They soon learned of curious things, and the house was first thrown into a great bustle and then restored to peace.
Mannering had spoken for half an hour with London, and received directions that puzzled him not a little by their implication.For a moment he seemed unwilling to speak before Mary.Then he begged her bluntly to leave them for a while.
"It's this way," he said when she was gone."They're harboring a mad idea in London, though, of course, the facts will presently convince them to the contrary.Surely I must know death when I see it? But a divisional surgeon, or some other medical official, directs me to bring this poor fellow's body to London to-night.Every care must be taken, warmth and air applied, and so on.They've evidently got a notion that, since life appears to go so easily in the Grey Room, and leave no scratch or wound, either life has not gone at all, or that it may be within the power of scienceto bring it back again.In a sense this is a reflection upon me - as though it were possible that I could make any mistake between death and suspended animation; but I must do as I'm ordered.I travel to town with the dead man to-night, and if they find he is anything but dead as a doornail, I'll -"The doctor was writing his reminiscences, "The Recollections of a Country Physician," and he could not fail to welcome these events, for they were destined to lend extraordinary attraction to a volume otherwise not destined to be much out of the common.
He spoke again.
"I should be very glad if you would accompany me, Lennox.I shall have a police inspector from Plymouth; but it would be a satisfaction if you could come.Moreover, you would help me in London.""I'll come up, certainly.You don't mind, Uncle Walter?""Not if Mannering wishes it.We owe him more than we can ever repay.Anything that we can do to lessen his labors ought to be done.""I should certainly welcome your company.A small saloon carriage is to be put on to the Plymouth train that leaves Newton for London before midnight.We shall be met at Paddington by some of their doctors.And as to Chadlands, four men arrive to-morrow morning by the same train that Peter Hardeastle came down in last night.We shall pass them on the way.They will take charge both of the Grey Room and the house as soon as they arrive.
"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 wayshould 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 tonight," 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.
