"It demands no such sacrifice," declared May, who had listened to these
facts. "Bricks and mortar, stone and timber are innocent things. One
might as soon dissect a thunder-cloud to find the lightning as destroy
material substances to discover what is hidden in this house. The
unknown being, about his Master's business here, will no more yield its
secret to four detectives, or an army of them, than it did to one. 'What
I do thou knowest not now.' It is all summed up in that."

He turned to Mannering and asked a sudden question.

"Why did you object to Mary hearing these facts? In what way should they
distress her particularly?"

"Can you not see? Indeed, one might fairly have objected to your
presence also. But you are a man. There is an implied horror of the
darkest sort for poor Mary in the suggestion that Hardcastle may still
live. If he can be brought back to life, then she would surely think
that perhaps her husband and your son might have been. Imagine the agony
of that. I speak plainly; indeed, there is no rational or sentimental
reason why I should not, for the truth is, of course, that the signs of
death were clearly evident on your poor boy before what we had to do was
done. But the bare thought must have shocked Mary. We know emphatically
that Hardcastle is dead, and we need not mention to her this fantastic
theory from London."

"I appreciate your consideration," said Sir Walter; and the clergyman
also acknowledged it.

"There can be no shadow of doubt concerning my son," he said; "nor is
there any in the matter of this unfortunate man."

Henry Lennox went to prepare for the journey. Then, obeying the
doctor's directions and treating the dead man as though he were merely
unconscious, they carried him to the ambulance car. It was an unseemly
farce in Mannering's opinion, and he only realized the painful nature
of his task when he came to undertake it; but he carried it through in
every particular as directed, conveyed the corpse to Newton after dark,
and had the ambulance bed, in which it reposed, borne to the saloon
carriage when the night mail arrived from Plymouth, between eleven and
twelve. He was able to regulate the temperature with hot steam, and kept
hot bottles to the feet and sides of the dead.

He felt impatient and resentful; he poured scorn on the superior
authority for the benefit of the inspector and Henry Lennox, who
accompanied him; but in secret he experienced emotions of undoubted
s