"A fatuous, archaic assumption, and long since destroyed by actual, human experience," he replied."It is time such blasphemous folly should be banished from the Statute Book.I say 'blasphemous' because such an Act takes no cognizance of the Word of God.Outworn Acts of Parliament are responsible for a great deal of needless misery in this world, and it is high time these ordinances of another generation were sent to the dust heap.""In that last opinion I heartily agree with you," declared the detective.
Henry ventured a quotation.He was much interested to learn whether Hardcastle had any views on the ghost theory.
"Goethe says that matter cannot exist without spirit, or spirit without matter.Would you sub-scribe to that, Mr.Hardcastle?""Partially.Matter can exist without spirit, which you may prove by getting under an avalanche; but I do most emphatically agree that spirit cannot exist without matter.'Divorced from matter, where is life?' asks Tyndall, and nobody can answer him.""You misunderstand Goethe," declared Mr.May."In metaphysics -""I have no use for metaphysics.Believe me, the solemn humbug of metaphysics doesn't take in a policeman for a moment.Juggling with words never advanced the world's welfare or helped the cause of truth.What, for any practical purpose, does it matter how subjectively true a statement may be if it is objectively false? Life is just as real as I am myself - no more and no less - and all the metaphysical jargon in the world won't prevent my shins from bleeding wet, red blood when I bark them against a stone.""You don't believe in the supernatural then?' asked Mr.May."Most emphatically not.""How extraordinary! And how, if I may ask, do you fill the terrible vacuum in your life that such a denial must create?""I have never been conscious of such a vacuum.I was a sceptic from my youth up.No doubt those who were nurtured in superstition, when reason at last conquers and they break away, may experience a temporary blank; but the wonders of nature and the achievements of man and the demands of the suffering world - these should be enough to fill any blank for a reasonable creature.""If such are your opinions, you will fail here," declared the clergyman positively.
"Why do you feel so sure of that?"
"Because you are faced with facts that have no material explanation.They are supernatural, or supernormal, if you prefer the word.""'One world at a time,' is a very good motto in my judgment," replied Hardcastle."We will exhaust the possibilities of this world first, sir.""They have already been exhausted.Only a simple, straightforward question awaits your reply.Do you believe in another world or do you not?""In the endless punishment or the endless happiness of men and women after they are dead?""If you like to confuse the issue in that way you are at liberty, of course, to do so.As a Christian, I cannot demur.The problem for the rationalist is this: How does he ignore the deeply rooted and universal conviction that there is a life to come? Is such a sanguine assuranceplanted in the mind of even the lowest savage for nothing?Where did the aborigines win that expectation?""My answer embraces the whole question from my own point of view," replied Hardcastle."The savages got their idea of dual personality from phenomena of nature which they were unable to explain - from their dreams, from their own shadows on the earth and reflections in water, from the stroke of the lightning and the crash of the thunder, from the echo of their own voices, thrown back to them from crags and cliffs.These things created their superstitions.Ignorance bred terror, and terror bred gods and demons - first out of the forces of nature.That is the appalling mental legacy handed down in varying shapes to all the chiuldren of men.We labor under them to this day." "You would dare to say our most sacred verities have sprung from the dreams of savages?"Hardcastle smiled.
"It is true.And dreams, we further know, are often the result of indigestion.Early man didn't understand the art of cookery, and therefore no doubt his stomach had a great deal to put up with.We have to thank his bear steaks and wolf chops for a great deal of our cherished nonsense, no doubt."Sir Walter, marking the clergyman's flashing eyes, changed the subject, and Septimus May, who observed his concern, restrained a bitter answer.But he despaired of the detective from that moment, and proposed to himself a future assault on such detested modern opinions when opportunity occurred.
After breakfast Mr.Hardcastle begged for a private interview with the master of Chadlands, and for two hours sat in his study and took him through the case from the beginning.
He put various questions concerning the members of the recent house party, and presently begged that Henry Lennox might join them.
"I should like to hear the account of what passed on the night between him and Captain May," he said.
Henry joined them, and detailed his experience.While he talked, Hardcastle appraised him, and perceived that certain nebulous opinions, which had begun to crystallize in his own mind, could have no realfoundation.The detective believed that he was confronted with a common murder, and on hearing Henry's history, as part of Sir Walter's story with the rest, perceived that the old lover of Mary Lennox had last seen her husband alive, had drunk with him, and been the first to find him dead.Might not Henry have found an eastern poison in Mesopotamia? But his conversation with the young man, and the unconscious revelation of Henry himself, shattered the idea.Lennox was innocent enough.
For a moment, the information of uncle and nephew exhausted, Hardcastle returned to the matter of the breakfast discussion.
