The Exploits 
 
 of a 
 
 Physician Detective 
 
 BY OEO. F. BUTLER, M. D. 
 
 PROFESSOR AND HEAD OF THE DEPARTMENT OF THERAPEUTICS 
 
 AND PROFESSOR OF CLINICAL MEDICINE, 
 
 CHICAGO COLLEGE OF MEDICINE 
 
 AND SURGERY. 
 
 AUTHOR OF 
 
 "The Isle of Content" 
 "Love and Its Affinities", Etc. 
 
 CHICAGO 
 CLINIC PUBLISHING CO. 
 
 1410 E. RAVENS WOOD PARK 
 1908
 
 Copyright 1908 
 GEORGE F. BUTLER
 
 The Hautover Case 
 
 2134469
 
 THE HAUTOVER CASE 
 
 At 8 o'clock on an evening in late September 
 a group of five physicians and surgeons, gathered 
 at the home of a colleague for the purpose 
 of comparing professional notes, sat down to 
 dinner. Though the conversation, originally 
 intended to be strictly confined to medicine, 
 soon became diverted by a chance remark of 
 the host into the channels of criminology and 
 medicine combined, one of their number, who 
 for some years had acted as resident physician 
 in the state penitentiary, and whose name was 
 famous in penology, ate in silence without ap- 
 parent interest in the subjects under discussion. 
 He had uttered scarcely a word after entering 
 the dining-room. This taciturnity on his part 
 was not unusual, for he was known by his col- 
 leagues to be of a thinking rather than garru- 
 lous nature, given to few remarks even on festive 
 occasions. However, the host, Dr. Roe, in 
 order to draw him into the conversation, finally 
 turned to him and said: 
 
 "Did you hear that, Furnivall? Gerrish 
 says all criminals are insane." 
 
 Dr. Furnivall raised his head slowly and 
 looked across the table at Dr. Gerrish. 
 
 "When did you find that out," he asked. 
 
 "What?" came in a chorus from all sides. 
 And Dr. Roe continued: "You don't mean to 
 say you subscribe to that?"
 
 6 EXPLOITS OF A PHYSICIAN-DETECTIVE 
 
 Furnivall raised his eyebrows and waved 
 his hand in mock deprecation. In appearance 
 he was an ordinary man, rather good looking, 
 of middle age. He wore a beard, which was 
 streaked with gray, and the only thing about 
 him that seemed noticeable was his eyes. 
 These in repose were ordinary enough, too, 
 at first glance. But a closer acquaintance with 
 them disclosed a singular quality, which one 
 would begin to describe as color and end by 
 declaring to be a fascination of depth. Looking 
 steadily into them was like standing on a preci- 
 pice and gazing over till the impulse comes to 
 plunge down. Blue, of a very dark limpid tone, 
 one would say they were on a casual view, but 
 a blue that flickered and waved under observa- 
 tion between blue and dark gray, suddenly 
 flaming to a fixed and powerful black, which 
 seemed to bore into one's very soul, and yet at 
 the same time resemble a bottomless well into 
 which it would be the most pleasing and nat- 
 ural thing in the world for one to jump and care- 
 lessly sink. Despite the fact that they lacked 
 any suggestion of wildness, and that the whites 
 were no more than normally in evidence, a true 
 psychologist would recognize these singular eyes 
 as most peculiarly adapted to the use of hypno- 
 tism. They had, however, never been put to 
 these uses, as far as the doctor's friends were 
 aware. 
 
 With the lifting of his brows and the waving 
 of his hand, Dr. Furnivall said: 
 
 "Gentlemen, the question is one largely of 
 terminology. What is insanity? And I sup-
 
 THE HAUTOVER CASE f 
 
 pose Gerrish means that every criminal is in- 
 sane, for the moment, at least, or he would 
 never commit the crime. Probably we would 
 say that insanity is a state of mind which impels 
 a person to do what no sane person would do; 
 but that doesn't seem to help us much. It 
 resolves itself, on one side, into a matter 
 of observance or nonobservance of custom. 
 "He who does a little different from the 
 majority is called a crank, or eccentric; if he 
 acts greatly different he is foolish, or demented, 
 or odd, or crazed, or insane, and so forth. Now 
 the ordinary man does not, for example, default 
 and run away with the funds of a bank, even 
 when he has a chance to do so. He who does 
 so is therefore not ordinary, Maybe he is only 
 a fool, without sense enough to know how small 
 are his chances for escape. Maybe he is insane. 
 But call him what you will, his is not the normal 
 mind." 
 
 At this another chorus went up: 
 
 "But circumstances! How are you going to 
 leave them out ? Wouldn't circumstances force, 
 sometimes, even a normal person " 
 
 Furnivall again waved his hand as if the 
 question were trivial. 
 
 "A man's circumstances are the man him- 
 self; are part of him. Circumstances do not 
 force him; he forces them. He makes them. 
 An absolutely honest man could not be made 
 to steal, even by the thumb screws of the in- 
 quisition, any more than he could, on the phy- 
 sical side, be made to lift a ton with his hands. 
 Temptation, like muscular strength, does not lie
 
 8 EXPLOITS OF A PHYSICIAN-DETECTIVE 
 
 without; it lies within. What a man is is what 
 puts him in his circumstances. I will even 
 venture to assert that a thoroughly wise person 
 could, if it were possible for him to know all 
 the circumstances surrounding any man, work 
 back to the discovery of that man's very mind 
 and soul, and from that basis work forward and 
 predict every thought and act of his future 
 life." 
 
 At this the table burst into a roar of de- 
 risive, good humored laughter, and Gerrish 
 said: 
 
 "You ought to have been a detective, old 
 man. As nothing but a physician and penolo- 
 gist with a few letters after his name, you waste 
 and most recklessly squander a talent that should 
 be put to some real use in the world. " 
 
 "Oh," answered Furnivall, in the midst of 
 the laughter over this brilliant sarcasm, "you 
 forget that I am not a wise man. It is only the 
 wise who could work this miracle. And, further, 
 was there ever a man whose circumstances could 
 be all known, however simple they might seem, 
 by any other man? I think not. Still, there 
 are undoubtedly many cases in which one could 
 learn a sufficient number of facts to indicate 
 with certainty " 
 
 At this instant the door was thrown violently 
 open and a man came whirling in, locked in a 
 fierce mutual embrace with the butler. 
 
 "Help, help, sir he's crazy! He's choking 
 me!" gasped the servant. 
 
 "Let me in, then! Curse you, I tell you it's 
 life or death with me!"
 
 THE HAUTOVER CASE p 
 
 With a last spasmodic heave he threw the 
 butler against the wall and rushed up to Dr. 
 Furnivall. 
 
 "Jack!" exclaimed the 'doctor. "What the 
 dev " 
 
 "For God's sake, hide me, doctor, hide me!" 
 cried the intruder, who was a sallow youth of 
 22 or 23. "They're after me. Tads is dead 
 killed murdered God ! And they say I did 
 it. Hide me somewhere!" 
 
 He bounded around the room frantically as 
 if searching with blind eyes for a way of escape 
 or concealment. 
 
 "Sit down," commanded the doctor calmly. 
 "You act as if something were the matter. 
 There's nothing in the world important enough 
 to make a sane man raise such a row." 
 
 At the word "sane" the doctors, all with 
 the same thought, looked at each other and the 
 stranger. The coincidence of this affair with 
 their late subject of discussion struck them 
 speechless. Moreover, the young man was, to 
 their experienced eyes far from sane at that 
 moment. That such a person should develop a 
 homicidal tendency was within the possibilities. 
 There was commiseration in their hearts for 
 their colleague, for if he were interested in this 
 youth here was an opportunity to apply his 
 theories, and these, as he had himself hinted 
 them, pointed inevitably to the guilt of his friend. 
 What would he do? 
 
 The stranger threw himself upon the lounge 
 and buried his face in his hands at the doctor's 
 words.
 
 io EXPLOITS OF A PHYSICIAN-DETECTIVE 
 
 "Do you want me to give myself up?" he 
 cried hysterically. 
 
 "Dr. Roe," said Furnivall, "and my friends, 
 this is Mr. John Harwich. Jack, pull yourself 
 together and sit up. Don't act so childishly. 
 You're not going to be hurt. Come, gentlemen, 
 let's finish our dinner. In the meantime our 
 young friend will tell us his story. Roe, please 
 order the servants to admit anybody who calls. 
 Now, Jack." 
 
 The youth sat erect with a jerk. His face 
 was haggard, his eyelids quivered, his hands 
 twitched, the thumbs inside his fingers, and his 
 whole body trembled violently. When he spoke 
 his voice, though not loud, gave the effect of 
 screaming. 
 
 "Tads was found dead on his bed this after- 
 noon; that's all," he ejaculated. "And, oh 
 horrible! because I am the next heir, they say 
 I did it." 
 
 He started up, his eyes rolling in his head, 
 and then sank back again on the couch, lolling 
 exhausted against the wall. 
 
 "Were you in the vicinity at the time he 
 was found?" asked the doctor. His eyes were 
 veiled in a downward look at the tablecloth, 
 his fingers crumbling the bread at his plate. 
 The observant doctors waited breathlessly for 
 the answer. 
 
 "That is the fate of it," he burst forth. 
 "You know I hadn't been there for months, but 
 this morning think of it! This day of all 
 others I took a spin out there in the motor, 
 and and "
 
 THE HAUTOVER CASE . 11 
 
 He groaned and threw out his hands despair- 
 ingly. 
 
 The doctor, his fingers still busy with the 
 crumbs, sat a moment in silence, while the com- 
 pany watched him, tense, with an emotion in 
 which sympathy bore a large part. His face, 
 however, never changed under their gaze from 
 an expression indicative of calm consideration 
 of the facts. 
 
 "Were you there long? Had you any op- 
 portunity to do it?" 
 
 "Great heavens you don't, you can't for 
 God's sake say you don't believe " 
 
 "Jack," interrupted Furnivall, looking him 
 steadily in the eye for the first time, "sit up 
 straight and tell your story from the beginning. " 
 
 "I won't," he returned doggedly, "if you 
 are going to think I had anything to do with it. 
 I thought that you, above everybody, would 
 have faith in me. I know it looks bad for me. 
 I didn't like Tads; everybody knows that. I've 
 been there all day, but I scarcely saw him. I 
 was alone a good deal, too, and so was he, 
 they say. But I didn't touch him. I didn't 
 say three words to him. He was found 
 on his bed at 6 o'clock, stabbed in the heart, 
 naked, and all covered with oil. I believe who- 
 ever did it meant to burn him and the house too. 
 They say a tramp was around there in the after- 
 noon and got something to eat from the cook. 
 Why don't they lay it to him? I wouldn't do 
 such a thing as that; it isn't in me." 
 
 There was a remarkable change in the nar- 
 rator's manner as he went on, the doctor's eyes
 
 xa EXPLOITS OF A PHYSICIAN-DETECTIVE 
 
 holding him. Between the stubborn tone in 
 which he began and the docile conclusion there 
 was all the difference that lies between an ugly 
 and an amiable child. 
 
 The skilled group, watching intently, re- 
 mained silent, but they sought each other with 
 their eyes. They had recognized an instance 
 of true hypnotism, with no hocus-pocus about 
 it; indeed, with no chance for anything of the 
 kind, which is a rare thing. And they were 
 interested to the point of enthusiasm. Not a 
 man of them now believed the youth guilty, for 
 had he been he would have told it as uncon- 
 cernedly under the influence of that compelling 
 gaze as he had just asserted his innocence. A 
 less self -controlled company would have shouted 
 applause at this unostentatious yet wonderful 
 display of pure science. 
 
 "Is your motor outside, Jack?" asked the 
 doctor, pushing his chair back from the 
 table. 
 
 "Yes; at the door. I came as fast as I could 
 to your house first, and they told me you were 
 here. " He suddenly stopped and looked around 
 "Where's that butler? I'm sorry. I should 
 have spoken to him, but I was excited and ran 
 by him. He must have thought " 
 
 The doctor, who had been scribbling a pre- 
 scription, interrupted by handing it to him 
 saying : 
 
 "Take this to a drug store, get it filled, and 
 dose yourself. Go home. Walk. I shall want 
 your motor for the remainder of the night. Go 
 now, for I must be off in a hurry."
 
 THE HAUTOVER CASE 13 
 
 He thrust the young man from the room and 
 turned to the company. 
 
 "He isn't guilty!" they cried, as with one 
 voice. 
 
 "I don't know. You saw his symptoms and 
 know what he would be capable of under suffi- 
 cient stimulus. I am going down to Hautover's 
 to find out." 
 
 "Hautover!" they exclaimed. He was the 
 richest man in the city. 
 
 "Yes. The dead boy was his only child, 
 and Jack is his only nephew his sister's son. 
 His father was my dearest friend and I was 
 the boy's guardian till his majority." 
 
 "But," objected Dr. Gerrish, "the hypno- 
 tism, the suggestion wouldn't that have brought 
 out his guilt if he were guilty? That young 
 fellow spoke the truth if ever a man did. His 
 whole manner showed that he couldn't lie. He 
 was a perfect automaton." 
 
 Furnivall smiled and motioned for his hat 
 and coat. 
 
 "An epileptic, you know, forgets," he said. 
 "If my theories are correct it would be per- 
 fectly possible for Jack, who ordinarily has a 
 good memory, to commit a crime in a flurry of 
 hysteria and forget all about it two hours after- 
 ward, so that he would be unable to tell of it 
 if he would. However," he continued, "I'm 
 going to look into the case for his sake. He's 
 a good fellow, and shan't suffer if I can help it. 
 Should you like to go along, Gerrish?" 
 
 Dr. Gerrish eagerly signified his assent. 
 They entered the automobile together, and in
 
 14 EXPLOITS OF A PHYSICIAN-DETECTIVE 
 
 half an hour of rapid driving, during which 
 time scarcely a word passed between them, they 
 arrived at the country house of Jonas Haut- 
 over. 
 
 Dr. Furnivall was well known by this gentle- 
 man, and when he stated his errand to him he 
 willingly rehearsed the facts of the tragedy, 
 which were substantially as Harwich had stated 
 them. He added, however, that it was the 
 police who accused his nephew. 
 
 "For ourselves," he concluded, "we don't 
 know what to think. It doesn't seem possible 
 that Jack could do such a thing. And we are 
 all too deeply distracted to reason about the 
 terrible affair." 
 
 "May I see the body? " 
 
 The bereaved father led the way to a chamber 
 at the door of which a woman watcher sat, 
 motioned them to go in, and left them alone 
 with the dead. 
 
 The body was that of a boy of five years, 
 fair and well formed, lying on a bed with a sheet 
 over it. They immediately saw that in addi- 
 tion to the stab wound in the heart there was 
 an abrasion of the skin of the forehead, and 
 this Dr. Furnivall examined curiously. He 
 beckoned to the woman at the door. 
 
 "Were you his nurse?" he asked. 
 
 "Yes, sir." 
 
 "When did you last see him alive what 
 time?" 
 
 The woman looked frightened. She evi- 
 dently was one of more than the usual intelli- 
 gence, but the situation was too large and dread-
 
 THE HAUTOVER CASE 15 
 
 ful for her. She began to weep, but managed 
 to stammer. 
 
 "I couldn't say just exactly, sir, but I think 
 it was around 5 o'clock." 
 
 "Where was he then?" 
 
 "He was running down the back stairs, sir, 
 laughing, for I was after him to wash him up 
 for dinner. And he went out the door into the 
 grounds, at the back of the house, and nobody 
 saw him afterward." 
 
 "Then you were the last person to see him 
 alive?" 
 
 "Yes, sir, I suppose so, sir." 
 
 " But, as I understand it, he was struck down 
 in his room. He must have come back again. 
 How could he do that without being seen 
 with the house full of people, besides the ser- 
 vants?" 
 
 "I don't know, oh, I don't know, sir," she 
 sobbed, wringing her hands. "How could the 
 murderer himself get in and nobody see him?" 
 
 Dr. Furnivall turned again to the body. 
 
 "Notice the shape of that mark on the fore- 
 head, Gerrish," he whispered, "and remember 
 it. They poured oil over him and were going 
 to burn him, were they?" he continued in so 
 strange a tone that his colleague threw him a 
 quick glance. 
 
 Never had he seen the calm and assured 
 Dr. Furnivall show such vivacity. The blue 
 of his eyes had become gray, his face was alight 
 with animation, and his movements, ordinarily 
 slow, restrained, almost apathetic, were now 
 lightning like in their celerity. As Dr. Gerrish
 
 16 EXPLOITS OF A PHYSICIAN-DETECTIVE 
 
 gazed a strange thought came to him, and the 
 next instant he was dumfounded to hear his 
 companion express that very thought in words. 
 
 "Do you know, Gerrish," he said, speaking 
 so fast that his hearer could hardly realize the 
 utterance as that of the deliberate man he had 
 known for so many years, "when you said at 
 dinner that I should be a detective, I believe 
 you hit it. It was what I was thinking about 
 that very moment. You were joking then, but 
 I'm not now. Why, I never felt such interest 
 in anything, so much life fluid sparkling and 
 boiling in me, in my life as I do this instant. 
 I'm a new man. I feel the pure, unmixed power 
 of the cosmos itself moving me about as a cham- 
 pion moves chessmen on a board. If that doesn't 
 mean to a man that he has found his vocation, 
 what does ? It's what is called genius. I know 
 now that I've got it, along this line, at any rate, 
 and I'm devilish sure I never had it in medicine, 
 as well as I succeeded. That was all work, 
 hard, hard work, and no play. But this! Why, 
 it's joy, it's exhilaration, intoxication! Come!" 
 
 He hurried from the room and presently 
 stood with his friend outside gazing eagerly up 
 at the boy's window. 
 
 "Um'm!" he muttered, darting here and 
 there, examining the wall, the ground, and 
 the near by summer house. "One story no 
 vines, no ladder, summer house too far off, 
 and too low; went in that window but how, 
 how? ah!" 
 
 The jerky muttering suddenly ceased, and 
 the speaker stood with mouth open in amaze,
 
 THE HAUTOVER CASE 17 
 
 staring at his companion. The grounds were 
 well lighted by electricity, and though there 
 were shadows dense and large scattered all 
 around, the two doctors could see each other 
 but little less plainly than they could by day- 
 light itself. 
 
 "What is it?" Dr. Gerrish was startled 
 at FurnivalPs look. 
 
 For answer he took him by the wrist, and 
 bringing his hand down to the grass directly 
 under the window, rubbed it back and forth. 
 Then he asked: 
 
 "What have you on your hand?" 
 
 "Sweet oil," answered Dr. Gerrish promptly. 
 
 "Well?" He eyed him expectantly. It was 
 fully ten seconds before Dr. Gerrish grasped 
 the meaning of the interrogation. When he 
 did his own face reflected the astonishment 
 of FurnivalFs. 
 
 "Jove!" he exclaimed, and began hurriedly 
 examining the ground. "Yes," he continued 
 excitedly, "the grass is broken down here, and 
 there's oil all around. They must have spilt 
 
 Furnivall regarded him disgustedly. 
 
 "He was laid here, after the oil was poured 
 over him," he corrected. 
 
 "Ah! And therefore you mean " 
 
 "Certainly. In short, the boy was killed 
 and covered with oil, and then brought into his 
 room through that window. The crime was 
 not committed in the house." 
 
 "It's the strangest thing I ever heard of," 
 said Dr. Gerrish, in a low tone. "I don't un-
 
 x8 EXPLOITS OF A PHYSICIAN-DETECTIVE 
 
 derstand it in the least. Such a little boy, and 
 it's horrible! What did they cover him with 
 oil for? And why was he laid down here?" 
 
 "Because those things were logical results 
 of the murderer's bent of mind." 
 
 "Yes, but how much does that explain?" 
 
 "Everything to one who knows the mur- 
 derer's motive. Now," continued Furnivall, 
 speaking with lightning speed, "I must see 
 everybody in that house. I know the crime, 
 I know the motive, and the only thing necessary 
 now is to find the person who could have that 
 motive sufficiently strong to result in the crime. 
 "It was somebody who passes freely about 
 the house and grounds, for he must have been 
 seen going in and out, and his presence was 
 taken for granted. That disposes of the tramp 
 theory. It was either a guest or a servant. 
 There was only one concerned, for the body 
 was laid here while he went to the child's room 
 and lowered a rope from the window. It was 
 also a woman, and that lets Jack out, for the 
 part of the house in which the room is located 
 is given over to the women, and a man would 
 not only attract notice, but cause consternation 
 there." 
 
 Dr. Furnivall paused, and gazing straight 
 into the eyes of his friend, added, with an 
 abrupt change of manner to slow solemnity: 
 
 "Has it occurred to you why the body was 
 naked?" 
 
 Dr. Gerrish shuddered and shook his head, 
 making an awed, deprecating motion with his 
 hands.
 
 THE HAUTOVER CASE 19 
 
 "I give it all up," he said. "The whole 
 thing from beginning to end is beyond me. I 
 thought at first that I should be interested, but 
 I fear it's too grewsome for my stomach. I 
 never dreamed of anything like this, and shall 
 attend strictly to medicine hereafter. To my 
 mind work of this sort is assigned by nature to 
 the police." 
 
 "The police! Yes, but there are moments 
 for every man when he himself is a policeman. 
 Where would Jack be if left to the police? 
 Every fact in this case points to him as the guilty 
 one I mean every fact as far as the police can 
 see into it. Do you realize how many different 
 branches of science I have used already in this 
 search, branches which the police know only 
 by name, and some of them not even that much ? 
 Ten! Telepathy, botany, criminology, medi- 
 cine, surgery, history, religion, mathematics, 
 psychiatry, and logic. You do not see all these 
 in it now, but you will when the thing is over. 
 And every one of them is a necessary constit- 
 uent of the solution. Without them the truth 
 of this unique crime would look like falsehood, 
 and infallibly the wrong person would be made 
 to suffer." 
 
 "I have often thought a little education would 
 do no harm to the police," said Dr. Gerrish 
 somewhat dryly. 
 
 "It is not the job, but the man, that counts," 
 returned Furni vail, quickly. "And we're all of 
 us children of nature looking for truth, each 
 according to his ability. Now, we haven't a 
 second to lose. I wish you would but wait."
 
 ao EXPLOITS OF A PHYSICIAN-DETECTIVE 
 
 He slipped out of his light overcoat with a 
 quick movement, rolled it into a bundle, and 
 placed it carefully beneath the window. 
 
 "Now," he continued, hurriedly, "you move 
 to the left and I'll take the right. I wish to 
 find how far away, in the present light, that 
 bundle can be seen. We'll make a circle and 
 meet half way." 
 
 The result was easily found to be that out- 
 side of a small area the object could not be 
 discerned at all owing to the shrubbery and the 
 summer-house, except in one direction. This 
 was along a walk between a row of maples, 
 down which it was visible for some distance. 
 
 The doctor uttered an exclamation of satis- 
 faction. 
 
 "The body," he said, "covered with a cloth 
 saturated with oil, was laid here at about 6 
 o'clock. It was not dark enough at that hour 
 for the lights to be turned on in the park, yet 
 it was not full daylight, and the guests and 
 servants were all busy preparing for dinner. 
 It could have been done at no other time. 
 Still the criminal took terrible chances for 
 detection, with so many persons likely to be 
 around. She is either a fool or a dare-devil. 
 We must take that into account in our search 
 for her. The servants we can examine at any 
 time, but the guests will be leaving now Ger- 
 rish, you must think up some plan of gathering 
 all the visitors, male and female, into one room, 
 so that we may see them. Tell Hautover. 
 He'll fix it. Have them rounded up as soon as 
 possible. I'll be back in five minutes."
 
