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Page 12
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?"
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