but she will not go until I am able to accompany her." + +"It should not be long. We must hope they will get to the bottom of it +soon, if not to-night. I am most anxious for both of you to be off." + +"We design to go to Italy. She shrinks from the Riviera and longs for +Florence, or some such peaceful place." + +"It will be cold there." + +"Cold won't hurt us." + +"Shall you shut up Chadlands?" + +"Impossible. It is the only home of half my elder people. But, if +nothing is discovered and we are still left without an explanation, +I shall seal the Grey Room--windows, door, and hearth--unless the +authorities direct otherwise. I wish I could fill the place with solid +stone or concrete, so that it would cease to be a room at all." + +"That you can't do," answered the practical doctor. "Such a weight would +bring down the ceiling beneath. But you can make it fast and block it up +if the thing beats them." + +"We are like the blind moving in regions unfamiliar to their touch," +said Sir Walter. "I had hoped so much from the prayer of that just man. +He, indeed, has gone to his reward. He is with the boy he loved better +than anything on earth; but for us is left great sorrow and distress. +Still, prayers continue to be answered, Mannering. I have prayed for +patience, and I find myself patient. The iron has entered my soul. The +horror of publicity--the morbid agony I experienced when I knew my name +must be dragged through every newspaper in England--these pangs are +past. My life seems to have ended in one sense, and, looking back, I +cannot fail to see how little I grasped the realities of existence, how +I took my easy days as a matter of course and never imagined that for +me, too, extreme suffering and misery were lying in wait. Each man's own +burden seems the hardest to bear, I imagine, and to me these events have +shrivelled the very marrow in my bones. They scorched me, and the glare, +thrown from the larger world into the privacy of my life, made me feel +that I could call on the hills to cover me. But now I can endure all." + +"You must not look at it so, Sir Walter. Everybody knows that you have +done no wrong, and if your judgment is questioned, what is it? Only the +fate every man--great or small, famous or insignificant--has to bear. +You can't escape criticism in this world, any more than you can escape +calumny. It is something that you can now speak so steadfastly, preserve +such patience, and see so clearly, too. But, for my part, clear seeing +only increases my anxiety to-night. I don't personally care a button for +the welfare of those men, since they declined to take my advice; but +I am human, and as I suffer with a sick patient and rejoice when he +recovers, so I cannot help suffering at the thought of the risk these +four are running. They sit there, I suppose, or else walk about. They +wear gas masks, and carry weapons in their hands. But if we are opposed +to a blind, deaf, unreasoning force, which acts unconsciously and +inevitably, then the fate of ten men would be just as uncertain as the +fate of one. The thing operates by day or night--that much has been +proved--and, since it is probably acting automatically, as lightning or +steam, how can they escape?" + +"This invisible death-dealing force may be in the control of a human +mind, remember." + +"It is beyond the bounds of possibility, Sir Walter." + +"You are a rash man to affirm anything so definite, after what you have +gone through with the rest of us. Let me, in my turn, urge you to go +to your rest. These things have told upon you. You are only flesh and +blood, not iron, as you fancy. The men are all right so far." + +"I'll get something to eat and drink," said Mannering, "and leave you in +peace for a while." + +"Do. You will find all you need in the dining-room. I directed Masters +to leave ample there, in case the detectives might want food." + +"Shall I bring you something--a whisky, and a biscuit?" + +"No, no. I need nothing." + +The doctor went his way, and passed an hour with meat and drink. Then he +felt an overpowering desire to sleep, but resisted it, lighted his pipe +again, and, resumed his march in the hall. He listened presently at the +library door, and was gratified to hear a gentle but steady snore. The +sound pleased Mannering well. + +He padded about once more, resolved to keep awake until the vigil was +ended. Then he would go to bed and sleep. It was now past three o'clock +on a still, winter night--a lull and interval between yesterday's storm +and rough weather yet to come. The doctor went out of doors for a time +and tramped the terrace. A waning moon had risen, and the night was mild +and cloudy. + +Bright light shot out like fans into the murk from the east and south +windows of the Grey Room. Returning to the house, the watcher listened +at the foot of the staircase, and heard the mumble of men's voices and +the sound of feet. They were changing the guard, and the detective in +the corridor gave up his place to one from inside. All was well so far. + +Then Mannering went to the billiard-room, lolled on the settee for +a time, and drowsed through another hour. For a few minutes he lost +consciousness, started up to blame his weakness, and looked at his +watch. But he had only slumbered for five minutes. + +At six o'clock he told himself that it was morning, and went in again to +Sir Walter. The old man had wakened, and was sitting in quiet reflection +until daylight should outline the great window above the dead. + +"The night has been one of peace," he declared. "The spirit of poor May +seemed near me, and I felt, too, as though his son were not far off, +either. Is all well with the watchers?" + +"I leave you to inquire, but don't go too near them. Night fades over +the woods, so the day can be said to have begun." + +"Doubtless the household will be stirring. I shall go and inquire, if +they will permit me to do so. Oblige me by staying here a few minutes +until I call my daughter. I do not want our poor friend to be alone +until he leaves us." + +"I will stay here for the present. But don't let Mary be called if she +is sleeping, and turn in yourself for a few hours now." + +"I have slept off and on." + +Sir Walter left him and ascended to the corridor. Already light moved +wanly in the windows. + +He stood at the top of the staircase and raised his voice. + +"Is all well, gentlemen?" he asked loudly; but he received no answer. + +"Is all well?" he cried again. + +And then from the gloom emerged Inspector Frith. He had doffed his gas +mask. + +Sir Walter switched on an electric light. + +"Nothing, I trust, has happened?" + +"Nothing whatever, Sir Walter. No sign or sound of anything out of the +common can be recorded." + +"Thank Heaven--thank Heaven for that!" + +"Though we had exhausted the possibilities of such a thing, we none +the less expected gas," explained the detective. "That seemed the +only conceivable means by which life might be destroyed in that room. +Therefore we wore gas masks of the latest pattern, supposed to defy any +gaseous combination ever turned out of a laboratory. It is well known +that new, destructive gases were discovered just before the end of the +war--gases said to be infinitely more speedy and deadly than any that +were employed. As to that, and whether the Government has the secret +of them, I cannot say. But no gas was liberated in the Grey Room last +night. Otherwise a rat in a trap and birds in a cage, which we kept by +us, would have felt it. The room is pure enough." + +Sir Walter followed him down the corridor, and chatted with the other +men also. They had left the Grey Room and taken off their masks; they +looked weary and haggard in the waxing, white light of day. + +"You've done your duty, and I am beyond measure thankful that no evil +has overtaken you. What can now be prepared for you in the way of food?" + +They thanked him, and declared that in an hour they would be glad of +breakfast. Then Sir Walter went to his own apartments, rang, and gave +the needful directions. He joined Mary soon afterwards, and she shared +his thanksgivings. She was already dressed, and descended immediately to +Dr. Mannering. + +Henry Lennox also appeared soon afterwards. He had already learned from +Fred Caunter that the watchers were safely through the night. + +Chadlands was the scene of another inquest, and again a coroner's jury +declared that Septimus May, as his son before him, had died by the Hand +of God. Later in the day the dead man was conveyed to his own parish, +and two days later Sir Walter and Mary, with her cousin, attended the +funeral. + +Meantime, the detectives began their serious work. They proceeded with +system and upon their own plan. They omitted to question not the least +of the persons who dwelt at Chadlands, and inquired also privately +concerning every member of the house party there assembled when Tom +May died. Into the sailor's private life they also searched, and so +gradually investigated every possible line of action and point of +approach to his death. The cause of this they were content to disregard, +arguing that if an assassin could be traced, his means of murder would +then be learned; but, from the first, no sort of light illumined their +activities, and nothing to be regarded as a clue could be discovered, +either in Tom May's relations with the world, or in the history and +character of anyone among the many who were subject for inquiry. + +Concerning the house party, only Ernest Travers and his wife had met the +sailor before, on the occasion of his wedding; while as to the staff at +Chadlands, nothing transpired to indicate that any had ever had occasion +to feel affronted by an act of his. They were, moreover, loyal to a man +and woman. They furnished no peculiarities, and gave no ground for the +least suspicion. The case, in Frith's opinion, was unique, because, +despite the number of persons it was necessary to study and consider, in +none of their relations with the family involved could there be found a +shadow of unfriendly intercourse, a harbored grudge, or a suggestion of +ill-feeling. The people were all simple and ingenuous. They declared and +displayed nothing but regard for their employer, and many of them had +succeeded their own parents in their present employment. It was a large +household, very closely united by ties of tradition and affection. Henry +Lennox also proved above suspicion, though his former attachment to Mary +was not concealed. It needed no great student of character, however, +to appreciate his transparent honesty under examination, a remark that +extended to Dr. Mannering, whose incautious advent in the corridor on +the night of their vigil had offended the watchers. + +For three weeks they worked industriously--without vision, but to +the best of their experience and intellectual powers. In the familiar +phrase, they left no stone unturned; and following their report, which +frankly admitted absolute failure, a small commission instituted a +further inquiry on the evidence, and invited those chiefly concerned to +attend it. + +Sir Walter, his daughter, Henry Lennox, and Dr. Mannering were examined +with sympathy and consideration. But they could offer no opinions, +throw no light, and suggest no other lines of inquiry than those already +pursued. + +For the world the mystery died like a new star, which was blazed into +fame only to retreat or diminish and disappear once more. Fresh problems +and new sensations filled the newspapers, and a time at last came when, +to his relief, Sir Walter could open his morning journal and find no +mention of Chadlands therein. Architects examined the room a second +time, and the authorities also gave permission to certain notable +spiritualists to make further nocturnal and diurnal vigils therein, +though no solitary watcher was permitted. Three came and passed a day +and a night in the Grey Room. They were rewarded with no phenomena +whatever. + +The master of Chadlands was at length informed that he might leave +England, but directed to set a seal on the Grey Room, and to treat it in +such a manner that it should no longer be capable of entrance. + +The red tape that had wound itself about the tragedy was thus unloosed +at last, and the suffering pair made all haste to get away. Its owner +undertook to treat the Grey Room as directed on his return from abroad, +and meanwhile had both door and window boarded up with heavy timbers. + +The household was long since restored to self-possession and even +cheerfulness. Some felt pride in their passing publicity, and none +expressed any fear of remaining. But Sir Walter guessed that few feet +would tread the great corridor until a day was near for his return. + + + + +CHAPTER X. SIGNOR VERGILIO MANNETTI. + +Sir Walter persisted in his purpose +and went to Florence. He believed that here Mary might find distractions +and novelties to awaken interest which would come freshly into her life +without the pain and poignancy of any recollection to lessen the work +of peace. For himself he only desired to see her returning to content. +Happiness he knew must be a condition far removed from her spirit for +many days. + +They stood one evening on the Piazza of Michelangelo and saw Florence, +like a city of dim, red gold extended beneath them. The setting sunlight +wove an enchantment over towers and roofs. It spread a veil of ineffable +brightness upon the city and tinged green Arno also, where the river +wound through the midst. + +Sir Walter was quietly happy, because he knew that in a fortnight his +friends, Ernest and Nelly Travers, would be at Florence. Mary, too, +prepared to welcome them gladly, for her father's sake. He left his +daughter largely undisturbed, and while