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Page 35
"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."
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