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diff --git a/old/gryrm10.txt b/old/gryrm10.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..5f856b9 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/gryrm10.txt @@ -0,0 +1,8066 @@ +The Project Gutenberg Etext of The Grey Room, by Eden Phillpotts + + +Copyright laws are changing all over the world, be sure to check +the copyright laws for your country before posting these files!! + +Please take a look at the important information in this header. +We encourage you to keep this file on your own disk, keeping an +electronic path open for the next readers. Do not remove this. + + +**Welcome To The World of Free Plain Vanilla Electronic Texts** + +**Etexts Readable By Both Humans and By Computers, Since 1971** + +*These Etexts Prepared By Hundreds of Volunteers and Donations* + +Information on contacting Project Gutenberg to get Etexts, and +further information is included below. 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If you + don't derive profits, no royalty is due. Royalties are + payable to "Project Gutenberg Association/Carnegie-Mellon + University" within the 60 days following each + date you prepare (or were legally required to prepare) + your annual (or equivalent periodic) tax return. + +WHAT IF YOU *WANT* TO SEND MONEY EVEN IF YOU DON'T HAVE TO? +The Project gratefully accepts contributions in money, time, +scanning machines, OCR software, public domain etexts, royalty +free copyright licenses, and every other sort of contribution +you can think of. Money should be paid to "Project Gutenberg +Association / Carnegie-Mellon University". + +*END*THE SMALL PRINT! FOR PUBLIC DOMAIN ETEXTS*Ver.04.29.93*END* + + + + + +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 hail. 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 +t, 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." + +"Mosr 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." + +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 VIl + +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 captivty 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 Etext of The Grey Room, by Eden Phillpotts + |