they took their walks +together, the old man, to whom neither music nor pictures conveyed much +significance, let her wander at will, and the more readily because +he found that art was beginning to exercise a precious influence over +Mary's mind. There was none to guide her studies, but she pursued them +with a plan of her own, and though at first the effort sometimes left +her weary, yet she persisted until she began to perceive at least the +immensity of the knowledge she desired to acquire. + +Music soothed her mind; painting offered an interest, part sensuous, +part intellectual. Perhaps she loved music best at first, since it +brought a direct anodyne. In the sound of music she could bear to +think of her brief love story. She even made her father come and listen +presently to things that she began to value. + +Their minds inevitably proceeded by different channels of thought, and +while she strove resolutely to occupy herself with the new interests, +and put away the agony of the past, till thinking was bearable again +and a road to peace under her feet once more, Sir Walter seldom found +himself passing many hours without recurrence of painful memories and +a sustained longing to strip the darkness which buried them. To his +forthright and simple intelligence, mystery was hateful, and the +reflection that his home must for ever hold a profound and appalling +mystery often thrust itself upon his thoughts, and even inclined him, in +some moods, to see Chadlands no more. Yet a natural longing to return +to the old environment, in which he could move with ease and comfort, +gradually mastered him, and as the spring advanced he often sighed +for Devonshire, yet wondered how he could do so. Then would return the +gloomy history of the winter rolling over his spirit like a cloud, and +the thought of going home again grew distasteful. + +Mary, however, knew her father well enough, and at this lustrous hour, +while Florence stretched beneath them in its quiet, evening beauty, she +declared that they must not much longer delay their return. + +"Plenty of time," he said. "I am not too old to learn, I find, and a man +would indeed be a great fool if he could not learn in such a place +as this. But though art can never mean much to me now, your case is +different, and I am thankful to know that these things will be a great +addition and interest to your future life. I'm a Philistine, and shall +always so remain, but I'm a repentant one. I see my mistake too late." + +"It's a new world, father," she said, "and it has done a great deal +for an unhappy woman--not only in taking my thoughts off myself, but in +lessening my suffering, too. I do not know why, or how, but music, and +these great, solemn pictures painted by dead men, all touch my thoughts +of dear Tom. I seem to see that there are so many more mighty ones dead +than living. And yet not dead. They live in what they have made. And Tom +lives in what he made--that was my love for him and his for me. He grows +nearer and dearer than ever when I hear beautiful music. I can better +bear to think of him at such times, and it will always help me to +remember him." + +"God bless art if it does so much," he said. "We come to it as little +children, and I shall always be a child and never understand, but for +you the valuable message will be received. May life never turn you away +from these things in years to come." + +"Never! Never!" she assured him. "Art has done too much for me. I shall +not try to live my life without it. Already I feel I could not." + +"What have you seen to-day?" he asked. + +"I was at the Pitti all the morning. I liked best Fra Bartolommeo's +great altar piece and Titian's portrait of Cardinal Ippolito dei Medici. +You must see him--a strange, unhappy spirit only twenty-three years old. +Two years afterwards he was poisoned, and his haunted, discontented +eyes closed for ever. And the 'Concert'--so wonderful, with such a +hunger-starved expression in the soul of the player. And Andrea del +Sarto--how gracious and noble; but Henry James says he's second-rate, +because his mind was second-rate, so I suppose he is, but not to me. He +never will be to me. To-morrow you must come and see some of the things +I specially love. I won't bore you. I don't know enough to bore you yet. +Oh, and Allori's 'Judith'--so lovely, but I wonder if Allori did justice +to her? Certainly his 'Judith' could never have done what the real +Judith did. And there's a landscape by Rubens--dark and old--yet it +reminded me of our woods where they open out above the valley." + +He devoted the next morning to Mary, and wandered among the pictures +with her. He strove to share her enthusiasm, and, indeed, did so +sometimes. Then occurred a little incident, so trivial that they forgot +all about it within an hour, yet were reminded of it at a very startling +moment now fast approaching. + +They had separated, and Sir Walter's eye was caught by a portrait. But +he forgot it a moment later in passing interest of a blazoned coat of +arms upon the frame--a golden bull's head on a red ground. The heraldic +emblem was tarnished and inconspicuous, yet the spectator felt curiously +conscious that it was not unfamiliar. It seemed that he had seen it +already somewhere. He challenged Mary with it presently; but she had +never observed it before to her recollection. + +Sir Walter enjoyed his daughter's interest, and finding that his company +among the pictures added to Mary's pleasure, while his comments caused +her no apparent pain, he declared his intention of seeing more. + +"You must tell me what you know," he said. + +"It will be the blind leading the blind, dearest," she answered, "but my +delight must be in finding things I think you'll like. The truth is that +neither of us knows anything about what we ought to like." + +"That's a very small matter," he declared. "We must begin by learning to +like pictures at all. When Ernest comes, he will want us to live in his +great touring car and fly about, so we should use our present time to +the best advantage. Pictures do not attract him, and he will be very +much surprised to hear that I have been looking at them." + +"We must interest him, too, if we can." + +"That would be impossible. Ernest does not understand pictures, and +music gives him no pleasure. He regards art with suspicion, as a +somewhat unmanly thing." + +"Poor Mr. Travers!" + +"Do not pity him, Mary. His life is sufficiently full without it." + +"But I've lived to find out that no life can be." In due course Ernest +and Nelly arrived, and, as Sir Walter had prophesied, their pleasure +consisted in long motor drives to neighboring places and scenes of +interest and beauty. His daughter, in the new light that was glimmering +for her, found her father's friends had shrunk a little. She could speak +with them and share their interests less whole-heartedly than of old; +but they set it down to her tribulation and tried to "rouse" her. Ernest +Travers even lamented her new-found interests and hoped they were "only +a passing phase." + +"She appears to escape from reality into a world of pictures and music," +he said. "You must guard against that, my dear Walter. These things can +be of no permanent interest to a healthy mind." + +For a fortnight they saw much of their friends, and Mary observed +how her father expanded in the atmosphere of Ernest and Nelly. They +understood each other so well and echoed so many similar sentiments and +convictions. + +Ernest entertained a poor opinion of the Italian character. He argued +that a nation which depended for its prosperity on wines and silk--"and +such wines"--must have too much of the feminine in it to excel. He had a +shadowy idea that he understood the language, though he could not speak +nor write it himself. + +"We, who have been nurtured at Eton and Oxford, remember enough Latin +to understand these people," he said, "for what is Italian but the +emasculated tongue of ancient Rome?" + +Nelly Travers committed herself to many utterances as idiotic as +Ernest's, and Mary secretly wondered to find how shadowy and ridiculous +such solid people showed in a strange land. They carried their ignorance +and their parochial atmosphere with them as openly and unashamedly as +they carried their luggage. She was not sorry to leave them, for she and +her father intended to stop for a while at Como before returning home +again. + +Their friends were going to motor over the battlefields of France +presently, and both Ernest and Nelly came to see Sir Walter and his +daughter off for Milan. Mr. Travers rushed to the door of the carriage +and thrust in a newspaper as the train moved. + +"I have secured a copy of last week's 'Field,' Walter," he said. + +They passed over the Apennines on a night when the fire-flies flashed +in every thicket under the starry gloom of a clear and moonless sky; +and when the train stopped at little, silent stations the throb of +nightingales fell upon their ears. + +But circumstances prevented their visit to the Larian Lake, for at Milan +letters awaited Sir Walter from home, and among them one that hastened +his return. From a stranger it came, and chance willed that the writer, +an Italian, had actually made the journey from Rome to London in order +that he might see Sir Walter, while all the time the master of Chadlands +happened to be within half a day's travel. Now, the writer was still in +London, and proposed to stop there until he should receive an answer +to his communication. He wrote guardedly, and made one statement of +extraordinary gravity. He was concerned with the mystery of the Grey +Room, and believed that he might throw some light upon the melancholy +incidents recorded concerning it. + +Sir Walter hesitated for Mary's sake, but was relieved when she +suggested a prompt return. + +"It would be folly to delay," she said. "This means quite as much to me +as to you, father, and I could not go to Como knowing there may be even +the least gleam of light for us at home. Nothing can alter the past, but +if it were possible to explain how and why--what an unutterable relief +to us both!" + +"Henry was to meet us at Menaggio." + +"He will be as thankful as we are if anything comes of this. He doesn't +leave England till Thursday, and can join us at Chadlands instead." + +"I only live to explain these things," confessed her father. "I would +give all that I have to discover reasons for the death of your dear +husband. But there are terribly grave hints here. I can hardly imagine +this man is justified in speaking of 'crime.' Would the word mean less +to him than to us?" + +"He writes perfect English. Whatever may be in store, we must face it +hopefully. Such things do not happen by chance." + +"He is evidently a gentleman--a man of refinement and delicate feeling. +I am kindly disposed to him already. There is something chivalric and +what is called 'old-fashioned' in his expressions. No young man writes +like this nowadays." + +The letter, which both read many times, revealed the traits that Sir +Walter declared. It was written with Latin courtesy and distinction. +There were also touches of humor in it, which neither he nor Mary +perceived: + + "Claridge's Hotel, London. April 9. + + "Dear Sir Walter Lennox,--In common with the rest of the + world that knows England, I have recently been profoundly + interested and moved at the amazing events reported as + happening at Chadlands, in the County of Devon, under your + roof. The circumstances were related in Italian journals + with no great detail, but I read them in the 'Times' + newspaper, being familiar with your language and a great + lover of your country. + + "I had already conceived the idea of communicating with you + when--so small is the world in this our time--accident + actually threw me into the society of one of your personal + friends. At an entertainment given by the British Ambassador + at Rome, a young soldier, one Colonel Vane, was able to do + me some service in a crush of people, and I enjoyed the + privilege of his acquaintance as the result. I would not + have inflicted myself upon another generation, but he took + an interest in conversing with one who knew his own language. + He was also intelligent--for a military man. Needless to + say, he made no allusion to the tragedy at Chadlands, but + when he spoke of espionage in war and kindred matters, I + found him familiar with the details concerning the death of + the great English detective, Peter Hardcastle. I then asked + him, as being myself deeply interested in the matter, whether + it would be possible to get further and fuller details of the + story of 'the Grey Room,' whereupon he told me, to my + amazement, that he had been at Chadlands when your lamented + son-in-law, Captain Thomas May, passed out of life. I then + recollected Colonel Vane's name, among others mentioned in + the 'Times,' as at Chadlands when the disaster occurred. + + "Finding that my curiosity was not idle, Colonel Vane accepted + an invitation to dinner, and I enjoyed the pleasure of + entertaining him and learning many personal and intimate + particulars of the event. These were imparted in confidence, + and he knew that I should not abuse his trust. Indeed, I had + already told him that it was my determination to communicate + with you upon the strength of his narrative. + + "It seems improbable that anything I can say will bear upon + the case, and I may presently find that I lack the means to + serve you, or throw light where all is so profoundly buried + in darkness. Yet I am not sure. Small things will often + lead to greater, and though the past is unhappily beyond + recall, since our Maker Himself cannot undo the work of + yesterday, or obliterate