The Grey Room

by Eden Phillpotts

  CHAPTER VII. THE FANATIC

  A succession of incidents, that must have perturbed the doctor and hiscompanion in earnest, had followed upon their departure from Chadlands,and Mary soon discovered that she was faced with a terrible problem.

  For one young woman had little chance of winning her way against an oldman and the religious convictions that another had impressed upon him.Sir Walter and the priest were now at one, nor did the common sense ofa fourth party to the argument convince them. At dinner Septimus Maydeclared his purpose.

  "We are happily free of any antagonistic and material influence," hesaid. "Providence has willed that those opposed to us should be takenelsewhere, and I am now able to do my duty without more opposition."

  "Surely, father, you do not wish this?" asked Mary. "I thought you--"

  But the elder was fretful.

  "Let me eat my meal in peace," he answered. "I am not made of iron, andreason cuts both ways. It was reasonable to deny Mr. May before theseevents. It would be unreasonable to pretend that the death of PeterHardcastle has not changed my opinions. To cleave to the possibility ofa physical explanation any longer is mere folly and obstinacy. I believehim to be right."

  "This is fearful for me--and fearful for everybody here. Don't you seewhat it would mean if anything happened to you, Mr. May? Even supposingthere is a spirit hidden in the Grey Room with power and permission todestroy us--why, that being so, are you any safer than dear Tom was orthis poor man?"

  "Because I am armed, Mary, and they were defenseless. Unhappily youthis seldom clothed in the whole armor of righteousness. My dear son wasa good and honorable man, but he was not a religious man. He had yetto learn the incomparable and vital value of the practice of Christianfaith. Hardcastle invited his own doom. He admitted--he even appeared topride himself upon a crude and pagan rationalism. It is not surprisingthat such a man should be called away to learn the lessons of which hestood so gravely in need."

  "I know that our dear Tom was bidden to higher work--to labor in ahigher cause than here, to purer knowledge of those things that mattermost to the human soul," said Mary. "But that is not to say God choseto take him by a miracle. For what you believe amounts to a miracle.You know that I am bearing my loss in the same spirit as yourself, but,granted it had to be at God's will, that is no reason why we shouldsuppose the means employed were outside nature."

  "How can you pretend they are inside nature, as we know it?" asked herfather.

  "We know nothing at all yet, and I implore Mr. May to wait until we areat least assured that science cannot find a reason."

  "Fear not for me, my child," answered Septimus May. "You forget certaindetails that have assisted to decide me. Remember that Hardcastle hadopenly denied and derided the possibility of supernatural peril. He hadchallenged this potent thing not an hour before he was brought faceto face with it. Tom went to his death innocently; this man cannotbe absolved so easily. In my case, with my knowledge and faith, theconditions are very different, and I oppose an impregnable barrierbetween myself and the secret being. I am an old priest, and I goknowing the nature of my task. My weapons are such that a good spiritwould applaud them and an evil spirit be powerless against them. Do younot see that the Almighty could never permit one of His creatures--foreven the devils also are His--to defeat His own minister or trample onthe name of Christ? It would amount to that. So armed one might walk insafety through the lowermost hell, for hell can only believe and tremblebefore the truth."

  Mary looked hopelessly at her father; but he offered her small comfort.Sir Walter still found himself conforming to the fierce piety anddogmatic assurance of the man of God. In this welter and upheaval hismodest intellect found only a foothold here, and his judgment now firmlyinclined to the confident assertions of religion. He was himself adevout and conventional believer, and he turned to the support of faith,and shared, with increasing conviction, the opinion of Septimus May, asuttered in a volume of confident words. He became blind to the physicaldanger. He even showed a measure of annoyance at Mary's obstinateentreaties. She strove to calm him, and told him he was not himself--anassertion that, by his inner consciousness of its truth, seemed toincense Sir Walter.

