The Land Of Mist - Doyle Arthur Conan - Страница 29
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«You cheated us. You dressed up and pretended to be a spirit.»
«You are a damned liar!» cried Linden. « I did nothing of the sort.»
Mailey took the rag of linen from his pocket and spread it on his knee.
«What about that?» he asked.
«Well, what about it?»
«It was cut out of the white gown you wore. I cut it out myself as you stood in front of me. If you examine the gown you will find the place. It's no use, Linden. The game is up. You can't deny it.»
For a moment the man was completely taken aback. Then he burst into a stream of horrible profanity.
«What's the game?» he cried, glaring round him. « Do you think I am easy and that you can play me for a sucker? Is it a frame-up, or what? You've chose the wrong man for a try-on of that sort.»
«There is no use being noisy or violent, Linden,» said Mailey quietly, » I could bring you up in the police court to-morrow. I don't want any public scandal, for your brother's sake. But you don't leave this room until you have signed a paper that I have here on my desk.»
«Oh, I don't, don't I? Who will stop me?»
«We will.»
The three men were between him and the door.
«You will! Well» try that!» He stood before them with rage in his eyes and his great hands knotted. « Will you get out of the way?»
They did not answer, but they all three gave the fighting snarl which is perhaps the oldest of all human expressions. The next instant Linden was upon them, his fists flashing out with terrific force. Mailey, who had boxed in his youth, stopped one blow, but the next beat in his guard and he fell with a crash against the door. Lord Roxton was hurled to one side, but Malone, with a footballer's instinct, ducked his head and caught the prize-fighter round the knees. If a man is too good for you on his feet, then put him on his back, for he cannot be scientific there. Over went Linden, crashing through an armchair before he reached the ground. He staggered to one knee and got in a short jolt to the chin, but Malone had him down again and Roxton's bony hand had closed upon his throat. Silas Linden had a yellow streak in him and he was cowed.
«Let up!» he cried. « That's enough!»
He lay now spreadeagled upon his back. Malone and Roxton were bending over him. Mailey had gathered himself together, pale and shaken after his fall.
«I'm all right!» he cried, in answer to a feminine voice at the other side of the door. « No, not yet, dear, but we shall soon be ready for you. Now, Linden, there's no need for you to get up, for you can talk very nicely where you are. You've got to sign this paper before you leave the room.»
«What is the paper?» croaked Linden, as Roxton's grip upon his throat relaxed.
«I'll read it to you.»
Mailey took it from the desk and read aloud.
«I, Silas Linden, hereby admit that I have acted as a rogue and a scoundrel by simulating to be a spirit, and I swear that I will never again in my life pretend to be a medium. Should I break this oath, then this signed confession may be used for my conviction in the police court.»
«Will you sign that?»
«No, I am damned if I will!»
«Shall I give him another squeeze?» asked Lord Roxton. « Perhaps I could choke some sense into him – what!»
» Not at all,» said Mailey. « I think that his case now would do good in the police court, for it would show the public that we are determined to keep our house clean. I'll give you one minute for consideration, Linden, and then I ring up the police.»
But it did not take a minute for the impostor to make up his mind.
«All right,» said he in a sulky voice, «I'll sign.» He was allowed to rise with a warning that if he played any tricks he would not get off so lightly the second time. But there was no kick left in him and he scrawled a big, coarse « Silas Linden « at the bottom of the paper without a word. The three men signed as witnesses.
«Now, get out!» said Mailey, sharply. «Find some honest trade in future and leave sacred things alone!»
«Keep your damned cant to yourself!» Linden answered, and so departed, grumbling and swearing, into the outer darkness from which he had come. He had hardly passed before Mrs. Mailey had rushed into the room to reassure herself as to her husband. Once satisfied as to this she mourned over her broken chair, for like all good women she took a personal pride and joy in every detail of her little menage.
«Never mind, dear. It's a cheap price to pay in order to get that blackguard out of the movement. Don't go away, you fellows. I want to talk to you.»
«And tea is just coming in.»
«Perhaps something stronger would be better,» said Mailey, and indeed, all three were rather exhausted, for it was sharp while it lasted. Roxton, who had enjoyed the whole thing immensely, was full of vitality, but Malone was shaken and Mailey had narrowly escaped serious injury from that ponderous blow.
«I have heard,» said Mailey, as they all settled down round the fire, » that this blackguard has sweated money out of poor Tom Linden for years. It was a form of blackmail, for he was quite capable of denouncing him. By Jove!» he cried, with sudden inspiration, «that would account for the police raid. Why should they pick Linden out of all the mediums in London? I remember now that Tom told me the fellow had asked to be taught to be a medium, and that he had refused to teach him.»
«Could he teach him?» asked Malone. Mailey was thoughtful over this question. « Well, perhaps he could,» he said at last. « But Silas Linden as a false medium would be very much less dangerous than Silas Linden as a true medium.»
«I don't follow you.»
«Mediumship can be developed» said Mrs. Mailey. «One might almost say it was catching.»
«That was what the laying-on of hands meant in the early Church,» Mailey explained. « It was the conferring of thaumaturgic powers. We can't do it now as rapidly as that. But if a man or woman sits with the desire of development, and especially if that sitting is in the presence of a real medium, the chance is that powers will come.»
«But why do you say that would be worse than false mediumship?»
«Because it could be used for evil. I assure you, Malone, that the talk of black magic and of evil entities is not an invention of the enemy. Such things do happen and centre round the wicked medium. You can get down into a region which is akin to the popular idea of witchcraft, It is dishonest to deny it.»
«Like attracts like,» explained Mrs. Mailey, who was quite as capable an exponent as her husband. « You get what you deserve. If you sit with wicked people you get wicked visitors.»
«Then there is a dangerous side to it?»
«Do you know anything on earth which has not a dangerous side if it is mishandled and exaggerated? This dangerous side exists quite apart from orthodox Spiritualism, and our knowledge is the surest way to counteract it. I believe that the witchcraft of the Middle Ages was a very real thing, and that the best way to meet such practices is to cultivate the higher powers of the spirit. To leave the thing entirely alone is to abandon the field to the forces of evil.»
Lord Roxton interposed in an unexpected way.
«When I was in Paris last year,» said he, «there was a fellah called La Paix who dabbled in the black magic business. He held circles and the like. What I mean, there was no great harm in the thing, but it wasn't what you would call very spiritual, either.»
«It's a side that I as a journalist would like to see something of, if I am to report impartially upon the subject» said Malone.
«Quite right!» Mailey agreed. «We want all the cards on the table.»
«Well, young fellah, if you would give me a week of your time and come to Paris, I'll introduce you to La Paix,» said Roxton.
«It is a curious thing, but I also had a Paris visit in my mind for our friend here,» said Mailey. «I have been asked over by Dr. Maupuis of the Institut Metapsychique to see some of the experiments which he is conducting upon a Galician medium. It is really the religious side of this matter which interests me, and that is conspicuously wanting in the minds of these scientific men of the Continent; but for accurate, careful examination of the psychic facts they are ahead of anyone except poor Crawford of Belfast, who stood in a class by himself. I promised Maupuis to run across and he has certainly been having some wonderful – in some respects, some rather alarming results.»
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