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Page 34
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he has been withdrawn from this world for higher purposes in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."
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