 THE HAUTOVER CASE 21 
 
 He started away down the maple walk as 
 he spoke, and Dr. Gerrish, sadly reluctant, but 
 feeling that it must be done, sought the child's 
 sorrowing father. 
 
 Within the stipulated time Dr. Furnivall 
 hurriedly entered the house and found that the 
 guests were assembling in one of the drawing- 
 rooms, where they had been asked to meet their 
 host, as he had something to say to them re- 
 garding his affliction. 
 
 "There are eleven of them," whispered 
 Dr. Gerrish; "seven women and four men. 
 Three men and four women are already gone?" 
 
 "Before their time," asked Furnivall, quickly. 
 
 "Yes, on account of this " 
 
 "Were the women married?" 
 
 "All but one, a girl of 19 or so." 
 
 "No matter, then. The indications point 
 to a middle aged spinster. Or she might be 
 elderly. It is barely possible that she is mar- 
 ried, but if so, unhappily. Fanaticism, Gerrish; 
 look for that. Watch their eyes for fanaticism. 
 Do you begin to see?" 
 
 He peered half curiously, half banteringly, 
 at his colleague, who only shook his head. 
 
 "Well, then," Furnivall hurried on, "don't 
 you remember the abrasion of tke forehead. 
 the nakedness, and the oil?" 
 
 Gerrish shuddered. 
 
 "Only too well," he said. 
 
 "And they tell you nothing?" 
 
 "Yes," he returned, "they do. They tell 
 me that somewhere in. the world there is a fiend 
 beneath the conception of the human ntind."
 
 aa EXPLOITS OF A PHYSICIAN-DETECTIVE 
 
 "Well, well," said Furnivall brusquely, "it 
 doesn't strike me as it does you. When you've 
 seen the 'fiend' you'll open your eyes. And I 
 think you'll see her presently. But what's 
 all this?" 
 
 From the drawing-room came sounds of 
 commotion, and entering in haste, they found 
 that the task Mr. Hautover had set for himself 
 had been too much for his state of mind and 
 he had collapsed on the sofa. 
 
 "You look after him Gerrish," said Furni- 
 vall. "This is just my chance. I'll speak to 
 them myself." 
 
 While the servants carried their master from 
 the room, followed by Dr. Gerrish, Dr. Furni- 
 vall briefly addressed the guests. He said that 
 their host had only meant to express his regret 
 that their stay had been so calamitously shortened, 
 and announced that the house would be dosed 
 on the morrow. He requested that reticence 
 be maintained regarding the day's occurrence 
 until the guilty person should be apprehended. 
 Suspicion had been directed toward a mendi- 
 cant who had entered the kitchen for food, 
 but very little was known as yet. 
 
 One minute later, in Hautover's chamber, 
 he shook his head at Dr Gerrish's look of in- 
 quiry. 
 
 "No," he said, "there isn't a person among 
 the guests now in the house who could by any 
 possibility be fitted into the circumstances. 
 Though the women were, without exception, 
 in one stage or another of hysteria, and might 
 easily do some foolish thing in a moment of
 
 THE HAUTOVER CASE aj 
 
 excitement, not one of them was capable of 
 the sustained cunning and method of this crime, 
 to say nothing of the motive of it. We must 
 look among the servants. Hautover, how do 
 you feel? Could you answer a few questions?" 
 
 "Yes, I think so," answered the sick man, 
 wearily. He was lying on a couch. "It's 
 terribly harrowing," he said, in a feeble voice 
 "and I beg " 
 
 "Well, then, I need only ask you to order 
 all the female servants to assemble in the hall 
 at once." 
 
 "Very well. " He touched a button and gave 
 his instructions. 
 
 In twenty minutes Dr. Gerrish saw Furnivall 
 beckoning him from the doorway. He excused 
 himself to his patient and went into the hall. 
 Furnivall's face was alight with triumph. 
 
 "I've seen them all," he whispered eagerly, 
 "and think I'm on the track. I am going 
 after somebody, and, if nothing breaks, I'll 
 give you the greatest surprise of your life inside 
 of ten minutes. Now, I want you to fix it so 
 that you and Hautover can hear all that is said 
 in the boy's room, without being seen. Get 
 him up, give him a stimulant he can stand it 
 and have him there in ten minutes." 
 
 With that he left Gerrish, who stood with 
 a look of fervent profanity in his face, staring 
 after him, and almost ran down the maple walk, 
 along which he had searched once before on 
 that evening. 
 
 At the end of the walk the iron trelliswork 
 of a gate in the wall barred his way, but he had
 
 24 EXPLOITS OF A PHYSICIAN-DETECTIVE 
 
 already found that it was unlocked, and pres- 
 ently he was ringing at the door of a well kept 
 cottage across the road. 
 
 "I wish to see Miss Prentiss," he said to 
 the maid who answered his summons. " I can't 
 come in; I am a doctor from the Hautover 
 place. Please ask her to step to the door, I 
 have only a word to say to her." 
 
 "I am Miss Prentiss," said a timid voice, 
 and a woman took the maid's place as she 
 stepped back. 
 
 "Good evening, Miss Prentiss. I am Dr. 
 Furnivall. I have just come from Hautover's 
 to see if you or your sister wouldn't sit up with 
 the child tonight. They're in such a state there, 
 and it's a matter of trust " 
 
 "Why, most gladly, doctor," sounded a new 
 voice from the hall. "We will both go. 
 Please come in and wait a moment, and 
 we'll go right back with you. Poor dear 
 little Tads!" 
 
 The doctor stepped forward and took the 
 hand that was offered him by this second speaker, 
 
 "You are Miss Helen, I'm sure," he said, 
 "They told me of your love for the little boy. 
 Hist loss must be a great blow to you. Yet, 
 as for him, if we are to believe in the. rewards 
 Q the. pure spirit hereafter-'" 
 
 "Ah, I am so glad you. look at it that way,'* 
 
 She gave his hand an additional pressure, 
 looking up at him brightly through tears. She 
 was a woman in the thirties, with light eyes, 
 and hair turning gray, with, a piatid, genteel 
 of the face, which, showed strength
 
 THE HAUTOVER CASE 35 
 
 of character, but as a latent rather than active 
 quality. Mildness and sweetness predominated 
 there, though she was plainly the ruler of the 
 household. The sister, whose features resem- 
 bled hers so strongly that their relationship to 
 each other could not be mistaken, seemed some 
 years older, but was very evidently the silent 
 partner. She only stood back and meekly 
 smiled at their visitor. 
 
 The ladies, moving quickly and method- 
 ically, were soon ready, and the three set off 
 together, the doctor walking between them. It 
 was dark under the maples, and by comparing 
 the walk to the dim aisle of a church he turned 
 the conversation easily upon the subject of 
 religion. And after some talk he said: 
 
 "I trust that the clergyman who officiates 
 at the burial services will dwell more upon the 
 joys of immortality than upon the sorrow the 
 dead leaves behind with the living." 
 
 Miss Helen bent her head in the direction of 
 her sister. 
 
 "Why, Hannah, he thinks just as we do, 
 doesn't he?" 
 
 "Yes," she answered in her thin, colorless 
 voice, adding, a little more strongly, "I should 
 think everybody would." 
 
 " Of course, it's very hard to lose our friends," 
 continued Helen, "but then it must come to 
 that sooner or later with all of us, and it's 
 better to escape the world's iniquities and have 
 it ail over while one is young " 
 
 She paused and peered up at the doctor 
 inquiringly. They had come into the glare of
 
 26 EXPLOITS OF A PHYSICIAN-DETECTIVE 
 
 the electric lights now, and he smiled down at 
 her. The smile might have meant anything, 
 but she took it for assent, and was continuing 
 earnestly when he cautioned her that they were 
 approaching the house and had better finish 
 the conversation inside. 
 
 "Now," said the doctor, as they entered the 
 room where the body, still covered with a sheet, 
 lay in the shade cast by a screen before the 
 electric globes, "we can continue our interesting 
 talk. Let me make you comfortable first. Or, 
 stay. Perhaps you would like to see him 
 again?" 
 
 The elder woman glanced at her sister hes- 
 itatingly. Helen immediately took her hand 
 and led her to the bed, where the doctor turned 
 the sheet back, glancing at the same time to- 
 ward the curtained alcove. 
 
 "He was a beautiful boy," he said. 
 
 Helen bent, kissing the cold brow, and her 
 eyes were dimmed with tears as she rose. 
 
 "Wh why," stammered Hannah weakly, 
 touching the body with her fingers, "they have 
 bathed him, and the oil is all off!" 
 
 "Hannah!" 
 
 , The younger wheeled upon her sister with 
 blazing eyes. 
 
 "The oil isn't necessary," said the doctor 
 gently, holding Helen with his gaze. "What 
 puzzles me is how you managed to do it all 
 without being seen. There were so many peo- 
 ple about, and, of course, they wouldn't under- 
 stand, so that it would have been very awk- 
 ward "
 
 THE HAUTOVER CASE aj 
 
 He paused, the elder sister was weeping into 
 her handkerchief, but Helen stood drawn up 
 with fury in her eyes. 
 
 "What do you mean?" she cried. "Do it? 
 Do it? Do you mean to insinuate that we 
 had any part in this ? How dare you ? Why, 
 I loved that child better than anything on 
 earth, and do you think I could see him grow 
 up in this vitiated atmosphere, where all is dis- 
 sipation, frivolity, idleness, and the worship of 
 wealth, where money is God and fashion the 
 only church? In such surroundings his soul 
 was doomed. Could I stand tamely by while 
 this horrible injustice was done the child of my 
 dearest school friend? I should be unworthy 
 the name of Christian woman. Am I not the 
 bride of the Lamb ? And when the laws of man 
 come in conflict with the voice of God, which 
 should I follow ? It was by God's own command 
 that I laid that little innocent at his feet, a 
 holy sacrifice. He went to his Maker pure and 
 unspotted " 
 
 A deep groan and the noise of a fall sounded 
 behind the curtains of the alcove. Jonas Haut- 
 over had fainted as the truths of the crime burst 
 upon him. 
 
 Dr. Gerrish, pallid of face, stepped hastily 
 between the parted curtains and hurried away 
 for restoratives. Astonishment mingled with 
 the grief in his expression as he glanced at the 
 two women. Nothing further from the fiend 
 he had pictured in his mind could be con- 
 ceived than the appearance of these sisters, the 
 one meek, retiring, humble faced; the other,
 
 s8 EXPLOITS OF A PHYSICIAN-DETECTIVE 
 
 though showing at the moment strong symp- 
 toms of hysteria, plainly of a sweet and gracious 
 disposition, both of them bearing the unmis- 
 takable imprint of good breeding and benevo- 
 lence. 
 
 "Heavens!" he exclaimed under his breath, 
 "Furnivall has kept his word with a vengeance. 
 This is the greatest surprise of my life!" 
 
 But his surprise in this direction was mingled 
 with admiration of his friend's powers. He 
 saw behind this strange deposition, which had 
 begun as denial and glided easily into confes- 
 sion, without any apparent recognition by the 
 speaker of the contradiction involved, the same 
 unostentatious force which had wrought the 
 astonishing change in Jack Harwich. It was 
 an accomplishment of surpassing interest to 
 science. What was it? It was not hypnotism 
 in the usual sense, with its claptrap shows and 
 humbuggery. And it had worked so smoothly, 
 so directly to the point, so unerringly. Was it a 
 gift to Dr. Furnivall alone? Or could it be 
 acquired? And these were the predominant 
 questions in his mind, when a little later, they 
 started on their midnight drive back to the city, 
 for if it were to be learned, if it were a science, 
 antd application; would make it his own, it should 
 be his. The importance of such a power as 
 that in his profession would prove incal- 
 culable. 
 
 Nevertheless he felt that now was scarcely 
 the time to enter into that matter with the 
 ioctor, and the first thing he said when they 
 %*t out was:
 
 THE HAUTOVER CASE 09 
 
 " Doctor, I don't at all see how in the world 
 you managed to trace those -women out." 
 
 "There was never anything more simple," 
 he answered. "You remember that mark on 
 the forehead? It was in the shape of a cross. 
 That and the sacrificial oil satisfied me that 
 it was a case of religious insanity. The 
 rest was easy. I had only to find a person 
 whose character fitted all the circumstances. 
 The police searched for motive, and motive 
 in the usual mind is synonyirfous. with money. 
 Therefore their suspicion pointed to poor Jack. 
 But as soon as I saw Helen Prentiss' pic- 
 ture, and learned from the housekeeper that she 
 was religious, unmarried, and therefore more 
 likely to be subject to hysterical insanity, near 
 middle age, lived down that walk, and had free 
 access to the house, I knew I was on the scent. 
 She was the only being about the premises whose 
 character, as I saw it in her picture and learned 
 it from the housekeeper, fitted all the facts. 
 Both she and her sister have hallucinations, 
 visual and auditory, and they had talked the 
 matter of this sacrifice over for a long while, 
 no doubt, before acting, and were both in it, 
 the younger leading and the elder following 
 meekly. But only the younger had the 
 courage to hold out to the last. It was she 
 who committed the deed, in their own house, 
 where the child often went, and who brought 
 the body home. An insane hospital is the 
 place for them." 
 
 Dr. Gerrish was silent for a long while. 
 Finally, as they rolled up to the door:
 
 SO EXPLOITS OF A PHYSICIAN-DETECTIVE 
 
 "Shall you do any more of this kind of 
 work?" he asked, with distaste in his tone. 
 
 Dr. Furnivall took his hand. 
 
 "Gerrish," he said, "if a dear friend of 
 your own were in trouble, whom would you 
 rather trust his case to, the police or me?" 
 
 Gerrish bowed his head. 
 
 "Well, good luck to you," he said.
 
 The Mystery of the 
 Governess
 
 THE MYSTERY OF THE GOVERNESS 
 
 Returning to his home one spring morn- 
 ing from a two days' visit in the country, 
 Dr. Furnivall, the physician detective, was 
 met at the door of his study by Dr. Gerrish, 
 who, without even pausing to greet him, 
 cried out eagerly: 
 
 "Have you seen the newspapers of yester- 
 day and today?" 
 
 "Yes. That's why I am here. I recog- 
 nized your protege's name, and hurried, for I 
 expected you would be waiting. Begin at the 
 beginning and tell me all about it." 
 
 It was then that, for the first time, Dr. Ger- 
 rish experienced subjectively the wonders he 
 had twice seen worked on others by those 
 marvelous eyes. For as he sat on the forward 
 edge of his chair, his nerves thrilling with an 
 excitement he had for hours striven vainly to 
 repress, and looked into them he saw the blue 
 of them begin rapidly to shift from blue to 
 gray and gray to blue, flaming and undulat- 
 ing, so that to follow their swift and subtle 
 changes filled him with strange sensations. 
 A prickling shot up and down his spine, warm 
 waves surged through his body, there was a 
 buzzing in his ears, and his mind was a chaos 
 of broken and jumbled-up images. He had 
 not a sane thought in his head. Then sud- 
 denly the blue and gray leaped to a steady,
 
 34 EXPLOITS OF A PHYSICIAN-DETECTIVE 
 
 limpid black, flooding him with peace. He 
 forgot his nerves, he saw nothing but those 
 two placid, pellucid, bottomless wells, the 
 confusion in his mind which had left him all 
 abroad as to the proper point at which to 
 begin his story vanished, and he became 
 calm and clear headed, with the tale plainly 
 outlined in his inner vision from start to 
 finish. 
 
 It was only by a supreme effort of will, which 
 was most disagreeable in the exercise, that 
 he managed to switch his thoughts momen- 
 tarily aside and say deprecatingly, with a faint 
 smile : 
 
 "You consider it necessary for me!" 
 
 "For you, as for everybody who is confused 
 and excited," said Dr. Furnivall. "It's nothing 
 but a sedative. You probably will be sur- 
 prised when you are through to find what 
 an excellent raconteur you are. If so, it will 
 be only because your mind is concentrated on 
 your story, and does not run off at unimpor- 
 tant tangents. Go on; I'm ready." 
 
 "But ," began Dr. Gerrish, with a last 
 
 faint flicker of protest, the protest a man feels 
 against having his freedom controlled by another 
 in any degree. 
 
 Dr. Furnivall smiled grimly. 
 
 "I am controlling you, Gerrish," he said, 
 "no more than I have done a hundred times 
 before without your knowledge. Your atten- 
 tion has been called to the fact now by what 
 I did to those others, and you recognize it, 
 that's all the difference. And even at that I
 
 THE MYSTERY OF THE GOVERNESS 35 
 
 am only doing, in principle, what you do when 
 you give your patients a pill. I'll tell you 
 the secret of it in due season, and then you 
 will see my justification. It won't hurt you, 
 I pass my word. Now proceed." 
 
 "Well, then," continued Dr. Gerrish, sub- 
 missively, "you remember the young fellow 
 I've been helping through the medical school. 
 You never saw him, but I've told you about 
 him Percival Warner. He was graduated 
 last year. It seems he was engaged to be 
 married to this Blanche Goodwin, and they 
 used to walk together evenings along the 
 river banks. Night before last, Tuesday night, 
 she left her home at 8 o'clock she's a gov- 
 erness with the Parkers to meet him, as it 
 is supposed, but she didn't return, and in 
 the morning her body was found in the 
 river. 
 
 "The papers raised a great hue and cry over 
 it, of course. Naturally the suspicions of the 
 police flew to Warner, though, as there were 
 no bruises on the corpse and no signs of chok- 
 ing, some thought she might have been dazzled 
 by the lights where the road is being repaired 
 and fallen over the rocks into the water in the 
 darkness. 
 
 "Those who knew Warner wouldn't listen 
 to a word against him. He was dead in 
 love with the girl, as she was with him, 
 they said, and the two were bending all their 
 efforts toward the accumulation of an income 
 sufficient to warrant their entering the mar- 
 riage relation.
 
 3d EXPLOITS OF A PHYSICIAN-DETECTIVE 
 
 "They were bound up in each other. But 
 when it was found that Warner himself had 
 left his room that evening at 8 o'clock and had 
 not been seen afterward, the police were satis- 
 fied. They held that there had been a quarrel 
 and he had pushed her overboard, so they 
 began to search for him. That evening, 
 Wednesday, a man came in great fear and 
 trembling to the police lieutenant and said 
 that he was a watchman in the car barn near 
 by, and that on Tuesday evening he had seen 
 Miss Goodwin and Warner, both of whom 
 he knew well by sight, leaning on the bridge 
 railing together. Suddenly he heard the girl 
 say, 'Don't, don't kill me, Percy. You said 
 you would once before.' Upon that Warner 
 struck her and she fell on the roadway. The 
 watchman hurried up and said, 'Mr. Warner, 
 you'll suffer for this.' Warner returned fur- 
 iously, 'If you open your mouth about it I'll 
 serve you the same,' and threw the girl into 
 the river. Then the watchman, who was a 
 much smaller man than Warner, ran back to 
 the barn and locked himself in, where he re- 
 mained until his conscience overcame his fear 
 of Warner, when he ventured forth and gave 
 his information." 
 
 Dr. Gerrish here paused and produced a 
 krge diary, bound in red. His voice had 
 been perfectly restrained, indeed mechanical, 
 as he repeated the grewsome story, and now 
 he continued in the same tone, still held as if 
 unconsciously by Furnivall's gaze, his eyes 
 never straying the width of a hair from those
 
 THE MYSTERY OF THE GOVERNESS 37 
 
 bottomless depths, even when he showed the 
 diary and laid its pages open: 
 
 "This volume I found in her room when I 
 went there yesterday. It is a confession of 
 her passionate love, the record of a year and 
 more. She tells how first she met him, where 
 they went, what they did, and so on, for nearly 
 every day during the year. The minutest 
 details are gone into, and the most passionate 
 and intimate passages between them are 
 given with perfect candor. In short, it is 
 the whole love story of two extravagantly 
 fond people. But " 
 
 Dr. Gerrish placed the diary carefully on 
 the table and added: 
 
 "It was always in the afternoon, not evening, 
 that she met him, and his name was not Per- 
 cival, but John." 
 
 Dr. Furnivall jumped to his feet and clapped 
 his hands in the air. 
 
 "Jove, Gerrish!" he exclaimed delightedly, 
 "you're a jewel! 'Tis the most beautiful 
 complication! The curves and angles are as 
 clean cut and lovely as in a Greek statue, or 
 even in the propositions of Euclid himself. 
 Let me see that diary." 
 
 He examined it rapidly, pushing over the 
 leaves from the first page to the last. Then 
 he threw it down. As he did so, Dr. Gerrish 
 said, with returning nervousness: 
 
 "Do you remember your last words to me 
 the night of the Hautover case?" 
 
 "Why, I believe I asked you, when you 
 seemed to disapprove of my neglecting medi-
 
 38 EXPLOITS OF A PHYSICIAN-DETECTIVE 
 
 cine for detective work, whether if you had a 
 friend in trouble you would rather leave his 
 case to the police or me?" 
 
 "Yes, that was exactly it. But I little 
 thought I should ever have to call on you. 
 It was abstract justice I was thinking of when 
 I wished you good luck, justice which you 
 might force when some poor fellow was suf- 
 fering unjustly. Now now " 
 
 Furnivall wheeled upon him as he hesi- 
 tated. 
 
 "Do you mean," he said, "that if this young 
 man is guilty you don't wish me to prove it?" 
 
 Gerrish remained silent, his eyes turned 
 persistently away from Furnivall's. 
 
 "I I don't know what to say," he stam- 
 mered finally. "I fairly loved that boy, he 
 was all that is noble and manly. He simply 
 couldn't have done it. I knew his people. 
 They were sound mentally and physically. Yet 
 yet! That diary suppose he had found 
 out about this other man and now his absence 
 the watchman's confession " 
 
 Furnivall waved his hand carelessly -and 
 sank back into his seat. 
 
 "All right," he said. "It is a mere matter 
 of weight between the boy's character as you 
 know it, and the evidence against him. With 
 you the evidence is the heavier." 
 
 "But isn't it with you?" Gerrish regarded 
 his friend eagerly. "I brought the whole 
 case to you, just as I saw it, in order to get 
 your opinion to see if if there wasn't some 
 hope, some way "
 
 THE MYSTERY OF THE GOVERNESS 39 
 
 "Of escape for the guilty!" interrupted 
 Furnivall dryly. 
 
 Gerrish's fair face colored. 
 
 "If I had a noble and manly friend," went 
 on Dr. Furnivall in a matter of fact tone, 
 "I should think it my sacred duty to con- 
 sider him innocent until he was proved guilty. 
 And I'd fight the whole world for him. But 
 you do not seem to believe, really, that 'noble 
 and manly' describes this friend of yours, 
 though you used the phrase. Or else," he 
 added after a pause, and with sarcasm, "you 
 think it possible that a manly and noble youth, 
 with good blood back of him, could knock 
 down a defenseless girl and throw her body 
 into the river." 
 
 "But but the evidence " objected Ger- 
 rish helplessly. 
 
 "I will undertake to solve this mystery, 
 but only to find the truth," interrupted Dr. 
 Furnivall imperturbably. 
 
 Gerrish, with a sudden determined expres- 
 sion, arose. 
 
 "Come," he said, "I'll help you but I'd 
 stake my life on the boy." 
 
 "Well, that would have been something 
 like, if you had said it in the first place," 
 grumbled Furnivall, as they hastened out. 
 "Your suspicions should have indicated the 
 other man instead of the one you trusted, as 
 soon as you saw the diary. Why shouldn't 
 it be he? But that's the way with the human 
 mind," he added querulously, as they entered 
 his motor and sped away, "it always jumps
 
 40 EXPLOITS OF A PHYSICIAN-DETECTIVE 
 
 to the thing it fears most, like the moth 
 to the candle. It can't seem to see anything 
 else. So it is always biased in the direction 
 of overthrow, like the old woman who was 
 afraid she'd go out over the back of the sleigh 
 every time it struck a cradle in the road, and 
 so finally did." 
 