events embalmed in vanished time, + yet there is always the future; and if we could but read + the past aright, which we never can, then the future would + prove less of a painful riddle than mankind generally + finds it. + + "If, then, I can help you to read the past, I may at least + modify your anxieties in the future; and should I, by a + remote chance, be right in my suspicions, it is quite + imperative that I place myself at your service for the + sake of mankind. In a word, a great crime has been + committed, and the situation is possibly such that further + capital crimes will follow it. I affirm nothing, but I + conceive the agency responsible for these murders to + be still active, since the police have been so completely + foiled. At Chadlands there may still remain an unsleeping + danger to those who follow you--a danger, indeed, to all + human life, so long as it is permitted to persist. I write, + of course, assuming you to be desirous of clearing this + abominable mystery, both for your own satisfaction and the + credit of your house. "There is but little to hope from me, + and I would beg you not to feel sanguine in any way. Yet + this I do believe: that if there is one man in the world + to-day who holds the key of your tribulation, I am that man. + One lives in hope that one may empty the world of so great a + horror; and to do so would give one the most active + satisfaction. But I promise nothing. + + "If I should be on the right track, however, let me explain + the direction in which my mind is moving. Human knowledge + may not be equal to any solution, and I may fail accordingly. + It may even be possible that the Rev. Septimus May did not + err, and that at the cost of his life he exorcised some + spirit whose operations were permitted for reasons hid in + the mind of its Creator; but, so far as I am concerned, I + believe otherwise. And if I should prove correct, it will + be possible to show that all has fallen out in a manner + consonant with human reason and explicable by human + understanding. I therefore came to England, glad of the + excuse to do so, and waited upon you at your manor, only to + hear, much to my chagrin, that you were not in residence, + but had gone to Florence, a bird's journey from my own home! + + "Now I write to the post-office at Milan, where your servant + directed me that letters should for the moment be sent. If + you are returning soon, I wait for you. If not, it may be + possible to meet in Italy. But I should prefer to think + you return ere long, for I cannot be of practical service + until I have myself, with your permission, visited your + house and seen the Grey Room with my own eyes. + + "I beg you will accept my assurances of kindly regard and + sympathy in the great sufferings you and Madame May have + been called upon to endure. + + "Until I hear from you, I remain at Claridge's Hotel in + London. + + "I have the honor to be, + "Faithfully yours, + "Vergilio Mannetti." + +To this communication, albeit he felt little hope, Sir Walter made +speedy response. He declared his intention of returning to England +during the following week, after which he hoped that Signor Mannetti +would visit Chadlands at any time convenient to himself. He thanked him +gratefully, but feared that, since the Italian based his theory on a +crime, he could not feel particularly sanguine, for the possibility of +such a thing had proved non-existent. + +Mary, however, looked deeper into the letter. She even suspected that +the writer himself entertained a greater belief in his powers than he +declared. + +"One has always felt the Grey Room is somehow associated with Italy," +she said. "The ceiling we know was moulded by Italians in Elizabeth's +day." + +"It was; but so are all the other moulded ceilings in the house as +well." + +"He may understand Italian workmanship, and know some similar roof that +hid a secret." + +"The roof cannot conceal an assassin, and he clearly believes himself on +the track of a crime." Nevertheless, Sir Walter's interest increased as +the hour approached for their return home. Only when that was decided +did he discover how much he longed to be there. For the horror and +suffering of the past were a little dimmed already; he thirsted to see +his woods and meadows in their vernal dress, to hear the murmur of his +river, and move again among familiar voices and familiar paths. + +Chadlands welcomed them on a rare evening of May, and the very genuine +joy of his people moved Sir Walter not a little. Henry Lennox was +already arrived, and deeply interested to read the Italian's letter. He +and Mary walked presently in the gardens and he found her changed. She +spoke more slowly, laughed not at all. But she had welcomed him with +affection, and been interested to learn all that he had to tell her of +himself. + +"I felt that it would disappoint you to be stopped at the last moment," +she said, "but I knew the reason would satisfy you well enough. I feel +hopeful somehow; father does not. Yet it is hope mixed with fear, for +Signor Mannetti speaks of a great crime." + +"A vain theory, I'm afraid. Tell me about yourself. You are well?" + +"Yes, very well. You must come to Italy some day, Henry, and let me show +you the wonderful things I have seen." + +"I should dearly love it. I'm such a Goth. But it's only brutal +laziness. I want to take up art and understand a little of what it +really matters." + +"You have it in you. Are you writing any more poetry?" + +"Nothing worth showing you." + +She exercised the old fascination; but he indulged in no hope of the +future. He knew what her husband had been to Mary, despite the shortness +of their union; and, rightly, he felt positive that she would never +marry again. + +A mournful spectacle appeared, drawn by the sound of well-known voices, +and the old spaniel, Prince, crept to Mary's feet. He offered feeble +homage, and she made much of him, but the dog had sunk to a shadow. + +"He must be put away, poor old beggar; it's cruel to keep him alive. +Only Masters said he was determined he should not go while Uncle Walter +was abroad. Masters has been a mother to him." + +"Tell father that; he may blame Masters for letting him linger on like +this. He rather hoped, I know, that poor Prince would be painlessly +destroyed, or die, before he came back." + +"Masters would never have let him die unless directed to do so." + +"And I'm sure father could never have written the words down and posted +them. You know father." + +Letters awaited the returned travellers, one from Colonel Vane, who +described his meeting with Signor Mannetti, and hoped something +might come of it; and another from the stranger himself. He expressed +satisfaction at his invitation, and proposed arriving at Chadlands on +the following Monday, unless directions reached him to the contrary. + +When the time came, Sir Walter himself went into Exeter to meet his +guest and bring him back by motor-car. At first sight of the signor, his +host experienced a slight shock of astonishment to mark the Italian's +age. For Vergilio Mannetti was an ancient man. He had been tall, but +now stooped, and, though not decrepit, yet he needed assistance, and +was accompanied and attended by a middle-aged Italian. The traveller +displayed a distinguished bearing. He had a brown, clean-shaved face, +the skin of which appeared to have shrunk rather than wrinkled, yet no +suggestion of a mummy accompanied this physical accident. His hair was +still plentiful, and white as snow; his dark eyes were undimmed, and +proved not only brilliant but wonderfully keen. He told them more +than once, and indeed proved, that behind large glasses, that lent an +owl-like expression to his face, his long sight was unimpaired. His +rather round face sparkled with intelligence and humor. + +He owned to eighty years, yet presented an amazing vitality and a keen +interest in life and its fulness. The old man had played the looker-on +at human existence, and seemed to know as much, if not more, of the game +than the players. He confessed to this attitude and blamed himself for +it. + +"I have never done a stroke of honest work in my life," he said. "I +was born with the silver spoon in my mouth. Alas, I have been amazingly +lazy; it was my metier to look on. I ought, at least, to have written a +book; but then all the things I wanted to say have been so exquisitely +said by Count Gobineau in his immortal volumes, that I should only have +been an echo. The world is too full of echoes as it is. Believe me, if +I had been called to work for my living, I should have cut a respectable +figure, for I have an excellent brain." + +"You know England, signor?" + +"When I tell you that I married an English-woman, and that both my sons +have English blood in their veins, you will realize the sincerity of my +devotion. My dear wife was a Somerset." + +Mary May always declared that the old Italian won her heart and even +awakened something akin to affection before she had known him half an +hour. There was a fascination in his admixture of childish simplicity +and varied knowledge. None, indeed, could resist his gracious humor and +old-world courtesies. The old man could be simple and ingenuous, +too; but only when it pleased him so to be; and it was not the second +childishness of age, for his intellect remained keen and moved far more +swiftly than any at Chadlands. But he was modest and loved a jest. The +hand of time had indeed touched him, and sometimes his memory broke +down and he faltered with a verbal difficulty; but this only appeared to +happen when he was weary. + +"The morning is my good time," he told them. "You will, I fear, find me +a stupid old fellow after dinner." + +Signor Mannetti proved a tremendous talker, and implicitly revealed +that he belonged to the nobility of his country, and that he enjoyed +the friendship of many notable men. The subject of his visit was not +mentioned on the day of his arrival. He spoke only of Italy, laughed to +think he had passed through Florence to seek Sir Walter in England, +and then, finding his hostess a neophyte at the shrines of art, attuned +himself to the subject for her benefit. + +"If you found pictures answer to an unknown need within yourself, that +is very well," he declared. "About music I know little; but concerning +painting a great deal. And you desire to know, too, I see. The spirit is +willing, but the spirit probably does not know yet what lies in front +of it. You are groping--blind, childlike--without a hand to guard and +an authority to guide. That is merely to waste time. When you go back +to Italy, you must begin at the beginning, if you are in earnest--not at +the middle. Only ignorance measures art in terms of skill, for there are +no degrees in art. None has transcended Giotto, because technique and +draughtsmanship are accidents of time; they lie outside the soul of the +matter. Art is in fact a static thing. It changes as the face of the sea +changes, from hour to hour; but it does not progress. There are great +and small artists and great and small movements, as there are great and +small waves, brisk breezes and terrific tempests; but all are moulded +of like substance. In the one case art, in the other, the ocean, remains +unchanged. I shall plan your instruction for you, if you please, +and send you to the primitives first--the mighty ones who laid the +foundations. I lived five years at Siena--for love of the beginnings; +and you must also learn to love and reverence the beginnings, if you +would understand that light in the darkness men call the Renaissance." + +He broke from Mary presently, strove to interest Sir Walter, and +succeeded. + +"A benevolent autocracy is the ideal government, my friend--the ideal +of all supreme thinkers--a Machiavelli, a Nietzsche, a Stendhal, a +Gobineau. Liberty and equality are terms mutually destructive, they +cannot exist together; for, given liberty, the strong instantly look to +it that equality shall perish. And rightly so. Equality is a war cry +for fools--a negation of nature, an abortion. The very ants know better. +Doubtless you view with considerable distrust the growing spirit of +democracy, or what is called by that name?" + +"I do," admitted Sir Walter. + +"Your monarch and mine are a little bitten by this tarantula. I am +concerned for them. We must not pander to the mob's leaders, for they +are not, and never have been, the many-headed thing itself. They, not +the mob, are 'out to kill,' as you say. But that State will soon +perish that thinks to prosper under the rule of the proletariat. Such a +constitution would be opposed to natural law and, therefore, contain +the seeds of its own dissolution. And its death would be inconceivably +horrible; for the death of huge, coarse organisms is always horrible. +Only distinguished creatures are beautiful in death, or know how to die +like gentlemen." + +"Who are on your side to-day, signor?" asked Henry Lennox. + +"More than I know, I hope. Gobineau is my lighthouse in the storm. You +must read him, if you have not done so. He was the incarnate spirit of +the Renaissance. He radiated from his bosom its effulgence and shot it +forth, like the light of a pharos over dark waters; he, best of all men, +understood it, and, most of all men, mourned to see its bright hope and +glory perish out of the earth under the unconquerable superstition of +mankind and the lamentable infliction of the Jewish race. Alas! The Jews +have destroyed many other things besides the Saviour of us all." + +They found the Renaissance to be the favorite theme of Signor Mannetti. +He returned again and again to it, and it was typical of him that he +could combine assurances of being a devout Catholic with