  He begged her to be silent, and declared that her remarks savored ofirreverence. Startled and bewildered by such a criticism, the womanwas indeed silent for some time, while her father-in-law flowed on anduttered his conviction. Yet not all his intensity and asseverationscould justify such extravagant assertion. At another time they mighteven have amused Mary; but in sight of the fact that her father wasyielding, and that the end of the argument would mean the clergymanin the Grey Room, she could win nothing but frantic anxiety from thesituation. Sir Walter was broken; he had lost his hold on reality,and she realized that. His unsettled intelligence had gone over to theopposition, and there was none, as it seemed, to argue on her side.

  Septimus May had acted like a dangerous drug on Sir Walter; he appearedto be intoxicated in some degree. But only in mind, not in manner. Heargued for his new attitude, and he was not as excited as the priest,but maintained his usual level tones.

  "I agreed with Mannering and Henry yesterday, as you know, Mary," hesaid, "and at my desire Mr. May desisted from his wish. We see howmistaken I was, how right he must have been. I have thought it out thisafternoon, calmly and logically. These unfortunate young men have diedwithout a reason, for be sure no explanation of Peter Hardcastle's deathwill be forthcoming though the whole College of Surgeons examines hiscorpse. Then we must admit that life has been snatched out of thesebodies by some force of which we have no conception. Were it natural,science would have discovered a reason for death; but it could not,because their lives flowed away as water out of a bottle, leaving thebottle unchanged in every particular. But life does not desert itsphysical habitation on these terms. It cannot quit a healthy, human bodyneither ruined nor rent. You must be honest with yourself, my child,as well as with your father-in-law and me. A physical cause beingabsolutely ruled out, what remains? To-night I emphatically support Mr.May, and my conscience, long in terrible concern, is now at rest again.And because it is at rest, I know that I have done well. I believe thatwhat dear Tom's father desires to do--namely, to spend this night inthe Grey Room--is now within his province and entirely proper to hisprofession, and I share his perfect faith and confidence."

  "It is you who lack faith, Mary," continued Septimus May. "You lackfaith, otherwise you would appreciate the unquestionable truth of whatyour father tells you. Listen," he continued, "and understand somethingof what this means from a larger outlook than our own selfish andimmediate interests. Much may come of my action for the Faith at large.I may find an answer to those grave questions concerning the life beyondand the whole problem of spiritualism now convulsing the Church andcasting us into opposing sections. It is untrodden and mysteriousground; but I am called upon to tread it. For my part, I am neverprepared to flout inquirers if they approach these subjects in areverent spirit. We must not revile good men because they thinkdifferently from ourselves. We must examine the assertions of suchinquirers as Sir Oliver Lodge and Sir Conan Doyle in a mood of reverenceand sympathy. Some men drift away from the truth in vital particulars;but not so far that they cannot return if the road is made clear tothem.

  "We must remember that our conviction of a double existence rests on therevelation of God through His Son, not on a mere, vague desire towarda future life common to all sorts and conditions of men. They suspectedand hoped; we know. Science may explain that general desire if itpleases; it cannot explain, or destroy, the triumphant certainty bornof faith. Spiritualism has succeeded to the biblical record of'possession,' and I, for my part, of course prefer what my Bibleteaches. I do not myself find that the 'mediums' of modern spiritualismspeak with tongues worthy of much respect up to the present, and it iscertain that rogues abound; but the question is clamant. It demandsto be discussed by our spiritual guides and the fathers of the Church.Already they recognize this fact and are beginning to approach
it--somepriests in a right spirit, some--as at the Church Congress lastmonth--in a wrong spirit."

  "A wrong spirit, May?" asked Sir Walter.

  "In my opinion, a wrong spirit," answered the other. "There is much,even in a meeting of the Church Congress, that makes truly religious menmourn. They laughed when they should have learned. I refer to incidentsand criticisms of last October. There the Dean of Manchester, who showshow those, who have apparently spoken to us from Beyond throughthe mouths of living persons, describe their different states andconditions. Stainton Moses gave us a vision of heaven such as an Oxforddon and myself might be supposed to appreciate.

  "Raymond describes a heaven wherein the average second lieutenant couldfind all that, for the moment, he needs. But why laugh at these things?If we make our own hells, shall we not make our own heavens? We must gointo the next world more or less cloyed and clogged with the emotionsand interests of this one. It is inevitable. We cannot instantly throwoff a lifetime of interests, affections, and desires. We are still humanand pass onward as human beings, not as angels of light.