 "That's right, give it to me," said Gerrish. 
 "I know I deserve it, and will accept it 
 meekly." 
 
 "Yes because you think I believe your 
 friend innocent. That eases your mind. But 
 I am not at all sure of that innocence. The 
 whole thing looks bad for him, and the only 
 argument on his side, so far, is his character. 
 If you have read him rightly he would never 
 dream of hurting the girl, even if he found 
 her perfidious. He would rather be glad to 
 get rid of her by turning her over to the happy 
 John. If you have been mistaken in him all 
 things are possible. I don't know him myself, 
 so I rely on you, and must work on the 
 supposition that he could not have done it, 
 as straight against him as the evidence tends. 
 Life is full of coincidences, cases of mis- 
 taken identity, and appearances as distin- 
 guished from truth. You learned that long 
 ago in your practice. Besides, on the other 
 side, any person who could commit murder 
 should be nabbed and put where he couldn't 
 even if he had been thought manly and noble. 
 Here we are." 
 
 They were now hi a small suburb, the scene 
 of the crime, some three miles out, and drew
 
 THE MYSTERY OF THE GOVERNESS 41 
 
 up at the door of the undertaker's establish- 
 ment where the body lay. 
 
 "If you had told me we were corning here 
 I could have saved you the trouble, for I have 
 seen the body, and there are no marks of 
 violence on it," said Dr. Gerrish as they 
 alighted. 
 
 Dr. Fumivall did not answer until they had 
 pushed through the mob of men, women, and 
 children around the door of the little place. 
 Then he said: 
 
 "I am not looking for signs of violence, 
 but for something quite different," adding, 
 as he motioned for the two or three neigh- 
 bors, who stood staring awestricken at the 
 corpse, to move back, "I must make the facts 
 my own at first hand as nearly as possible. 
 Different men do not see even plain facts 
 alike on all sides." 
 
 Dr. Gerrish, watching curiously, saw his 
 brows knit as he scrutinized the face of the 
 dead. An introspective expression came into 
 his features as if he were making an effort 
 of memory, and for some seconds he remained 
 in an indeterminate attitude, one hand on 
 the marble slab on which the body lay, bend- 
 ing over it, though apparently seeing with the 
 eyes of the mind alone. Suddenly he turned 
 to the undertaker's assistant. 
 
 "I suppose she was brought directly here 
 from the river?" 
 
 "Yes, doctor," he answered respectfully. 
 He was a callow youth with mild features, 
 who, having been smoking and playing cards
 
 4 a EXPLOITS OF A PHYSICIAN-DETECTIVE 
 
 with several other men in an inner room, laid 
 his cigar on a shelf, closed the door, and came 
 forward zealously when he recognized the 
 famous physician of the penitentiary. 
 
 "Have any of the Parkers, the people who 
 employed her, been here?" 
 
 "No, sir. Mr. Parker left for the West last 
 night, and I suppose Mrs. Parker she's pretty 
 tony, you know." 
 
 "Who found the body?" 
 
 "The groceryman, Bill Anderson, doctor. 
 He was just coming from the Parker place. 
 The police had her brought here and sent for 
 her relatives." 
 
 "Where are her clothes?" 
 
 "Here, doctor," pointing. "They were 
 soaked through and about spoilt, but we dried 
 'em out." 
 
 Furnivall turned to them briskly. They 
 were lying on a table in a heap, and he exam- 
 ined several pieces one by one. 
 
 "I'll wager you confined your attention to 
 the body, Gerrish," he said. "You never 
 looked at these?" 
 
 "Certainly not. Why should I? They 
 wouldn't be likely to show what the body 
 didn't." 
 
 "Don't you see anything extraordinary in 
 them now?" 
 
 "Why, no. I can't say I do. But stay 
 they have been cut or torn in pieces " 
 
 "Yes, yes. The name-marks were removed. 
 That is strange, certainly, but is that all you 
 see?"
 
 THE MYSTERY OF THE GOVERNESS 4$ 
 
 Gerrish scanned them again and shook his 
 head. 
 
 "I am a physician, not a dressmaker," he 
 said, somewhat sarcastically. 
 
 "Nor a detective," added Furnivall. "But 
 I am. And I see enough in that pile of wear- 
 ing apparel to upset my whole theory of the 
 case." 
 
 "You had a theory, then?" asked Gerrish 
 eagerly. 
 
 "Certainly, and a wrong one, when, but 
 for your stupidity, it would have been the 
 right one as it is now," he added, rushing 
 from the shop and jumping into the auto- 
 mobile, without paying any attention to his 
 companion's look of amazement and hurt. 
 The next moment they were whirling down 
 the street, and presently drew up at a tele- 
 graph office. 
 
 Into this Furnivall hurried, telling Ger- 
 rish to remain where he was, and stayed a 
 full half hour. Through the windows he 
 could be seen consulting a newspaper and 
 dashing off numerous telegrams. When he 
 reappeared it was with a countenance emi- 
 nently good humored. 
 
 "We'll see the watchman next," he said as 
 they shot away. "They told me in there that 
 they held him up to this morning, and then 
 decided to let him go on the car company's 
 recognizance. He is probably asleep now 
 in his room at the barn, for his work is done 
 at night. As I question him, watch him, 
 for unless I'm most egregiously mistaken
 
 44 EXPLOITS OF A PHYSICIAN-DETECTIVE 
 
 you'll see something of curious interest to 
 psychiatry." 
 
 "I suppose it's my stupidity," returned 
 Gerrish, "but I confess that your theories 
 seem to me to be made too nearly out of whole 
 cloth. How can you have any notion of 
 what this man is like or what he will do or 
 say, or that he will prove interesting to science ? 
 I admit," he added hastily, as Furnivall stared 
 at him, "that you usually hit the bull's-eye, 
 but how? that's what sticks me, and I ask 
 for information?" 
 
 Furnivall threw back his head and laughed. 
 
 "Why," he said, "allowing for a few addi- 
 tions and subtractions as I go along, it is the 
 simplest thing in the world. Tell me, now, 
 how many new kinds of crime have you heard 
 of since you were a boy in college?" 
 
 "Well," returned Gerrish, thinking slowly, 
 "I used to read " 
 
 "Exactly," Furnivall interrupted, "you had 
 read Poe, Gaboreau, and the others and his- 
 tory, besides the newspapers, and so, even as 
 a boy, you were familiar with all of them, or 
 had heard of all of them. For there are no 
 new ones. They are new only until they 
 are laid bare, when they are seen to be one of 
 a class that has been known pretty nearly 
 from the dawn of time. Isn't that so?" 
 
 "I don't know but it is," said Gerrish, 
 doubtfully. The thought was a strange one 
 to him and he couldn't entertain it too readily. 
 
 "Yes. We have twenty-six letters of the 
 alphabet only, and out of these 250,000 differ-
 
 THE MYSTERY OF THE GOVERNESS 45 
 
 ent words arc made to compose the English 
 language. In physics there are some seventy 
 bases, and of these are constituted all the 
 different objects on earth. And you know 
 how it is in medicine, how few at bottom 
 the principles are, and what an enormous 
 multitude of forms they can be made to assume. 
 Schiller and others showed that all the various 
 plots employed by dramatists and story-tell- 
 ers in all the ages may be reduced to an extra- 
 ordinarily small number at bottom. I don't 
 recollect how many, but somewhere about 
 the twenties. And it is so with everything, 
 even with crime. The principles involved 
 are few, and one who is familiar with the 
 subject, who has digested and co-ordinated 
 all the cases, has only to learn the facts of a 
 crime in order to name the class to which it 
 belongs. The class being determined, the 
 next thing is to find the person concerned 
 whose character would admit of his belong- 
 ing to that class, as in language, physics, 
 medicine, and plots." 
 
 "Ah! You think, then, that this watch- 
 man " began Gerrish, excitedly. 
 
 "Sh-h!" cautioned Furnivall, "this is the 
 place, I fancy," and stopped the machine 
 before the office of the car barn. 
 
 They found, as Dr. Furnivall had prophe- 
 sied, that the watchman was asleep in a dis- 
 tant corner of the building. The superin- 
 tendent offered to send for him, but Furnivall 
 declined the favor and asked to be shown to 
 the room. Here the man was awakened
 
 46 EXPLOITS OF A PHYSICIAN-DETECTIVE 
 
 without difficulty, and, lying in bed, told his 
 story as the newspapers had printed it, and 
 as it had been repeated by Dr. Gerrish. 
 
 A thrill of excitement shot through the 
 younger physician as his friend, standing in 
 front of the reclining man and looking down 
 into his eyes, began to question him. He 
 expected some startling denouement, though 
 he had no idea what its nature would be, and 
 he listened and watched with bated breath. 
 The man was a white faced, sandy little Irish- 
 man of perhaps 30, with thin, reddish whiskers 
 and hair, nervous in manner, and his speech, 
 though directly to the point while he was 
 telling his story, was quick and jerky. But 
 for the frequent short pauses between phrases 
 the words would have tumbled over each 
 other as they shot from his colorless lips and 
 became an incoherent jargon. He was thor- 
 oughly in earnest, however, and spoke apparently 
 right from his heart, with spasmodic gestures. 
 
 "Let's see, this was on Tuesday evening," 
 said Furnivall. "At what time did you first 
 notice this young couple?" 
 
 "'Twas jist tin minutes afther nine, sor. 
 'Twas sure that toime, becaze why? Becaze 
 Oi go round th' place wanst ivery hour, an' 
 'tis jist tin minutes Oi am frum th' office t' 
 th' soide dure phwere Oi seen thim. Oi 
 shtart in th' office, sor, an' phwin Oi pass th' 
 dure Oi'm alwuz afther takin' a look out, jist 
 fer t' mind th' weather, sor, an' how bes it 
 out around th' yard, an' 'twas th' nine o'clock 
 thrip."
 
 THE MYSTERY OF THE GOVERNESS 47 
 
 "Were they on the bridge then?" 
 
 "They wuz, sor, lanin* on th " 
 
 "How did you know them? The night 
 was dark, wasn't it?" 
 
 "Sure Oi did not know thim at th' toime, 
 sor, but I thought it wes thim, becaze they 
 do be afther walkin' around th' bridge scand'- 
 lous frequent, an thin phwin she calls him 
 'Percy' I knows, an' phwin Oi runs up til 
 'im Oi sees him, sor, an' Oi shpakes til 'im, 
 faith, an' be th' same token he shpakes back." 
 
 "Yes, and the woman? She was lying on 
 the bridge at that moment, wasn't she?" 
 
 "She was, sor. An Oi sez " 
 
 "Was she laid straight out, doubled up, 
 or how?" 
 
 "Oi c'u'dn't say, sor. Oi jist seen her 
 there." 
 
 "Was she moaning, or moving around any?" 
 
 The Irishman wrinkled his brows and 
 stared into his questioner's eyes with an expres- 
 sion of dismay. 
 
 "Sure, me mind is black dead," he said in 
 astonishment. "Oi can't think." 
 
 "Well, and when he threatened you, you 
 ran back to the barn?" 
 
 "Oi did, sor, loike a snipe, an' locked 
 mesil' in." 
 
 "Isn't the car barn kept open later than 
 9 o'clock? Weren't there any people about, 
 conductors and motormen, and others, with 
 cars going and coming all the time?" 
 
 Again the puzzled expression possessed his 
 face, and he answered:
 
 48 EXPLOITS OF A PHYSICIAN-DETECTIVE 
 
 "Oi don't remember, sor." 
 
 "Yes. And you didn't go your rounds 
 after that, but remained locked in your room, 
 this room?" 
 
 "Oi did, sor." 
 
 "And you stayed here all the next day?" 
 
 "Oidid." 
 
 "Sleeping?" 
 
 "No, sor. Oi c'u'dn't shlape, Oi was that 
 frighted." 
 
 "Did you eat anything?" 
 
 "Oi oi don't remimber." 
 
 "Where do you get your meals usually?" 
 
 "Wid th' Widdy McGuire. 'Tis a boardin' 
 place she kapes." 
 
 "Yes. When did you first hear, that the 
 body had been found in the river?" 
 
 "Siven o'clock, sor, that mornin'. 'Twes 
 Tim Dooley, th' conductor, sor, wes afther 
 tellin' me. Miss Goodwin " 
 
 "Where did you see this Dooley?" 
 
 "On th' car, sor, phwin he jumped off an' 
 wint t' th' office, sor." 
 
 "Yes, and where did you get your news- 
 paper that day?" 
 
 "In th' office, sor. 'Tis there Oi get it 
 ivery marnin'." 
 
 "Then, I suppose, you went to your break- 
 fast at McGuire's, and afterwards came up 
 here and read your paper?" 
 
 "Yis, sor." 
 
 "There was nothing about the crime in it?" 
 
 "Nor, sor, 'twes th' marnin paper. 'Twes 
 in th' avenin' wan it foist came out."
 
 THE MYSTERY OF THE GOVERNESS 49 
 
 "And how did you get that?" 
 
 "Oi bought it, sor, mesiP, aff a b'y in th* 
 shtrat." 
 
 Furnivall looked coolly at his friend. 
 
 "Well, thank you, my man," he said, "for 
 your trouble. Don't fear that fellow any 
 longer, but go to sleep in peace. I'll guaran- 
 tee he'll never hurt you." 
 
 "What in the name of heaven can you 
 make out of that?" cried Gerrish as the door 
 closed behind them. "That fellow lied right 
 and left, and was as honest as a judge about 
 it. I never in my life saw a case of such glar- 
 ing mendacity hi words coupled with such 
 honesty of manner." 
 
 "I told you you'd see something of curious 
 interest, but you don't seem to catch on yet. 
 No matter, you will soon. Ah, here's a door 
 that must be the one he mentioned. Can 
 you see any bridge from here?" 
 
 "Great Scott, man, the bridge is on the 
 other side of the barn." 
 
 "Yes, but do you see any door on that 
 side?" 
 
 "No, and there is none. There are only 
 windows, and they're so high up that it would 
 require a giraffe to see out of them. Of all 
 the liars " 
 
 "Come into the office," interrupted Furni- 
 vall, rubbing his hands delightedly. "I wish 
 to show you something." 
 
 The superintendent, who was very oblig- 
 ing to the well known physician, produced 
 the watchman's time card for Tuesday night,
 
 SO EXPLOITS OF A PHYSICIAN-DETECTIVE 
 
 at his request. Without looking at it Pur- 
 mvall passed it over to his friend, saying: 
 
 "You understand these cards, don't you? 
 See, this -is a flat disk of paper, with the hours 
 marked on it, like a clock. It fits into a 
 machine in the office, and when the watch- 
 man presses a certain button on each floor 
 the push is registered here. This is the disk 
 for Tuesday night. If you don't find every 
 floor registered there for every hour of the 
 night the night, mind you, when, he claimed, 
 he was locked in his room trembling with 
 fear " 
 
 "It's all here," cried Gerrish in disgust. 
 "On every floor, every hour. He performed 
 his duties that night the same as usual. By 
 Jove, that fellow committed the crime him- 
 self, and is trying to " 
 
 Furnivall looked at him quizzically. 
 
 "What did he do with Warner, then? 
 Warner could throw that little fellow a rod, 
 couldn't he?" 
 
 Gerrish appeared chagrined. 
 
 "That's so," he admitted. "Still," he con- 
 tinued, "I thought this hypnotism of yours 
 made a man tell the truth. How could he 
 contradict himself so? And what does it all 
 mean ?" 
 
 "Ah, it's Pilate's old question. 'What is 
 truth?' And it means that you have just 
 witnessed what I thought you would a spec- 
 tacle of extraordinary interest to both medi- 
 cine and law. Did you see how straight he 
 had his story until I began to question him?
 
 THE MYSTERY OF THE GOVERNESS 51 
 
 It was then that the contradictions began. 
 Do you think those contradictions and those 
 blank spots in his mind would have appeared 
 if my eye hadn't held him? If I had looked 
 another way, or if a lawyer in court had put 
 the questions, those gaps would have been 
 easily and logically filled, and the tale as straight 
 as a string. Even that part about the door, a 
 curious and interesting slip of the mind, yet 
 seen to be common enough, too, when analyzed, 
 he would have doctored up in some way." 
 
 "But that time card. How can you explain 
 that ? Isn't it strange that nobody has thought 
 of examining it in connection with his con- 
 fession?" 
 
 "Not at all so far. The first excitement 
 hasn't worn off yet. They swallowed everything 
 he said without question, he was so honest about 
 it, and because he came of his own accord 
 to tell it and give himself up. Later, of course, 
 after a lot of prying around, the defects of his 
 logic would appear. But come I must return 
 to the telegraph office." 
 
 "But the watchman shouldn't he be 
 arrested " 
 
 "No r no; he's safe. Let him alone. Only," 
 he added, as they whirled away, "it will be 
 a good exercise for you to think his case over 
 during the next few minutes, applying his 
 character and temperament, as you read them, 
 to the circumstances. Perhaps you will be 
 able to get a little light on those strange 
 antics in the witness box that occur so fre- 
 quently."
 
 52 EXPLOITS OF A PHYSICIAN-DETECTIVE 
 
 At the telegraph office he received a mes- 
 sage which seemed to please him, and which 
 he immediately answered. From there he 
 drove back to the undertaker's, and, leaving 
 word that the body should be put in condi- 
 tion for removal within two hours, headed 
 for the Parker mansion. 
 
 "Doesn't it strike you as singular, Ger- 
 rish," he said, as they rolled smoothly along, 
 "that Parker should have disappeared just 
 now, and that nobody from his house has 
 called to view the remains?" 
 
 Gerrish threw him a startled glance. 
 
 "Good heavens," he exclaimed. "Another 
 complication. I never thought of that 
 before." 
 
 "Ah! I told you, you know, in the begin- 
 ning, that it was a beautiful case." 
 
 "It may be beautiful according to your 
 notion," returned Gerrish disgustedly, "but 
 it strikes me quite otherwise. To me it is 
 grewsome and beastly an inextricable snarl 
 full of contradictions and impossibilities, that 
 never in the world can be disentangled." 
 
 "Well, yes, it is grewsome from a personal, 
 or even human, point of view. But in order 
 to serve out justice the mystery must be 
 regarded in a spirit of pure science, as a prob- 
 lem in astromony or law. I can't afford to 
 entertain the sympathetic side until justice 
 is done, for it would warp and bias my judg- 
 ment, so leading to injustice. As for its being 
 inextricable, so is the mystery of the parallax 
 of a star, I suppose, but to whom?"
 
 THE MYSTERY OF THE GOVERNESS 53 
 
 "Well, of course, to the ignorant," responded 
 Gerrish, somewhat sheepishly. "Still," he 
 added, "that sort of thing can be learned, 
 while this seems to me all guesswork." 
 
 "Oh, does it? My dear fellow, the rules 
 of crime are as lucid and yet rigid as those of 
 mathematics. The expert has only to learn 
 the facts and then apply the rule. Of course, 
 the difficulty lies in getting the true facts, 
 and all of them. It is especially hard to glean 
 the truth from witnesses, for the human mind 
 is so constituted that a man rarely tells a story 
 twice in just the same way, however honestly 
 he may try, unless he has committed it care- 
 fully to memory. And those who do that, 
 those who tell the straightest tale, are pre- 
 cisely those we should suspect. For plain 
 truth does not think of preparation, and may, 
 therefore, often be easily disconcerted, while 
 falsehood stands seemingly invulnerable. But 
 there are rules, rules! And I know them. 
 I am applying them now. And when this 
 problem is solved you will see the beauty 
 of it as I do." 
 
 "Hold upl" cried Gerrish at this moment. 
 "Here's where the body was found, right 
 there, on the edge, in shallow water." 
 
 "That's nothing," returned Furnivall, not 
 even turning his head. 
 
 "Nothing! Why, the police and the other 
 detectives rushed out here the first thing!" 
 
 "I'm this detective," said Furnivall, with 
 a grimness that passed into a smile as his 
 companion looked his astonishment.
 
 54 EXPLOITS OF A PHYSICIAN-DETECTIVE 
 
 "There's another thing I can't understand," 
 said Gerrish, after a moment of silence. "From 
 start to finish you have scarcely mentioned 
 this other man, this John, when, as it seems 
 to me " 
 
 "I'll introduce you to Mm this evening," 
 was the quick response. 
 
 Dr. Gerrish was still floundering helplessly 
 in the midst of this amazing idea when the 
 car stopped at the Parker mansion. 
 
 The two physicians sent in their cards, 
 and after some minutes of waiting on their 
 part in the drawing-room, Mrs. Parker 
 appeared. She was a woman of 28 or 30, 
 with flashing black eyes, muddy skin, thin, 
 uncurving lips, an angular form that was too 
 plainly padded, and a peremptory manner. 
 She was, however, very gracious in her greet- 
 ing to her visitors. 
 
 "So glad to see you, Dr. Furnivall," she 
 said. "Such a pleasant surprise. And Dr. 
 Gerrish, too! : Please be seated, gentlemen. 
 I trust," she added, turning to Dr. Gerriah, 
 there is nothing more about that that per- 
 son regarding whom you -called yesterday. 
 It;has,all been extremely annoying to us " 
 
 "Only," said Dr. F.urnivall, " to ask 'her 
 character, and whether she left of -her own 
 accord or was discharged?" 
 
 "I discharged her!" exclaimed the lady 
 quickly, and with spontaneous heat. Then 
 her eyes, flashing into Dr. Furnivall's, hesi- 
 tated, wavered, became fixed there, a slight 
 color warmed her cheeks, and she continued
 
 THE MYSTERY OF THE GOVERNESS 55 
 
 evenly: "I should have discharged her in 
 the morning if she had not left, for I simply 
 could not endure it longer. I am sorry she 
 took her life, of course. I do not find any 
 fault with the girl, really, for she could not 
 help being beautiful, but Philip " 
 
 "I think that is sufficient," Dr. Furni vail 
 interrupted hastily, rising. "Jove!" he added 
 to Gerrish as they re-entered the auto, "I 
 couldn't let her go into details of that nature. 
 Besides, it was enough. Now, one more 
 point, only one, and the thing is settled. Oh, 
 but it's beautiful, beautiful!" 
 
 "Yes, just like clockwork, isn't it?" said 
 Gerrish with sarcasm. "For my part, I can't 
 see but the whole matter is more hopelessly 
 involved than ever. How did you know the 
 girl's connection with the Parkers was severed?" 
 
 "Mrs. Parker told me," returned Furni- 
 vall with a chuckle. 
 
 "Um-m!" Dr. Gerrish looked meek. He 
 thought he really might have guessed out 
 that part of the riddle without help. Then, 
 the next moment, his face became illumina- 
 ted with intelligence. It actually beamed 
 as he turned it on his friend and ex- 
 claimed: 
 
 "J. PMlip Parker was the 'John' of the 
 diary he is missing it was he who who 
 
 when he found that Percy " 
 
 'His voice trailed off and died away as the 
 objections to this theory suddenly struck him. 
 Besides, Furnivall was roaring with heartfelt 
 laughter.
 
 ft6 EXPLOITS OF A PHYSICIAN-DETECTIVE 
 
 "My dear Gerrish," said his friend when 
 he had controlled his mirth sufficiently to 
 speak, "I always liked you from the first time 
 I saw you, but now I'm beginning fairly to 
 love you. You are so irreproachably inno- 
 cent and ingenuous! It's a fortunate thing 
 this young protege of yours is not abandoned 
 to your tender mercies, for you'd have him 
 in jail before morning though he was as inno- 
 cent as the Great Mogul himself. Medicine, 
 plain and unadulterated medicine, is your 
 line, where the paths of science are straight 
 and pure, and in which you have already 
 covered yourself with glory. Don't risk igno- 
 miny by scattering your talents. Medicine 
 stick to pure medicine, my boy. Take my 
 advice." 
 