sentiments +purely pagan. + +"Christianity has operated in the making of many slaves and charlatans," +he said. "One mourns the fact, but must be honest. It has too often +scourged the only really precious members of society from the temple of +life. It has cast the brave and clean and virile into outer darkness, +and exalted the staple of humanity, which is never brave, or virile, and +seldom really clean. A hideous wave submerges everything that matters. +The proud, the beautiful--the only beings that justify the existence +of mankind--will soon be on the hills with the hawks and leopards, and +hunted like them--outcast, pariah, unwanted, hated." + +"The spirit of christianity is socialistic, I fear," said Sir Walter. +"It is one of those things I do not pretend to understand, but the +modern clergy speak with a clear voice on the subject." + +"Do your clergy indeed speak with a clear voice?" + +"They do; and we must, of course, listen. Truth is apt to be painful. +And how can we reconcile our aristocratic instincts with our faith? I +ask for information and you will forgive the personality. I find myself +in almost entire agreement with your noble sentiments. But, as a good +Christian, ought I to be so? How do you stand with the one true faith in +your heart and these opinions in your head, signor?" + +The old man twinkled and a boyish smile lighted his aged countenance. + +"A good question--a shrewd thrust, Sir Walter. There can be only one +answer to that, my friend. With God all things are possible." + +Henry laughed; his uncle was puzzled. + +"You think that is no answer," continued the Italian. "But reason also +must have a place in the sun, though we have to hide it in our pocket +sometimes. So many great men would not extinguish their light--and had +it extinguished for them. A difficult subject. Let us continue to think +in compartments. It is safer so. If you are over eighty years old, you +love safety. But I love joy and romance also, and is not religion almost +the only joy and romance left to us? It is affirmation remember, not +negation, that makes the world go round! The 'intellectuals' forget +that, and they are sterile accordingly." + +Signor Mannetti's wits were something too nimble for his hearers. He +talked and talked--about everything but the matter in their minds--until +half-past ten o'clock, when his man came after him. Thereupon he rose, +like an obedient child, and wished them "Good-night." + +"Stephano is my guardian angel," he said--"a being of painful +punctuality. But he adds years to my life. He forgets nothing. I wish +you a kind farewell until to-morrow and offer grateful thanks for your +welcome. I breakfast in my room, if you please, and shall be ready +at eleven o'clock to put myself at your service. Then you will be so +gracious as to answer me some questions, and I shall, please God, try to +help you." + + + + +CHAPTER XI. PRINCE DJEM + + +The master of Chadlands was both drawn and repelled by his guest. Signor +Mannetti revealed a type of mind entirely beyond the other's experience, +and while he often uttered sentiments with which Sir Walter found +himself in cordial agreement, he also committed himself to a great +many opinions that surprised and occasionally shocked the listener. +Sir Walter was also conscious that many words uttered flew above his +understanding. The old Italian could juggle with English almost as +perfectly as he was able to do with his own language. He had his +country's mastery of the phrase, the ironies, the double meanings, +half malicious, half humorous, the outlook on humanity that delights to +surprise--the compliment that, on closer examination, proves really to +be the reverse. Mary's father voiced his emotions when the visitor had +gone to bed. + +"If it didn't seem impossible," he told Henry, "I could almost imagine +that Signor Mannetti was trying to pull my leg sometimes." + +"He tries, and succeeds," answered young Lennox. "He is built that way. +His mind is as agile as a monkey, despite his age. He's a sly old bird; +his thoughts move a thousand times faster than ours, and they're a +thousand times more subtle." + +"But he's very fascinating," declared Mary. + +"He's a gentleman," answered Henry--"an Italian gentleman. They're +different from us in their ideas of good form, that's all. Good form is +largely a matter of geography--like most other manners and customs." + +"I believe in him, anyway." + +"So do I, Mary. I don't think he would ever have put himself to such +extraordinary trouble if he hadn't felt pretty hopeful." + +But Sir Walter doubted. + +"He's old and his mind plays him tricks sometimes. No doubt he's +immensely clever; but his cleverness belongs to the past. He has not +moved with the times any more than I have." + +"His eye flashes still, and you know he has claws, but, like a dear old +Persian cat, he would never dream of using them." + +"I think he would," answered her cousin. "He might spring on +anybody--from behind." + +"He is, at any rate, too old to understand democracy." + +"He understands it only too well," replied Sir Walter. "Like myself, he +knows that democracy is only autocracy turned inside out. Human nature +isn't constructed to bear any such ideal. It might suit sheep and +oxen--not men." + +"He is an aristocrat, a survival, proud as a peacock under his humility, +as kind-hearted as you are yourself, father." + +"I rather doubt his kindness of heart," said Henry. "Latins are not +kind. But I don't doubt his cleverness. One must be on one's guard +against first impressions, Mary." + +"No, no one mustn't, when they're so pleasant. There is nothing small +or peddling about him. It was angelic of such an old man to take so much +trouble." + +Henry Lennox reminded them of practical considerations. + +"The first thing is to get the room opened for him. He is going to see +Uncle Walter at eleven o'clock, and he'll want to visit the Grey Room +afterwards. If we get Chubb and a man or two from the village the first +thing in the morning, they can help Caunter to open the room and have it +ready for him after lunch." + +Sir Walter rang and directed that workmen should be sent for at the +earliest hour next day. + +"I feel doubtful as to what the authorities would say, however," he told +Henry, when his orders had been taken. + +"What can they say, but be well pleased if the infernal thing is cleared +up?" + +"It is too good to be true." + +"So I should think, but I share Mary's optimism. I honestly believe that +Signor Mannetti knows a great deal more about the Grey Room than he has +let us imagine." + +"How can he possibly do that?" asked his uncle. + +"Time will show; but I'm going to back him." At eleven o'clock on the +following morning the visitor appeared. He walked with a gold-headed, +ebony cane and dressed in a fashion of earlier days. He was alert and +keen; his mind had no difficulty in concentrating on his subject. It +appeared that he had all particulars at his fingers' ends, and he went +back into the history of the Grey Room as far as Sir Walter was able to +take him. + +"We are dealing with five victims to our certain knowledge," he said, +"for there is very little doubt that all must have suffered the same +death and under the same circumstances." + +"Four victims, signor." + +"You forget your aged relative--the lady who came to spend Christmas +with your father, when you were a boy, and was found dead on the floor. +Colonel Vane, however, recollected her, because you had mentioned her +when telling the story of Mrs. Forrester--Nurse Forrester." + +"I never associated my aged aunt with subsequent tragedies--nobody did." + +"Nevertheless, it was not old age and a good dinner that ended her life. +She, too, perished by an assassin." + +"You still speak of crime." + +"If I am not mistaken, then 'crime' is the only word." + +"But, forgive me, is it imaginable that the same criminal could destroy +three men last year and kill an old woman more than sixty years ago?" + +"Quite possible. You do not see? Then I hope to have the privilege of +showing you presently." + +"It would seem, then, that the malignant thing is really undying--as +poor May believed--a conscious being hidden there, but beyond our sight +and knowledge?" + +"No, no, my friend. Let me be frank. I have no theory that embraces +either a good or evil spirit. Believe me, there are fewer things in +heaven and earth than are dreamed of in our philosophy. Man has burdened +his brain with an infinite deal of rubbish of his own manufacture. Much +of his principle and practice is built on myths and dreams. He is a +credulous creature, and insanely tenacious to tradition; but I say +to you, suspect tradition at every turn, and the more ancient the +tradition, the more mistrust it. We harbor a great deal too much of the +savage still in us--we still carry about far more of his mental lumber +and nonsense than we imagine. Intellect should simplify rather than +complicate, and those to come will look back with pity to see this +generation, like flies, entangled in the webs of thought their rude +forefathers spun. But the eternal verities are few; a child could count +them. We are, however, a great deal too fond of believing what our +ancestors believed. Alas, nobody sins more in this respect than I. Let +us, then, throw overboard the supernatural, once and for all, so far as +the Grey Room is concerned. No ghost haunts it; no succubus or succuba +is hidden there, to harry the life out of good men and women." + +"It is strange that you should take almost the identical line of thought +that poor Peter Hardcastle took. I hope to God you are right!" + +"So far I am most certainly in the right. We can leave the other world +out of our calculations." + +He asked various questions, many of which did not appear to bear on the +subject, but he made no suggestions as yet, and advanced no theories. He +suspected that Peter Hardcastle might have arrived at a conclusion had +not death cut short his inquiry. From time to time he lifted his hand +gently for silence, and permitted a reply to penetrate his mind. + +"I think very slowly about new things now," he said. "An idea must sink +in gradually and find its place. That is the worst of new ideas. There +is so little room for them when you are eighty. The old and settled +opinions fill the space, and are jealous and resent newcomers." + +Sir Walter explained to him presently that the room was being opened, +and would be ready after luncheon. Whereupon he expressed concern for +the workers. + +"Let them have a care," he said, "for, if I am right, the danger is +still present. Let them work with despatch, and not loiter about." + +"No harm has ever undertaken more than one, when in the room alone. The +detectives saw and felt nothing." + +"Nevertheless, the assassin was quite equal to smudging out the +detectives, believe me, Sir Walter." + +The day was fine, and Signor Mannetti expressed a wish to take the air. +They walked on the terrace presently, and Mary joined them. He asked for +her arm, and she gave it. + +Prince padded beside her, and the visitor declared interest in him. + +"Like myself, your dog is on the verge of better things," he said. "He +will do good deeds in the happy hunting grounds, be sure." + +They told him the feats of Prince, and he appeared to be interested. + +"Nevertheless, the faithful creature ought to die now. He is blind and +paralysis is crippling his hinder parts." + +Sir Walter patted the head of his ancient favorite. + +"He dies on Friday," he said. "The vet will come then. I assure you the +thought gives me very genuine pain." + +"He has earned euthanasia, surely. What is that fine tree with great +white flowers? I have seen the like before, but am sadly ignorant of +horticulture." + +"A tulip-tree," said Mary. "It's supposed to be the finest in +Devonshire." + +"A beautiful object. But all is beautiful here. An English spring can +be divine. I shall ask you to drive me to primroses presently. Those are +azaleas--that bank of living fire--superb!" + +He praised the scene, and spoke about the formal gardens of Italy. + +Then, when luncheon was finished and he had smoked a couple of +cigarettes, Signor Mannetti rose, bowed to Sir Walter, and said: + +"Now, if you please." + +They accompanied and watched him silently, while his eyes wandered round +the Grey Room. + +The place was unchanged, and the dancing cherubs on the great chairs +seemed to welcome daylight after their long darkness. + +The visitor wandered slowly from end to end of the chamber, nodded to +himself, and became animated. Then he checked his gathering excitement, +and presently spoke. + +"I think I am going to help you, Sir Walter," he said. + +"That is great and good news, signor." + +Then the old man became inconsequent, and turned from the room to the +contents. If, indeed, he had found a clue, he appeared in no haste to +pursue it. He entered now upon a disquisition concerning the furniture, +and they listened patiently, for he had showed that any interruption +troubled him. But it seemed that he enjoyed putting a strain upon their +impatience. + +"Beautiful pieces," he said, "but not Spanish, as you led me to suppose. +Spanish chestnut wood, but nothing else Spanish about them. They are +of the Italian Renaissance, and it is most seemly that Italian +craftsmanship of such high order should repose here, under an Italian +ceiling. Strange to say, my sleeping apartment at Rome closely resembles +this room. I live in a villa that dates from the fifteenth century, and +belonged to the Colonna. My chests are more superb than these; but your +suite--the bed and chairs--I confess are better than mine. There is, +however, a reason for that. Let us examine them for the