  "Therefore, we may reasonably suppose that the Almighty will temperthe wind to the shorn lamb, nor impose too harsh and terrible atransformation upon the souls of the righteous departed, but lead oneand all, by gradual stages and through not unfamiliar conditions, to theheaven of ultimate and absolute perfection that He has designed for Hisconscious creatures."

  "Well spoken," said Sir Walter.

  But Mr. May had not finished. He proceeded to the immediate point.

  "Shall it be denied that devils have been cast out in the name of God?"he asked. "And if from human tenements, then why not from dwellings madewith human hands also? May not a house be similarly cleansed as well asa soul? This unknown spirit--angel or fiend, or other sentient being--ispermitted to challenge mankind and draw attention to its existence. Amystery, I grant, but its Maker has now willed that some measure of thismystery shall be revealed to us. We are called to play our part in thisspirit's existence.

  "It would seem that it has endured a sort of imprisonment in thisparticular room for more years than we know, and it may actually be thespirit of some departed human being condemned, for causes that humanityhas forgotten, to remain within these walls. The nameless and unknownthing cries passionately to be liberated, and is permitted by itsMaker to draw our terrified attention upon itself by the exercise ofdestructive functions transcending our reason.

  "God, then, has willed that, through the agency of devout and livingmen, the unhappy phantom shall now be translated and moved from thisenvironment for ever; and to me the appointed task is allotted. So Ibelieve, as firmly as I believe in the death and resurrection of theLord. Is that clear to you, Sir Walter?"

  "It is. You have made it convincingly clear."

  "So be it, then. I, too, Mary, am not dead to the meaning of science inits proper place. We may take an illustration of what I have told youfrom astronomy. As comets enter our system from realms of which wehave no knowledge, dazzle us a little, awaken our speculations and thendepart, so may certain immortal spirits also be supposed to act. Weentangle them possibly in our gross air and detain them for centuries,or moments, until their Creator's purpose in sending them isaccomplished. Then He takes the means to liberate them and set them ontheir eternal roads and to their eternal tasks once more."

  The listening woman, almost against her reason, felt herself beginningto share these assumptions. But that they were fantastic, unsupported byany human knowledge, and would presently involve an experiment full ofawful peril to the life of the man who uttered them, she also perceived.Yet her reasonable caution and conventional distrust began to give way alittle under the priest's magnetic voice, his flaming eyes, his positiveand triumphant certainty of truth. He burned with his inspiration,and she felt herself powerless to oppose any argument founded on factsagainst the mystic enthusiasm of such religious faith. His honestyand fervor could not, however, abate Mary's acute fear. Her father hadentirely gone over to the side of the devotee and she knew it.

  "It is well we have your opportunity to-night," he said, "for had thepolice arrived, out of their ignorance they might deny it to you."

  Yet Mary fought on against them. In despair she appealed to Masters. Hehad been an officer's orderly in his day, and when he left the Army andcame to Chadlands, he never departed again. He was an intelligent man,who occupied a good part of his leisure in reading. He set Sir Walterand Mary first in his affections; and that Mary should have won him socompletely she always held to be a triumph, since Abraham Masters had noregard or admiration for women.

  "Can't you help me, Masters?" she begged. "I'm sure you know as well asI do that this ought not to happen."

  The butler eyed his master. He was handing coffee, but none took it.

  "By all means speak," said Sir Walter. "You know how I rate yourjudgment, Masters. You have heard Mr. May upon this terrible subject,and should be convinced, as I am."

  Masters was very guarded.

  "It's not for me to pass an opinion, Sir Walter. But the reverendgentleman, no doubt, understands such things. Only there's the Witchof Endor, if I may mention the creature, she fetched up more than shebargained for. And I remember a proverb as I heard in India, froma Hindoo. I've forgot the lingo now, but I remember the sense. TheyHindoos say that if you knock long enough at a closed door, the devilwill open it--excuse my mentioning such a thing; but Hindoos are awfulwise."

