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Page 49
"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."
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