The Grey Room

ken until his man drew the blinds upon a dawn sky so clear that it se

Mr. May?"

now if we shall cal

his room, but immediately

in his own

ek him a

let he

there's none much car

er's voice outside

t left the Grey

you in a momen

tially, and joined her. S

"for I crept out to listen. So did Masters

door of the Grey Room. He was

as the grave in there," he said. "It's

he may have gone out

his right side apparently, and, though the surplice and cassock which he had worn were disarranged, he appeared peaceful enough, with his cheek on a foot stool, as though disposed deliberately upon the ground to sleep. His biretta was still upon his head; his eyes were open, and the fret and passion manifested by his face in life had entirely left i

to enter or touch the dead, but Caunter obeyed, and together the two men lifted Mr. May an

nning out of the house as from a plague. She left her father with Masters, and strove to calm the frightened domestics. She s

t Mr. May. This proves that there is some fearful natural danger which we have not yet discovered hidden in the room, but no harm can happen to anybody if they do not go into the room. The police are coming from Scotland Yard in an hour or two, and you may feel as sure, as I do, and Sir Walter does, that the

. Forbes, the housekeeper, who believe

h Masters in the study. A man had already started for a doctor

reassure the household as she had done. She told h

am! Tell the master the same, and make him drink a drop

r present concern for him. Indeed, she always thought, and often said afterwards, that but for the minor needs for action that intervened in this series of terrible moments she must h

ith his life, now assumed its true significance for Sir Walter. He was self-absorbed, prostrate, and desperate. In such a condition one is not master of oneself, and may say and do anything. The old man's armor was off, and in the course of his next few speec

e to me as well. Why did I believe him! Why did

ret about

to stop this unfortunate man last night, and he was terribly mistaken. No being from another w

irits would have had no power over Mr.

blame me, with good reason, for sacrificing another life. The irony of fate that I, of all men, one so much alive to the meaning of mercy-that I, out of superstitious folly-But how will it look in t

t, far from receiving evil treatment, he was blessed by being taken away into the next world without pain or shock. We must feel for him as we try to feel for dear Tom. And I do not mean that I am sorry for him; I am only sorry for us, be

down the murderer, and they will inevitably attach utmost blame to

incing. When I listened

rted you, instead of

remember that. We know they are happy, and that mak

er some hours of agony, very horrible in their nature, whi

he police demanded to make their own inquiries, and Peter Hardcastle

him and feared

do you

nd his vital forces recovered. Why not? There was nothing visible to indicate dissolution. We have heard of trances, catalepsies, which simulate death so c

with horrified e

hat he h

believe them, any more than Mannering did, or Henry did. Henry has seen much death; he could not have been deceived. Tom

e fact that she had received this appalling

father," she said quietly. "But if Mr.

Mannering wa

be. And if he is, then

ath even! Keep your mind away from

I shall not go mad. But I must know to-day. I cannot eat or sleep

embled and gr

et my own daughter, and out of cowardly misery speak of a thing she should never have known. You have your revenge, Mary, for I shall go a broken man from this hour. Nothing can ever b

else matters? Go to your room, and let your dear mind rest. I am not suffering. We cannot alter the past, and who wo

mation relating to him must come to Chadlands quickly. Upon that another life might hang. Yet, when the medical man arrived from Newton, he could only say that Septimus May was dead. He was a friend of Mannering, and knew the

Medizinische Wochenschraft'-an astonishing thing. A woman, who had taken morphine and barbital, was found apparently dead after a night's exposure in some lonely spot. There were no reflexes, no pulse, no respiration or heart-beat. Yet she was alive-existing without oxygen-an impossibility as we had always supposed. Seeing no actual evidence of death, the physicians injected camphor and caffein and took other restorative steps, with the result that in an hour the

ective officers of wide reputation, and their chief-a grey-haired man with a round, amiable face and i

eiving his excitation, Inspector Frith assumed the

y 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

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

ith 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

e human than Sir Walter expected. He was an

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 do

ew, Henr

Captain

o see him alive, and the f

he h

e day. He travelled to London last n

hy

wished him to do so. He de

further that you wo

e case. He was really more interested in the life of my son-in-law and his relations with other people. I think he regarded May's death as a matter which had been determined outside the Grey Room. But, if I may presume to advise you, this view of his is surely proved mistak

centred on the history of Captain May, and, from his point of view, did not expect to find the accident of the captain's death in this particular place would prove important, we shall now assume otherwise, and give the room, or somebody with access to it, the credit for this destruction of human life. We shall fasten on the room therefor

remark," answered Sir Walter; but Mr. Fri

even to you. You will understand that our work must be entirely s

o you, may not be responsible for everything. At least, command me.