  "And what then, Masters? I know not who may open the door of thismystery; but this I know, that, in the Name of the Most High God, I canface whatever opens it."

  "I ain't particular frightened neither, your reverence," said Masters."But I wouldn't chance it alone, being about average sinful and not neargood enough to tackle that unknown horror hid up there single-handed.I'd chance it, though, in high company like yours. And that'ssomething."

  "It is, Masters, and much to your credit," declared Sir Walter. "Forthat matter, I would do the like. Indeed, I am willing to accompany Mr.May."

  While Septimus May shook his head and Mary trembled, the butler spokeagain.

  "But there's nobody else in this house would. Not even Fred Caunter, whodoesn't know the meaning of fear, as you can testify, Sir Walter.But he's fed up with the Grey Room, if I may say so, and so's thehousekeeper, Mrs. Forbes, and so's Jane Bond. Not that they would desertthe ship; but there's others that be going to do so. I may mention thatfour maids and Jackson intend to give notice to-morrow. Ann Maine, thesecond housemaid, has gone to-night. Her father fetched her. Excuse mementioning it, but Mrs. Forbes will give you the particulars to-morrow,if you please."

  "Hysteria," declared Sir Walter. "I don't blame them. It is natural.Everybody is free to go, if they desire to do so. But tell them what youhave heard to-night, Masters. Tell them that no good Christian need fearto rest in peace. Explain that Mr. May will presently enter the GreyRoom in the name of God; and bid them pray on their knees for him beforethey go to sleep."

  Masters hesitated.

  "All the same, I very much wish the reverend gentleman would giveScotland Yard a chance. If they fall, then he can wipe their eyeafter--excuse my language, Sir Walter. I've read a lot about thespirits, being terrible interested in 'em, as all human men must be; andI hear that running after 'em often brings trouble. I don't mean to yourlife, Sir Walter, but to your wits. People get cracked on 'em andhave to be locked up. I stopped everybody frightening themselves into'sterics at dinner to-day; but you could see how it took 'em; and,whether or no, I do beg Mr. May to be so kind as to let me sit up alongwith him to-night.

  "You never hear of two people getting into trouble with these herecustomers, and while he was going for this blackguard ghost in the nameof the Lord, I could keep my weather eye lifting for trouble. 'Tis amatter for common sense and keeping your nerve, in my opinion, and wedon't want another death on our hands, I suppose. There'll be halfthe mountebanks and photograph men and newspaper men in the land hereto-morrow, and 'twill take me all my time to keep
'em from over-runningthe house. Because if they could come in their scores for the latecaptain--poor gentleman!--what won't they try now this here famousdetective has been done in?"

  "Henry deplored the same thing," said Mary. "And I answer again, as Ianswered then," replied Septimus May. "You mean well, Sir Walter, andyour butler means well; but you propose an act in direct opposition tothe principle that inspires me."

  "What do you expect to happen?" asked Mary. "Do you suppose you willsee something, and that something will tell you what it is, and why itkilled dear Tom?"

  "That, at any rate, would be a very great blessing to the living," saidher father.

  "The least the creature could do, in my humble opinion," venturedMasters.

  But Septimus May deprecated such curiosity.

  "Hope for no such thing, and do not dwell upon what is to happen untilI am able to tell you what does happen," he answered. "Allow no humanweakness, no desire to learn the secrets of another world, to distractyour thoughts. I am only concerned with what I know beyond possibilityof doubt is my duty--to be entered upon as swiftly as possible. I hearmy call in the very voice of the wind shouting round the house to-night.But beyond my duty I do not seek. Whether information awaits me, whethersome manifestation indicating my success and valuable to humanity willbe granted, I cannot say. I do not stop now to think about that.

  "Alone I do this thing--yet not alone, for my hand is in my Maker'shand. Your part will not be to accompany me. Let each man and woman beinformed of what I do, and let them lift a petition for me, that my workbe crowned with success. But let them not assume that to-morrow I shallhave anything to impart. The night may be one of peace within, thoughso stormy without. I may pray till dawn with no knowledge how my prayerprospers, or I may be called to face a being that no human eye has everseen and lived. These things are hidden from us."