sake of Mrs. +May. Are these carved chairs, with their reliefs of dancing putti, +familiar to her--the figures, I mean?" + +Mary shook her head. + +"Then it is certain that in your Italian wanderings you did not go +to Prato. These groups of children dancing and blowing horns are very +cleverly copied from Donatello's famous pulpit in the duomo. The design +is carried on from the chairs to the footboard of the bed; but in their +midst upon the footboard is let in this oval, easel-picture, painted +on wood. It is faded, and the garlands have withered in so many hundred +years, as well they might; but I can feel the dead color quite well, and +I also know who painted it." + +"Is it possible, signor--this faint ghost of a picture?" + +"There exists no doubt at all. You see a little Pinturicchio. Note the +gay bands of variegated patterns, the arabesques and fruits. Their hues +have vanished, but their forms and certain mannerisms of the master +are unmistakable. These dainty decorations were the sign manual of such +quattrocento painters as Gozzoli and Pinturicchio; and to these men +he, for whom these works of art were created, assigned the painting +and adornment of the Vatican. We will come to him directly. It was for +Michelangelo to make the creations of these artists mere colored bubbles +and froth, when seen against the immensity and intellectual grandeur of +his future masterpieces in the Sistine. But that was afterwards. We are +concerned with the Pope for whom these chairs and this bed were made. +Yes, a Pope, my friends--no less a personage than Alexander VI.!" + +He waited, like a skilled actor, for the tremendous sensation he +expected and deserved. But it did not come. Unhappily for Signor +Mannetti's great moment, his words conveyed no particular impression to +anybody. + +Sir Walter asked politely: + +"And was he a good, or a bad Pope? I fear many of those gentlemen had +little to their credit." + +But the signor felt the failure of his great climax. At first he +regretted it, and a wave of annoyance, even contempt, passed unseen +through his mind; then he was glad that the secret should be hidden for +another four-and-twenty hours, to gain immensely in dramatic sensation +by delay. Already he was planning the future, and designing wonderful +histrionics. He could not be positive that he was right; though now the +old man felt very little doubt. + +He did not answer Sir Walter's question, but asked one himself. + +"The detectives examined this apartment with meticulous care, you say?" + +"They did indeed." + +"And yet what can care and zeal do; what can the most conscientious +student achieve if his activities are confounded by ignorance? The +amazing thing to me is that nobody should have had the necessary +information to lead them at least in the right direction. And yet I run +on too fast. After all, who shall be blamed, for it is, of course, the +Grey Room and nothing but the Grey Room we are concerned with. Am I +right? The Grey Room has the evil fame?" + +"Certainly it has." + +"And yet a little knowledge of a few peculiar facts--a pinch of +history--yet, once again, who shall be blamed? Who can be fairly asked +to possess that pinch of history which means so much in this room?" + +"How could history have helped us, signor?" asked Henry Lennox. + +"I shall tell you. But history is always helpful. There is history +everywhere around us--not only here, but in every other department of +this noble house. Take these chairs. By the accident of training, I read +in them a whole chapter of the beginnings of the Renaissance; to you +they are only old furniture. You thought them Spanish because they were +bought in Spain--at Valencia, as a matter of fact. You did not know +that, Sir Walter; but your grandfather purchased them there--to the +despair and envy of another collector. Yes, these chairs have speaking +faces to me, just as the ceiling over them has a speaking face also. +It, too, is copied. History, in fact, breathes its very essence in this +home. If I knew more history than I do, then other beautiful things +would talk to me as freely as these chairs--and as freely as the +trophies of the chase and the tiger skins below no doubt talk to Sir +Walter. But are we not all historical--men, women, even children? To +exist is to take your place in history, though, as in my case, the fact +will not be recorded save in the 'Chronicles' of the everlasting. Yes, +I am ancient history now, and go far back, before Italy was a united +kingdom. Much entertaining information will be lost for ever when I die. +Believe me, while the new generation is crying forth the new knowledge +and glorying in its genius, we of the old guard are sinking into our +graves and taking the old knowledge with us. Yet they only rediscover +for themselves what we know. Human life is the snake with its tail in +its mouth--Nietzsche's eternal recurrence and the commonplaces of +our forefathers are echoed on the lips of our children as great +discoveries." + +Henry Lennox ventured to bring him back to the point. + +"What knowledge--what particular branch of information should a man +possess, signor, to find out what you have found?" + +"Merely an adornment, my young friend, a side branch of withered +learning, not cultivated, I fear, by your Scotland Yard. Yet I have +known country gentlemen to be skilled in it. The practice of heraldry. +I marked your arms on your Italian gates. I must look at those gates +again--they are not very good, I fear. But the arms--a chevron between +three lions--a fine coat, yet probably not so ancient as the gates." + +"It was such a thing as bothered me in Florence," said Sir Walter. "I'd +seen it before somewhere, but where I know not--a bull's head of gold on +a red field." + +Signor Mannetti started and laughed. + +"Ha-ha! We will come to the golden bull presently, Sir Walter. You shall +meet him, I promise you!" + +Then he broke off and patted his forehead. + +"But I go too quickly--far too quickly indeed. I must rest my poor brain +now, or it will rattle in my head like a dry walnut. When it begins to +rattle, I know that I have done enough for the present. May I walk in +the garden again--not alone, but with your companionship?" + +"Of course, unless you would like to retire and rest for a while." + +"Presently I shall do so. And please permit nobody to enter the Grey +Room but myself. Not a soul must go or come without me." + +Sir Walter spoke. + +"You still believe the peril is material then--an active, physical +thing, controlled by a conscious human intelligence?" + +"If I am right, it certainly is active enough." + +They went into the garden, and Signor Mannetti, finding a snug seat in +the sun, decided to stop there. Henry and his uncle exchanged glances, +and the latter found his faith weakening, for the Italian's mind +appeared to wander. He became more and more irrelevant, as it seemed. He +spoke again of the old dog who was at his master's feet. + +"Euthanasia for the aged. Why not? For that matter, I have considered +it for myself in dark moments. Have you ever wondered why we destroy +our pets, for love of them, yet suffer our fellow creatures to exist and +endure to the very dregs Nature's most fiendish methods of dissolution? +Again one of those terrible problems where mercy and religion cannot see +eye to eye." + +They uttered appropriate sentiments, and again the old man changed the +subject and broke new ground. + +"There was a prince--not your old dog--but a royal lad of the +East--Prince Djem, the brother of the Sultan Bajazet. Do you know that +story? Possibly not--it is unimportant enough, and to this day the +sequel of the incident is buried in a mystery as profound as that of the +Grey Room. Our later historians whitewash Alexander VI. concerning +the matter of Prince Djem; but then it is so much the habit of later +historians to whitewash everybody. A noble quality in human nature +perhaps--to try and see the best, even while one can only do so by +ignoring the worst. Certainly, as your poet says, 'Distance makes the +heart grow fonder'; or, at any rate, softer. There is a tendency to side +with the angels where we are dealing with historic dead. Nero, Caligula, +Calvin, Alva, Napoleon, Torquemada--all these monsters and portents, +and a thousand such blood-bespattered figures are growing whiter as they +grow fainter. They will have wings and haloes presently. Yet not for me. +I am a good hater, my friends. But Prince Djem--I wander so. You should +be more severe with me and keep me to my point. Sultan Bajazet wanted +his younger brother out of the way, and he paid the Papacy forty +thousand ducats a year to keep the young fellow a prisoner in Italy. +It was a gilded captivity and doubtless the dissolute Oriental enjoyed +himself quite as well at Rome as he would have done in Constantinople. +But after Alexander had achieved the triple tiara, Bajazet refused to +pay his forty thousand ducats any longer. The Pope, therefore, wrote +strongly to the Sultan, telling him that the King of France designed to +seize Prince Djem and go to war on his account against the Turks. This +does not weary you?" + +"No, indeed," declared Mary. + +"Alexander added, that to enable him to resist the French and spare +Bajazet's realms the threatened invasion, a sum of forty thousand ducats +must be immediately forthcoming. The Sultan, doubtless appalled by such +a threat, despatched the money with a private letter. He was as great +a diplomat as the Pope himself, and saw a way to evade this gigantic +annual impost by compounding on the death of Djem. Unfortunately for +him, however, both the papal envoy and Bajazet's own messenger were +captured upon their return journey by the brother of Cardinal della +Rovere--Alexander's bitterest enemy. Thus the contents of the secret +letter became known, and the Christian world heard with horror how +Bajazet had offered the occupant of St. Peter's throne three hundred +thousand ducats to assassinate Prince Djem! + +"Time passed, and the Pope triumphed over his enemies. He prepared +to abandon the person of the young Turk to Charles of France, and +effectively checkmated the formidable Rovere for a season. But then, as +we know, Prince Djem suddenly perished, and while latest writers declare +that he actually reached France, only to die there, ruined by his own +debaucheries, I, for one, have not accepted that story. He never reached +France, my friends, for be sure Alexander VI. was not the man to let +any human life stand between his treasury and three hundred thousand +ducats." + +Signor Mannetti preserved silence for a time, then he returned in very +surprising fashion to the subject that had brought him to Chadlands. He +had been reflecting and now proceeded with his thoughts aloud. + +"You must, however, restrain your natural impatience a little longer, +until another night has passed. I will, if you please, myself spend some +hours in the Grey Room after dark, and learn what the medieval spirits +have to tell me. Shall I see the wraith of Prince Djem, think you? Or +the ghost of Pinturicchio hovering round his little picture? Or those +bygone, cunning workers in plaster who built the ceiling? They will at +least talk the language of Tuscany, and I shall be at home among them." + +Sir Walter protested. + +"That, indeed, is the last thing I could permit, signor," he said. + +"That is the first thing that must happen, nevertheless," replied the +old gentleman calmly. "You need not fear for me, Sir Walter. I jest +about the spirits. There are no spirits in the Grey Room, or, if +there are, they are not such as can quarrel with you, or me. There is, +however, something much worse than any spirit lurking in the heart of +your house--a potent, sleepless, fiendish thing; and far from wondering +at all that has happened, I only marvel that worse did not befall. But +I have the magic talisman, the 'open sesame.' I am safe enough even if +I am mistaken. Though my fires are burning low, it will take more than +your Grey Room to extinguish them. I hold the clue of the labyrinth, +and shall pass safely in and out again. To-morrow I can tell you if I am +right." + +"I confess that any such plan is most disagreeable to me. I have been +specially directed by the authorities to allow no man to make further +experiments alone." + +Vergilio Mannetti showed a trace of testiness. "Forgive me, but your +mind moves without its usual agility, my friend. Have I not told you +everything? What matters Scotland Yard, seeing that it is entirely in +the dark, while I have the light? Let them hear that they are bats and +owls, and that one old man has outwitted the pack of them!" + +"You have, as you say, told us much, my dear signor, and much that +you have said is deeply interesting. In your mind it may be that these +various facts are related, and bring you to some sort of conclusion +bearing on the Grey Room; but for us it is not so. These statements +leave us where they find us; they hang on nothing, not even upon one +another in our ears. I speak plainly, since this is a matter for plain +speaking. It is natural that you should not feel as we feel; but I need +not remind you that what to you is merely an extraordinary mystery, to +us is much more. You have imagination, however, far more than I have, +and can guess, without being told, the awful suffering the past has +brought to my daughter and myself." + +"Our slow English brains cannot flash our thoughts along so quickly as +yours, signor," said Mary. "It is stupid of us, but--" + +"I stand corrected," answered the other instantly. He rose from his +seat, and bowed to them with his hand on his heart. + +"I am a withered old fool, and not quick at all. Forgive me. But thus +it