Page:The Land of Mist.pdf/57

SOME STRANGE DOINGS  53 vengeance — or I should say justice — are, is really not essential. The point is that they exist.”

“Oh, rot, Mervin !”

“Don’t be too sure of that.”

“Pernicious rot ! These are the old theological bogies of the Middle Ages coming up again. I am surprised at a sensible man like you !”

Mervin smiled — he had a whimsical smile — but his eyes, looking out from under bushy yellow brows, were as serious as ever.

“You may come to change your opinion. There are some queer sides to this question. As a friend I put you wise to this one.”

“Well, put me wise, then.”

Thus encouraged, Mervin went into the matter. He rapidly sketched the career and fate of a number of men who had, in his opinion, played an unfair game with these forces, become an obstruction, and suffered for it. He spoke of judges who had given prejudiced decisions against the cause, of journalists who had worked up stunt cases for sensational purposes and to throw discredit on the movement; of others who had interviewed mediums to make game of them, or who, having started to investigate, had drawn back alarmed, and given a negative decision when their inner soul knew that the facts were true. It was a formidable list, for it was long and precise, but Malone was not to be driven.

“If you pick your cases I have no doubt one could make such a list about any subject. Mr. Jones said that Raphael was a bungler, and Mr. Jones died of angina pectoris. Therefore it is dangerous to criticise Raphael. That seems to be the argument.”

“Well, if you like to think so.”

“Take the other side. Look at Morgate. He has