n very fully. At present the majority of us are inclined to believe there is no crime, and the death of Mr. May does not, to my mind, increase the likelihood of such a thing. I

Hardcastle? I hope he had no

examine his body this morning, and submit it to certain conclusive tests. Nobody expe

from London if anything

ear by noon

ossible. But the four were not yet of one mind, and when they met presently, and walked together in the garden for an hour, it appeared that while two of them a

is rival for many years, held to it that the reason of these things must be sought in an active and conscious agency. He trusted in a living cause, but felt confident that it was not a sane one. He had known a case when a madma

exposed after great difficulty by professional research. Along such lines, therefore, this man was prepared to operate, and he believed it might be possible that a maniac, in possession of some physical secret, would be found among the inhabitants of the manor h

dest of the four would not lose his hold on his own theory, or be at very vital pains to stultify it. All, however, were fully consc

that examination had revealed no cause for his end. The news reached Sir Walter at once, and if ever he rejoiced in

below. They searched the adjoining room-Mary's old nursery-to satisfy themselves that no communication existed, and they drove an iron rod through the walls in various directions, only to prove they were of solid stone, eighteen inches thick within and two feet thick without. There was no apartment on the other side of the chamber. It completed the eastern angle of the house front, and behind it, inside, the corridor terminated at an eastern window parallel with the Grey Room oriel, but flat and undecorated-a modern windo

inize, and they made experiments with smoke and water, to learn if, at any point, so much as a pin-hole existed in the face of the stucco. But it was solid, and spread evenly to a considerable depth. They studied it, then, from inside the room, to discover nothing but the beautifully modeled surfa

at they had removed from the room. These told them nothing, and presently they restored the chamber in every particular, re-laid and nailed the carpet, and placed each article as it had stood when they arrived. They continued to decline assistance, and made it clear that nobody was to approach the end of the corridor in which they worked. Alive to the danger, but believing that, whatever its quality, four men could hardly be simultaneously destroyed, they prepared for their vigil. Nor did they manifest any fear of what awaited them. Facts, indeed, may be stubborn things, but even facts will not upset the convictions of a life

earch the house without warning on the follow

with such a record-one who had carried his life in his hand on many occasions-should have lost it thus, at noonday and without a sound of warning to his fellow-creatures. Dr. Mannering told how he had watched the medical examination, but not assisted at it. All attempts to galvanize back life failed, as the experts engaged immediately perceived they must upon viewing the corpse; and during the subsequent autop

dy, and Lennox observed that they neither d

nvited nobody to assist them, and begged that they might

stly to beg they would abandon the vigil

itch where, in my judgment, we are justified in believing that some motiveless malignity is at work. But by going into that room, are you not giving somebody another opportunity to do what has already been done? Evil perf

opinion inclined in the same direction. He was, however, none the less chagrined that

y, we contemplate no other. We are free agents, and I should not quarrel with any among us who shirked; but duty is duty, and we have all faced dangers as great as this-probably far greater. What you say is most interesting, doctor, and I agree with you, that outside the room we must look for the expla

ound dead to-morrow?" as

orrow; and others will have the

mebody, yet can

ernoon. The accursed daily Press of this country has saved the skin of more blackguards than I l

ne was to be admit

a perverse pleasure in adding to our difficulties. Little they care how th

e warmth; he had little for wh

s understood that they should not be distur

. The younger, indeed, felt hopeful that definite results might presently be recorded, and he went to his bed very thankful to

so wishes to do so. It seems a proper respect to pay the dead. The inquest takes place

own life, that man did