 "I most certainly intend to do so here- 
 after," he returned with a good humored 
 laugh. "What I can't comprehend is how 
 you yourself can stomach this kind of 
 thing." 
 
 "Oh, I'm a sort of Apollo, merely glancing 
 at the mist rising from the River Styx, and 
 thereby changing it into a beautiful rainbow," 
 returned Dr. Furnivall lightly. 
 
 He stopped at the telegraph office again as 
 he spoke, ran in, and Dr. Gerrish saw through 
 the window that he received a large package 
 of messages which he began to open eagerly. 
 At the seventh he stopped reading, threw the 
 others unopened into a waste basket, con- 
 sulted his watch, and, hastily re-entering the 
 car, started it at speed toward the city.
 
 THE MYSTERY OF THE GOVERNESS 57 
 
 "Another complication?" suggested Dr. 
 Gerrish, not knowing what to make of his 
 companion's manner, which, from the signs, 
 might have been anything from anxiety to 
 amazement, or even suppressed jubilation. 
 
 "You'll think- so when you see it," was 
 all he could answer. 
 
 In ten minutes, to Dr. Gerrish's surprise, 
 they drew up at his own door. Dr. Furnivall 
 made no movement to alight, however, but 
 again looked at his watch and threw a quick 
 glance down the street. Then he sat back 
 in his seat, lit a cigar, and took his ease. 
 
 Dr. Gerrish said nothing, for his eyes were 
 on a hack the driver of which was lashing his 
 team as if he had been paid to hurry, and it 
 seemed as if he were about to crash right over 
 the automobile. The next instant the horses 
 were thrown on their haunches, with their 
 noses almost touching the machine; the driver 
 jumped down, wrested the hack door open, 
 and a man and woman emerged, making 
 hastily for the entrance to the young physi- 
 cian's office. He then gave one look and 
 sprang erect as if electrified. 
 
 "Good heavens Percy!" he cried. 
 
 "And Mrs. Percival Warner," suavely said 
 Dr. Furnivall, "formerly Miss Blanche Good- 
 win. Do you see the beauty of the solution 
 now?" he added, with a droll cast of the eye. 
 * * * * 
 
 "The moment I read of the affair in the 
 papers," said Dr. Furnivall to his delighted 
 friend that evening in the speaker's study,
 
 S8 EXPLOITS OF A PHYSICIAN-DETECTIVE 
 
 "I suspected accident despite the watchman's 
 ^tory. My theory was based on Warner's 
 character as you had found it to be. I thought 
 as others did, that the girl, dazzled by those 
 lanterns along the road, might have missed 
 her way and fallen in, and that Warner, fail- 
 ing to find her at the trysting place, and led 
 astray for some reason known to himself, 
 was searching for her out of town, which 
 would explain his absence. 
 
 "The watchman, as surely as Warner's 
 character was what you believed, was subject 
 to neuropathic hysteria, and after dwelling a 
 whole day on the subject had imagined that 
 scene. We have many such cases on record. 
 It .proved that I was right. His hysteria, 
 aggravated by the crime so near by, the lone- 
 liness of his occupation, his knowing the girl, 
 too, as he thought, and perhaps a tinge of 
 that love for notoriety we see everywhere 
 through all this he had conjured up that vis- 
 ion and seen it so frequently in his mind that 
 he fully .believed it. In his confession he 
 stated the truth as he saw it. It was only 
 under my influence :and through my examina- 
 tion that the .contradictions and gaps showed, 
 for .he was unprepared for the questions and 
 could tell only what was in his mind. Many 
 a man with his trouble has shown up as a 
 rascal on the witness stand, and in private 
 life, too, when he -was only diseased. So 
 much, for him. 
 
 "Then, when you informed me of the diary, 
 and showed it to me, I believed . I recognized
 
 S9 
 
 another phase of hysteria in its glowing, often 
 incoherent, pages, and thought of suicide, 
 because, , never dreaming that the body was 
 not hers, I could explain the facts in no other 
 way. You recall the Pledgett case, in which 
 the woman kept a diary for a whole year, 
 detailing a love affair, just as in this instance, 
 and there wasn't a word of objective truth 
 in it. . I reasoned that Miss Goodwin, with 
 her mind excited by the hallucinations of her 
 disease, subject as she must be to fits of deep 
 melancholia, had jumped into the river. But 
 as soon as I viewed the body and those clothes 
 why, man alive, where were your eyes ? 
 The face might possibly have passed for that 
 of a fairly intelligent woman, but not a culti- 
 vated one. Certainly she never could have 
 been the governess of Philip Parker's children. 
 
 "I had, too, a dim recollection of a house- 
 maid who was missing, according to the papers, 
 and, as I recalled the description, it seemed 
 to fit. The clothing settled the question. No 
 woman who was sufficiently cultured to be 
 your friend's sweetheart, or a governess either, 
 CQuld dress so tastelessly. I knew it was the 
 lost maid, :doubtless a suicide, from the. fact 
 that her .name had been cut from her .- gar- 
 ments, so I telegraphed the police and received 
 word that she would .be called for by v her 
 brother. 
 
 "The groceryman who, you remember, 
 was the first to identify the body, had gone to 
 the Parker place for his morning order, with- 
 out doubt learned that the igoverness -had fled,
 
 6o EXPLOITS OF A PHYSICIAN-DETECTIVE 
 
 and then, of course, the rest was natural and 
 inevitable. Any body found near there would 
 be that of Miss Goodwin if it bore even a 
 remote resemblance to her; and the mob, 
 expecting to see Miss Goodwin, when they 
 looked at the body, simply saw her. That is 
 human. It isn't likely that she was well 
 known by any of them, and a body lying dead 
 and nearly naked on a slab isn't expected to 
 resemble very closely the same body alive, 
 erect, and fashionably attired. The identi- 
 fication of a corpse even by intimate friends 
 is often a very difficult matter. 
 
 "In the meantime my theory! It was 
 annihilated. Though Miss Goodwin was not 
 dead, as far as we knew, she was missing, 
 and Warner's case was not much improved. 
 I had to begin all over again. Where was she? 
 There seemed to be only one answer. Since 
 her lover also was absent she probably was 
 with him. If with him, then married to him. 
 They had for some cause slipped away sud- 
 denly to be married. Where would they natu- 
 rally go for the purpose ? To the home of one 
 of her relatives. These, according to the news- 
 paper, were many. I telegraphed them all, 
 for I had tre paper with their addresses in 
 my pocket. 
 
 "But why should they disappear so sud- 
 denly? Logically, because something had 
 happened either to him or her. The chances 
 were that it was to her, for the Parkers had 
 not called at the undertaker's a curious 
 fact and Parker himself had suddenly gone
 
 THE MYSTERY OF THE GOVERNESS 6t 
 
 away. While we were waiting for the answers 
 to my telegrams we could visit the girl's 
 employers. 
 
 "We did, and in ten seconds learned what 
 we wished to know. Philip Parker preferred 
 the beautiful governess to his ugly wife, had 
 made advances to her, which for some time 
 had grown more and more marked, attract- 
 ing the notice of Mrs. Parker, until on that 
 evening he had gone too far, she could endure 
 it no longer, had fled hastily, leaving all her 
 things behind, told Percy, and then, she being 
 homeless, there was but one thing to do, and 
 they did it. The next evening they saw in 
 the papers that he was being searched for, 
 and were already on their way to your house, 
 by the 8:10 train, when my telegram 
 reached the cousin at whose home they were 
 married. 
 
 "On my receipt of this news we had just 
 time enough to meet them at your door. As 
 for the diary look here." 
 
 It was still lying on the table, where he 
 had thrown it that morning, and, opening it, 
 he pointed to several phrases, one under 
 another, on the margin of the first part. A 
 pen line had been drawn through all but the 
 lower of them, which was, "Love's Depths," 
 and this remained unscratched. 
 
 "She has evolved a novel in the first per- 
 son," he grinned. "And this is the rough 
 draft of it, with Percival, under the pseu- 
 donym of 'John,' for the hero. She had the 
 usual difficulty in choosing a suitable name
 
 6a EXPLOITS OF A PHYSICIAN-DETECTIVE 
 
 for it, and finally hit upon 'Love's Depths.' 
 Is everything plain now?" 
 
 Dr. Gerrish screwed up his lips, lighting 
 a fresh cigar. 
 
 "All but one little item," he answered, 
 puffing. 
 
 " What's that?"' 
 
 " I am wondering what will happen to , J, 
 Philip Parker when Percy finds him." 
 
 " Not much doubt about that either, in 
 my mind," responded Dr. FurnivalL,
 
 T*1 T** 
 
 he Tin
 
 THE TIN BOX 
 
 The chief of the Centreville police raised 
 his head in astonishment. Just at the moment 
 when he had settled down in his chair for a 
 morning nap the door of the little office swung 
 open with a crash and a great hulk of a man 
 staggered in, collapsing on the settee. 
 
 The intruder's hands were pressed to his 
 sides, the breath whistled in his throat, his 
 face burned a violent red through a heavy 
 dark beard, and, leaning with one shoulder 
 hunched against the back of the settee, head 
 hanging, mouth dropping, he presented alarm- 
 ing signs of physical exhaustion. 
 
 "Hi hi there, Bill!" cried the chief, recog- 
 nizing him at once. "What's th' matter?" 
 
 "Ma- matter! Ma-matter enough! It's 
 murder!" gasped Bill. 
 
 "What!" 
 
 The dreadful word scared the officer into 
 activity as if it had been a bodily danger. He 
 darted around the railing which inclosed his 
 desk and shook the big man, raising his chin 
 roughly and staring into his face. 
 
 "It's old woman Snowman and Ed, too. 
 Both on 'em," the man gasped, recovering a 
 little breath. "I run all th' way." 
 
 The officer blinked his eyes rapidly, as if 
 trying his best to concentrate his faculties. 
 It plainly was a difficult task. Out of the
 
 66 EXPLOITS OF A PHYSICIAN-DETECTIVE 
 
 chaos in his mind only one thought, as being 
 related to familiar things, evolved itself, and 
 he asked pertinently: 
 
 "Why didn't ye harness up and ride, Bill?" 
 
 "Harness up!" exclaimed Bill. "Why, 
 goshamitey, Hezekiah, I didn't have no time. 
 I had t' git here!" 
 
 If Bill's notions of time-saving on a two- 
 mile journey struck the chief as peculiar, 
 he gave no sign of the fact. The word har- 
 ness had suggested the first step in his mode 
 of procedure, and in great excitement he 
 rushed to the stable and hitched up his own 
 rig. All of the four members of his staff 
 were away on their beats, so that a legitimate 
 substitute to leave in charge of the police 
 station was lacking, but that was no obstacle 
 to the chief. He cried out to his only prisoner, 
 a vagrant, who could be seen behind the bars 
 in an inner room: 
 
 "Hi, you! If anybuddy calls tell 'em I'm 
 over t' old woman Snowman's!" And the 
 next moment, with the reanimated Bill beside 
 him, he was rattling along the dusty road 
 into the country toward Spuzz's hill. Then, 
 invigorated in body and somewhat brightened 
 in mind by the sunlight and fresh air of a clear 
 autumn morning, he began to question his 
 companion about the facts of the case as far 
 as he knew them. These were few, but to 
 the point, and, divested of Bill's peculiarities 
 of narration and speech, were as follows: 
 
 Mrs. Snowman, an aged widow, who was 
 considered as wealthy as she was miserly,
 
 THE TIN BOX 67 
 
 and her bachelor son, Edward, lived in a little 
 house on their extensive farm on Spuzz's hill. 
 With them stayed a .middle aged woman, 
 Susan, a distant connection, who worked 
 around the place for her board. This woman, 
 who was looked upon as somewhat soft in 
 the head, and seemed of a mild and colorless 
 disposition, had come running in her night 
 gown that morning at daybreak to the nearest 
 neighbor, a Mr. Henshaw, who was the nar- 
 rator's father, and with an appearance of 
 great fright declared that Mrs. Snowman and 
 her son had been murdered. She said that 
 she slept in the same room with her mistress; 
 that hearing her scream suddenly in the night 
 she jumped up, and, seeing a big man strik- 
 ing her with a club as she lay in bed, ran from 
 the house and hid in the yard. In about five 
 minutes the door opened and two men came 
 hurrying out and went toward the woods. 
 One was a very large man, the other rather 
 small. That was all the description she could 
 give of them, for, although there was a candle 
 burning in the kitchen, where the son slept, 
 its rays were dim, and when the two men 
 came out the morning was only just breaking 
 and their features were invisible to her in the 
 uncertain light. Not daring to venture back 
 to the house she had finally decided to arouse 
 the Henshaws, a quarter of a mile away. 
 
 By the time the story was finished they had 
 arrived at the scene of the tragedy. Eight or 
 ten neighbors were already there, and the 
 chief, springing to the ground, made his way
 
 68 EXPLOITS OF A PHYSICIAN-DETECTIVE 
 
 through them with dignity and entered at 
 the door. The case called for tactics entirely 
 new in his experience. He had not the least 
 notion of the proper course to take, but he 
 was a man of great confidence of manner, 
 and as he stood on the threshold surveying 
 the grewsome spectacle he seemed to the 
 eager watchers to be perfect master of the 
 situation. The lines of wisdom and command 
 in his face were much more plainly marked 
 than they are in the countenances of Alexan- 
 der and Caesar as they have come down to 
 us on medals and statues. Stepping in and 
 closing the door behind him, he said to the 
 elder Henshaw, a little old man with a bushy 
 white beard, who stood frightened and help- 
 less in the middle of the floor: 
 
 "Put out that candle! We don't need 
 candles now; it's daylight." 
 
 Whereupon the light was extinguished and 
 it became dark as night in the room, owing 
 to the fact that there were shutters on the 
 windows, which seemed to be nailed up and 
 could not be opened. 
 
 "Wall, why didn't ye say so afore ye blowed 
 the candle out?" said the chief magisterially, 
 when he learned this. "Light her up again. 
 Now, le's see what all this is about." 
 
 The kitchen contained a cot bed, and on 
 this was huddled the body of the son, fright- 
 fully bruised about the head. The bedding 
 was twisted, torn and stained with blood, 
 part of it on the floor, and one of the two pil- 
 lows hung over the edge of the sink ten feet
 
 THE TIN BOX 69 
 
 distant. Opening out of the kitchen was a 
 door into another room, and in this the mother 
 lay, also in bed and battered in the same dread- 
 ful manner. The bed was so nearly the width 
 of the room that there was scarcely space 
 enough in which to walk between it and the 
 wall, but there seemed to be a considerable 
 vacant area at one end, beyond the high head- 
 board. Candle in hand, the chief advanced 
 and found another cot bed on the floor, and in 
 a corner a small bureau. 
 
 He stood a moment regarding the scene 
 speculatively. Then he looked toward the 
 elder Henshaw, who was peering timidly 
 through the doorway. 
 
 " Whereabouts' d Susan say she wuz when 
 she see him clubbin' her?" he asked in a 
 whisper. 
 
 "Why, she wuz riz up in bed," responded 
 the old man, edging back from too close prox- 
 imity to the ghastly body. 
 
 "If she wuz in there," pointing, "how in 
 natur' could she git by him a-standin' here?" 
 demanded the chief. "She couldn't climb up 
 over that there headboard, leastwise I never 
 see a woman yit that could climb like that. 
 An' even if she hed she'd a flopped down on 
 the bed right plumb in front of him, an' he'd 
 a* hed her sure. She couldn't git by him, 
 for th' ain't room enough. Look at here, 
 Henry. I take up the whole width. Could 
 anybody git by me now?" 
 
 "No, they couldn't. An' I told Susan so, 
 too. But she says he leaned over on the
 
 TO EXPLOITS OF A PHYSICIAN-DETECTIVE 
 
 bed when he seen her comin' an' let her scoot 
 out." 
 
 "Now, Henry, that don't stand t' reason," 
 exclaimed the chief, turning on him sud- 
 denly. He stood a moment shaking his head 
 dubiously, and then continued: "There's 
 somethin' almighty cur'ous about this any- 
 ways. So near's I can make out the' ain't 
 been nary a thing stole from this house, an' 
 it's mighty strange " 
 
 "No, th' ain't!" interrupted the old man, 
 eagerly. "Everything's here jest 's 'twuz afore. 
 Why, there's Ed's watch an' chain that cost 
 his father a clean hund'ud dollars " 
 
 "Where?" 
 
 The chief started back into the kitchen. 
 The dead man's clothes hung over a chair, 
 and there in plain sight dangled a valuable 
 gold chain and charm from the vest. In the 
 pocket the chief found the heavy gold watch. 
 But this was not all. A quick search dis- 
 closed several dollars ui silver in the trousers 
 and in the coat a long pocketbook containing 
 a considerable sum in bank bills. 
 
 The appearance of wisdom deepened on 
 the chief of police's face as he eyed these dis- 
 coveries. He did not, however, communi- 
 cate to the old man the elucidation of the mys- 
 tery which, to judge by his expression, was 
 so plain to himself. He merely began to tie 
 up the various valuable articles in his hand- 
 kerchief. In this occupation he was inter- 
 rupted by a timid knock at the door. 
 
 "Come in," he called sharply, looking up.
 
 THE TIN BOX 71 
 
 A woman, one of the neighbors, advanced 
 hesitatingly toward him, holding a small tin 
 box in her outstretched hand. 
 
 "Wai, what is it?" he asked, glancing at 
 the box impatiently. 
 
 "This is what she used to keep her will 
 in," said the woman, offering it. "And I 
 found it out by our house, in the path that 
 leads down to the woods, and there was 
 these pieces of burnt paper there, too, and I 
 thought " 
 
 "How do you know she kept her will in 
 it?" he asked, taking it and turning over the 
 bits of paper in his hands. 
 
 "She told me so. And I've seen it often, 
 too. It used to stand right there on the bureau 
 behind her bed. See, her name is scratched 
 on it with a pin or something." 
 
 The chief stood in profound thought, his 
 chin in one hand and the box in the other, 
 the handkerchief bundle on the floor between 
 his feet. 
 
 "Ahl" he exclaimed suddenly. "That's 
 it I It wasn't done for robbery, not to get 
 money that way. They left all the money 
 behind and took the will and then burnt it 
 up. Now the question is, Who is her heirs? 
 Who gits her proppurty now the will is gone ? 
 Them is the ones that done it." 
 
 "That's so, that's so," cried the old man, 
 excitedly. "It's plain as the pike road. And 
 
 it's them two scallawags in " He stopped 
 
 suddenly, his mouth hung open, and he shifted 
 uneasily on his feet.
 
 7a EXPLOITS OF A PHYSICIAN-DETECTIVE 
 
 "Why don't ye go on, man?" said the 
 chief, sharply. "Do you know 'em? Or what 
 was you goin* to say?" 
 
 "She's only left three relations," answered 
 the old man, "and two of 'em's in the city, 
 Willum Henry's boys, drinkin', shif'less crit- 
 ters they be, and she wouldn't have nothin' 
 to do with 'em. And t'other one is is wal, 
 she's Susan." 
 
 The reluctance with which the old man 
 offered the latter part of this statement was 
 fully equaled by the alacrity with which the 
 chief received it. All was plain to him now. 
 He allowed himself a grim flicker of a smile 
 as he thought of the weakness of that eva- 
 sion, when, confronted by the indisputable 
 fact that a person could not pass another in 
 that narrow space, she had foolishly claimed 
 that the man leaned over on the bed to let 
 her by. A curious sort of murderer that would 
 be, thought the elated chief. Even if he 
 hadn't wanted to put her altogether out of 
 the way he would have grabbed and bound 
 and gagged her, to prevent her from escaping 
 and giving the alarm. And then, after she 
 had escaped, as she claimed, the criminals 
 had stayed on in the house five minutes longer! 
 A likely story, with her running to have them 
 nabbed! The truth plainly was that, if two 
 men had anything to do with it, they were 
 the nephews from the city, and she was their 
 accomplice. It was still more probable that 
 she herself had done the deed and alone. She 
 had had every opportunity, was one of the
 
 THE TIN BOX 73 
 
 heirs, and had lied about the facts. Besides, 
 she .was half-crazy. 
 
 Therefore, within ten minutes he was on 
 his way to the police station with his prisoner, 
 Susan Clemmons, a charge of willful murder 
 against whom he was laboriously formulating 
 in his mind. It is true that he had neglected 
 to summon a physician to view the remains and 
 find whether or not the persons she was 
 accused of murdering were dead. 
 * * * * 
 
 Dr. Furnivall answered "Enter" to a tap 
 at his office door, and a young man appeared 
 on the threshold. 
 
 "I have not come to consult you, doctor," he 
 said, advancing with hesitating step. " The truth 
 is, I hardly know how to to state my errand." 
 
 He stood nervously eyeing the doctor. 
 Perhaps 24 years of age, he was of good appear- 
 ance, with large black eyes and thick, dark 
 hair, tall and slim of build, and well balanced 
 on his feet. His clothes were fashionable 
 and immaculate. He took the chair to which 
 Dr. Furnivall motioned him, and continued 
 with somewhat more confidence 
 
 "One of my chums who is studying medi- 
 cine has told me of your remarkable hypnotic 
 powers, which, I am given to understand, 
 have more than once been employed in the 
 detection of criminals who were about to 
 escape, leaving the innocent to suffer. Now, 
 a very old and highly valued friend of mine 
 is suffering unjustly, accused of a crime which 
 she was as unable morally to commit as I am
 
 74 EXPLOITS OF A PHYSICIAN-DETECTIVE 
 
 physically to carry this house away on my 
 shoulders. And if money I I shall have 
 a great deal by and by, though now " 
 
 "Wouldn't it be well for you to introduce 
 yourself, since we are going into a matter of 
 such intimate interest ?" 
 
 "Oh, pardon! I forgot let me give you 
 my card." 
 
 He produced a modest bit of engraved 
 pasteboard, which the doctor examined. 
 
 "Now tell me the story, Mr. Sewell," he 
 said. He reclined in his chair and disposed 
 himself to listen comfortably behind the thick 
 colored glasses. 
 
 "It is very good of you, Dr. Furnivall, to 
 accept the case so generously. I wish to 
 speak of the crime yesterday in Centrevilie. 
 Perhaps you have read the newspaper stories 
 regarding it?" 
 
 "Yes." 
 
 "Then I have little to add to them, except 
 that the woman is entirely guiltless, and the 
 two nephews, for whom they are searching, 
 as well. But the police in that little last cen- 
 tury town are hopeless imbeciles, and as some- 
 body must be caught, and they've caught 
 somebody, they will listen to no other view 
 of the matter." 
 
 "Are these nephews the young toughs they 
 are described as being?" 
 
 The visitor smiled deprecatingly. 
 
