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Page 62
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."
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