  "You are wonderful, and it is heartening to meet with such mightyfaith," replied Sir Walter. "You have no fear, no shadow of hesitationor doubt at the bottom of your mind?"

  "None. Only an overmastering desire to obey the message that throbs inmy heart. I will be honest with you, for I recognize that many mightdoubt whether you were in the right to let me face this ordeal. But Iam driven by an overwhelming mandate. Did I fear, or feel one tremor ofuncertainty, I would not proceed; for any wavering might be fatal andgive me helpless into the power of this watchful spirit; but I am ascertain of my duty as I am that salvation awaits the just man.

  "I believe that I shall liberate this arrested being with catharticprayer and cleansing petition to our common Maker. And have I not thespirit of my dead boy on my side? Could any living man, however wellintentioned, watch with me and over me as he will? Fear nothing; go toyour rest, and let all who would assist me do so on their knees beforethey sleep."

  Even Masters echoed some of this fierce and absolute faith when hereturned to the servants' hall.

  "His eyes blaze," he said. "He's about the most steadfast man ever I sawinside a pulpit, or out of it. You feel if that man went to the windowand told the rain to stop and the wind to go down, they would. No ghostthat ever walked could best him anyway. They asked me to talk and saywhat I felt, and I did; but words are powerless against such an ironwill as he's got.

  "I doubted first, and Sir Walter said he doubted likewise; but he's deadsure now, and what's good enough for him is good enough for us. I'll betCaunter, or any man, an even flyer that he's going to put the creaturedown and out and come off without a scratch himself. I offered to situp with him, so did Sir Walter; but he wouldn't hear of it. So all we'vegot to do is to turn in and say our prayers. That's simple enough forGod-fearing people, and we can't do no better than to obey orders."

  It was none the less a nervous and highly strung household thatpresently went to bed, and no woman slept without another woman to keepher company. Sir Walter found himself worn out in mind and body. Marymade him take his bromide, and he slept without a dream, despite the dinof the great "sou'-wester" and the distant, solemn crash of more thanone great tree thrown upon the lap of mother earth at last.

  Before he retired, however, something in the nature of a procession hadescorted the priest to his ordeal. Mr. May donned biretta, surplice,and stole, for, as he explained, he was to hold a religious service assacred and significant as any other rite.

  "Lord send him no congregation then," thought Masters.

  But, with Sir Walter and Mary, he followed the ministrant, and left himat the open door of the Grey Room. The electric light shone steadily;but the storm seemed to beat its fists at the windows, and the leadedpanes shook and chattered. With no bell and candle, but his Bible alone,Septimus May entered the room, having first made the sign of the Crossbefore him; then he turned and bade good-night to all.

  "Be of good faith!" were the last words he spoke to them.

  Having done so he shut the door, and they heard his voice immediatelyuplifted in prayer. They waited a little, and the sound roiled steadilyon. Sir Walter then bade Masters extinguish all the lights and send thehousehold to bed, though the time was not more than ten o'clock.

  As for Masters, the glamour and appeal of those strenuous words at thedinner-table had now passed, and presently, as he prepared to retire, hefound himself far less confident and assured than his recent words hadimplied. He sank slowly from hope to fear, even pictured the worse, andasked himself what would follow if the worst happened. He believed thatit might mean serious disaster for Sir Walter. If another life weresacrificed to this unknown peril, and it transpired that his master hadsanctioned what would amount to suicide in the eyes of reason; then hebegan to fear that grave trouble must result. Already the burning wordsof Septimus May began to cool and sound unreal, and Masters suspectedthat, if they were repeated in other ears, which had not heard him utterthem, or seen the fervor of religious earnestness and reverence in whichthey had been spoken, this feverish business of exorcising a ghost inthe twentieth century might only awake derision and receive neithercredence nor respect. His entire concern was for Sir Walter, not Mr.May. He could not sleep, lighted a pipe, considered whether it was inhis power to do anything, felt a sudden impulse to take certain steps,yet hesitated--from no fear to himself, but doubt whether action mightnot endanger another. Mary did not sleep either, and she suffered more,for she had never approved, and now she blamed herself not a little forher weak opposition. A thousand arguments occurred to her while she layawake. Then, for a time, she forgot present tribulations, and her owngrief overwhelmed her, as it was wont to do by night. For while theevents that had so swiftly followed each other since her husband's deathbanished him now and again, save from her subconscious mind, when alonehe was swift to return and her sorrow made many a night sleepless. Shewas herself ill, but did not know it. The reaction had yet to come, andcould not be long delayed, for her nervous energy was worn out now.She wept and lived days with the dead; then the present returned to hermind, and she fretted and prayed--for Septimus May and for daylight. Shewondered why stormy nights were always the longest. She heard athousand unfamiliar sounds, and presently leaped from her bed, put on adressing-gown, and crept out into the house. To know that all was wellwith the watcher would hearten her. But then her feet dragged beforeshe had left the threshold of her own room, and she stood still andshuddered a little. For how if all were not well? How if his voice nolonger sounded?

