E. F. Benson

“ For of what nature is the spirit which we hope to expel from that poor lad's body? A strong and a desperate one, or it could never have taken possession of it. It will cling with all its force to the tenement which it has usurped, and if we drive it out, if God helps us to do that, what awful and evil power will once more be abroad! ”

“ At the most, that is to say, in cases of brain disease and nerve disorder we try to get at the mind of the patient, and influence that, so that it, not we, may exert its healing power, and cure the imperfect functioning of the material part. Of course that is a tremendous step forward when we look at what medical science was twenty years ago, when doctors prescribed tonics, tonics to heal the physical damage caused by a disordered mind. But mind itself is but a very subordinate denizen in that house of mystery which we call man. ”

“ That was a human spirit, man, disembodied but not dead, and it knows that its earthly habitation is being defiled and profaned by that murderous occupant. It sees the horrors that its own hands work; the brain that was its pleasant servant is planning worse things yet. I can't doubt that this is so. No reasonable man can doubt so incredible and so damnable a thing. But if the struggle that there must be is too much for the body that we seek to free, good Lord, what a tale for a coroner's inquest!”
“You mean that you risk your cousin's death?” ”

“ You believe that all evil, however deadly and powerful, is altogether inferior in calibre and fighting power to good. Also I shall like a friend at my elbow. Perhaps I oughtn't to urge that as a reason, for I don't want any personal feeling to influence you. Only come if you want to witness the power of God, not Reid's, not mine; we are nothing at all except mere mossy channels. ”

“ Roupert sat up again and looked at me.
“There is a theory,” he said, “that in certain conditions, such as deep mesmeric trance, or under the stupefaction of some complete anæsthetic, the bonds that seem so indissolubly to unite a man's spirit to his mind and his body are strangely loosened. The condition approaches to that of temporary death: often under an anæsthetic the beat of the heart is nearly suspended, often the breathing is nearly suspended, and this happened to Frank under chloroform that morning. The connexion between his spirit and his body was loosened. ”

“ I asked.
“He may be able to test for us part, at any rate, of my theory,” said Roupert. “He is an extraordinarily powerful medium in the way of producing materialized forms of spirits, and I believe him to be honest and high-minded. Now if Frank's body is possessed by this murderous spirit, it is at least possible that Frank's own spirit, now unhoused and evicted, will be hovering near its rightful habitation. We will ask if the spirit of Frank Hampden is here. We will ask if it can assume material form. If Reid can produce this materialization, it will doubtless wear the appearance of Frank. ”

“ It is proved, I think, beyond all doubt, that at the moment of death, particularly of sudden and violent death, the spirit, though severed from the body which it has inhabited, does not at once leave its vicinity, but remains hovering near to its discarded tenement, from which it has been expelled. Well, at that hour when Frank's spirit was maintaining but a relaxed hold on his body, another spirit, violent and strong, was close at hand—a spirit that had just been disembodied. ... And I believe the spirit of James Rolls entered and took possession. ”

“ Now no man in a fit of rage is altogether sane, and yet we do not commute the sentence of those who have killed another when beside themselves with passion, and James Rolls had not even that extenuation. ”

“ I won't reject any jungle-path without exploring it, not witchcraft, nor demoniacal possession, nor all the myths which science thinks she has exploded. In its first origin everything must be spiritual, be it comet or toothache or genius. ”

“ Just as mental suggestion has taken the place of tonics, so must spiritual healing take the place of mental suggestion. The spirit is the original manifestation of God in man, and it is on prayer and on faith that the whole science of healing will some day rest. ”

“ He got up and began pacing up and down the room, now muttering to himself, now speaking aloud as if in argument with me.
“It's a terrible risk for Reid, too,” he said, “for Reid most of all, for he will be in deep trance; such power of faith as we can exert must defend him first of all. ... Yet, we can't get at Rolls, I tell you, without the medium. ... I must, of course, tell Reid everything, and ask him if he will take the risk. ... He may refuse, though I don't think he will, for there's the courage of a saint in that man. ... Then there's Frank, Frank's body, I mean. ”

“ But I hope to prove that my theory is correct, and I hope to cure my cousin.”
Roupert sat up and looked at me while he said this; then he sank back in his chair again, and, as before, covered his eyes with his hands.
“Now for the theory,” he said. “There is a very steep hill in Beltonborough with a sharp, dangerous corner just outside the prison gate. Practically at the moment when James Rolls was being taken to the scaffold, Frank came tearing down this hill on his bicycle to catch an early train to town. ”

“ Give me half an hour, will you, and then we'll go down to the cats' home, and get a large fat cat.”
I guessed that Roupert had already given his cousin the dose of hyocampine, but just as the latter was pulling a chair round so that he need not face the light, he spoke.
“Make a proper job of it, Frank,” he said, “and lie on the sofa. One always wakes feeling cramped if one goes to sleep in a chair.” ”

“ For one moment he paused, and I knew that he was wavering himself, in the weakness of the flesh; but instantly he got hold of himself again.
“There's only one power that can't fail,” he said. “Hell crashes into fragments against it.”
Next morning I got a note from Roupert, saying that Reid consented, and asking me to come in to his house punctually at half-past two, if I had decided to be with him. When I arrived I found Roupert and Frank Hampden sitting over their coffee in the study. Hampden had just drunk his.
“Isn't there a home for cats somewhere in Battersea?” he was asking. ”

“ He used to be devoted to dogs and, indeed, all animals, especially cats. ... Now last night, out in the garden, he was in his dressing-gown. Well, when he came down to breakfast this morning he said his nose had been bleeding rather severely. ”