 "Nobody could be further from it. Their 
 reputation was given them by their aunt. 
 Of course," he continued, with another move-
 
 THE TIN BOX 75 
 
 ment of deprecation, "one doesn't like to 
 make charges in such a case. But the truth 
 is their father left all his money to her in trust 
 for his twin sons she was quite a different 
 woman in her younger days and one night, 
 when they visited her with the smell of wine 
 on their breath, coming straight from their 
 class supper, she was horrified or pretended 
 to be. She never sent them a dollar after- 
 ward, and gave dissipation as the reason. 
 They didn't know this at the time, for Susan, 
 this woman they have arrested, kept up the 
 remittances in the aunt's name kept them 
 up until all she had was gone, all she had 
 saved and all she had inherited. Then they 
 found out, for their college course was not 
 completed, and after writing and writing for 
 money in vain one of them went home and 
 soon learned the true state of affairs." A 
 choke came into the speaker's voice and he 
 paused. Then, with flushed face, he went on 
 energetically: "I'll save that blessed woman 
 if it is in the power of man to do it. Why, 
 she was only second cousin to them, and she 
 gave them her all. And it left her a pauper. 
 See the life she was obliged to live with those 
 skinflints on account of it! And there never 
 was a word of complaint from her, nor any- 
 thing but gladness for doing it." 
 
 "They never took the case to court?" 
 "No, sir; they have not done so yet." 
 "Have you seen the house the rooms 
 where the crimes were committed ?" 
 "Yes, doctor."
 
 76 EXPLOITS OF A PHYSICIAN-DETECTIVE 
 
 "Is it true what is said about that passage- 
 way between the bed and the wall? Is it so 
 narrow?" 
 
 "Ahl" cried the young man, shaking his 
 head. "There's where the rub comes. She 
 stoutly maintains that her story is true. She 
 fled past the murderer, and he, in order to 
 give her exit, bent over on the bed. It seems 
 impossible. But she doesn't know how to 
 lie, and if she is in her right mind, and didn't 
 imagine that part, I must believe her." 
 
 "How do you account for the facts that so 
 many valuables were left untouched, and only 
 the will was taken and then burned up?" 
 
 The visitor threw out his hands. 
 
 "It is the mystery of mysteries I" he almost 
 groaned. "I don't pretend to explain it in 
 the least. One thing only I am sure of, and 
 it is that the deed was never done by any of 
 those who would benefit under the law by 
 destroying the will." 
 
 Dr. Furnivall removed his spectacles and 
 looked the young man in the eye. 
 
 "Mr. Sewell," said he, "tell me why you do 
 not believe in hypnotism?" 
 
 The youth started and flushed. 
 
 "Why, doctor, I I " he stammered, "why 
 that is why I am here." His eyes, which 
 had shone with some excitement, took on a 
 calmer expression, and gradually assumed a 
 look of intentness, as if he were deeply study- 
 ing something within rather than outside 
 of them, though they were fixed on the 
 doctor's.
 
 THE TIN BOX 77 
 
 "If you had believed in it you would not 
 come to me in just the way you have. You do 
 not believe in hypnotism in the least, do you?" 
 
 "No, sir." The answer this time was 
 calm, matter of fact, perfectly assured. 
 
 "Tell me why." 
 
 "Because I have studied the matter from 
 both sides, at times as the hypnotist and at 
 other times as the subject, and it is only a 
 delusion. When I was at college and in need 
 of money, I hired out to a number of different 
 hypnotists at $2 an evening. There were 
 eight of us who did that frequently. Some 
 of the professors were honestly in pursuit of 
 science, and these we used to fool. Two 
 dollars an evening was a good deal to us. 
 . "Never did any one of us feel the slightest 
 influence of hypnotism, though we pretended 
 to be helpless. We practiced difficult feats 
 in order to do them at command, and suf- 
 fered a good deal of pain sometimes in the 
 experiments rather than give up our job as 
 good subjects. But other so called hypnotists 
 never attempted anything occult with us at 
 all. They were simply showmen, who taught 
 us funny stunts and paid us for going through 
 them before spectators or before a camera. 
 We were often distributed around through 
 an audience, and at the call for volunteers 
 came up as greenhorns and did the tricks." 
 
 "You have looked at the matter on all 
 sides then, haven't you? And all that you 
 have ever seen of hypnotism has been pure 
 fake?"
 
 ;8 EXPLOITS OF A PHYSICIAN-DETECTIVE 
 
 "Yes, doctor. Either one side or the other 
 is always fooled." 
 
 "Why did you come to me?" 
 
 "Because I trusted your detective ability 
 and benevolence." 
 
 "Why did you say that you believed in 
 my hypnotic powers?" 
 
 The youth shook his head slightly, but 
 with surety. 
 
 "I did not say that." 
 
 "What did you say?" 
 
 "I I can't seem to think." 
 
 "Perhaps it was only that you had heard 
 of my remarkable powers ?" 
 
 "Yes, doctor, that was it." 
 
 "Why did you mention hypnotism at all?" 
 
 "Because I thought I should gain your 
 interest that way. Every scientist is an enthu- 
 siast on his specialty, and is easily led by it 
 almost anywhere." 
 
 "You do not think I could hypnotize you?" 
 
 "No, sir, you could not." 
 
 "You don't think there may be a phase of 
 psychology entirely outside and different from 
 the lines with which you are familiar, and 
 which may be true hypnotism?" 
 
 "Oh, I would not say as to that. I only 
 maintain that there is no such thing as thought 
 transference in the commonly accepted sense. 
 I hav seen a hundred cases which seemed 
 to be pure hypnotism beyond dispute, but 
 always there was a trick, either by the operator 
 or the subject, or both, which made a farce 
 of the exhibition."
 
 THE TIN BOX ft 
 
 "But you must admit the hypnotic sleep?" 
 
 "There is undoubtedly some truth, per- 
 haps a great deal of truth in that. A person 
 may be induced into a sort of half-conscious 
 state, possibly, through sight or pressure. I 
 think I have seen that done, but there are so 
 many things to consider that I would not 
 take my oath on it. What I deny is the pos- 
 sibility of the reception of a thought, pro- 
 jected mentally by another, while the subject 
 is in that state. The thing is absurd. It 
 would be equally against the laws of the soul 
 and those of physics, as unjust as unscien- 
 tific." 
 
 Dr. Furnivall resumed his glasses with a 
 decided movement. 
 
 "I do not see that you were far wrong, 
 Mr. Clemmons," he said quietly, "in coming 
 to me under a false name. Of course, I recog- 
 nized you immediately as one of the nephews 
 by the description in the newspapers and 
 the subject which you opened. Your appear- 
 ance and words struck me favorably, and 
 I did not wish to pry into your private reasons. 
 All these things we will talk over later. In 
 the meantime I shall hasten to Centreville. 
 The case interests me extremely, on one point 
 at least, and I am sure it will interest you and 
 all psychologists when that point is made clear. 
 Will you go along with me?" 
 
 At the beginning of this speech the visitor 
 turned pale and looked swiftly around as if 
 about to flee. But as the doctor proceeded 
 he became gradually more quiet, until at
 
 8o EXPLOITS OF A PHYSICIAN-DETECTIVE 
 
 the end the chief expression on his face was 
 that of mild perplexity, and he said hesi- 
 tatingly: 
 
 "It's most curious I I feel a sort of 
 of dual personality, as if I were here and yet 
 not here. And I am sure I had no intention 
 of telling as much as I have told you." 
 
 "Oh, that's common enough," said the 
 doctor lightly. "We all of us have a double 
 personality, because one lobe of the brain is 
 educated and the other is a sort of vagabond 
 dunce. And most of us talk too much. But 
 come," rising, "will you accompany me to 
 Centreville? We may dip into psychology 
 some other time." 
 
 "You have a theory?" cried the young 
 man, eagerly. 
 
 " Certainly. But it is in a fluid state, so to 
 say, as yet, and may materialize in either one 
 of three different forms. The structure requires 
 still a block or two of solid fact. So far it is 
 a sort of arch, with that impossible passage 
 as the corner stone, and the tin box as the key- 
 stone, and I must see that woman at once." 
 
 "I shall be glad to go, but they'll recog- 
 nize me there arrest me " 
 
 The doctor passed him a motor mask. 
 
 "Put that on when we arrive in the vicinity, 
 and don't leave the automobile unless I call 
 you." 
 
 Five minutes later they were rushing toward 
 Centreville as fast as the law permitted. 
 
 "Wai," said the Centreville chief of police, 
 when Dr. Furnivall had introduced himself
 
 THE TIN BOX 81 
 
 and made known his business, "I got the 
 criminal all right, that's sure. An' I guess 
 you can see her, if you want to, but 'twon't 
 do no good. She sticks to that tomfool story 
 spite of all I can do. I've showed her plain 
 enough that 'twas onreasonable, an' only 
 made it wuss for her a-stickin* to it, fer every- 
 buddy knows it's nothin' but a lie, an' if she 
 that was there present '11 lie about the fac's, 
 then she must be guilty some way. But 
 here ye be." 
 
 He halted before a cell, through the grated 
 door of which, on a cot in a corner, a woman 
 could be seen seated. 
 
 "Susan," he called, "here's a big doctor 
 frum the city come to see ye. Mind what 
 ye say to him, now, fer everything ye tell '11 
 be used agin ye. All ye gut t' do is speak the 
 truth. I ain't gut no right to gin ye no orders, 
 an' I won't neither, but all I say is, you drop 
 that fool yarn, an' if ye must lie, why do it 
 reasonable. Nobuddy ain't ever gonter take 
 any stock in that one." 
 
 The woman arose ana came forward 
 timidly. Her figure was very tall and gaunt, 
 and perfectly straight, so that her gait as she 
 walked would have given her a majestic air 
 but for the mild helplessness and bewilder- 
 ment of her face. That neutralized the effect 
 and resulted in caricature. Her brown hair, 
 turning gray, was parted in the middle, brushed 
 tightly back and piled on the crown of her 
 head, with an old fashioned net over it, which 
 did not prevent a stray lock from dangling
 
 8a EXPLOITS OF A PHYSICIAN-DETECTIVE 
 
 into one of her dim, light hued eyes. She 
 was wetting her finger and trying to tuck this 
 into place as she approached the cell door. 
 Dr. Furnivall reached through the bars and 
 grasped her hand, shaking it encouragingly. 
 The chief went back to his desk. 
 
 "I wish to ask you," said the doctor, "if 
 those men said anything that night? Did 
 not either one of them utter a single word 
 that you could hear?" 
 
 "Land's sake! I dunno," she answered, 
 with the monotonous inflection of voice pecu- 
 liar to the simple minded. "She's screechin' 
 so I couldn't hear nothin' else. An' I sorter 
 didn't hear that till arter wards, I wuz so 
 frightened an' haired up." 
 
 "There was a window over your bed why 
 didn't you open that and crawl through? Why 
 did you run toward the man? You knew you 
 couldn't pass him, didn't you?" 
 
 "Oh, I dunno, I dunno!" she moaned, help- 
 lessly. Then, her eyes fixed on the doctor's, 
 a shade of intelligence flickering into her face, 
 she added: "Th' winders is all screwed up 
 nights, 'fraid o* thieves, an* I couldn't git out 
 that way. I didn't know what I wuz doin'. 
 I jest put her fer th' door." 
 
 "The only light in the room shone from 
 tne candle in the kitchen, through the door- 
 way?" 
 
 "Yes, that wuz all th' wuz. An' 'twa'n't 
 no great. Jest enough t' make darkness 
 visible." 
 
 "How were you able to see the man at all?"
 
 THE TIN BOX 83 
 
 "He wuz agin th' light. Sorter like a 
 shadder on th' wall." 
 
 "Could the rays strike you as you came 
 around the headboard? Or did they go the 
 other way, toward the foot of the bed?" 
 
 "I dunno, the' wa'n't much light. He 
 took it all up, 'cept a little on the bed." 
 
 "Did you scream as you ran toward him?" 
 
 "My sakes! No, I guess not. I was too 
 skeered. I couldn't open my mouth to save 
 my life." 
 
 "Did he bend over to let you pass before 
 you touched him? Did you come against his 
 body at all?" 
 
 "I dunno. I run against a good many 
 things. My night gown wuz all tore, an* 
 the* wuz some whitewash on it. I dunno 
 what I gut that off of. But I didn't seem to 
 feel nothin* I hit against till arterwards." 
 
 " Whitewash 1 Is there anything white- 
 washed around the place?" 
 
 "The chicken coops is, an' the side fence, 
 but I didn't go nowheres near them. I run 
 out the front way." 
 
 "You say the man was very large. Was 
 there anything else you noticed about him?" 
 
 "I dunno 's the' wuz. He run kinder 
 cur'ous when he come out the house. He 
 was lame I guess. His feet seemed kinder 
 funny, th' way he used 'em." 
 
 "Should you say he might have been club- 
 footed?" 
 
 "Maybe he wuz. I couldn't tell. 'Twuz 
 the kinder jerky way he run. P'aps he had a
 
 84 EXPLOITS OF A PHYSICIAN-DETECTIVE 
 
 wooden laig. 'Twuz dark, an' I only see th' 
 men quick-like." 
 
 Dr. Furnivall took her hand again between 
 the bars and pressed it. 
 
 "Cheer up. We shall have you out of here 
 very soon," he said. 
 
 She watched him as he walked down the 
 short corridor to the office, the unwonted 
 intelligence in her face slowly giving way to 
 her normal fatuous expression. 
 
 "Is there a negro in the town who does 
 whitewashing?" the doctor asked the chief. 
 
 "I dunno of none," he answered. "Can't 
 ye git none in th' city?" He was grinding 
 tobacco between his horny palms and looked 
 up in some surprise at the question. 
 
 "I should like to find one here," returned 
 Dr. Furnivall in a matter-of-fact tone. 
 
 "D'ye know where the's a coon white- 
 washer, Jim," asked the chief obligingly of 
 one of his men who was working about the 
 room. 
 
 Jim spat, scratched his arm thoughtfully, 
 and came forward. 
 
 "I guess th's one over in Sol Weathersby's 
 shanty," he answered. "I see a darky there 
 this mornin', an' he looked like one hed on 
 white overalls an' his jumper was kinder 
 daubed. Might 'a' been lime, though. P'aps 
 he makes mortar fer th' masons." 
 
 "You don't know him then he's a stran- 
 ger?" asked Dr. Furnivall. 
 
 "No, I don't know him myself," the man 
 returned. "But th' Weathersbys could gin
 
 THE TIN BOX 85 
 
 ye pints on him, I guess. He's in their 
 shanty. Joe Weathersby wuz with him when 
 I see him." 
 
 "Joe is Sol's nephy used t' work in th' 
 city. He ain't been back long," volunteered 
 the chief for Dr. Furnivall's enlightenment. 
 
 "What kind of a man is this Joe?" the doc- 
 tor asked. "If he should recommend the 
 negro to me, could I take his word?" 
 
 "Wai." The chief knit his brows. "I 
 don't wanter say nothin' agin any o' Sol Weath- 
 ersby's folks. He's a good man, an' 's gut 
 propurty. An' Joe ain't never made us no 
 trouble. He ain't lived 'round here much 
 since he wuz a boy." 
 
 The doctor hastened out to the automobile 
 in front of the door. 
 
 "I am going to drop you up here in the 
 woods, where you'll be out of sight for a little 
 while," he said to its occupant. "In which 
 direction is the shanty belonging to the 
 Weathersbys?" 
 
 And when they were started he continued: 
 
 "I accept the woman's story in toto, and 
 must base my theory on it. What kind of a 
 character must be his who, in the circum- 
 stances, would allow her to pass what could 
 be his reasons? I have settled on what seems, 
 so far, the only possible fact, and am look- 
 ing for a man who is large, for she so described 
 him; brutal, because of his methods; densely 
 ignorant, for reasons that will appear in his 
 confession, probably a foreigner or negro of 
 the lowest stamp. I incline to the negro,
 
 86 EXPLOITS OF A PHYSICIAN-DETECTIVE 
 
 because the woman noticed that he had an 
 odd gait so many of them have great feet 
 and wear ungainly shoes run down at the 
 heel, and walk with visible effort and also 
 for the reason that she found traces of white- 
 wash on her nightgown. Many whitewashes 
 are negroes. "His companion doesn't matter 
 now, for, the big man once found, the other 
 can't escape. The only point that is not 
 clear to me is why the will was taken and 
 burned and the money left behind. But 
 that will appear in the sequel. You 
 would better alight here and hide in the 
 bushes. I shall go to the station for help, 
 which the chief will readily give me if he 
 thinks we're after Susan's accomplices. 
 When we come back from the shanty you 
 can join us if we stop at this spot. But if we 
 drive straight by, our expedition will have 
 failed, and you'll have to wait until I return 
 for you." 
 
 A half hour afterward the automobile 
 containing Dr. Furnivall, the chief and one 
 of his men, approached the Weathersby shanty. 
 It was a small, unpainted, we at her beat en 
 structure, sitting a little back from the road 
 on the edge of the dark woods, in use only in 
 haying time, for the occupancy of such itin- 
 erant laborers on the Weathersby place as 
 were not desired nearer the farmhouse. Trees 
 and underbrush crept closely up to it on two 
 sides, in front was a small clearing with a 
 well in it, and on the remaining side ran the 
 county road under the forbidding shadowf
 
 THE TIN BOX 87 
 
 of a forest crowned cliff. The spot was cheer- 
 less, sordid, uncanny. Its very countenance 
 suggested vice a#d crime. 
 
 The two officers descended from the machine 
 some rods from the building and crept through 
 the woods toward it, while Dr. Furnivall 
 drove into the clearing. There were shutters 
 on the windows, the door was closed, and 
 no signs of life were visible anywhere about. 
 The premises seemed utterly deserted. But 
 as the doctor rapped loudly on the door a 
 sudden scream of mortal terror arose within, 
 and in a long drawn chattering and jabbering 
 shuddered away into silence. 
 
 Finding the door fastened, he rattled the 
 latch noisily and called out, "Hello." 
 
 Again the anguished cry sounded, but 
 this time in tones as if the voice were muffled. 
 And finally when, putting his shoulder to it, 
 the doctor burst in he found a burly form 
 shaking and screaming on a pallet in a dark 
 corner, its head buried in the rags which 
 answered for bedding. 
 
 As Dr. Furnivall threw open one of the 
 shutters, letting in a stream of daylight upon 
 the bed, the occupant started up, disclosing 
 a terrified black face, which quickly took on an 
 expression of relief, and he exclaimed : 
 
 "'Fo' Gawd, man, I'se glad yo' come; 
 oh, I'se glad yo' come. Git meh out'n yere, 
 w'ere ah cain' see hit, an' Ah doan keer w'ere 
 yo' puts me." 
 
 He crept forward on his hands and knees, 
 groveling at Dr. Furnivall's feet.
 
 88 EXPLOITS OF A PHYSICIAN-DETECTIVE 
 
 "Ah done hit, mister, Ah ain' gwine deny 
 dat, an' Ah sees hit eber sence. Joe he claim 
 'twuz de sarven' gal, b't Ah doan know 'bout 
 dat. Ah sees hit eber sence. Ah done t'ought 
 yo' wuz hit." 
 
 "Sit up here, take this chair. There, 
 now tell me all about it." 
 
 He placed a chair facing the light that 
 entered the doorway, and motioning the police- 
 men, who now stood at the open window, 
 to remain where they were, helped the negro 
 to the seat and bade him proceed with his 
 story. 
 
 So thankful was the man, as it appeared, 
 for human company, and relief from the super- 
 stitious fears which were driving him insane, 
 that he scarcely needed the assistance which 
 Dr. Furnivall's peculiar powers could afford 
 him, and he readily confessed as follows: 
 
 "Ah knewed dat Joe Weathersby in de 
 city, mister, an' he say some sarven' gal dat 
 uster -wrurk en de fam'bly done tol' heem -ol' 
 Mis. Snowmun allerz keep fi* t'ousan' dollars 
 en de tin box on de bureau en de baidroom. 
 He say he gwine gi' meh half dat money eef 
 Ah he'p heem git de box. We done bruk en 
 de house an' gi' de man chlo'form, b't we 
 bungle dat job an' de man wake up, an* we 
 done hit heem wid de club. Den ol' Mis' 
 she bergin' t' scream, an' Ah run en tub her 
 room for tuh stop her noise. Den Ah Ah 
 see de ghos' come a-flittin' right up tuh dis 
 nigger an* Ah drop on de baid, for den Ah 
 knows de man in de odder room am daid an'
 
 THE TIN BOX 89 
 
 Ah is a murderer, an' Ah cain' do anodder 
 t'ing. Joe he come en an' git de box an' we 
 run fo' de woods, b't dar wan' no money in 
 de box, on'y ol' paper. Den Ah gibs up. 
 Joe burn de paper for git hit out de way, an' 
 Ah hide ma haid en de leabes an' grass, but 
 de ghos' is dar all de taime an' nebber leabe 
 meh. Joe he say hit de sarven' gal b't Ah 
 knows bettern's dat, Ah see hit offen sence. 
 Ah see hit jes' 'fore yo' corned, mister, right 
 yere en dis plaice. Ah done t'ink yo' wuz 
 hit w'en yo' knock on de do'. Yo' tek meh t* 
 de jail, yo' tek meh anyw'ere, Ah doan' keer, 
 ef on'y yo' tek meh w'ere dat cain' come!" 
 
 "Goshamiteyl" muttered the bewildered 
 chief as he slipped on the handcuffs, pain- 
 fully relinquishing the theory which seemed 
 so simple for the simpler truth of which he 
 had not dreamed, "I never'll believe northin' 
 agin as long 's I live onless I see it or hear 
 it myself. Things is dretful queer in this 
 world; that's what they is, dretful queer." 
 
 Dr. Furnivall jotted down in his notebook 
 the following: 
 
 THE TIN BOX CASE. 
 
 Memo Hallucinations : Classify the ne- 
 gro's. Mento-objective: notify psychical re- 
 search. 
 
 Memo Coincidences: The (probably vain- 
 glorious) lie of the former servant, that there 
 was $5, coo in the box leads to destruction of 
 the will, whereby the strongest presumptions 
 of guilt are directed toward the innocent; 
 circumstantial evidence; classify.
 
 The Tragedy at the 
 Colonial
 
 THE TRAGEDY AT THE COLONIAL 
 
 It was 4 o'clock in the afternoon of a 
 debilitating spring day. The crowds that 
 thronged the street, surging always to the 
 shady side, moved with a lack of energy pecu- 
 liar to the time of year. Listless, perspiring, 
 yellow of skin, uneasy in clothes that were 
 too heavy by some pounds, they seemed more 
 like an army of invalids out for a prescribed 
 constitutional, than representative men and 
 women of one of the foremost cities of the 
 world, which they were, bent upon their accus- 
 tomed round of business or of pleasure. Even 
 the hackmen on their stands, those eternally 
 alert and invincible types of the genus "wide 
 eye," were calmly nodding on their boxes, 
 careless of fares, apparently, wishing for 
 nothing but to be let alone in their shade by 
 the curb. 
 
 But in one instant all this was changed. 
 A hoarse cry rang out on the air. Three of 
 the seeming sleepers tumbled from their boxes 
 to the ground as one man, and at the top of 
 their speed dashed down the street. The 
 crowd on the sidewalk awoke as from a 
 shock of electricity, paused, stared in sur- 
 prise at the bounding shapes, and then set 
 off after them. In front of the Colonial Hotel 
 the lines of people, running from all directions, 
 met as the spokes of a wheel meet in the hub,
 
 94 EXPLOITS OF A PHYSICIAN-DETECTIVE 
 
 with the hackmen in the centre, bending 
 over something on the ground. 
 
 "What is it? excitedly cried a hundred 
 breathless runners. 
 
 "A woman fainted!" answered one. 
 
 "A pickpocket I" answered another. 
 
 "No, it's only a drunk!" contributed some' 
 body else. 
 
 Meanwhile the hack drivers were exam- 
 ining the body of a man, which, smashed to 
 a pulp, was huddled in a ghastly heap oa 
 the flags. 
 