  She hesitated to make the experiment, and balanced the relief ofreassurance against the horror of silence. She remembered a storm atsea, when through a long night, not lacking danger to a laboring steamerwith weak engines, she had lain awake and felt her heart warm again whenthe watch shouted the hour.

  She set out, then, determined to know if all prospered with herfather-in-law. Nor would she give ear to misgiving or ask herself whatshe would do if no voice were steadily uplifted in the Grey Room.

  The great wind seemed to play upon Chadlands like a harp. It roaredand reverberated, now stilled a moment for another leap, now died awayagainst the house, yet still sou
nded with a steady shout in the neighbortrees. At the casements it tugged and rattled; against them it flungthe rain fiercely. Every bay and passage of the interior uttered its ownvoice, and overhead was creaking of old timbers, rattling of old slates,and rustling of mortar fragments dislodged by sudden vibrations.

  Mary proceeded on her way, and then, to her astonishment, heard afootfall, and nearly ran into an invisible figure approaching fromthe direction of the Grey Room. Man and woman startled each other, butneither exclaimed, and Mrs. May spoke.

  "Who is it?" she asked; and Masters answered:

  "Oh, my gracious! Terrible sorry, ma'am! If I didn't think--"

  "What on earth are you doing, Masters?"

  "Much the same as you, I expect, ma'am. I thought just to creep alongand see if the reverend gentleman was all right. And he is. The light'sburning--you can see it under the door--and he's praying away, steadyas a steam-threshing machine. I doubt he's keeping the evil creature atarm's length, and I'm a tidy lot more hopeful than what I was an hourago. The thing ain't strong enough to touch a man praying to God likewhat he can. But if prayers keep it harmless, then it's got ears andit's alive!"

  "Can you believe that, Masters?" she whispered.

  "Got to, ma'am. If it was just a natural horror beyond the reach ofprayer, it would have knocked his reverence out long before now, likeother people. It settled the police officer in under an hour, and Mr.May's been up against it for three--nearly four hours, so far. He'llbolt it yet, I shouldn't wonder, like a ferret bolts a rat."

  "You really feel more hopeful?"

  "Yes, I do, ma'am; and if he can fire the creature and signal 'All'sclear' for Chadlands, it will calm everybody and be a proper feather inhis cap, and he did ought to be made a bishop, at the least. Not thatScotland Yard men will believe a word of it to-morrow, all the same.Ghosts are bang out of their line, and I never met even a commonconstable that believed in 'em, except Bob Parrett, and he had bats inthe belfry, poor chap. No; they'll reckon it's somebody in the house, Iexpect, who wanted to kill t' others, but ain't got no quarrel with Mr.May. And you'd be wise to get back to bed, ma'am, and try to sleep, elseyou'll catch a cold. I'll look round again in an hour or to, if I don'tgo to sleep my self."

  They parted, while the storm still ran high, and through the emptycorridor, when it was lulled, a voice rolled steadily on from the GreyBoom.

  When it suddenly ceased, an hour before dawn, the storm had alreadybegun to sink, and through a rack of flying and breaking cloud the"Hunter" wheeled westerly to his setting.