Part 38 (1/2)

”What a great thing it is, if one could get hold of it and use it--the collective spirit of a community! It's utilizable--or ought to be--like water power....

”There was a woman in town then, a 'mental healer,' she called herself.

I'd run across her more than once and she interested me very much. She was a clever woman--sensible, too, which doesn't always follow, you know. So far as I could tell, she never handled a case she wasn't able to attend to, which may seem an odd thing for me to say, but happens to be so. I know of a dozen nervous, hysterical women--emotional spend-thrifts--that she bullied into shape and got so they could stand up without her behind them, too. They were cured, and they stayed cured. More than that, I sent more than one to her, myself!

”'Mrs. Mears,' I said, 'there's nothing the matter with these women that I can see but pure, piggish, bone-idle selfishness. I haven't got the courage to tell 'em so; if you have, and the long words you use disguise the fact sufficiently, go ahead and cure 'em, and G.o.d bless you!'

”'Thank you, doctor,' she said, and she cured 'em. They had no use for me after that. No, indeed--they told my wife they'd found a higher law and that calomel was sinful. But the poor old calomel wasn't so bad for 'em, after all, maybe.

”Well, I met her on my rounds one day and I stopped and asked her if she was satisfied with her house--I knew the neighbourhood was rather running down, there--the darkies were creeping up. She admitted she wasn't particularly, and, to make a long story short, I offered her this house of mine for two-thirds the regular rental.

”'I want a good steady tenant, Mrs. Mears,' I said, 'and people may as well get used to bringing their headaches over there--I may move out there sometime.'

”So she moved in and I never gave the matter another thought--I knew she wouldn't run off with anybody! No, she'd had her lesson, I take it. No blue-eyed woman gets as sensible as that woman was without a good, solid reason. And the reason is pretty certain to wear trousers.

”Well, sir, in a month she came to see me. I can see her now: a firm, stocky woman, long body and short legs and big head--the efficient type. She had the smooth pink cheeks and smooth forehead and straight eyes those healer-women have when they're first cla.s.s of their kind--oh, there's a lot in it--a lot! We fight 'em and get the law on 'em and absorb 'em, finally, as we've fought every advance in medicine.

It seems to be the only way in this world...

”She always looked so clean and taut, that woman, never a loose end anywhere.

”'Doctor,' says she, 'you must get a new tenant. I'm leaving to-morrow. How much will it cost me, giving no notice?'

”'Why, what's the matter?' I began. 'Anything I can attend to?'

”'Not a thing,' she answered promptly, 'and we won't discuss it, if you please. The van is there, by this time.'

”'Why, see here, Mrs. Mears,' I said seriously. 'This--this is hardly professional, it seems to me. If there's anything wrong with my property, I want to know it. Of course I know your theories--G.o.d's in his heaven and all's right with the world, and if you discuss it, the devil may creep in--I've read Emerson's Essays, myself. I know what you think about medicine and surgery and hygiene--you think Emerson!

And that's all right, as far as it goes. But just for ten minutes, between you and me, what's the matter? You can keep on being serene, after that, all you want. Come now--as man to man!'

”She flattened her lips a little and tried not to scowl.

”'Put it that I don't like old houses, doctor,' she said finally.

”'Ah! House haunted?' I suggested, to tease her a little.

”She turned on me.

”'You said it, not I,' she answered, 'but it is true. The house is haunted, doctor, and if I lived there a day longer, I couldn't do my work. I didn't wish to discuss it--you know we don't believe in that--but you meant to do me a service. It's a crime to rent that house. It's slimy. It crawls.'

”'Slimy!' I cried. 'Why the agent told me that the cellar was new cemented, all whitewashed, every room new papered, fresh matting, hard wood on the lower floor, and I attended to the plumbing myself! It was gone over thoroughly three years ago--there must have been a thousand dollars put into it. It hadn't been lived in for years before that.

Slimy!'

”'You don't understand me,' she said quietly.

”'For heaven's sake, what haunts it, then? Who's the ghost?' I cried testily.

”'Evil,' she said slowly, 'evil thought, evil lives ... you breathe it in ... it tangles you ... another night there ... I should have no more power, absolutely--I could help n.o.body. I must ask you not to refer to it again, please. I should not have mentioned it. How much do I owe you?'

”'You owe me nothing, of course,' I said shortly. 'I'll return you the amount of your cheque this afternoon. I'll move into that house, myself.'

”'You will be making a mistake,' she said very placidly, and left the office.