stands. Since you did not guess, through pardonable ignorance of a +certain fact, then, for the pleasure of absolute proof, I withhold my +discovery a little longer. There is drama here, but we must be skilled +dramatists and not spoil our climax, or anticipate it. To-morrow it +shall be--perhaps even to-night. You are not going to be kept long +in suspense. Nor will I go alone and disobey Scotland Yard. Your aged +pet--this spaniel dog--shall join me. Good Prince and I will retire +early and, if you so desire it, we shall be very willing to welcome +you in the Grey Room--say some six or seven hours later. I do not sleep +there, but merely sustain a vigil, as all the others did. But it will be +briefer than theirs. You will oblige me?" + +Mary spoke, seeing the pain on her father's face. She felt certain that +the old man knew perfectly what he was talking about. She had spoken +aside to Henry, and he agreed with her. Mannetti had solved the mystery; +he had even enabled them to solve it; but now, perhaps to punish them +for their stupidity, he was deliberately withholding the key, half from +love of effect, half in a spirit of mischief. He was planning something +theatrical. He saw himself at the centre of the stage in this tragic +drama, and it was not unnatural that he should desire to figure there +effectively after taking so much trouble. Thus, while Sir Walter still +opposed, he was surprised to hear Mary plead on the visitor's behalf, +and his nephew support her. + +"Signor Mannetti is quite right, father; I am positive of it," she said. +"He is right; and because he is right, he is safe." + +"Admirably put!" cried the Italian. "There you have the situation in +a nutshell, my friends. Trust a clever woman's intuition. I am indeed +right. Never was consciousness of right so impressed upon my mind--prone +as I am always to doubt my own conclusions. I am, in fact, right because +I cannot be wrong. Trust me. My own safety is absolutely assured, for +we are concerned with the operations of men like ourselves--at least, I +hope very different from ourselves, but men, nevertheless. It was your +fate to revive this horror; it shall be my privilege to banish it out +of the earth. At a breath the cunning of the ungodly shall be brought +to nought. And not before it is time. But the mills of God grind slowly. +Our achievement will certainly resound to the corners of the civilized +world." + +"I'm as positive as the signor himself that he is safe, uncle," said +Henry Lennox. + +"Let us go to tea," replied Sir Walter. "These things are far too deep +for a plain man. I only ask you to consider all this must mean to me who +am the master of Chadlands and responsible to the authorities. Reflect +if ill overtook you." + +"It is impossible that it can." + +"So others believed. And where are they? Further trouble would unhinge +my mind, signor." + +"You have endured enough to make you speak so strongly, and your brave +girl also. But fear nothing whatever. I am far too deeply concerned and +committed on your behalf to add a drop to the bitter drink of the past, +my dear Sir Walter. I am as safe in that room as I should be at the +altar steps of St. Peter's. Trust old Prince, if you cannot trust me. +I rely largely on your blind pet to aid me. He has good work to do yet, +faithful fellow." + +"The detectives took animals into the room, but they were not hurt," +said Lennox. + +"Neither shall the dog be hurt." + +He patted the sleeping spaniel, and they rose and went into the house +together. + +Mannetti evidently assumed that his wishes were to be granted. + +"I will go and sleep awhile," he said. "Until an early dinner, excuse +me, and let Mrs. May and Mr. Lennox convince you, as they are themselves +convinced. These events have immensely excited my vitality. I little +guessed that, at the end of my days, a sensation so remarkable lay in +store for me. I must conserve my strength for to-night. I am well--very +well--and supported by the consciousness of coming triumph. Such an +achievement would have rewarded my long journey and these exertions, +even had not your acquaintance been ample reward already. I will, then, +sleep until dinner-time, and so be replenished to play my part in +a wonderful though melancholy romance. Let us dine at seven, if you +please." + +His excitement and natural levity strove with the gloomy facts. He +resembled a mourner at a funeral who experiences pleasant rather than +painful emotions but continually reminds himself to behave in a manner +appropriate to the occasion. + +They sent for his man, and, on Stephano's arm, the old gentleman +withdrew. + +He returned for a moment, however, and spoke again. + +"You will do exactly as I wish and allow no human being to enter the +Grey Room. Keep the key in your pocket, Sir Walter; and do not go there +yourself either. It is still a trap of death for everybody else in the +world but myself." + + + + +CHAPTER XII. THE GOLDEN BULL + + +When Masters came to clear the tea, he found Sir Walter still +unconvinced. + +"What do you think of Signor Mannetti, Masters?" asked Henry; and the +butler, who was a great reader of the newspapers, made answer. + +"I think he's a bit of a freak, Mr. Henry. They tell me that old people +can have a slice of monkey slipped into 'em nowadays--to keep 'em going +and make 'em young and lively again. Well, I should say the gentleman +had a whole monkey popped in somewhere. I never see such another. He's +got a tongue like a rat-trap, and he leaves you guessing every time. +He's amazing clever; so's his man. That Stephano knows a thing or two! +He's got round Jane Bond something disgraceful. I never knew what was in +Jane--and her five and fifty if she's an hour." + +"Would he be safe in the Grey Room?" said Sir Walter. + +"He'd be safe anywhere. The question in my mind is whether our silver's +safe; and a few other things. I catched him poking about in the silver +table only this morning. He knows what's what. He knows everything. I +wouldn't say he ain't one of the swell mob myself--made up to look +like an old man. I'll swear he's never seen eighty years for all he +pretends." + +Henry laughed. + +"Don't you be frightened of him, Masters; he's all right." + +"Let him go in the Grey Room by all means, Mr. Henry. He knows he's +safe anywhere. Yes, Sir Walter, he knows he's safe enough. He's got the +measure of it." + +"Prince is to go with him, Masters." + +"Prince! Why, ma'am?" + +"We don't know. He wishes it. He can't hurt poor old Prince anyway." + +"Well, I sha'n't sleep no worse; and I hope none of you won't, if you'll +excuse me. Come what will, there's nothing in the Grey Room will catch +that man napping. Not that I'm against the gentleman in general, you +understand. Only I wouldn't trust him a foot. He's play-acting, and he's +no more a foreigner than I am--else he couldn't talk so fine English as +I do, if not finer." + +"Masters is on our side, father," said Mary. "And he's right. The signor +is play-acting. He loves to be in the centre of the stage. All old +people do, and one of the pathetic things in life is that they're seldom +allowed to be. So he's making the most of his opportunity." + +"And if you refuse, Uncle Walter, he'll only go away and say he cannot +help you, and accuse us of giving him all this trouble for nothing," +added Henry Lennox. + +They had their wish at last, and when Signor Mannetti came down to an +early dinner in splendid spirits, Sir Walter conceded his desire. + +"Good, my friend! And do not fear that a night of anxiety awaits you. +Indeed, if I am not mistaken, it will be possible for us all to sleep +very soundly, though we may go to bed rather late. But I think we must +be prepared not to retire till after two o'clock. I will enter upon my +watch at eight--in half an hour. The door shall be left open, as you +wish. But I beg that none will approach the east end of the corridor. +That is only fair. I will, however, permit Mr. Lennox to station +himself on the top of the great staircase, and from time to time he may +challenge me. He shall say 'Is all well?' and be sure I shall answer +'All is well.' Could anything be more satisfactory?" + +Signor Mannetti ate sparingly, then he donned a big, fur, motor-coat +and declared himself ready. They thought he had forgotten Prince, but he +insisted upon the company of the ancient spaniel. The dog had fed, and +he could sleep as well in one place as another. + +"Fear not," said the Italian. "I shall be considerate to your ancient +pet. I do not beg his aid without reason. He is on my side and will help +me if he can--infirm though he be. I have made friends with him. Set him +at my feet. I will sit here under the electric light and read my Italian +papers." + +Thus once again a solitary occupied the Grey Room and measured his +intelligence against the terrible forces therein concealed. Signor +Mannetti took leave of them cheerfully at eight o'clock, and while Sir +Walter and Mary descended to the library, Henry took up his station at +the head of the staircase. The corridor was lighted and the door of the +Grey Room left open. + +But in ten minutes the watcher looked out and cried to Lennox, who sat +smoking about thirty-five yards from him. + +"There is a great draught here," he said. "I will close the door, but +leave it ajar that we may salute each other from time to time." + +The hours crept on and since everybody at Chadlands knew what was +happening, few retired to rest. It was understood that some time after +midnight Signor Mannetti hoped to declare the result of his experiment. + +Henry Lennox challenged half-hourly, always receiving a brisk reply. +But a little after half-past one his "All well, signor?" received no +response. He raised his voice, but still no answer came. He went to the +door, therefore, and looked into the Grey Room. The watcher had slipped +down in the armchair they had set for him under the electric light, +and was lying motionless, but in an easy position. He still wore his +fur-coat. Prince Henry did not see. The room was silent and cold. The +electric light burned brightly, and both windows were open. Young Lennox +hastened downstairs. His thoughts concentrated on his uncle, and his +desire was to spare him any needless shock. For a moment he believed +that Signor Mannetti had succumbed in the Grey Room, as others before +him, but he could not be certain. A bare half-hour had elapsed since the +watcher had uttered a cheerful answer to the last summons, and told them +his vigil was nearly ended. Lennox sought Masters, therefore, told him +that the worst was to be feared, yet explained that the old man who had +watched in the Grey Room might not be dead but sunk in sleep. + +Masters was sanguine that it might be so. + +"Be sure he is so. I'll fetch the liqueur brandy," and, armed with his +panacea, he followed Henry upstairs. Signor Mannetti had not moved, but +as they approached him, to their infinite relief he did so, opened his +eyes, stared wildly about him, and then realized the situation. + +"Alas! Now I have frightened you out of your senses," he said, looking +at their anxious faces. "All is well. In less than another hour I should +have summoned Sir Walter. But just that last half-hour overcame me, and +I sank into sleep. What is the time?" + +"A quarter to two, signor." + +"Good! Then let your uncle be summoned. I have found out the secret." + +"A thimbleful of old cognac, signor?" asked Masters. + +"Willingly, my friend, willingly. I see how wise you both were. I +approve and thank you. You thought that I had followed the others into +the shades, yet meant to restore me if you could without frightening Sir +Walter. To go to sleep was unpardonable." + +Abraham Masters and Henry descended with the good news, while the old +man drank. + +"I shall detain you half an hour or so," he said, when they all returned +to him. "But I have no fear that anybody will want to fall asleep." + +Sir Walter spoke. + +"Thank Heaven, signor, thank Heaven! All is well with you?" + +"All is absolutely well with me, but then I have slept refreshingly for +some time. You, I fear, have not closed your eyes." + +"Would you have any objection to Masters hearing what you may have +to tell us? By so doing a true and ungarbled report will get out to +Chadlands." + +"My report will go out to the whole world, Sir Walter. All is +accomplished and established on certain proofs. Your good spaniel has +played his part also. I salute him--the old Prince." + +Henry now observed that the dog was stretched on the floor at Signor +Mannetti's feet. + +"Still asleep?" + +Mary knelt to pat the spaniel and started back. + +"How horribly cold he is!" + +"For ever asleep--a martyr to science. He was to die on Friday, +remember. He has received euthanasia a little sooner, and nothing in his +life has become him like the leaving of it. The last victim of the Grey +Room. Mourn him not, he passed without a pang--as did his betters." + +"But, but--you spoke of crime and criminals!" gasped Sir Walter. + +"And truly. Great crimes have been committed in this room and great +criminals committed them. Is a crime any less a crime because the +doers have mouldered in their dishonored graves for nearly five hundred +years?" + +"Your handling of speech is not ours, and you use words differently. The +old dog did not suffer, you say? How did he come to die--in his sleep?" + +"Even so. Without a sigh, the last venerable victim of this murdering +shadow." + +"You saw him die, and yet were safe yourself, sir?" asked Lennox. + +"That is what happened. Now sit down all of you, father Abraham also, +and in five minutes all will be as clear as day." + +They obeyed him silently. + +"Yes, a master criminal, one whose name has rung