The Complete Novels of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Arthur Conan Doyle

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      “Is it likely that the devil would wish to help souls in trouble?”

      “It is part of his deceit. I tell you it is of the devil! Be warned! I will take no further part in it.”

      The placid, whimsical Chinaman was back like a flash.

      “Good man. Foolish man,” he repeated once more. “Plenty time. He learn better some day. Now I bring bad case — very bad case. Ow!”

      He reclined his head in the cushion and did not raise it as the voice, a feminine voice, broke out:

      “Janet! Janet t”

      There was a pause.

      “Janet, I say! Where is the morning tea? Janet! This is intolerable! I have called you again and again I Janet!” The figure sat up, blinking and rubbing his eyes.

      “What is this?” cried the voice. “Who are you? What right have you here? Are you aware that this is my house?”

      “No, friend, this is my house.”

      “Your house! How can it be your house when this is my bedroom? Go away this moment!”

      “No, friend. You do not understand your position.”

      “I will have you put out. What insolence! Janet! Janet! Will no one look after me this morning?”

      “Look round you, lady. Is this your bedroom?”

      Terbane looked round with a wild stare.

      “It is a room I never saw in my life. Where am I? What is the meaning of it? You look like a kind lady. Tell me, for God’s sake, what is the meaning of it? Oh, I am so terrified, so terrified! Where are John and Janet?”

      “What do you last remember?”

      “I remember speaking severely to Janet. She is my maid, you know. She has become so very careless. Yes, I was very angry with her. I was so angry that I was ill. I went to bed feeling very ill. They told me that I should not get excited. How can one help getting excited? Yes, I remember being breathless. That was after the light was out. I tried to call Janet. But why should I be in another room?”

      “You passed over in the night.”

      “Passed over? Do you mean I died?”

      “Yes, lady, you died.”

      There was a long silence. Then there came a shrill scream. “No, no, no! It is a dream! A nightmare! Wake me! Wake me! How can I be dead? I was not ready to die? I never thought of such a thing. If I am dead, why am I not in heaven or hell? What is this room? This room is real room.”

      “Yes, lady, you have been brought here and allowed to use this man’s body.”

      “A man?” She convulsively felt the coat and passed her hand over the face. “Yes, it is a man. Oh, I am dead! I am dead! What shall I do?”

      “You are here that we may explain to you. You have been, I judge, a worldly woman — a society woman. You have lived always for material things.”

      “I went to church. I was at St. Saviour’s every Sunday.”

      “That is nothing. It is the inner daily life that counts. You were material. Now you are held down to the world. When you leave this man’s body you will be in your own body once more and in your old surroundings. But no one will see you. You will remain there unable to show yourself. Your body of flesh will be buried. You will still persist, the same as ever.”

      “What am I to do? Oh, what can I do?”

      “You will take what comes in a good spirit and understand that it is for your cleansing. We only clear ourselves of matter by suffering. All will be well. We will pray for you.”

      “Oh, do! I need it so! Oh my God! . . . ” The voice trailed away.

      “Bad case,” said the Chinaman, sitting up. “Selfish woman! Bad woman! Live for pleasure. Hard on those around her. She have much to suffer. But you put her feet on the path. Now my medium tired. Plenty waiting, but no more today.”

      “Have we done good, Chang?”

      “Plenty good. Plenty good.”

      “Where are all these people, Chang?”

      “I tell you before.”

      “Yes but I want these gentlemen to hear.”

      “Seven spheres round the world, heaviest below, lightest above. First sphere is on the earth. These people belong to that sphere. Each sphere is separate from the other. Therefore it is easier for you to speak with these people than for those in any other sphere.”

      “And easier for them to speak to us?”

      “Yes. That why you should be plenty careful when you do not know to whom you talk. Try the spirits.”

      “What sphere do you belong to, Chang?”

      “I come from Number Four sphere.”

      “Which is the first really happy sphere?”

      “Number Three. Summerland. Bible book called it the third heaven. Plenty sense in Bible book, but people do not understand.”

      And the seventh heaven?”

      “Ah! That is where the Christs are. All come there at last — you, me, everybody.”

      “And after that?”

      “Too much question, Mr. Mailey. Poor old Chang not know so much as that. Now good-bye! God bless you! I go.”

      It was the end of the sitting of the rescue circle. A few minutes later Terbane was sitting up smiling and alert, but with no apparent recollection of anything which had occurred. He was pressed for time and lived afar, so that he had to make his departure, unpaid save by the blessing of those who he had helped. Modest little unvenal man, where will he stand when we all find our real places in the order of creation upon the further side?

      The circle did not break up at once. The visitors wanted to talk, and the Maileys to listen.

      “What I mean,” said Roxton, “it’s doosed interestin’ and all that, but there is a sort of variety-show element in it. What! difficult to be sure it’s really real, if you take what I mean.”

      “That is what I feel also,” said Malone. “Of course on its face value it is simply unspeakable. It is a thing so great that all ordinary happenings become commonplace. That I grant. But the human mind is very strange. I’ve read that case Moreton Prince examined, and Miss Beauchamp and the rest; also the results of Charcot, the great Nancy hypnotic school. They could turn a man into anything. The mind seems to be like a rope which can be unravelled into its various threads. Then each thread is a different personality which may take dramatic form, and act and speak as such. That man is honest, and he could not normally produce these effects. But how do we know that he is not self-hypnotized, СКАЧАТЬ