 "Tenth story," said one to the other in a 
 hushed voice; "I seen him when he started, 
 end over end like one o' them 'ere windmills." 
 
 "He's gone," said another. "My I Ain't 
 it awful!" He turned away, sick from the 
 horrid spectacle. 
 
 "Get a doctor!" shouted somebody in the 
 crowd. 
 
 The hackmen straightened up and looked 
 irresolutely around. They had no notion what 
 to do. Suddenly one of them raised his hand, 
 standing on tiptoe, and beckoned. He had 
 seen a policeman pushing into the jam and 
 he called out: "This way nil Over here!" 
 
 "Now, then, clear the road I" cried the 
 strong voice of the law, and, though the road 
 was not cleared, because it could not be, on 
 account of the density of the human pressure 
 behind, the officer fought in to the central 
 group, taking care not to be too gentle about 
 it. The hackmen began to explain, all together, 
 each relating a little different story from the
 
 THE TRAGEDY AT THE COLONIAL 95 
 
 other, but all agreeing in the essential that the 
 man had fallen to his death from an open 
 window on the tenth floor of the hotel, and 
 that they had all of them seen him do it. 
 
 "Anybody here know him?" asked the offi- 
 cer, consulting the nearest bystanders with his 
 eyes. But as the body lay face to the ground, 
 unrecognizable, nobody ventured to claim its 
 acquaintance. 
 
 "Well, move back, move back! There's 
 nothing to see here," the officer exclaimed 
 with impatience, and was beginning to enforce 
 his command with a strong arm when his 
 eyes, raised over the heads of the crowd, fell 
 on a man making extraordinary gestures, 
 apparently to him, from a window of the great 
 apartment house opposite. He was on the 
 tenth floor, directly across the street, acting 
 like an insane person, working his shoulders, 
 pushing with his arms against nothing, point- 
 ing to the hotel on a level with his window, 
 and then extending both forefingers in the 
 direction of the Colonial entrance. Some in 
 the crowd, following the direction of the police- 
 man's surprised gaze, began to cry out: 
 "There's another onel" "He'll be down in 
 a minute let's run up there!" "He's crazy I" 
 And then a youth, in a burst of inspiration, 
 hit the truth. "He's trying to tell us that this 
 man was pushed out of the window, that he saw 
 it done, and that the entrance should be guarded 
 while a search is made for the murderer." 
 
 "Run up there, then, and bring him down 
 here," said the officer to the last speaker.
 
 96 EXPLOITS OF A PHYSICIAN-DETECTIVE 
 
 "Comedown here, youl" he moved his lips 
 as if to say, beckoning to the gentleman at the 
 window. But he shook his head and displayed 
 new motions. He was an invalid and could not 
 walk. He made that plain by his gestures. 
 
 At this moment the hospital ambulance 
 caused a diversion by rushing up and deposit- 
 ing a surgeon and his assistant, who took 
 charge of the body, which, as soon as its face 
 was exposed, was recognized by a dozen dif- 
 ferent men as that of Frederick Seavey, a real 
 estate dealer, who lived in suite 1001, The 
 Colonial, with offices down town. By this 
 time both the proprietor and the janitor of 
 the hotel had appeared on the scene, the one 
 with a declaration that Mrs. Seavey was lying 
 sick in bed, and must not be told of the tragedy 
 for fear of its effect on her, and the other with 
 a statement that rendered the former's pre- 
 cautions useless. Mrs. Seavey must know 
 about it already, he said. In fact, there 
 had been a row in the Seavey rooms. He 
 had heard loud voices, one of which was Mr. 
 Seavey's, and the other that of a man with 
 a powerful bass, this latter replying to 
 some heated words of Mr. Seavey's with, 
 "You dog! You ought to be kicked out of 
 the window!" This occurred in the front 
 room, where the sick wife was lying. She 
 must be fully aware of all that had taken place 
 there, and could throw such light on the mys- 
 tery as would immediately clear it up. 
 
 Upon this the landlord hurriedly volun- 
 teered to see the lady, and was turning to go
 
 THE TRAGEDY AT THE COLONIAL 97 
 
 inside when a bright reporter, who had 
 appeared in time to hear this testimony, sug- 
 gested that though the murderer had had 
 plenty of time to escape, he might not have 
 done so, and the house should be searched 
 and guards stationed at all the exits, who 
 should allow nobody to pass to the street 
 until identified. This was arranged for at 
 once, several responsible persons offering their 
 services to help out the employes of the hotel, 
 and the landlord again started to enter. 
 
 The policeman who had so far figured in 
 the case had meanwhile hastened to the 
 apartment house across the way and ques- 
 tioned the excited man at the window. He 
 now reappeared and, taking the landlord by 
 the arm, whispered: 
 
 "It's a clear case. Murder! Mr. Daniels 
 over there seen the whole thing. He was 
 loo kin' into the room. There was two men; 
 one near the window and the other shaking 
 his fist at him, and the first thing he knew 
 one was tumbling, the window being open, 
 and the other was just pushing him. He 
 seen his hands on him." 
 
 The much exercised man turned a troubled 
 face to the patrolman. 
 
 "That corroborates the janitor," he said. 
 "Notify your office as quick as you can." 
 
 He then summoned the house physician, 
 and together they hurried to suite 1001. 
 
 The rap at the door remaining unanswered, 
 they were on the point of turning the knob 
 when a housemaid came running toward
 
 98 EXPLOITS OF A PHYSICIAN-DETECTIVE 
 
 them along the hall with the information 
 that a doctor was with Mrs. Seavey and she 
 was not to be disturbed. The doctor him- 
 self had given orders to that effect. 
 
 This statement, so far from having the 
 effect the maid expected, resulted in an action 
 on the part of her employer that made her 
 fear for his sanity, for with a sudden wrench 
 he tore the door open and, with his left arm 
 bent above his head, as if to ward off a 
 threatened blow, he bounded into the apart- 
 ment like a tiger on its prey, the physician 
 closely treading on his heels. 
 
 But once in, both men stared blankly. 
 There were no signs of disturbance. Nobody 
 was in the room but the sick woman, who 
 lay perfectly still on the outside of the bed, 
 her face to the wall; and a hasty examination 
 showed that the door leading to the other 
 parts of the suite was fastened, the key being 
 in the lock on their side. 
 
 "How long ago was the doctor here?" 
 the landlord asked the maid. 
 
 "Why, only a few minutes ago, surely. I 
 didn't know he had gone. He has not had 
 time to make the examination. He said 
 nobody was to enter until he called me." 
 
 "Were you to guard the door?" 
 
 She hung her head. 
 
 "Ye-yes, sir. I I only went for a drink 
 of water." 
 
 "Did you see Mr. Seavey come in?" 
 
 "No, sir. He is seldom home till 5 or 
 past."
 
 THE TRAGEDY AT THE COLONIAL 99 
 
 " Don't you know what has happened here ?" 
 
 "Wh-why, no, sir. Is she worse?" 
 
 She threw a startled look toward the bed, 
 and then hastened to it. The doctor and 
 she reached it at the same moment. 
 
 "I didn't mean to leave her," she whis- 
 pered anxiously to him. "She wasn't very 
 sick; and I couldn't have been away from 
 the door five minutes." 
 
 The doctor examined the invalid's face 
 and took her pulse. 
 
 "Hysteria," he said. 
 
 As he spoke, the patient's eyelids trembled 
 open. At sight of him bending over her she 
 screamed and began to cry out incoherently, 
 which brought the landlord, who had been 
 searching the apartments hurriedly, to the 
 bedside. 
 
 "What is she saying?" he whispered. 
 "Has she given any clue? What's the mat- 
 ter with her?" 
 
 "I can't make out what she says," the 
 doctor returned; "and I can't make out what 
 the matter is, either. If it's hysteria, it's 
 the queerest case I ever saw yet. It's more 
 like raving insanity. Look at her eyes. What 
 doctor did she have?" he asked the maid. 
 
 "Why, I don't know who this one was. 
 She's had several. She called him herself 
 on the telephone. She wasn't very sick then. 
 See, she isn't undressed." 
 
 "How came you here, anyway?" asked 
 the landlord. "Did Mr. Clark assign you 
 to Mrs. Seavey?"
 
 ioo EXPLOITS OF A PHYSICIAN-DETECTIVE 
 
 "Yes, sir. She has no maid of her own 
 just now and asked for me at the office. Oh, 
 
 dear, I am so sorry " 
 
 She stopped suddenly and her eyes grew 
 wide as the helmet of a policeman was pushed 
 around the edge of the door, immediately 
 followed by the burly body of Sergeant Nulty, 
 who advanced softly to the group looking 
 inquiringly from one to the others. While 
 the physician busied himself with the patient 
 the landlord drew the sergeant aside and 
 told him all that had been discovered. 
 
 "An* yees dunno phwat wan the docthor 
 was?" he asked. 
 
 "No." 
 
 "Well, 'twas him done it." 
 
 " Of course. But how does that help 
 us? Mrs. Seavey can't speak, and she is 
 the only person who can give that doctor's 
 name." 
 
 "Can't sphake? She can." 
 
 "Not intelligently. Listen." 
 
 "Man," said Nulty, after giving an atten- 
 tive ear to the jerky syllables that issued from 
 the patient's mouth, tumbling over one another 
 in a turgid stream, wholly devoid of sense 
 or connection, "man,, Oi have wan that c'u'd 
 make the lady sphake. Yis, begob! Sphake? 
 He c'u'd draw language from a pig. He 
 made mesilf shpake wanst." He looked as if 
 he scarcely relished the remembrance. 
 
 The landlord eyed him disapprovingly. 
 
 "This is no time nor place for joking," 
 he said, "and I don't understand you."
 
 THE TRAGEDY AT THE COLONIAL 101 
 
 "Whisper! It's no joke. I know me juty. 
 'Tis the name o' the docther we want, noo, 
 and only the lady can tell thot same, but she 
 can't sphake. But she can sphake! The's 
 wan man will get the news from her, I'll tell 
 you. Whisper! Dr. Furnivalll" 
 
 He winked knowingly as he pronounced 
 the word, and shook his head confidently. 
 The landlord, however, was unresponsive 
 He did not understand yet. But the phy- 
 sician at the bedside caught the name, and 
 nodded to the sergeant. 
 
 "Call him," he said. "Tell him I have 
 asked him in consultation. There's more than 
 hysteria here, I don't know what yet, and I 
 should be glad to have his advice." 
 
 The sergeant was fortunate enough to get 
 speech at once with Dr. Furnivall over the 
 telephone, and in less than a quarter of an 
 hour he arrived. The patient now lay in com- 
 parative quiet, crying out only occasionally, 
 in such an incoherent manner that nothing 
 could be made of her meaning. Indeed, as 
 soon as Dr. Furnivall looked into her eyes he 
 declared that she had no meaning. If she 
 spoke, it was automatically. And he was 
 forced to confess that in this case his hypnotic 
 powers were of no avail. Her mind was in 
 such a chaotic state that he could not reach 
 it. It had no stability. She was incapable 
 of thought. To attempt to force her to con- 
 centrate her ideas and bid her speak would 
 be like gazing into a mass of floating vapor 
 and bidding it to body itself forth as a voice.
 
 loa EXPLOITS OF A PHYSICIAN-DETECTIVE 
 
 Sergeant Nulty, who had hailed the entrance 
 of his hero with a broad grin of triumph, 
 scratched his head and grew pale with chagrin, 
 turning a helpless eye upon the man he had 
 so confidently relied upon, but who now dis- 
 appointed him at the moment of trial. 
 Although he had already, over the telephone, 
 briefly explained the circumstances to Dr. 
 Furnivall, giving him the main points of the 
 case and stating what he wanted, he could 
 not help thinking that the doctor's failure was 
 due, perhaps, to the fact that he did not 
 quite appreciate the great importance attach- 
 ing to the discovery of that missing doctor's 
 name. When it is absolutely necessary to 
 do a thing, it can be done, even if it is impos- 
 sible, according to the sergeant. With defer- 
 ence he therefore approached and in an earnest 
 whisper began to go over the story again for 
 the doctor's better understanding. But it was 
 useless. Dr. Furnivall shook his head. 
 
 "No power on earth," he said, "can draw 
 sanity from a mind whose organ of expres- 
 sion, the brain, is as defective as that woman's. 
 Repair the brain and she will speak, but not 
 until that is done." 
 
 Now, when the sergeant had come up and 
 began to whisper his explanations, the doctor, 
 who was at the bedside, moved away and 
 stood by the wall at the footboard, regard- 
 ing the invalid's face, which was turned directly 
 toward him, nevertheless listening to the story 
 of the urgent Irishman. He noticed at once 
 that the bed did not lie snugly against the wall,
 
 THE TRAGEDY AT THE COLONIAL 103 
 
 and he saw a small piece of paper on the floor 
 in the vacant space, but thought nothing of 
 it until the necessity of discovering the 
 mysterious physician's identity was so im- 
 pressed upon him, but at the very 
 instant when the last quoted words were on 
 his lips, he recognized the paper as one torn 
 from a physician's prescription pad, and, 
 moreover, he knew immediately what phy- 
 sician's pad it had come off of! It was that 
 of Dr. Wellington. In short, one of Dr. Fur- 
 nivall's own dearest friends was indubitably the 
 mysterious doctor whom the police were hunting 
 for having committed this brutal murder! 
 
 In a flash the whole situation was changed 
 in Dr. Furnivall's mind. Heretofore he had 
 accepted the theory of murder without question. 
 All signs pointed to it the loud words in the 
 room, the fist of one man in the other man's 
 face, the pushing arms, the fall through the win- 
 dow, the condition of the wife which was sup- 
 posedly brought on by the shock of seeing 
 her husband tumbled to his death, and, far from 
 weakest in the category of strong presumptive 
 proofs, the sudden absence of the other man, 
 who must be the doctor in attendance on 
 Mrs. Seavey. Up to this moment Dr. Fur- 
 nivall had had only popular grounds on which 
 to base an opinion. He had known nothing 
 of the case beyond what others knew. But 
 now he had first-hand evidence, the evidence 
 of character. Could Dr. Wellington do mur- 
 der? No. In his right mind murder would 
 be as impossible to him as Greek to a baby.
 
 104 EXPLOITS OF A PHYSICIAN-DETECTIVE 
 
 Therefore, supposing him sane, and granting 
 that his was the bass voice heard in the con- 
 troversy with Mr. Seavey, no murder had 
 been committed. But if that were so, what 
 had really happened? And why did Dr. 
 Wellington run away? Would such a man 
 shirk the consequences of any act of his? 
 No, no more than he would wallow in crime. 
 He would stand like a man and pay the 
 penalty. Cowardice was as impossible to him 
 as viciousness always providing he was in 
 his right mind. But the one man was dead 
 and the other was missing. What, then, 
 had really occurred between them? Was 
 Wellington insane? Had he done this ter- 
 rible thing in a fit of maniacal frenzy? Or 
 was he still sane? And, therefore, had no 
 crime been perpetrated? 
 
 All this passed through Dr. Furnivall's 
 mind with the rapidity of a flash of lightning, 
 and his course was determined upon as 
 quickly. Despite the evidence to the con- 
 trary, he would start from the supposition 
 that an accident, not a crime, was the real 
 basis of the tragedy. With him known char- 
 acter outbalanced a solid mass of evidence 
 which depended on decisions of the human 
 intellect, made up from the testimony of the 
 senses. He agreed with Bacon that, though 
 the senses may be true, the intellect is usually 
 incapable of passing on them. It was, there- 
 fore, with a firm belief in his friend's inno- 
 cence, and a resolution to seek in the direction 
 of mishap, rather than in that of violence,
 
 "5 
 
 for an answer to the enigma before him, that 
 he whispered to Sergeant Nulty: 
 
 "Leave the doctor and me with the patient. 
 We will make an examination. Clear the 
 room. Find out what you can around the 
 hotel. You can't do anything here now, and 
 I will call you if you are wanted." 
 
 The house physician, who was interested in 
 the medical rather than the criminal aspects 
 of the case, saw with relief the execution of 
 this order, and the instant the door closed on 
 the heels of the last of the departing group 
 he questioned Dr. Furnivall eagerly: 
 
 "What is this? I have never seen any- 
 thing just like it. There are right hemiplegia and 
 asphasia, shouldn't you say? And word-deaf- 
 ness undoubtedly, as well as word-blindness. 
 Look at her face. She is suffering intensely." 
 
 "No, she suffers little," returned Dr. Furni- 
 vall. "The contortion of the nerves is a reflex. 
 There is more than fright in this. Still, she 
 is not insane. She is numb. Something is 
 pressing into that woman's brain a tumor, 
 perhaps, invading the superior or middle tem- 
 poral convolutions." 
 
 His colleague looked surprised. 
 
 " Do you think so ? Well, that would surely 
 account for it all. But in that case -" 
 
 He paused meaningly. 
 
 "No," answered Dr. Furnivall; "not neces- 
 sarily fatal, I feel assured. An operation 
 
 " But such an operation never has been done!" 
 
 "True. But it is the only chance. And 
 I am sure it is feasible. Her constitution is
 
 106 EXPLOITS OF A PHYSICIAN-DETECTIVE 
 
 more than strong; it is robust. With good 
 fortune she would bear it well. Get the consent 
 of her relatives; call in Myers and Whewill 
 and let's hear what they say." 
 
 The young doctor's face brightened. 
 
 "Good! I'll do it at once," he answered 
 with alacrity, ^nd started for the door. But he 
 had scarcely disappeared when Dr. Furnivall, 
 having possessed himself of the prescription 
 paper behind the bed, came hastening after him. 
 
 "I have a message to telephone," he said, 
 "and I might call up our friends as well. By 
 the way, did you know this Mr. Seavey, or 
 anything about him? Had he enemies?" 
 
 "No, I didn't know him, except by sight. 
 But," he continued, reflectively, "let's see 
 there was something oh, yes, I remember, 
 Dr. Jason was treating him for Meniere's dis- 
 ease. I recall that he bragged of the great 
 fees his specialist charged. He was that kind 
 of man." 
 
 "Meniere's disease!" murmured Dr. Furni- 
 vall, as he stepped into the telephone box. 
 "Good! Count number one on the theory of 
 innocence 1" 
 
 He did not elucidate this cryptic remark 
 to himself, but after summoning the consulting 
 physicians by 'phone, rang up Dr. Wellington's 
 office. 
 
 "Hello! Is Dr. Wellington there? This is 
 Dr. Furnivall, at the Colonial Hotel." 
 
 "Why, no! He is himself at the Colonial 
 Hotel. He had a call from there a little while 
 ago."
 
 THE TRAGEDY AT THE COLONIAL 107 
 
 "Who is this answering?" 
 
 "The parlor maid." 
 
 "Is Mrs. Wellington at home?" 
 
 "No, sir. She has been away a week in 
 the country at her mother's." 
 
 He hung up the receiver. There was no 
 help to be had from that quarter. Dr. Wel- 
 lington had certainly been in that gruesome 
 room of the Seaveys'; had roared in his lion 
 bass to somebody, "You dog! You ought to 
 be kicked out of the window!" and had suddenly 
 disappeared. Why? Had he become insane 
 and committed a crime? Or was he sane and 
 innocent? In either case he had fled. Why? 
 
 "It bates the divil!" said Sergeant Nulty, 
 approaching the doctor. "Here is wan man 
 coomes in this house as bould as ye plaze, gets 
 another wan by the whiskers, or by the collar, 
 or whativer, and calls him names in a voice 
 like a bull fer the stren'th of it, walks him 
 Spanish acrosst the flure, trows him half a 
 block out of the windy, spits on his hands, 
 trows out his chest, and drops down tin flights 
 and out, and the divil a sowl but wan in the 
 place lays eye on him from shtart to finish! 
 In the ould country, thim faries did those 
 things, so 'tis said, so it is. But 'twas no fary 
 done this thrick. He had whiskers. Thot 
 maid woman seen him anyhow. We've his 
 description, all right. And we'll get him. 
 But phwat is the good of eyes if ye can't see 
 wid them, begob, a man six feet, and begob, 
 wid whiskers, going up tin flures and thin 
 down agin, and out, and lanin' jist over Casey's
 
 io8 EXPLOITS OF A PHYSICIAN-DETECTIVE 
 
 bar and smilin' insultin' on the crowds rushin' 
 around the corner in pursoot of him, and 
 wushin' thim slanther in Casey's three X!" 
 
 "You have learned nothing?" asked the 
 doctor. 
 
 "Divil a word! The's too many men wid 
 whiskers round this place. Oi dunno how 
 it bees, but wan man wid whiskers is the livin' 
 image of ivery other wan wid thim. They're 
 loike the Chinks. Can yez tell thim apart? 
 You cannot. Naw, sir. Not if youse yerself 
 was wan of thim and the other was yez own 
 brother. Oi do be waiting now for wor-rd from 
 the tilephone cintral gir-rl that connicted Mrs. 
 Seavey wid the docther. She moight remimber 
 the number. But she's gone home. Well, 
 there it is! Always soomthing to putt a pebble 
 in yez shoe!" And the sergeant, much exer- 
 cised over his failure to make any progress in 
 the case, turned away in the direction of the 
 telephone. But he stopped again and asked: 
 "Phwat's doin'?" jerking his thumb signifi- 
 cantly. 
 
 "I should say there will be an operation 
 on her at once." 
 
 "Will she shpake thin?" 
 
 "I don't think I should like to question 
 her for a day or two. It will depend on how 
 she comes through. But I will notify the office 
 in time, for I want a couple of you to hear what 
 she has to say when she does talk. And, Nulty 
 
 " he whispered in his ear, "don't disturb 
 
 yourself about that doctor. He didn't do it; 
 it was an accident." And he walked away,
 
 THE TRAGEDY AT THE COLONIAL 109 
 
 leaving the sergeant struck speechless with 
 amazement. 
 
 The two famous surgeons, having arrived 
 and made their examinations of the patient, at 
 once expressed themselves as opposed to an 
 operation. 
 
 "Why?" asked Dr. Furnivall. 
 
 "It never has been attempted, for one 
 reason." 
 
 Here ensued a long technical discussion, 
 the result of which was that the balance hung 
 so even between the arguments for and against 
 that no positive decision could be reached. 
 Then Dr. Furnivall played his last card. 
 
 "Gentlemen," said he, "we must admit all 
 the reasons that have been given here why this 
 operation should not be attempted. We must- 
 admit all those likewise on the other side; and 
 we find the chances of success and failure so 
 nearly even that, speaking generally, the weight 
 would be thrown on the negative, and all 
 thoughts of the knife abandoned. It would be 
 too full of risk, But, aside from the fact that 
 I myself feel strongly that an operation is the 
 only means of saving the patient's sanity, if not 
 her very life itself; aside from the fact that I 
 am willing to pledge my professional reputation 
 on the success of an operation performed by 
 me with your assistance, on the tumor or what- 
 ever it is that I believe is invading this brain, 
 either in the superior or middle temporal con- 
 volutions aside from all this, I have another 
 reason to offer, which, I feel sure, must appeal 
 to you. It is this: The fame, and even the
 
 zxe EXPLOITS OF A PHYSICIAN-DETECTIVE 
 
 life itself, of one of our number, depend on 
 this patient's sanity. Without the surgery she 
 certainly never can recover, and she may die. 
 In that case a man you all know well and 
 highly respect must, as far as I can see into 
 the future, pay the penalty of a crime of which 
 he was innocent, and the penalty is death. 
 With the surgery she will recover, I firmly 
 believe, and will save him by her evidence. 
 Even at the worst, she will be as well off after 
 as before the trial, unless undreamed of con- 
 ditions prevail. There is the case, gentlemen. 
 The affair of our friend should not bias us to 
 do to this patient what we should not do, but it 
 cannot lack weight in these delicate circum- 
 stances, and I for one am obliged to confess 
 that it bears me, all things considered, irre- 
 sistibly in the direction of the operation. It 
 is not a question of professional ethics with 
 me, for I should advise the trial, though there 
 were no outside influences. I am sure of suc- 
 cess. With you it may not be so, but I beg you 
 to consider well what I have said. There is 
 the gentleman you will save by deciding as I 
 have done." 
 
