is too bad, Mannering. We shall have
you ill next. You have been on your feet for countless hours and much
lies before you to-morrow. Do be sensible, my dear fellow, and take some
rest--even if you cannot sleep."

"There is no sleep to-night for me. Lord knows how soon I may be wanted
by those fools playing with fire upstairs."

"We cannot interfere. For myself a great peace has descended upon me,
now that initiative and the need for controlling and directing is taken
out of my hands. I began to feel this when poor Hardcastle arrived; but
that composure was sadly shattered. I am even prepared for the needful
publicity now. I can face it. If I erred in the matter of this devoted
priest, I shall not question the judgment of my fellow-men upon me."

"Fear nothing of that sort," answered Mannering. "Your fellow-man has no
right to judge you, and the law, with all its faults, appreciates logic.
Who can question your right to believe that this is a matter outside
human knowledge? Your wisdom may be questioned, but not your right.
Plenty would have felt the same. When the mind of man finds itself
groping in the dark, you will see that, in the huge majority of cases,
it falls back upon supernatural explanations for mystery. This fact has
made fortunes for not a few who profit by the credulity of human nature.
Faiths are founded on it. May carried too many guns for you. He honestly
convinced you that his theory of his son's death was the correct theory;
and I, for one, though I deplore the fact that you came to see with his
eyes, and permitted him to do what he believed was his duty, yet should
be the last to think your action open to judicial blame. No Christian
judge, at any rate, would have the least right to question you. In a
word, there is no case yet against anybody. The force responsible for
these things is utterly unknown, and if ill betides the men upstairs,
that is only another argument for you."

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