for death. No symptoms were present of any fatal disease, nor, so far as he could see, of any poison or wound of any sort.
“I cannot say what an autopsy may divulge,” declared the frightened practitioner, “but from this superficial examination, I find no cause of dissolution.”
Then he crossed the hall, to the Room with the Tassels.
Braye followed him in, Eve also. The Professor and Tracy stood in the doorway, but Norma remained in the hall, her face buried in some sofa cushions.
“No apparent cause,” the Doctor repeated. “This child was in perfect health; I should say fright might have killed her, but it doesn’t seem credible. I know of no cause of any sort, that could bring about death in an instant of time, as you report.”
“Maybe not an instant,” corrected the Professor, carefully. “As I look back, I should judge there was at least a half a minute between Mr. Bruce’s first symptom of unease, and his falling to the floor.”
“So with Vernie,” said Eve, thoughtfully. “I saw Mr. Tracy go quickly toward her; I followed immediately, and I’m sure there was nearly a half minute, but not more, before she gasped and died.”
“It’s hard to judge time on such occasions,” said the Doctor, looking sharply at Eve.
“I know it, but I was very conscious of it all, almost clairvoyantly so, and I can assure you it was not longer than a half minute in either case, between the state of usual health and death itself. Is there any cause or agent that will work as quickly as that?”
“I know of none,” replied Doctor Wayburn, positively.
“There is none,” Eve assured him. “These deaths were caused by supernatural means, they were the vengeance of certain Powers of Darkness.”
“Oh, come now, Eve,” expostulated Braye, “don’t get off that stuff to the Doctor. Keep that for our own circle. You know these fatalities couldn’t have been caused by a ghost!”
“What, then?”
“I don’t know. Fright, perhaps, or over-apprehension because of the warnings. Auto-suggestion, if you like, and so indirectly the result of the spooks, but not the direct work of a disembodied spirit.”
“It was, all the same!” and Eve left the room and went to sit by Norma.
But the girls were not in sympathy. Their conversation resulted in disagreement, and, at last, in Norma’s bursting into tears and running upstairs.
She sought Milly, and found her prostrated by Landon’s news. But she was trying to be brave, and earnestly endeavouring to preserve her self-control.
“I know every one thinks I’ll go to pieces,” she said, pathetically, “and make more trouble for you all,—but I won’t. I’ve promised Wynne I’ll be brave and if I can’t keep quiet and composed, I’ll stay in my room, and not upset the crowd.”
“You’re all right, Milly,” Norma reassured her, “you let yourself go all you want to. Don’t overdo your restraint. I’ll look after you.”
“Yes, do, Norma. Don’t let Eve come near me. I can’t stand her!”
“Why? You mustn’t be unjust to Eve. She behaved splendidly at that awful time.”
“Yes, I know. But if it hadn’t been for Eve we never would have come up here at all.”
“Oh, Milly, that isn’t fair! We all agreed to come here. It wasn’t Eve’s doing any more than mine!”
“Yes, it was. But, look here, Norma, tell me truly. What do you think killed Mr. Bruce and Vernie?”
“I don’t know, Milly, dear. You know I do believe in psychics and in spiritism and in the return to earth of the souls of people who have died, but—I can’t believe that any such spirit would kill an innocent child, or a fine old man. I can’t believe it!”
“But why not, Norma? If you believe in the return to earth of good spirits, why not bad spirits, as well? And if so, why couldn’t they kill people, if they want to?”
“You sound logical, Milly, but it’s absurd.”
“No, it isn’t. You and Eve believe in good spirits and in their power to do good. Why not, then, in bad spirits and their power to do evil?”
“Let up, Milly,” begged Landon, who stood near by. “She’s been going on like that, Norma, ever since I told her. Can’t you explain to her——”
“Explain what?”
“Lord! I don’t know! But make her see how impossible it is that the ghost of that woman who killed her husband here so long ago, should have any reason to do away with two modern present-day people!”
“But I want to think so, Wynne,” and Milly’s eyes stared with a peculiar light. “I’d rather think they were killed by that ghost than by a person,—wouldn’t you?”
“What do you mean, Milly? Murdered?”
“Yes, Eve. That’s what it must have been, if not spirits. They had no mortal disease, either of them.”
“Don’t mention that before any one else,” admonished Eve, very seriously. “There are other explanations, Milly. Many deaths have been brought about by sudden fright or by continuous apprehension of imaginary danger. Vernie had been warned twice. True, I didn’t think of four in the afternoon, but doubtless she did, and maybe, seeing the sudden attack of Mr. Bruce, so startled her that she thought of the four o’clock doom and gave way herself.”
“She might give way to the extent of fainting, or a fit of hysterics,” admitted Milly, “but not to the extent of dropping dead! It’s unthinkable,—it’s unbelievable——”
“It’s almost unbelievable that they should be dead,” Eve said, softly, “but as to how they died, let’s not speculate, dear. I suppose we must have a doctor up from New York,—what do you think, Mr. Landon?”
“Eh?—oh, I don’t know,—I’m sure I don’t know.”
“But you’ll have to take charge, won’t you?” asked Eve. “You two are really the heads of this house——”
“All I want is to get away,” moaned Milly. “When can we go, Wynne?”
“I don’t know, dear. Say, Eve, won’t you take Milly down to-night? I can’t leave, of course, but I daren’t keep her here, lest she go to pieces. You take her home,—there’s a train in about an hour.”
“Oh, I can’t. I want to stay here. Send Norma,—no, she’s no good,—perhaps Mr. Tracy will take Milly down. He’s awfully kind, and ready to do anything.”
As Milly declared herself now willing, the three went downstairs. They found the others in the hall, the Doctor still there, and the tea things still about. Eve gave Milly some tea, and took some herself.
“I’ll have to call in the coroner,” Doctor Wayburn was saying; “it isn’t apparently a murder, and yet it’s a mysterious death,—they both are. Yes, the county physician must be summoned.”
The Doctor had gotten over the first panic of surprise, and began to feel a sense of importance. Such a case had never come near him before, and the whole affair gave him a pleasant feeling of responsibility and foreshadowed his prominence in the public eye.
The suggestion of a coroner was resented by all who listened, but the Doctor’s word was law in the case, so they unwillingly consented.
“I think I’d better go down to New York to-night,” said Braye. “There are so many things to see to, so many people to notify, the reporters to look after, and—undertaking arrangements to be made. Unless you want to go, Wynne?”