IRRESPONSIBLE HANDS
Dr. Leroy found Mrs. Walters in the attractive sitting-room, brightened
by flowers (most of them sent by Christopher) that had been set apart
for Penelope. The medium, usually so serene, was pale and agitated and
had evidently been repairing some recent disorder of her hair and dress.
"She is asleep, doctor," panted Seraphine, and she pointed to the closed
door of the bedroom. "We have had quite a bad time."
Then Seraphine told the doctor what had happened. She and Penelope had
spent the evening pleasantly, sewing and chatting, and Mrs. Wells had
seemed her old joyous self, free from fears and agitations. She listened
with touching confidence when the medium assured her that her mother's
exalted spirit was trying to help her. And she promised to bear in mind
Dr. Leroy's injunction that, just before composing herself to sleep, she
must hold the thought strongly that she was God's child, guarded from
all evil by the power of God's love. Also she would search into her
heart to find the obstacle that prevented her mother from coming closer
to her.
About nine o'clock Penelope said she was sleepy and would lie down to
rest, at which Seraphine rejoiced, hoping this might indicate a break in
the spell of fear that had kept Mrs. Wells in exhausting suspense.
Perhaps this was an answer to their prayers. She assisted the patient,
lovingly and encouragingly, to prepare herself for the night and at
half-past nine left her in bed with the light extinguished and the door
leading into the sitting-room open, so that she could hear the slightest
call.
About twenty minutes later, as Seraphine sat meditating, her attention
was attracted by a sound from the bedroom and, looking through the door,
she was surprised to see Mrs. Wells sitting up in bed and writing
rapidly on a large pad from which she tore sheets now and then, letting
these fall to the floor. So dim was the bedroom light that it was
impossible for Penelope to see her penciled writing, nor did she even
glance at the words, but held her eyes fixed in a far-away stare, as if
she were guided by some distant voice or vision. After a time, Penelope
ceased writing and sank back in slumber upon her pillow, allowing the
pad to fall by her side.
"Automatic writing," nodded the psychologist.
"Yes. I entered the bedroom softly and picked up the sheets. There are
two communications, one in a large scrawl written by a woman--I believe,
it is Penelope's mother. The other is in a small regular hand with quick
powerful strokes, evidently a man's writing. There! You see the
handwriting is quite different from Penelope's."
Leroy studied the sheets in silence.
"Have you read these messages?"
"I read one of them, doctor, the one from Penelope's mother--it is full
of love and wisdom--and I was just beginning the other when a terrible
thing happened. That is why I sent for you. I was sitting in this
rocking chair with my back turned to the bedroom door, absorbed in
reading this message, when suddenly--"
"Wait! Let me read it first. Hello! It's for Captain Herrick."
"Not all of it. Won't you read it aloud, doctor?"
The medium closed her eyes while Leroy, speaking in a low tone but
distinctly, repeated this mysterious communication:
_Tell Captain Herrick it was I he saw on the battlefield guiding the
stumbling footsteps of my little girl, helping her to find the place
where he lay. I realized that, through her love for him, which she would
experience later, she would build better and higher ideals than the ones
she was then holding deep within her soul. Tell him also that he is in
danger from something he is carrying...._
Here the writing became impossible to decipher.
"See how the powers of Love work against the powers of Evil!" mused the
psychic. "I must show this to Captain Herrick. Well, what happened?"
Seraphine went on to say that she had just begun to read the second
piece of automatic writing and had only finished a few lines--enough to
see that it was very different from the first--when she felt a clutch of
hands around her throat and realized that Fauvette had crept up
cunningly from behind. There had been a struggle in which the medium
tried vainly to cry out for help or to reach the bell, but her enemy was
too strong for her, and she had grown weaker; then, using strategy, she
let herself fall limp under the murderous hands, whereupon Fauvette,
laughing triumphantly, had loosened her grip for a moment and allowed
Seraphine to free herself.
"Then I caught her and held her so that I could look into her eyes and,
finally, I subdued her. She cried out that she would come back again,
but I forced her to lie down and almost instantly she fell into a deep
sleep."
"It was your love and your fearlessness that gave you the victory,"
Leroy said quietly. Then he took up the other message and read it with
darkening eyes.
"Horrible! The change must have come while she was writing this."
He opened the bedroom door softly and, with infinite compassion in his
rugged face, bent over Penelope who was sleeping peacefully, her
loveliness marred by no sign of evil.