 He threw the crumpled prescription on the 
 table before them as he spoke, and as one 
 man the group cried: 
 
 " Wellington ? Impossible ! " 
 
 "Yes, impossible, indeed! But it is he who 
 is now filling the role of the mysterious doctor, 
 nevertheless. I called up his house and learned 
 that he had left there for this hotel. In the 
 janitor's description of the voices I recognize
 
 THE TRAGEDY AT THE COLONIAL m 
 
 his. I found this paper on the floor beside 
 the bed. What happened here we can hardly 
 conjecture. But of this I am certain, as I 
 know we all of us are, that our friend and 
 comrade, Charles Wellington, the tenderest, 
 warmest hearted, most upright of men, never 
 wantonly or in anger or maliciously pushed a 
 man from a ten-story window. The mystery 
 in the case is where can he be? What is he 
 hiding for? Or is he hiding? Perhaps some 
 accident has also overtaken him. These mat- 
 ters, however, I engage to clear up later. At 
 present our duty is to our patient." 
 
 It was a long struggle. Each of these men 
 with his professional honor at stake stood to 
 the last ditch for his opinion. But finally Dr. 
 FurnivalTs counsel prevailed. The operation 
 was performed with perfect success, a clot of 
 Wood being found on and removed from the 
 superior temporal convolution, and the patient 
 was pronounced sane and out of danger. 
 
 When she was strong enough to relate the 
 story of the tragedy she said, in the presence 
 of several witnesses, including Sergeant Nulty, 
 her eyes on Dr. Furnivall's: "I called Dr. 
 Wellington for my nerves. I did not know 
 there was anything else the matter with me, 
 but he saw at once that it was something more 
 than nerves. While he was examining me my 
 husband came in. He had been drinking. 
 He knew nothing of my having a doctor, and 
 when he saw us he flew into a passion, not 
 understanding the case, charging me with 
 horrible things. Dr. Wellington resented the
 
 ii2 EXPLOITS OF A PHYSICIAN-DETECTIVE 
 
 tone Mr. Seavey took, and cried out to him 
 that he was a brute to talk so to his wife, and 
 that he deserved a kicking. My husband was 
 standing by the window, which was open, and 
 suddenly he pitched over " 
 
 "One moment," Dr. Furnivall interrupted. 
 "Was your husband being treated for any 
 disease?" 
 
 "Yes, Meniere's disease." 
 
 "Gentlemen," said Dr. Furnivall to the 
 listening circle, but without moving his gaze 
 from the invalid's eyes, "remember the symp- 
 toms of Meniere's disease intense and parox- 
 ysmal aural vertigo, coming suddenly Proceed, 
 madam." 
 
 "My husband fell in such a way that he 
 pitched through the window. Dr. Wellington, 
 with a cry of horror, rushed forward with 
 outstretched arms to save him, but could not 
 get a good hold on him. This is all I remember. 
 I must have fainted then with the terror of it. " 
 
 Dr. Furnivall turned to the witnesses. 
 "The only thing that seems to be lacking," 
 he said, "is the reason why Dr. Wellington 
 ran away " 
 
 At that very moment the door opened and 
 in walked a bearded man, who said, calmly: 
 
 "I will tell you that." 
 
 "Wellington!" cried Dr. Furnivall, grasping 
 his hand. 
 
 "I have come to give myself up now, if I 
 am wanted, since my wife is out of danger." 
 
 "Ah," Dr. Furnivall exclaimed, as if en- 
 lightened at once. "Give us the details."
 
 THE TRAGEDY AT THE COLONIAL 113 
 
 "As I came down my steps yesterday on 
 the way to answer Mrs. Seavey's summons, a 
 message was handed me informing me that 
 my wife, who had been in the country for some 
 days, was down critically with pneumonia. 
 Of course, I should drop everything else to go 
 to her. But knowing that the next train would 
 not leave for over an hour I saw that I should 
 have time to come here, and I did so. When 
 the accident happened and I hurried down to 
 the sidewalk, finding the crowd, I should have 
 waited and explained, and have willingly given 
 myself up, but for one reason. It would pre- 
 vent me from hastening to my wife, who was 
 at death's door. I could not bring myself to 
 that. Seeing that I could do no good I simply 
 went away to her. She is safe now, and 
 seeing by the papers that I was wanted " 
 
 "Is he wanted, sergeant?" smiled Dr. 
 Furnivall. 
 
 "Not be me, not be me, not be me!" re- 
 peated Sergeant Nulty, awakening from the 
 trance of disgust in which he had listened to 
 the evidence. "Begob," he muttered, as, with 
 an air of injured virtue added to his usual 
 dignity of deportment, he marched out of the 
 room, "begob, men is all goats these days. 
 Goats wid whiskers! Accidents, accidents, ac- 
 cidents! They have none of them the shtufif 
 in thim to kill a man. The good old times is 
 gone. No chanct for promotion! I'll die a 
 sergeant. Well, well, well!"
 
 Mrs. Wortley's Secret
 
 MRS. WORTLEyS SECRET 
 
 Through the driving snow blizzard in the 
 early morning the milk boy plowed his way 
 up the steps of the dilapidated Wortley man- 
 sion, opened the outer door, stepped into the 
 narrow vestibule, and rang sharply the old- 
 fashioned bell. Ordinarily he then would have 
 deposited a bottle of milk on the floor, picked 
 up the "empty" that had been set out over 
 night, and departed with the cheerful bang 
 and clatter that has been anathema to good 
 sleepers since the days of Aristophanes; but- 
 this time there was a variation of the program. 
 He waited. Handling his basket of unstable 
 bottles with as much care as if they were eggs, 
 he placed it silently in a corner, and with hunched 
 shoulders, ear to the keyhole, a determined 
 expression on his blowzy young face, he appeared 
 to be listening intently to the gradually dimin- 
 ishing jingle jingle of his summons away down 
 in the basement kitchen. 
 
 Refraining, for reasons of his own, from 
 advertising the fact that he was still on the spot 
 by a second pull at the knob, he crouched in 
 this attitude long after the tongue of the bell 
 had ceased its musical clangor. It was fully 
 five minutes before he moved as much as an 
 eyelid. Then he suddenly gathered himself, 
 held his breath, and, as the door opened a crack, 
 pushed it wide, and stepped triumphantly in.
 
 n8 EXPLOITS OF A PHYSICIAN-DETECTIVE 
 
 "There!" he exclaimed with satisfaction. 
 
 "Lord a massy! What's all this?" cried a 
 thin, cracked voice. 
 
 The hall was dusky, but the boy could see 
 that an old woman of untidy appearance stood 
 staring dazedly at him, her hand on the knob 
 of the door w r hich he had closed on entering. 
 He gave a short, sneering chuckle. Then he 
 began laboriously to unbutton his many layered 
 wrapping of heavy clothing. 
 
 "This here little bill," he said, producing 
 and handing it to the woman, "has run three 
 months, an' every time the old man comes 
 round for it it's twenty-three for him. Skiddoo! 
 Nobuddy t' home. See? I want th' money. 
 I want it now. An' I'll get it, too, afore I'll 
 leave, or I'll h'ist out th' furniture." 
 
 "Well, good Lord!" exclaimed the woman, 
 who, though plainly of a meek disposition, was 
 roused to some degree of self-assertion by this 
 open attack. "If you want your money I 
 guess you can have it. You needn't tear my 
 head off. I don't owe you anything. It's Mrs. 
 Wortley, and she's worth a million dollars. 
 You step over here away from her door and 
 I'll tell her." 
 
 The boy jeered at the mention of this mag- 
 nificent sum. It was easy enough to call any- 
 body a millionaire. Anybody. She might call 
 him one if she wanted to. But her manner 
 presaged success for his mission, and, some- 
 what mollified, he stood back by the stairs 
 while the woman rapped gently at the parlor 
 door.
 
 MRS. WORTLEY'S SECRET 119 
 
 "Mrs. Wortley!" she cried, not too loudly. 
 There was no answer. 
 
 "Mrs. Wortley! Mrs. Wortley! The milk- 
 man is here and wants to see you!" This 
 time the voice was stronger, but there came no 
 sound from within. She waited a moment and 
 then rattled the door knob. Still no response. 
 "She must be fast asleep. She doesn't like 
 to be woke up can't you come again 
 when " 
 
 "Oh, sure!" he interrupted, with a world 
 of expression. All his doubts and determina- 
 tion were rearoused by these signs of tricks, 
 with the winding and complex patterns of which 
 he was on intimate terms. "Oh, sure, I'll 
 come agin'. An' I'll stay right here till I do, 
 too. You sure got a lead pipe cinch on me in 
 this deal, mommer. Me ? Why, you never see 
 me out when the dew is falling. Some rude 
 creature might accost me." 
 
 With the explosion of this bomb of sarcasm, 
 picked up last night at the dime museum, he 
 grinned delightedly, sat down on the stairs, 
 and leaned comfortably against the wall as if 
 he would be happy to remain there for any 
 indefinite period. 
 
 "If that ain't killin'!" muttered the woman 
 in disgust and indignation. She stood ir- 
 resolutely, looking at him. "Well," she said, 
 after a moment, "I'll go in through the other 
 room and wake her up, but you won't get any 
 thanks for making me do it, I can tell you. 
 And it's the last milk you'll ever bring into this 
 house in the bargain."
 
 i 2 o EXPLOITS OF A PHYSICIAN-DETECTIVE 
 
 "Huh!" he sniffed. "Good thing, too! 
 Swappin' milk fer wind!" 
 
 He watched warily as she went down the hall 
 to a sort of cabinet built against the wall, with 
 a set washbowl in it, put her hand in, and 
 from a corner of a high shelf produced a key, 
 with which she let herself into the rear parlor. 
 Then he rose and softly followed her. Rolling 
 back a little one of the great folding doors 
 between the two rooms, she thrust her head 
 into the spectral gloom beyond and again 
 called "Mrs. Wortley!" and still there was no 
 movement or sound in response. Suddenly 
 she began to sniff. 
 
 "Why, that's chloroform!" the boy behind 
 heard her exclaim in a startled whisper. 
 
 He crept forward, a vague sense of some- 
 thing strange impelling him, and with eyes 
 younger than those of the woman searched the 
 dim interior over her shoulder. 
 
 "Kinder topsy-turvey, ain't it?" he com- 
 mented under his breath. 
 
 She did not resent his presence staring there 
 into her mistress' bedroom. On the contrary, 
 she flung her hand with a quick, backward 
 movement on his arm, as if to reassure herself 
 that she was not alone. Then she went in 
 swiftly, paused, and with a sudden low cry 
 threw herself down upon the bed, clasping in 
 her arms the still form that lay there. 
 
 The boy gazed a moment with wide eyes, 
 taking in the significance of the scene. Then 
 he withdrew, set the spring lock on the front 
 door, and at the top of his speed splashed and
 
 MRS. WORTLEY'S SECRET MI 
 
 floundered through the drifts to the police sta- 
 tion a block away. 
 
 The woman still lay in speechless grief on 
 the body of her mistress when the officers 
 arrived, and they found considerable difficulty 
 in removing her, so that an examination of the 
 corpse could be made. Finally they succeeded 
 in placing her in an easy chair, where she sat 
 with every sign of despairing sorrow on her 
 wrinkled face, and without appearing to take 
 any interest in what was going on answered 
 apathetically such questions as were put to her. 
 
 As soon as the shades were raised, letting 
 daylight into the room, the first thing the officers 
 noticed was that the dead woman was bound, 
 and in a most curious manner. Instead of 
 being lashed together with cords the limbs were 
 carried, each wrist and each ankle to its side 
 of the bedstead, and there tied firmly with 
 strips torn from the upper sheet, the remains 
 of which hung over the foot rail with the other 
 bedclothing. 
 
 "That is what I call queer," whispered one 
 of the policemen to the other, who nodded, 
 staring. The ambulance surgeon came hurry- 
 ing in at the moment, and the three stood 
 gazing an instant without a word at the singu- 
 lar spectacle. 
 
 The body was that of a beautiful woman of 
 30, of the pronounced brunette type, with full 
 lips, great black eyes, wide and glazed now, 
 the form of a sylph, and a wealth of lustrous 
 black hair that lay tumbled over the pillows. 
 The skilled glance of the physician, however,
 
 i2a EXPLOITS OF A PHYSICIAN-DETECTIVE 
 
 immediate!/ detected signs of dissipation in 
 the lovely face. He saw, too, that one of the 
 eyebrows was scorched as with recent fire, and 
 that the forehead and left cheek were marked 
 with slight burns, which must have been 
 inflicted within a few hours. An eight ounce 
 bottle containing a little chloroform lay with- 
 out a stopper on the bed by her side, its neck 
 raised on the pillow. 
 
 "Beats me," whispered one of the police- 
 men. 
 
 "It looks like asphyxiation by chloroform," 
 said the physician. "But we'll see about that 
 later. She's gone, any way." 
 
 The officers then began a search of the 
 premises. 
 
 The upper drawer of the bureau had been 
 pulled out, ransacked, and thrown on the 
 floor, the jewel boxes on the dressing case were 
 empty, an oil painting had been cut out of its 
 frame, and the gold watch which, the woman 
 said, always hung on the bedpost at night, was 
 missing. This seemed to be the extent of the 
 property loss, though there was a great roll of 
 bank bills in the second drawer of the bureau, 
 which had not been opened, apparently, a 
 closet was half filled with beautiful and costly 
 gold and silverware, a clock covered with 
 jewels, small enough for easy removal, still 
 ticked on the mantel, and the two rooms were 
 crowded to profusion with all sorts of elegant 
 and expensive nick-nacks. The officers were 
 comparing notes on this unexpected state of 
 affairs when a surprised exclamation from the
 
 MRS. WORTLEY'S SECRET 123 
 
 physician, who was bending over the body, 
 brought them hastily to his side. 
 
 "See there!" he said, pointing to the bonds 
 where they were fastened to the bed. 
 
 The policemen scanned them interestedly. 
 
 "They're surgeon's knots," the doctor said: 
 "the kind a surgeon ties. No common burglar 
 did this job." 
 
 The officers looked at each other quickly. 
 
 "There's ain't a winder or door on this 
 floor," said one, "that ain't locked, except the 
 way we come in. And the milk feller says 
 that was locked, too, and the woman got the 
 key to it out of this cupboard here. It looks 
 queer, Jack this body tied in here alone and 
 everything locked up all snug." 
 
 "It sure does, Cale. The housekeeper says 
 nobody lives here but Dr. Wortley and his wife 
 and her, and the milkman swears there wa'n't 
 no signs in the snow of anybody's goin' out. 
 Not a track before his. And it snowed all 
 night." 
 
 "Dr. Wortley!" exclaimed the physician. 
 "You don't mean you can't mean, that this 
 is the house of Dr. Brownall Wortley that 
 this was his wife?" 
 
 "That's just what!" returned Cale, shaking 
 his head as if he were sorry for it. 
 
 The younger physician scrutinized the face 
 of the dead with a new interest. So this was 
 the woman! Lying there! Well, well, well! 
 He had never known Dr. Wortley personally, 
 but his history was one of the traditions of 
 the profession in the city. A millionaire
 
 i4 EXPLOITS OF A PHYSICIAN-DETECTIVE 
 
 bachelor, famous for his surgical skill, enjoy- 
 ing an enormous practice, and, of an old New 
 England family, welcome to the innermost 
 circles of society throughout the land, he had 
 thrown his glove in the face of custom and 
 tradition and turned his back on the obviously 
 correct thing by marrying a shop girl. He 
 was 50, cultivated, handsome, rich; she was 
 20, uncultured, fascinatingly beautiful, and 
 squalidly poor. The act plunged him into 
 such a hornet's nest of surprise, detraction, 
 and downright abuse, especially from the 
 mothers of marriageable daughters in his own 
 set, that he was sorely stung, and, at first 
 bewildered. He could not see why his mar- 
 riage with anybody should interest the world, 
 and when one day a newspaper reporter called 
 to interview him he told him so. But, he 
 added, since the world, for some reason or 
 other, indubitably seemed interested, he begged 
 to inform it that this young gentlewoman, 
 who was now his wife, had been brought into 
 this life by him, as the attending physician; 
 that he had followed every phase of her exist- 
 ence from that dav to this; that he knew her 
 to the soul; found her so superior to every 
 other woman, in any class of society, whether 
 it were a question of character or body, mind 
 or heart, that for him she was the one woman; 
 that they loved each other; and, finally, that, 
 since the fact that she was poor while he was 
 rich appeared to form the nucleus around 
 which the storm of disapproval howled, he 
 should gladly remove it in short, he should
 
 MRS. WORTLEY'S SECRET 125 
 
 this day make over all his property to his wife, 
 so that now the conditions were reversed, and 
 it was a case of poor man and rich wife. Per- 
 haps his solicitious friends, the smart set, 
 would care to express their exceedingly val- 
 uable and interesting opinions on that sort 
 of a union! 
 
 Whether this attitude of his closed the 
 hitherto widely opened doors of society against 
 him, or whether he had already, before the 
 marriage, resolved! upon his course, certain it 
 was that he threw up his practice immediately 
 and accompanied his young and beautiful wife 
 abroad. For five years little was heard of 
 them in their native city, except that now and 
 then some wanderer far afield brought tidings 
 of them from out of the way places now a 
 little village in Switzerland, by and by a modest 
 hotel in Italy, a farm house in Scotland, one of 
 the islands of Japan, or, in India, a villa in 
 the hill country. They evidently traveled ex- 
 tensively, yet wherever they were found it was 
 always in the peace of seclusion, undisturbed 
 by the fret and hurry of gregarious humanity, 
 their life streams blended into one happy, 
 flowing river of love and content. 
 
 Then suddenly, in a night as it seemed, the 
 rumors changed ominously. Something mys- 
 terious had come between these ideal married 
 lovers. It was now only the husband who 
 lived apart from the whirlpool of society, 
 while the lovely young wife threw herself into 
 the swirling current with extravagant abandon. 
 The polish which, in their five years of intimacy,
 
 126 EXPLOITS OF A PHYSICIAN-DETECTIVE 
 
 the accomplished man of the world had been 
 able to impart to his girl wife, the wealth he 
 had lavished upon her, his name, and her 
 own beauty and vivacity, opened the doors of 
 social recognition to her on the instant she 
 tapped for admittance, and, entering with a 
 dash, she disported herself in a manner so 
 reckless that her name was soon on every- 
 body's lips. Her flirtations were uncounted, 
 scandalous, audaciously open; her style of 
 living ruinous even for a possessor of ten times 
 her wealth; she dressed loudly, looked fre- 
 quently on the wine cup, and, while the doctor 
 remained strictly in the privacy of his own 
 room, she never appeared at home except 
 for the few hours of sleep she was obliged to 
 steal each morning in order to recuperate for 
 the feverish dance of the day and night. Her 
 husband she seemed to hate. Of him and to 
 him her speech was invariably contemptuous, 
 and the flash of her black eye in his direction 
 was like the savage cut of a sword. Oa his 
 part he paid no attention to her any longer. 
 Her fierce glances seemed to impress him not 
 at all. He answered no sharp word of hers. 
 He never even looked at her, or seemed con- 
 scious of her existence, all his interest appar- 
 ently being confined to his pipe, his food, his 
 bed, and the scientific literature of the day. 
 
 These were the reports which for several 
 years came from Europe, chiefly from Paris, 
 and then suddenly the scene shifted back to 
 America. The doctor, looking like a feeble 
 octogenarian, though he was under 60, had
 
 MRS. WORTLEY'S SECRET 127 
 
 been seen through the window in his old home- 
 stead. In various ways it soon leaked out 
 that the strange couple had returned and, with 
 an old housekeeper, taken up their abode in 
 the decaying mansion, living in a relation to 
 each other that was nothing short of preposter- 
 ous. Rumor declared that the wife occupied 
 the two great rooms on the ground floor and 
 never stirred out of them; he lived in the back 
 attic and never stirred out of that, while the 
 housekeeper slept in the basement, carried them 
 their meals, took what little care of the house 
 that was taken at all, and stood as the buffer 
 between her mistress and the insistent duns 
 who, in due season, began to clamor at the 
 front door. And the explanation was that, the 
 million having taken wings, the foolish wife 
 and deluded husband had finally immured 
 themselves here to drag out the remainder of 
 their days in self-sought oblivion. A few of 
 his former friends had called at first, but were 
 turned away without a sight of him, and from 
 that time on nobody but the aged servant and 
 the tradesmen had been observed going to or 
 from the house. 
 
 This story flashed instantly through the 
 physician's brain as he sat there with his eyes 
 on the woman who had caused it all, now 
 cold in death, her earthly pilgrimage with its 
 strange mystery ended suddenly forever. What 
 that mystery was never would be known now 
 ah, but now it most certainly would be known! 
 The doctor would tell it in palliation of 
 palliation? Yes, or justification, what might
 
 128 EXPLOITS OF A PHYSICIAN-DETECTIVE 
 
 seem justification to him. For there was but 
 one explanation of that murder. The evidence 
 all pointed to it the locked doors, the key 
 whose hiding place could be known only to 
 an inmate of the house, the professional knots, 
 the chloroform, the large number of valu- 
 ables left untouched and the few taken as if 
 to send suspicion astray, the absence of foot- 
 prints in the snow, the couple's attitude toward 
 each other, and, above all, the great secret of 
 the estrangement! There was no other way 
 out of it. It was written as plainly in the 
 circumstances as if it had been carefully set 
 down in black and white. Driven to despera- 
 tion by the misery into which she had plunged 
 him, and most likely unhinged in mind, he 
 had done this terrible thing. And this was 
 the end of him as for her! What a finish for 
 a career that had begun and for twenty years 
 continued so brilliantly. 
 
 * * * * 
 
 Dr. Furnivall was eating his breakfast 
 when the news of the crime, coupled with the 
 request from the prisoner that he would call 
 upon him, was brought by an officer of the 
 police station; and a few minutes later he sat 
 face to face with the man he so highly honored 
 for his early achievements, and whose domestic 
 tragedy had long been known to him in the 
 version current in the profession. He found 
 him, as reported, an old man in appearance, 
 with hair and beard perfectly white, a stoop 
 in his shoulders as of care, a trembling hand, 
 and the pallid, wrinkled skin of fast approach-
 
 MRS. WORTLEY'S SECRET 129 
 
 ing decrepitude. The eyes, however, were 
 undimmed. Black, steady, full of fire, they 
 might have been those of a person of 30, but, 
 hidden behind gold rimmed spectacles, and 
 their power somewhat veiled by curiously puffed 
 lids, which gave him the appearance of looking 
 downward, they took nothing from the effect 
 of age, unless one looked directly into them. 
 
 "I requested you to call, Dr. Furnivall," 
 he began, speaking evenly, as if it were a 
 matter of every day business, "because I have 
 heard of your notable successes along the lines 
 of hypnotism, and in the interests of justice 
 He paused, and then asked abruptly, 
 "Do you believe I am guilty?" 
 
 "No," said Dr. Furnivall at once. And 
 added: "I may say that I know you are 
 innocent." 
 
