CHAPTER SIXTEEN

THE INQUEST WAS REPORTED AT LENGTH IN THE local papers, but it is needless to chronicle it in these pages ; the reader is already aware of the causes that led to the hurried departure of Lucas, and there is no occasion to weary him with the half truths that were told to those who concerned themselves with the fate of the sheath of dense matter that he had been forced to abandon in his haste ; the doctor certified that death was due to heart failure brought on by over-exertion ; that was all he could say. The most rigorous cross-examination of Veronica, the most careful analysis of the viscera, had failed to reveal any reason why the man should die, he had simply ceased to live, and that was all there was to it. All the same, there was left upon the minds of all who contacted the case the same curious impression, they all felt that there was much that had not been revealed, and yet no man could frame a question that should lay bare that which they sought.

They all knew that the young girl who had been the dead man's companion knew more than she chose to tell ; they also knew that the hard-faced man who elected to come down from London and who said he was the dead man's employer, was not taking the court into his confidence ; and when it transpired that he had in his possession a recently-made will, in which everything was left to the aforesaid young girl, the mystery deepened, and yet no one could strike upon the link that connected them with the tragedy. It was a riddle to which they could find no solution, so they gave it up, and a verdict was returned of death from natural causes, in conformity with the medical evidence, yet all the countryside knew that something that was not natural had happened among them.

After the close of the inquest, however, an interview took place at which they would have given much to be present, though what they would have made of that which transpired would be difficult to say. The hard-faced man came to see Veronica. She was sitting upon the terrace as the sun went down, when she heard footsteps upon the gravel, and looking up, saw him beside her.

He seated himself upon the stone balustrade that bounded the terrace, leant forward, resting his elbows on his knees, hands clasped, and looked straight into Veronica's eyes, his face close to hers.

“Now, Miss Mainwaring, I want the truth. What was the nature of your association with Lucas ?”

“I was his secretary,” replied Veronica.

The man's eyes changed as Lucas's had changed on the day when he made his selection from among the women whom the London employment bureau had sent to him ; he looked straight through Veronica, not at her, the eyes out of focus and glazed.

“You are a psychic, and accustomed to leave your body ; tell me, can you go out at will, or has someone got to hypnotize you and push you out ?”

“I don't understand what you mean,” said Veronica, looking as blank as she knew how, and Veronica's round, childish face could look very blank indeed when she did not choose to understand, as they had found out at the inquest.

“It doesn't matter whether you understand or not. The images rise in your mind, and I can read them. As a matter of fact, you know what I mean perfectly well. Come, Miss Mainwaring, won't you take me into your confidence ? I come as a friend, not an enemy ; we are quite aware that you were not responsible for the use that was made of your faculties.”

Veronica still elected to look blank, and the man said sharply : “It is no use pretending that you know nothing, because Lucas confessed the whole business. Moreover, it was I who saw you materialize that night in the Lodge, and as soon as you entered the witness-box I recognized you.”

At this statement, Veronica produced a handkerchief and took refuge in tears. The stern-faced man tugged angrily at his moustache ; a woman scores heavily on these occasions.

“It is apparently no use trying to reason with you,” he said, “But remember this, however much or however little you know, you are not to talk about it. You have seen what happened to one traitor, take care it doesn't happen to another.”

Veronica raised her face from her handkerchief and looked straight at him ; during the last few days a new spirit had begun to dawn in her, and it was with that spirit she spoke.

“You take too much upon yourself,” she said. “You have no right to take the law into your own hands. That was not an execution, it was a murder, and you will have to answer for it. If you had given him time, he would have straightened himself out, but you did not give him time, and now he is dead.”

“That is precisely my own opinion,” said a voice behind them, and they both turned in surprise to find that an old man with a long white beard had crossed the lawn unperceived during their conversation.

