ter
use to you than they were before."

"Act for me then, please. Explain that money is no object, and ask them
to send the most accomplished and experienced men in the service. But
they are only concerned with crime. This may be outside their scope."

"We cannot say as to that. We cannot even assert that this is not a
crime. We know nothing."

"A crime needs a criminal, Mannering."

"That is so; but what would be criminal, if human agency were
responsible for it, might, nevertheless, be the work of forces to which
the word criminal cannot be applied."

Sir Walter stared at him.

"Is it possible you suggest a supernatural cause for this?"

The doctor shook his head.

"Emphatically not, though I am not a materialist, as you are aware. My
generation of practitioners has little difficulty in reconciling our
creed with our cult, though few of the younger men are able to do so,
I admit. But science is science, and not for a moment do I imagine
anything supernatural here. I think, however, there are unconscious
forces at work, and those responsible for setting those forces in action
would be criminals without a doubt, if they knew what they were doing.
The man who fires a rifle at an animal, if he hits and kills it, is the
destroyer, though he may operate from half a mile away. On the other
hand, the agents may be unconscious of what they are doing."

"There is no human being in this house for whom I would not answer."

"I know it. We beat the wind. It will be time enough to consider
presently. Indeed, I should rather that you strove to relieve your mind
of the problem. You have enough to do without that. Leave it to those
professionally trained in such mysteries. If a man is responsible for
this atrocious thing, then it should be within the reach of man's wits
to find him. We failed before; but this time no casual examination of
this place, or the antecedents of your son-in-law's life, will serve the
purpose. We must go to the bottom, or, rather, skilled minds, trained
to do so, must go to the bottom. They will approach the subject from a
different angle. They will come unprejudiced and unperturbed. If
there has been foul play, they will find it out. In my opinion it is
incredible that they will be baffled."

"The best men engaged in such work must come to help us. I cannot bring
myself to believe the room is haunted, and that this is the operation
of an evil force outside Nature, yet permitted by the Creator to