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Page 67
Sir Walter put down his book--a volume of pious meditations.
Events had drawn him into a receptive attitude toward religion.
He was surprised at Dr. Mannering.
"I never thought to hear you admit as much as that. How strangely
the currents of the mind ebb and flow, Mannering. Here are you
with your scepticism apparently weakening, while I feel thankfully
assured, at any rate for the moment, that only a material reason
accounts for these disasters."
"Why?" asked the physician.
"Because against the powers of any dark spirit Septimus May was
safe. Even had he been right and his prayer had freed such a
being and cast it out of my house, would the Almighty have
permitted it to rend and destroy the agent of its liberation?
May could not have suffered death by any conscious, supernatural
means if our faith is true; but, as he himself said, when he came
here after the death of his boy, he did not pretend that faith in
God rendered a human being superior to the laws of matter. If, as
was suggested at dinner to-day, there is somebody in this house
with a mind unhinged who has discovered a secret of nature by which
human life can be destroyed and leave no sign, then this dead
clergyman was, of course, as powerless against such a hideous
danger as any other human being."
"But surely such a theory is quite as wild as any based on
supernatural assumptions? You know the occupants of this house--
every one of them, Sir Walter. Mary knows them, Henry knows
them. I have attended most of them at one time or another. Is
there one against whom such a suspicion can be entertained?"
"Not one indeed."
"Could the war have made a difference?" asked Mary. "We know how
shell shock and wounds to a poor man's head had often left him
apparently sound, yet in reality weakened as to his mind."
"Yes, that is true enough. And when the unfortunate men get back
into everyday life from the hospitals, or endeavor to resume their
old work, the weakness appears. I have seen cases. But of all
the men in Chadlands there are only three examples of any such
catastrophe. I know a few in the village--none where one can
speak of actual insanity, however. Here there is only Fred Caunter,
who was hurt about the head on board ship, but the injury left no
defect."
"Fred is certainly as sane as I am--perhaps saner," admitted Sir
Walter.
"Don't think I really imagine there is anything of the kind here,"
added Mannering. "But if these four men are in a condition to
proceed with their work to-morrow, you must expect them to make a
searching examination of everybody in the house. And they may find
a good number of nervous and hysterical women, if not men. It is
not their province, however, to determine whether people are weak
in the head, and I know, as well as you do, that none in this house
had any hand in these disasters."
"Never was a family with fewer secrets than mine," declared Sir
Walter.
"The morning may bring light," said Mary.
"I feel very little hope that it will," answered Mannering. "The
inquiry will proceed, whatever happens to-night, and we may all
have to go to London to attend it. After they have turned
Chadlands and everybody in it upside down, as they surely will,
then we may be called, if they arrive at no conclusion."
"I am prepared to be. I shall not leave the country, of course,
until I receive permission to do so. It must be apparent to
everybody that I am, of all men, if not the most involved, at least
the most anxious to clear this mystery--that nobody can doubt."
"Then you must conserve your strength and be guided," said
Mannering. "I do beg of you to retire now, and insist upon Mary
doing the same. Nothing can be gained by the dead, and necessary
energy is lost to the living by this irrational vigil. It is far
past midnight; I beg you to retire, Sir Walter, and Mary, too.
There is nothing that should keep you out of bed, and I urge you
to go to it."
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