“I was responsible for that boy. It was I who put into his hands the knife with which he cut himself, and you should have left him to me to deal with. I could always manage him, he was fond of me in his way, and she and I——” indicating Veronica, with a wave of his corded old hand, “Could have pulled him through between us. Now you have set going causes that we cannot easily calculate. But what is the attitude of this young lady towards the matter ?”

“Mulish,” said the hard-faced man, tugging his moustache more furiously than ever. “I wash my hands of the whole affair.”

“It is a pity that you did not do so sooner,” replied the newcomer coldly, and the hard-faced man turned on his heel and strode off down the path, still tugging his moustache.

“Now, my child,” said the old man, turning to Veronica. “Let us talk this matter over and see what we can make of it. We know practically everything, so you need not feel that you are giving us information Mr. Lucas would not wish us to have ; all that we do not know is the nature of your own position in the affair. Did you know what you were doing, or were you a passive tool in his hands ?”

“I will tell you nothing,” replied Veronica. “I don't see why I should answer your questions ; you killed Mr. Lucas, and you can kill me too, if you want to, but I will tell you nothing about him.”

The old man sighed. “I cannot urge you further, in the face of the debt you owe him,” he said.

Veronica looked up quickly, in astonishment.

“What debt? what do you mean ?”

“Then he has not told you? He did not take you into his confidence ?”

“He told me practically nothing. I am in the dark, save for what I have guessed.”

“Then why are you so loyal to him if you are not his partner? You must be his victim, his tool, used more unscrupulously than any man in my experience has ever used a living creature.”

Veronica looked out into the last of the sunset. “You wouldn't understand if I told you,” she said at length. “I am not sure if I understand myself, but there was some tie between us ; I didn't know its nature, but I was conscious of it. Besides, there is no one to stand by him if I do not, and if no one stands by him, then he will be lost altogether. He was a bad man, but he was not a wholly bad man ; I think there was something good in him, and 1 think he would have got better if they had given him a chance.”

The old man held out his hand. “Go on believing in him,” he said. “If there is anything that can save him, it is your faith that will do it.” Veronica noticed that he too looked upon Lucas as a living entity, and was about toframe a question, but checked herself lest she should be betraying information the significance of which she could not gauge.

He had retreated a few paces down the path when he returned again. “He was a much worse man than a child like you can realize,” he said. “You will want all the faith of which you are capable if you are to regenerate him, and I am going to tell you something in order to reinforce your faith, though I am afraid that it will pain you very much. Do you know that Lucas died in your place.”

Veronica stared at him wide-eyed.

“It was known to the Fraternity of which I am a member that our secrets had been penetrated by some person, and we decided to strike that person, as we are able to do, even though he be unknown to us ; and Lucas, knowing this, stood up and said, ‘ That person is nothing but a tool, it is I who am responsible,’ so the brethren left you alone and struck at him, and I think that they erred grieviously in so doing, for they should have known that a man who made that confession had set his face towards the light, and they should have given him time to tread his path.

“My dear, I am afraid you have seen the darker side of the Secret Wisdom ; you have seen it used for evil, and you have seen it used in judgment without the the saving grace of mercy ; but I would ask you to remember this, though perhaps you know it already from your own inner consciousness, for I think you are not wholly asleep to such things, that the power which lies behind the brethren is beneficent, though men may take its name in vain and use it in error ; for it is only men of the greatest calibre who can carry that force and not be bent and twisted, or even burst asunder by it ; therefore do not judge a man harshly who fails in occult work. Do not be misled by our errors, our lack of vision, or the fear that makes men cruel ; we serve a reality, my child, though we may not always perceive it clearly.”

Veronica rose and held out her hand to him. “I am a stranger to you, and have no claim upon you,” she said, “but I feel that I can trust you ; will you help me? I have no one I can turn to, and there are all sorts of business matters that I do not understand, and I do not know where to go for advice.”

The old man took her hand. “I accept the responsibility that is laid upon me, and I pray that I may discharge it better than I did my responsibility towards the elder child of my spirit, whom we have lost.”