down the ages and will +from to-morrow win a further resonance. Would that we could bring him to +account; but he has already gone to it, if justice lies at the root +of things, as all men pray, and you and I believe, Sir Walter. An +interesting reflection: How many suffer, if they do not actually perish, +from the sins of the dead? Not only the sins of our father are visited +upon us, but, if we could trace the infliction, the crimes of countless +dead men accomplished long before we were born into this suffering +world. I speak in a parable, but this is literal, actual. Dead men +committed these murders, and left this legacy of woe." + +Signor Mannetti stroked the lifeless spaniel. + +"When we were left alone I picked him up and set him on the bed. He did +not waken, and I knew that he would never waken again. Now let us look +at this noble bed, if you please. Here is the link, you see, without +which so much that I told you yesterday must have sounded no more than +the idle chatter of an old man. Come and use your eyes. Ah, if only +people had used their eyes sooner!" + +They followed him, and he pointed to a framework of carved wood that +connected the four posts. + +"What is this on the frieze running above the capitals of the little +Ionic pillars?" + +"The papal crown and keys," said Mary. + +"Good! Now regard the other side." + +"A coat of arms--a golden bull on a red ground--why, father, that was +what puzzled you at Florence!" + +"Surely it was. The thing stuck in my memory, yet I could not remember +where I had seen it before." + +Signor Mannetti prepared for his effect, then made it. + +"The arms of the Borgia! The arms of the Spanish Pope, Alexander VI. of +unholy memory. So all is told, and we will soon go to bed. Having marked +them this morning, you will see how readily I was led into the heart of +the secret. It only needed some such certain sign. And everything that +had happened was consonant with this explanation. The first to suffer +puzzled me; but I solved that problem, too. You shall hear how each +woman and each man was slain. Look at this mattress upholstered in +satin--there lies the unsleeping thing that brings sleep so quickly to +others! I guessed it this morning; I proved it to-night. At seventeen +minutes past eight Prince was dead; but not until I awoke, near two +o'clock, did I dare approach him. For how did he die? The moment the +heat of his ancient body penetrated the mattress under him, it released +its awful venom. He stretched himself, curled up again, and, as the +exhalation rose, with scarcely a tremor he passed from sleep into death. +Needless to tell you that I kept far from him, for I guessed that not +until the poor fellow was cold would the demon in the mattress sink down +and disappear, as the effret into his bottle. Then mattress and dog were +alike harmless, as they are now. I gave him only five hours, for he was +a small, thin beast, and the heat soon left his body." + +"But, signor--" + +"I shall anticipate all your objections if you will listen a little +longer, dear Mrs. May. Let us sit again, and question me after I have +spoken, if any doubts remain unanswered. Another liqueur, Masters." + +He sipped, and preserved silence for a few moments, while none spoke. +Then from his armchair he traversed the story of the Grey Room, and +proved amazingly familiar with the smallest detail of it. Indeed, when +at last he had finished, none could find any questions to ask. "There +are two very interesting preliminary facts to note, my friends," began +the signor. He beamed upon them, and enjoyed his own exposition with +unconcealed gusto. "The first is that a room, already suffering from +sinister traditions, and held to be haunted, should have been precisely +that into which this infernal engine of destruction was introduced. Yet +what more natural? You have the furniture, and, for the time being, +do not know what to do with it. The house is already full of beautiful +things, and these surplus treasures you store here, to be safe and out +of the way, in a room which is not put to its proper use. You are not +collectors or experts. Sir Walter's father did not share his father's +enthusiasm, neither did Sir Walter care for old furniture. So the pieces +take their place in this room, and are, more or less, forgotten. + +"That is the first interesting fact, and the second seems to me to +be this: that those who perished here in living memory all died at +different places in the room, and so died that their deaths could not +be immediately and undeviatingly traced to the bed. Hardcastle, for +example, as you have related his conversation, did not associate the +death of poor Captain May with that of the lady of the hospital eleven +years before; and Sir Walter himself saw no reason to connect the still +earlier death of his aged aunt, which took place when he was a boy, with +the disaster that followed. + +"Let us now examine for a moment the amazing fact that none of the +stigmata of death was found in those who perished here. + +"Death has three modes--the pale horseman strikes us down by asphyxia, +by coma, and by syncope. In asphyxia he stabs the lungs; in coma his +lance is aimed at the brain; in syncope, at the heart. + +"When a man dies by asphyxia, it means that the action of the muscles +by which he breathes is stopped, or the work of his lungs prevented +by injury, or the free passage of air arrested, as in drowning, or +strangulation. It may also mean that embolism has taken place, and the +pulmonary artery is blocked, withholding blood from the lungs. But it +was not thus that any died in this chamber. + +"Coma occurs through an apoplexy, or concussion; by the use of certain +narcotic or mineral poisons; and in various other ways, all of which are +ruled out for us. + +"There remains syncope. A heart ceases to beat from haemorrhage, or +starvation, from exhaustion, or the depressing influence of certain +drugs. They who died here died from syncope; but why? No autopsy can +tell us why. They passed with only their Maker to sustain them, and none +leaves behind an explanation of what overtook him, or her. Yet we know +full well, even in the case of Peter Hardcastle, concerning whom the +police felt doubt, that he was quite dead before Mr. Lennox discovered +him and picked him up. We know that the phenomena of rigor mortis had +already set in before his body reached London. + +"Nothing, however, is new under the sun. Many journals related the fact +that these people had passed away without a cause, as though it were +an event without a parallel. It is not. Your Dr. Templeman, in 1893, +describes two examples of sudden death with absolute absence of any +pathological condition in any part of the bodies to account for it. +He describes the case of a man of forty-three, and calls it 'emotional +inhibition of the heart.' The heart was arrested in diastole, instead +of systole, as is usually the case; the mode of death was syncope; the +cause of death, undiscoverable. + +"A layman may be permitted, I suppose, to describe 'emotional inhibition +of the heart' as 'shock'; but we know, in our cases, that if a shock, +it was not a painful one--perhaps not even an unpleasant one. Since all +other emotions can be pleasant or unpleasant, why must we assume that +the supreme emotion of death may not be pleasant also, did we know how +to make it so? Perhaps the Borgia, among their secrets, had discovered +this. At least the familiar signs of death were wholly absent from +the countenances of the dead. The jaws were not set; the familiar, +expressions were not changed, as usually happens from rigidity of facial +muscles; their faces were not sallow; their temples were not sunk; their +brows were not contracted. + +"We will now take the victims, one by one, and show how death happened +to each of them, yet left no sign that it had happened. Frankly, +the first case alone presented any difficulties to me. For a time I +despaired of proving how the bed had destroyed Sir Walter's ancestor, +because she had not entered it. But the difficulty becomes clear to one +possessing our present knowledge, for once prove the properties of the +bed, and the rest follows. You will say that they were not proved, only +guessed. That was true, until Prince died. His death crowned my +edifice of theory and converted it to fact. As to why the bed has these +properties, that is for science to find out presently. + +"To return, then, to the old lady, the ancient woman of your race, who +came unexpectedly to the Christmas re-union and was put to sleep in the +Grey Room at her own wish. She was found dead next morning on the floor. +She had not entered the bed. The exact facts have long disappeared +from human knowledge, and it is only possible to re-construct them by +inference and the support of those straightforward events that followed. +I conceive, then, that though the old lady did not create the warmth +that liberated the evil spirit of the bed and so destroyed her, that +warmth was nevertheless artificially created. What must have happened, +think you? The bed is made up in haste and the fire lighted. But the +fire is a long way from the bed, and would have no effect to create the +necessary temperature. There is, however, a hot-water bottle in the bed, +or a hot brick wrapped in flannel. The old lady is about to enter her +bed. She has extinguished her candle, but the flame of the fire gives +light. She has prayed; she throws off her dressing-gown and flings back +the covering of the bed, to fall an instant victim to the miasma. She +drops backward and is found dead next morning, by which time the bottle +and bed are also cold. + +"Taken alone, I grant this explanation may fail to win your sympathy; +but consider the cumulative evidence in store. The old lady may, of +course, have died a natural death. She may not have turned down the bed. +There is nobody living to tell us. All that Sir Walter can recollect is +that she was found on the floor of the room dead. Exactly where, he +does not remember. But for my own part I have no doubt whatever that her +death took place in that way. + +"We are on safer ground with the other tragic happenings, though, save +in the case of Nurse Forrester, there is nothing on the surface of +events to connect their deaths with the accursed bed. You will see, +however, that it is very easy to do so. In the lady's case all is clear +enough. She goes to bed tired and she sleeps peacefully into death +without waking. She is probably asleep within ten minutes, before her +own warmth has penetrated through sheet and blanket to the mattress +beneath and so destroyed her. Suppose that she is dead in half an hour. +She retired to rest at ten o'clock; she is called at seven; the room is +presently broken into and she is then not only dead, but cold. The demon +has gone to sleep again under its lifeless burden. Now had she been +stout and well covered, there had hardly been time for her to grow cold, +and those who came to her assistance might even have perished, too. +But she is a little, thin thing, and the heat has gone out of her. This +assured the safety of those who came to the bedside. One can make no +laws as to the time necessary for a dead body to grow as cold as its +surroundings. The bodies of the old and the young cool more quickly than +those of adult persons. If the conditions are favorable a body may cool +in six to eight hours. Prince took but five, poor little bag of bones. + +"In the case of Captain May the conditions are altogether different. +Let me speak with all tenderness and spare you pain. Be sure that he +suffered no more than the others. The bed is now no longer made; the +mattress is bare. That matters not to him. Clad in his pyjamas, with a +railway rug to cover him and his dressing-gown for a pillow, he flings +himself down, and from his powerful and sanguine frame warmth is +instantly communicated to the mattress that supports him. Probably but +a few minutes were sufficient to liberate the poison. He is not asleep, +but on the edge of sleep when he becomes suddenly conscious of physical +sensations beyond his experience. He had breathed death, but yet he is +not dead. His brain works, and can send a message to his limbs, which +are still able to obey. But his hour has come. He leaps from the bed in +no suffering, but conscious, perhaps of an oppression, or an unfamiliar +odor--we cannot say what. We only know that he feels intense surprise, +not pain for in that dying moment his emotions are fixed for ever by +the muscles of his face. He needs air and seeks it. He hurries to the +recess, kneels on the cushion, and throws open the window. Or the window +may have been already open--we cannot tell. To reach it is his last +conscious act, and in another moment he is dead. The bed is not +suspected. Why should it be? Who could prove that he had even laid down +upon it? Indeed it was believed and reported at the inquest that he had +not done so. Yet that is what unquestionably happened. Otherwise his +candle would have burned to the socket. He had blown it out and settled +to rest, be sure. + +"We have now to deal with the detective, and here again there was +nothing to associate his death with the bed of the Borgia. Yet you will +see without my aid how easily he came by his death. Peter Hardcastle +desires to be alone, that he may study the Grey Room and everything in +it. He is left as he wishes, walks here and there, sketches a ground +plan of the room and exhausts its more obvious peculiarities. Would +that he had known the meaning of the golden bull! Presently he strikes +a train of thought and sits down to develop it. Or he may not have +finished with the room and have taken a seat from which he