An hour passed now, during which the spiritual physician gave Seraphine
her instructions for the night and made preparations for the struggle
that he knew was before him.
* * * * *
Meantime Captain Herrick had reached the sanitarium and, finding Dr.
Owen in the study, had laid before him a plan to save Penelope, if it
was true, as Christopher believed, that her trouble was simply in the
imagination. He proposed to divert his sweetheart's attention so that
she would not know when the deadly Fauvette hour was at hand. And to
this end he had arranged to have the clocks set back half an hour.
"It can't do any harm, can it, sir?" he urged with a lover's ardor, "and
it may succeed. Dr. Leroy says it's fear that's killing her. Well, we'll
drive away her fear. I've fixed it at the church down the street, the
one that chimes the quarter-hours, to have that clock put back. And the
clocks in the house are easy. What do you think of it, sir?" he asked
eagerly.
The old doctor frowned in perplexity.
"I don't know, Chris. You'll have to put this up to Dr. Leroy. He's a
wonderful fellow. I've had my eyes opened tonight or my
soul--something."
The two men smoked solemnly.
"I believe we're going to save Penelope, my boy--somehow. It's a mighty
queer world. I don't know but we are all more or less possessed by evil
spirits, Chris. What are these brainstorms that overwhelm the best of
us? Why do good men and women, on some sudden, devilish impulse, do
abominable things, criminal things, that they never meant to do? We
doctors pretend to be skeptical, but we all come up against creepy
stuff, inside confession stuff that we don't talk about."
He was silent again.
"There was a patient of mine in Chicago, a tough old rounder," Owen
resumed, "who changed overnight into the straightest chap you ever heard
of--because he went down to the edge of the Great Shadow--he was one of
the passengers saved from the Titanic. He told me that when he was
struggling there in the icy ocean, after the ship sank, _he saw white
shapes hovering over the waters, holding up the drowning_! I never
mentioned that until tonight."
They smoked without speaking.
"I--I had an experience like that myself, sir," ventured Christopher.
"I've never spoken of it either--people would call me crazy, but--that
night when I lay out there in front of Montidier, among the dead and
dying, I saw a white shape moving over the battlefields."
"You did?"
"Yes, sir. It was the figure of a woman--coming towards me--she seemed
to be leading Penelope. I saw her distinctly--she had a beautiful face."
Silence again.
Dr. Leroy joined them presently and, on learning of Captain Herrick's
plan, he made no objections to it, but said it would fail.
"We are dealing with an evil power, gentlemen, that is far too clever to
be deceived by such a trick," he assured them; but Christopher was
resolved to try.
Leroy then described Seraphine's narrow escape and showed them the
automatic writing, the message from Penelope's mother, not the evil
message; whereupon Christopher, in amazement, gave the corroborative
testimony of his battlefield experience. The psychologist nodded
gravely.
At five minutes of twelve (correct time) Seraphine sent down word that
Mrs. Wells had awakened and was asking eagerly for Captain Herrick.
"Go to her at once, my young friend," directed Leroy. "Do all you can to
encourage her and make her happy. Tell her there is nothing to fear
because her mother's pure soul is guarding her. Show her this message
from her mother. And whatever happens do not let your own faith waver. I
assure you our precautions are taken against everything. God bless you."
When Christopher had gone, Leroy told Dr. Owen about the second
communication in automatic writing which he had withheld from Captain
Herrick.
"This is undoubtedly from the evil spirit," he said, and he read it
aloud:
"_I was one of many loosed upon earth when the war began. I rode
screaming upon clouds of poison gas. I danced over red battlefields. I
entered one of the Gray ones, an officer, and revelled with him in
ravished villages. Then I saw Penelope going about on errands of mercy,
I saw her beautiful body and the little spots on her soul that she did
not know about, and when her nerves were shattered, I entered into her.
Now she is mine. I defy YOU to drive me out. Already her star burns
scarlet through a mist of evil memories. I see it now as she sleeps! I
shall come back tonight and make her dream._"
"You see what we have against us," Leroy said, and his face was sad, yet
fixed with a stern purpose.
And now the old materialist asked anxiously, not scoffingly: "Doctor, do
you really believe that this spirit can drag Mrs. Wells down?"
"That depends upon herself. Mrs. Wells knows what she must do. I have
told her. If she does this, she will be safe. If not--"
His eyes were inexpressibly tragic, and at this moment the neighboring
chimes resounded musically through the quiet sanitarium--_a quarter to
twelve!_