could survey +everything around him. He sits at the foot of the bed--there on the +right side. He makes his notes, then his last thoughts enter his +mind--abstract reflection on the subject of his trade. For a moment he +forgets the matter immediately in hand and writes his ideas in his book. +He has been sitting on the bed now for some while--how long we know not, +but long enough to create the heightened temperature which is all the +watchful fiend within the mattress requires to summon him. Then ascends +the spirit of death, and Hardcastle, surprised as Captain May was +surprised, leaps to his feet. He takes two or three steps forward; his +book and pen fall from his hand and he drops upon his face--a dead man. +He is, of course, still warm when Mr. Lennox finds him; but the bed he +leaped from is cold again and harmless--its work done. + +"There remains the priest, the Rev. Septimus May. He neither lay on the +bed, nor sat upon it. But what did he do? He clearly knelt beside it a +long time, engaged in prayer. Nothing more natural than that he should +stretch his arms over the mattress; bury his face in his hands, and so +remain in commune with the Almighty, uttering petition after petition +for the being he conceived as existing in the Grey Room, without power +to escape from it. Thus leaning upon the bed with his arms stretched +upon it and his head perhaps sunk between them, he presently creates +that heightened temperature sufficient to arouse the destroyer. It +enters into him--how, we know not yet--and he sinks unconscious to the +floor, while the bed is quickly cold again. + +"As to the four detectives--Inspector Frith and his men--pure chance +saved the life of at least one of them, and by so doing, chance also +prevented them from discovering that the bed in their midst was the seat +of all the trouble. Had one among them taken up his watch upon it, he +would certainly have died in the presence of his collaborators; but +the men sat on chairs in the corners of the room, and the chairs were +harmless. Whether their gas masks would indeed have saved them remains, +of course, to be proved. I doubt it. + +"Such, my friends, were the masterpieces of the Borgia, for whom the +profoundest chemists worked willingly enough and by doing so doubtless +made their fortunes. Their poisons were so designed to act that, by +their very operation, the secrets of them were concealed, and all clues +obliterated. Chemistry knows nothing of the supernatural, yet can, as in +this case, achieve results that may well appear to be black magic. + +"And if we, of this day, fail to find them out, it is easy to guess that +in their own times, much that they caused to be done was set down to the +operations of Heaven alone. + +"Science will be deeply interested in your Borgia mattress, Sir Walter. +Science, I doubt not, will carefully unpick it and make a series of very +remarkable experiments; yet I make bold to believe that science may +be baffled by the cunning and forgotten knowledge of men long dust. We +shall see as to that." + +He rose and bade Masters call Stephano. Then, with a few words, they +parted, and each shook the old man's hand and expressed a deep and +genuine gratitude before they did so. + +"A little remains to add," said Signor Mannetti. "You shall hear what it +is to-morrow. For the moment, 'Good-night!' It has been a crowning joy +to my long life that I was able to do this service to new and valued +friends." + +In the servants' hall next morning Masters related what he had heard. + +"And if you ask me," he concluded, "I draw back what I thought about him +being younger than he pretends. He's older--old as the hills--older than +that horror in the Grey Boom. He's a demon; and he's killed the old dog; +and I believe he's a Borge himself if the truth was known." + + + + +CHAPTER XIII. TWO NOTES + + +They walked in the garden next morning, and Sir Walter delayed to write +to Scotland Yard until after seeing Signor Mannetti again. The +old gentleman descended to them presently, and declared himself +over-fatigued. + +"I must sit in the sun and go to sleep again after lunch," he said. +"Stephano is annoyed with me, and hints at the doctor." + +"Mannering will be here to lunch. You will understand that nobody is +more deeply interested in these things than he." + +"But yourself," said Mary. "Come and sit down and rest. You are looking +very tired to-day." + +"A little reaction--no more. It was worth it." He then proceeded where +he had broken off on the preceding night. + +"There remains only to tell you how I found myself caught up in your sad +story. It had not occurred to you to wonder?" + +"I confess I had never thought of that, signor. You made us forget such +a trifling detail." + +"But, none the less, you will want to know, Sir Walter. Our common +friend, Colonel Vane, put the first thought in my head. He laid the +train to which I set the match so well. He it was who described the Grey +Room very exactly, and the moment that I heard of the ancient carved +furniture, I knew that he spoke of curios concerning which I already +had heard. The name of Lennox completed the clue, for that had already +stirred memories in my ancient mind. I had listened to my father, when +I was young, telling a story in which a bed and chairs and a gentleman +named Lennox were connected. He spoke of an ancient Italian suite of +three pieces, the work of craftsmen at Rome in the fifteenth century. It +was papal furniture of the early Renaissance, well known to him as being +in a Spanish collection--a hundred and fifty years ago that is now--and +when these things came into the market, he rejoiced and hurried off to +Valencia, where it was to be sold. For he was even such a man as your +grandfather--a connoisseur and an enthusiastic collector. But, alas, his +hopes were short-lived; he found himself in opposition to a deeper purse +than his own, and it was Sir John Lennox, not my father, who secured +the bed and the two chairs that go with it. These things, as I tell you, +returned to my recollection, and, remembering them, I guessed myself +upon the right track. The arms of the Borgia, and the successful +experiment with the dog, Prince, proved that I was correct in guessing +where the poison lay hidden." + +"It is impossible to express my sense of your amazing goodness, or my +gratitude, or my admiration for your genius," declared Sir Walter; but +the other contradicted him. + +"Genius is a great word to which I can lay no claim. I have done nothing +at all that you yourself might not have done, given the same knowledge. +As for gratitude, if indeed that is not too strong an expression also, +you can show gratitude in a very simple manner, dear friend. I am a +practical, old man and, to be honest, I very greatly covet the Borgia +bed and chairs. Now, if indeed you feel that I am not asking too grand +a favor--a favor out of all keeping with my good offices on your +behalf--then let me purchase the bed and chairs, and convey them with me +home to Rome. It is seemly that they should return to Rome, is it not? +Rome would welcome them. I much desire to sleep in that bed--to be where +I am so sure Prince Djem lay when he breathed his last. Yes, believe me, +he received your bed as a gracious present from Alexander VI. The Borgia +were generous of such gifts." + +"The bed and chairs are yours, my dear signor, and the rest of the +contents of the Grey Room, also, if you esteem them in any way." + +"Positively I could not, Sir Walter." + +"Indeed you shall. It is done, and leaves me greatly your debtor still." + +"Then be it so. I thank you from the bottom of my heart. Nor will I say +that you oppress me with such extraordinary generosity, for is it not +more blessed to give than receive? Heavens knows what dark evils the bed +may have committed in the course of its career, but its activities are +at an end. For me it shall bring no more than honest slumber. But the +mattress--no. I do not want the mattress. That will be a nice present +for the museum of your Royal College of Surgeons." + +A week later the old man was sufficiently rested, and he returned home, +taking his treasures with him. But he did not depart until he had won +a promise that Sir Walter and Mary would visit him at Rome within the +year. + +Experts again descended upon Chadlands, packed the source of tribulation +with exceeding care, and conveyed it to London for examination. Those +destined to make the inquiry were much alive to their perils, and took +no risk. + +Six weeks later letters passed between England and Rome, and Sir +Walter wrote to Signor Mannetti, sending such details as he was able to +furnish. + +"A thin, supple wire was found to run between the harmless flock of the +mattress and the satin casing," wrote Sir Walter. "Experiments showed +that neither the stuffing nor the outer case contained any harmful +substance. But the wire, of which fifty miles wound over the upper +and lower surfaces of the mattress under its satin upholstery, proved +infinitely sensitive to heat, and gave off, or ejected at tremendous +speed, an invisible, highly poisonous matter even at a lower temperature +than that of a normal human being. Insects placed upon it perished in +the course of a few hours, and it destroyed microscopic life and fish +and frogs in water at comparatively low temperatures, that caused +the living organisms no inconvenience until portions of the wire were +introduced. A cat died in eight minutes; a monkey in ten. No pain or +discomfort marked the operation of the wire on unconscious creatures. +They sank into death as into sudden sleep, and examination revealed no +physical effects whatever. The wire is an alloy, and the constituent +metals have not yet been determined; but it is not an amalgam, for +mercury is absent. The wire contains thallium and helium as the +spectroscope shows; but its awful radioactivity and deadly emanation has +yet to be explained. The chemical experts have a startling theory. They +suspect there is a new element here--probably destined to occupy one of +the last unfilled places of the Periodic Table, which chronicles all +the elements known to science. Chemical analysis fails to reach the +radio-active properties, and for their examination the electroscope and +spinthariscope are needful. With these the radio-chemists are at work. +The wire melted at a lower temperature than lead, but melting did not +destroy its potency. After cooling, the metal retained its properties +and was still responsive, as before, to warmth. But experiment shows +that in a molten state, the metal of the wire increases in effect, +and any living thing brought within a yard of it under this condition +succumbs instantly. Its properties cannot be extracted, so far, from the +actual composition of the wire. They prove also that the emanation from +the warmed wire is exceedingly subtle, tenuous, and volatile. Save under +conditions of super-heat, it only operates at two feet and a few inches, +and the wire naturally grows cold very quickly. It is almost as light as +aluminium. A gas mask does not arrest the poison; indeed, it evidently +enters a body through the nearest point offered to it and a safe shield +has not yet been discovered. + +"I shall tell you more when we know more," concluded Sir Walter. "But at +present it looks as though your prophecy were correct, and that science +is not going to get at the bottom of the horrible secret easily. Dr. +Mannering says that the properties of the elements have yet to be +fully determined, while the subject of alloys was never suspected of +containing such secrets as may prove to be the case. If more there is to +learn, you shall learn it." + +In his reply, Signor Mannetti declared that the Borgia bed continued to +be a source of extreme satisfaction and comfort to him. + +"As yet no vision has broken my slumbers, but I continue to hope that +the Oriental features of Sultan Bajazet's brother may presently revisit +the place of his taking off, and that Prince Djem will some night afford +me the pleasure of a conversation. How much might we tell each other +that neither of us knows! + +"As to the wire, my friend, I will explain to you how that was probably +created and, right or wrong, there is nobody on this earth at present +who can prove my theory to be mistaken. Be sure that a medieval +alchemist, searching in vain for elixir vitae, or the philosopher's +stone, chanced upon this infernal synthesis and fusion. For him, no +doubt, it proved a philosopher's stone in earnest, for the Borgia +always extended a generous hand to those who could assist their damnable +activities. Transmutation--so a skilled friend assures me--is now proved +to be a fact, and another generation will be able perhaps to make +gold, if the desire for that accursed mineral continues much longer to +dominate mankind. + +"Farewell for the present. Again to see you and your daughter is one of +those pleasures lying in wait for me, to make next winter a season of +gladness rather than dismay. But do not change your minds. One must keep +faith with a man of eighty, or risk the possibilities of remorse." + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Grey Room, by Eden Phillpotts + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE GREY ROOM *** + +***** This file should be named 1577.txt or 1577.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/1/5/7/1577/ + +Produced by An Anonymous Volunteer + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, +set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to +copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to +protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. 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