 "Your reasons?" The question shot out in 
 the tones of an alert man of affairs, and the 
 black eyes examined Dr. Furnivall's face with 
 suddenly awakened interest. 
 
 "Because you are not a bungler. Accord- 
 ing to the story the officer told me on the way 
 here, every sign points to you, and you only. 
 If you had committed the crime it would not 
 be so. Not a single sign would indicate your 
 hand in the tragedy. Besides, had it been in 
 you to do it at all you would have done it 
 years ago, quietly and skillfully." 
 
 "Ah!" the old man exclaimed. "It really 
 seems as if others might have thought of that. 
 But no matter. What I wished to say is this: 
 I have no notion who the criminal is; not the
 
 I 3 o EXPLOITS OF A PHYSICIAN-DETECTIVE 
 
 least. But that woman at the house, Mrs. 
 Partridge, may be able to tell something if you 
 can make her talk. There was some bond 
 between my wife and her. I don't know its 
 nature, but it was very strong. They used to 
 weep in each other's arms every day, I should 
 think, beginning some five years ago, and I 
 never knew why, but it was evidently some- 
 thing terrible to them. The fact may have 
 bearing on the case. It is the only thing I 
 know, at all events, and I would suggest inquiry 
 in that field. If you could hypnotize the woman 
 and question her about that secret of theirs, 
 maybe her answers would throw light on the 
 murder if it be a murder." 
 
 "What! You think " 
 
 "Those women were capable of any bitter- 
 ness toward me. She might have died a 
 natural death. I don't know. But she had 
 trouble with her heart. And this other woman 
 would not hesitate to make it look like murder 
 and throw the appearance of guilt on me. 
 But what upsets the theory is that I am sure 
 she knows nothing of tying surgeon's knots." 
 
 "She might have had help." 
 
 "Yes, that may be. Perhaps that is it. She 
 has no initiative of her own, but would do what 
 she was told to do, and it is quite within the 
 possibilities that all this was arranged between 
 them long ago, in case Mrs. Wortley should die 
 suddenly. Her health was in a very delicate 
 state, and I fancy she had for two years expected 
 to go off suddenly at any moment. Yes, they 
 were quite capable of arranging beforehand to
 
 MRS. WORTLEY'S SECRE'^ T 13S 
 
 und it in the possession of tht.t^d this 
 make it ^ne of whom, at his request, she 
 picion to^ediately in to the housekeeper, who 
 most rantsilence at her mistress' bedside, neve> w 
 every wrg her eyes from the rigid body. She ' 
 strange/ answered his greeting nor seemed aware 
 shadov presence there. The officer, who had 
 "V great things of Dr. Furnivall's occult 
 ley's ers, and remained in the room curious to 
 nivafor himself some starling exhibition of them, 
 iched his arm, and shaking his head whispered : 
 ins "She was all right a little while this morning, 
 dind answered everything we asked her. But 
 n?he won't say no more took stuffy! Won't 
 iopen her mouth, no matter what you do." 
 ? "Oh, yes, she will!" the doctor returned 
 somewhat grimly, "Mrs. Partridge," he said 
 to her, "did you ever see me before?" 
 
 She looked up quickly and peered at him 
 with some show of interest, but immediately 
 moved her head as if to return her gaze to its 
 former direction. She moved it only slightly, 
 however. Then it remained fixed. Her weak 
 eyes, staring into his, took on an expression of 
 concentration wholly new to them, and she 
 answered in an emotionless voice: "No, sir." 
 "How long have you known Mrs. Wortley?" 
 "Most all her life." 
 "What relation do you bear to her?" 
 "I ain't any relation. Only she was en- 
 gaged to be married to my son." 
 
 "Married? She was already married. 
 What do you mean? Tell me all about it. 
 Begin at the beginning."
 
 130 EXPLOITS OF A PHYSICIAN-DETEC'j 
 
 IVE 
 
 least. But that woman at the houi. 
 Partridge, may be able to tell somethir lsten to 
 can make her talk. There was sor 
 between my wife and her. I don't kf alwa y* 
 nature, but it was very strong. They i * n< 
 weep in each other's arms every day, I ^ edorn 
 think, beginning some five years ago, a ai1 
 never knew why, but it was evidently sc evel 
 thing terrible to them. The fact may h im ^ 
 bearing on the case. It is the only thing'' nc 
 know, at all events, and I would suggest inquh 
 in that field. If you could hypnotize the woma*' 
 and question her about that secret of theirs;" 
 maybe her answers would throw light on the 
 murder if it be a murder." 
 
 "What! You think " 
 
 "Those women were capable of any bitter- 
 ness toward me. She might have died a 
 natural death. I don't know. But she had 
 trouble with her heart. And this other woman 
 would not hesitate to make it look like murder 
 and throw the appearance of guilt on me. 
 But what upsets the theory is that I am sure 
 she knows nothing of tying surgeon's knots." 
 
 "She might have had help." 
 
 "Yes, that may be. Perhaps that is it. She 
 has no initiative of her own, but would do what 
 she was told to do, and it is quite within the 
 possibilities that all this was arranged between 
 them long ago, in case Mrs. Wortley should die 
 suddenly. Her health was in a very delicate 
 state, and I fancy she had for two years expected 
 to go off suddenly at any moment. Yes, they 
 were quite capable of arranging beforehand to
 
 . MRS. WORTLEY'S SECRE'^ T , 3S 
 
 He found it in the possession of tht.ted this 
 officers, one of whom, at his request, snt 
 him immediately in to the housekeeper, who 
 in stony silence at her mistress' bedside, neve> w 
 removing her eyes from the rigid body. She ' 
 neither answered his greeting nor seemed aware 
 of his presence there. The officer, who had 
 heard great things of Dr. Furnivall's occult 
 powers, and remained in the room curious to 
 see for himself some starling exhibition of them, 
 touched his arm, and shaking his head whispered: 
 
 "She was all right a little while this morning, 
 and answered everything we asked her. But 
 she won't say no more took stuffy! Won't 
 open her mouth, no matter what you do." 
 
 "Oh, yes, she will!" the doctor returned 
 somewhat grimly, "Mrs. Partridge," he said 
 to her, "did you ever see me before?" 
 
 She looked up quickly and peered at him 
 with some show of interest, but immediately 
 moved her head as if to return her gaze to its 
 former direction. She moved it only slightly, 
 however. Then it remained fixed. Her weak 
 eyes, staring into his, took on an expression of 
 concentration wholly new to them, and she 
 answered in an emotionless voice: "No, sir." 
 
 "How long have you known Mrs. Wortley ?" 
 
 "Most all her life." 
 
 "What relation do you bear to her?" 
 
 "I ain't any relation. Only she was en- 
 gaged to be married to my son." 
 
 "Married? She was already married. 
 What do you mean? Tell me all about it. 
 Begin at the beginning."
 
 I 3 o EXPLOT L FS OF A PHYSICIAN-DETECTIVE 
 
 least " T ^ son J ames an d ner worked in the same 
 
 p arttr > and was goin' to git married when they 
 
 car aid afford it. Then Dr. Wortley wanted 
 
 ^>ier, and they thought she better take him, 
 
 for she said he was an old man and and would 
 
 leave her a lot of money and then she could 
 
 have James. But he was only 50. She thought 
 
 that was old, but it ain't. And he's alive yet. 
 
 But James died five years ago. That broke 
 
 her heart and mine, too, and she sent for me 
 
 and we've lived together ever since.' r 
 
 "My God!" burst involuntarily from Dr. 
 Furnivall. This, then, was the great secret! 
 He thought he never had heard so ironical a 
 tragedy put in so few words. This was the 
 girl whom Dr. Wortley had watched from 
 infancy, and found to be the one woman in' 
 the world! The young lover's death, which was 
 undoubtedly what the cablegram had announced 
 to her, upsetting her plans, destroying her 
 hopes, showing that all her duplicity and sac- 
 rifice had been in vain, had maddened her, and 
 with the one sided logic of an intensely material- 
 istic mind, she attributed her failure and 
 despair to her devoted victim. Had it not been 
 for him all this never would have occurred. 
 And he should pay for it! Yes, he should pay 
 for it to the last tittle with his honor, his hap- 
 piness, his money, the very decencies of life! 
 
 The policeman, who knew only enough of 
 the story to blame Dr. Wortley's lack of per- 
 spicacity in choosing such a woman for his wife, 
 sniffed cynically. Dr. Furnivall resumed his 
 questions.
 
 MRS. WORTLEY'S SECRET 135 
 
 "Have you any idea who committed this 
 crime?" 
 
 "No, I haven't." 
 
 "Who besides Dr. Wortley and you knew 
 where the key to the back parlor was kept?" 
 
 "Nobody. And the doctor didn't know, 
 either. It wasn't ever there till yesterday. I 
 stuck it in there myself." 
 
 "Why?" 
 
 "It was loose in the lock and fallin' out all 
 the time. I had to go in that way a good deal, 
 and first I used to leave it in the door daytimes, 
 and then I kept it in my pocket. But I lost it 
 yesterday, so when I found it I thought I'd 
 better hide it in the cupboard." 
 
 "When did you put it in there last?" 
 
 "It was 9 o'clock last night. She wasn't 
 feelin' well and went to bed about 8." 
 
 "And there was nobody but you three in 
 the house at that time?" 
 
 " No, not a soul. And there ain't been any- 
 body but us in the house sence we lived here, 
 except the water inspector." 
 
 "You have groceries and such things brought 
 here, don't you?" 
 
 " Not often. I go to the store myself mostly. 
 And when anything is brought I take it at the 
 door. The milkman got in this morning, but 
 he's the only one." 
 
 "You have no callers, any of you?" 
 
 "No, nobody I let in." 
 
 "Who calls and is not let in?" 
 
 "Only Fred now. People used to come for 
 the doctor, but I always told 'em that he
 
 136 EXPLOITS OF A PHYSICIAN-DETECTIVE 
 
 didn't want to see 'em, and so they don't 
 come any more." 
 
 "Who is Fred?" 
 
 "My son." 
 
 "Another son! Does Mrs. Wortley ever see 
 him?" 
 
 "No. But she gives me money for him. 
 People think we're poor, but we ain't." 
 
 "Has he been here lately?" 
 v "Not for two weeks. I told him not to 
 come again till he was sober. Mrs. Wortley 
 wouldn't give him any more money to buy 
 liquor with." 
 
 "What is your son's business?" 
 
 "He drove a hack last, but I guess he ain't 
 working now." 
 
 "What did he do before that?" 
 
 " Oh, different things. He took care of horses 
 in a stable, and worked in a grocery store, and 
 was a bartender once. Then he was a waiter. 
 But mostly he drived horses for somebody." 
 
 "He hasn't ever had anything to do with 
 medicine, has he ? Did he ever work in a drug 
 store?" 
 
 "No, not that I know of. The nearest he 
 ever came to it was driving the hospital ambu- 
 lance. He tried nursing, too, but didn't like 
 it, and went back on the team." 
 
 "Where does he live?" 
 
 "22 Prospect street." 
 
 Dr. Furnivall scribbled a note and gave it 
 to the officer. 
 
 "That man fits all the circumstances," he 
 whispered. "As soon as you find him call me
 
 MRS. WORTLEY'S SECRET 137 
 
 up on the telephone and then take him to your 
 station." 
 
 At 3 o'clock that afternoon Dr. Furnivail, 
 responding to the summons, walked into sta- 
 tion 15 and found a short, clean shaven, red 
 faced, shifty looking fellow, about 28 years old, 
 protesting to the lieutenant that, by all that 
 was holy, though he was Fred Partridge, and 
 lived at 22 Prospect street, this was the first 
 time he had ever heard the name of Wortley. 
 He knew nothing of any murder. These 
 officers, he said, had gone to his boarding 
 place, and not finding him there, had searched 
 the whole neighborhood for him, which was 
 enough to give a man a bad name for life, and 
 finally coming on him in a saloon, among 
 freinds that knew him, had snapped the darbies 
 on him for murder. Nice way to treat an 
 honest man who was trying to earn his living 
 without sponging on anybody for it! He 
 didn't even know what street the murder was 
 done in. And here were two friends, Con and 
 Ed, who were with him when he was arrested, 
 and could swear he hadn't been out of their 
 sight since yesterday noon. He slept with 
 them last night in their room, three in a bed. 
 
 Two men standing near nodded. 
 
 "That's right," said one of them to the lieu- 
 tenant. "We had a free lunch yesterday noon 
 over to Tim Nagle's place, an' we been together 
 ever since, lookin' for a job." 
 
 The lieutenant's face wrinkled derisively as 
 he glanced into the watery eyes of the friendly 
 trio, picturing in his fancy the kind of job they
 
 i 3 8 EXPLOITS OF A PHYSICIAN-DETECTIVE 
 
 were undoubtedly looking for. Then he nodded 
 to Dr. Furnivall, who came forward and stood 
 by the railing close to Partridge. 
 
 There were several police officers in the 
 room, and, their curiosity sharpened by their 
 comrade's story of the marvelous results ob- 
 tained by Dr. Furnivall that day from the 
 woman who wouldn't speak, they watched his 
 every move with absorbed interest. But when, 
 without any spectacular waving or stroking of 
 the hands, such as they had always associated 
 in their minds with hypnotism, without the pro- 
 duction of any mysterious machine, or even a 
 globe of magic crystal, he simply, in an ordi- 
 nary tone, asked Partridge, "Where did you 
 learn to tie surgeon's knots?" they were plainly 
 disappointed. If this was hypnotism, hypno- 
 tism was no great shakes. 
 
 The man turned quickly at the question. 
 
 "Surgeon's knots?" he cried. "What's sur- 
 geon's knots?" 
 
 "Didn't you ever nurse in a hospital?" 
 
 His face grew hot and then blanched. 
 
 "No," he answered huskily. 
 
 "Never drove an ambulance?" 
 
 "No." 
 
 "What do you know of Mrs. Wortley?" 
 
 "I tell you I dunno nothing of her," he 
 began heatedly. "I never heard the name 
 till this minute. My mother is her house- 
 keeper." 
 
 Before the circle of listeners could digest 
 this grotesque contradiction the doctor asked 
 evenly, repeating his first remark:
 
 MRS. WORTLEY'S SECRET 139 
 
 "Where did you learn to tie surgeon's 
 knots?" 
 
 "City hospital," he answered readily now, 
 in a mechanical voice, his eyes intently on his 
 questioner's. 
 
 "Tell me all about the Wortley affair. 
 What did you go there for? Go on. Begin at 
 the beginning." 
 
 "I went fer some money. Mother said last 
 week she wouldn't give me no more till I quit the 
 booze, and I had been on it a little that day, 
 but I thought maybe she might cough up some. 
 I was bound to try it anyways. But when I 
 got over there I seen the ketch on the winder 
 wasn't fastened, and I thought maybe I could 
 git more myself, if I went in, than they'd give 
 me. So I h'isted the winder and crawled 
 through. There was a candle lit on the table 
 and I could see that the key was on the inside 
 of the door, so I shet the winder and fastened 
 it so nobudy'd notice outside, and then unlocked 
 the door, so I could git out quicker. While I 
 was at it she woke up and started in to scream, 
 and I grabbed her and shut her mouth. She 
 sorter fainted then, and I tied her up so she 
 couldn't fall out of bed when she come to and 
 wake up mother downstairs. Then I begun 
 to clean out the room, but she laid so still I 
 went over to look at her. She looked so bad 
 I was rattled and grabbed a bottle of some- 
 thing I thought was water that stood on the 
 table and threw it in her face. But then I 
 found it was chloroform. That rattled me 
 more'n ever, and somehow I dropped the
 
 140 EXPLOITS OF A PHYSICIAN-DETECTIVE 
 
 candle on her. But I picked it up again and 
 put it out and run into the hall. But before 1 
 could git out mother was comin' up from the 
 kitchen, and I hid on the stairs, I thought 
 she'd heard me, but she hadn't; she only went 
 into the back parlor for something. When she 
 come out I see where she put the key, and I 
 thought I could stand it better to search that 
 room than the one where the woman was in 
 the faint, so I got the key and went in. But it 
 was dark as pitch. I couldn't find anything. 
 I remembered that her watch hung on the bed- 
 post, and I thought I could stand it to git that, 
 so I opened the foldin' doors easy. Then I got 
 the watch, pulled the foldin' doors to, locked 
 up the back parlor, and put the key where I 
 found it, and come out the front way." 
 
 "Do your friends here, Con and Ed, know 
 all this?" 
 
 ''No, they don't know nothing about it. 
 They was waitin' round the corner, and thought 
 I went to see my mother a minute, that's all. 
 I only showed 'em a diamond, and said she 
 give it to me." 
 
 "What time was it when you came out of 
 the Wortley house?" 
 
 "Somewheres about 9 o'clock." 
 
 "That agrees with the woman's time," said 
 Dr. Furnivall to the lieutenant, "and clears 
 up the question of footprints. It had only 
 just begun to snow then." 
 
 "I didn't hardly touch her," said Partridge, 
 following out the trend of his thought. "I didn't 
 mean to hurt her. I couldn't 'a' hurt her much."
 
 MRS. WORTLEY'S SECRET 141 
 
 "It will be found to be heart failure accel- 
 erated by fright, I think," said Dr. Furnivall. 
 
 The lieutenant motioned to the now thor- 
 oughly astonished men, who led the prisoner 
 away. 
 
 "If it hadn't been for you," he said to the 
 doctor, "we never would have got this Part- 
 ridge. Dr. Wortley would have to stand for 
 it. Say," he continued, earnestly, "I'd give a 
 year's salary to learn how to do a stunt like 
 that one." 
 
 "Well," remarked Dr. Furnivall, soberly, 
 drawing on his gloves, "it cost me as much as 
 that would come to in one way and another!"
 
 The Wetchell Job
 
 THE WETCHELL JOB 
 
 One of the most extraordinary cases that 
 ever came under the observation of Dr. Fur- 
 nivall, and which, as it turned out, could in all 
 probability never have been solved in any other 
 way than through his peculiar method of 
 hypnotism, was what is known in police circles 
 as "The Wetchell Job." The truths of this 
 unique crime as brought out by him are as 
 follows : 
 
 In a large, barnlike old house of three 
 stories, of brick, painted yellow, sitting in a 
 yard of its own, surrounded by high board 
 fences, amidst new tenement buildings filled 
 with an element utterly incongruous with its air 
 of old fashioned respectability, lived Miss 
 Wetchell. She clung to the ancient homestead 
 as to her one friend on earth, to the everlasting 
 disturbance of the clamorous neighbors, who, 
 in their congested quarters, resented in six 
 languages the occupation of a whole house of 
 fourteen rooms by one person, and that one an 
 elderly, single female of oily manners and a 
 good income, who pretended to be what she was 
 not. For this woman, by her smile, which was 
 ostentatiously gentle; by her voice, which was 
 ostentatiously tender, and by her ostentatious 
 acts of kindness, which consisted in feeding 
 stray cats and allowing children of the tene- 
 ments to play in her great back yard one hour
 
 146 EXPLOITS OF A PHYSICIAN-DETECTIVE 
 
 a week this woman, by all these signs adver- 
 tised herself as a person of good nature and 
 benevolence, when she was very far from being 
 that. It did not require many days of observa- 
 tion on the part of any one of the interested 
 observers to force the conclusion on them that 
 all this, while done by the lady with the view of 
 exalting her reputation, was in reality the 
 expression of cowardice. In fact, this benevo- 
 lent woman was afraid. She wished to con- 
 ciliate these rude ones; she wished to be on 
 good terms with her neighbors for fear of them. 
 Too miserly, they said, to sell her property at 
 the low price which it was now worth, on 
 account of its location, so near the heart of the 
 slums, she held on with a grip comparable to 
 that of death alone, fawning and smiling lov- 
 ingly when she felt only dread and hate, in 
 order to save the few dollars she would be 
 obliged to sacrifice from her plenty in selling 
 out and going to more congenial quarters. 
 The bases of this opinion were many, spread 
 over a large area of observation by the onlookers, 
 who were shrewder than she thought, but one 
 of these bases flared out like a beacon light 
 from among all the others and was observable, 
 perhaps, once a day for every twenty-four hours 
 of the year. 
 
 It was the distinction she made between the 
 value of men and that of cats, and upon this 
 distinction as she made it rests the story of her 
 strange misfortune. 
 
 Up the street towards this lady, who was 
 sweeping the steps of her domicile in the morn-
 
 THE WETCHELL JOB 147 
 
 ing, a man advanced. He was not a nice 
 appearing person. His clothes were greasy and 
 ragged, his nose was blooded, his gait was halt, 
 as if there were sores on his heels, and his skin 
 was exceedingly dirty, and grown over with 
 thick, black hairs. He saw the busy sweeper 
 all at once, and immediately began his prepara- 
 tions. These consisted in a smoothing down 
 of the heavy beard, a pull at the brim of his old 
 slouch hat, a straightening of the shoulders, a 
 sidling movement of the body, and a depreca- 
 tory eye. He coughed, and with his hand on 
 the gate post spoke: 
 
 "Hm'ml Lady, c'd yer help a poor man 
 that fighted fer yer in the war?" 
 
 She turned upon him like a tigress. She 
 was not handsome, and the distortion of her 
 coarse features, the baring of her strong yellow 
 teeth, and her sudden raging at him, took him 
 completely aback. 
 
 "You!" she hissed, "You, a man 6 feet tall, 
 and healthy, asking help! You ought to be 
 ashamed of yourself. Why don't you go to 
 work? There is plenty to do. You are lazy. 
 Don't you dare ask me for assistance, you 
 you ugh!" 
 
 In a fever of virtuous wrath she gave an 
 extra swish of her broom, stamped her foot, 
 threw a last indignant glance toward the 
 abased mendicant, flew into the house, and 
 slammed the door. 
 
 Hobus leaned on the fence wearily. He 
 had not been in the war, and he wondered if 
 she, by some occult power known only to the
 
 148 EXPLOITS OF A PHYSICIAN-DETECTIVE 
 
 higher classes, had found him out in his lie. 
 Was that the reason why she was so fierce? 
 He believed so. He did not know how it was, 
 but the world was down on him. The whole 
 world ! He looked up at the house wonderingly, 
 smoothed his beard with a trembling hand, and 
 tried to think. Where should he go next? He 
 was hungry, he was wretched, he was impotent, 
 and he could not see that all this was his fault. 
 It appeared to him that he had been born so 
 hungry and wretched and incapable, and 
 never could be anything else. 
 
 Listlessly he moved away across the street 
 to the scant shade of a straggly tree, and con- 
 sidered. Presently another man, with the soil 
 of several states on his person, hardly distin- 
 guished in appearance from Hobus himself, 
 though he was smaller and younger, and his 
 beard was of a fortnight's growth only, slouched 
 around the corner, examined the Wetchell 
 house a moment, and then crept into the yard. 
 Hobus began to grin, and, hobbling hurriedly 
 to a position of advantage behind the great 
 square fence post, pricked up his ears to listen. 
 
 "Lady," said the young tramp to Miss 
 Wetchell when she had answered his ring, 
 "could you please feed a poor man that was in 
 the Spanish war and got broke down fightin' 
 fer yer?" 
 
 Hobus shook his head solemnly as he heard 
 this form of address, so closely resembling his 
 own. In the mouth of another it took on a new 
 meaning. It seemed like attempting to estab- 
 lish a right to alms rather than a bid for charity
 
 THE WETCHELL JOB 149 
 
 and kindness, and Hobus, without understand- 
 ing the philosophy of the case, felt intuitively 
 that it was a wrong move. Condescension is 
 a necessary concomitant of charity with many 
 givers, and to remove the possibility of their 
 enjoying that comfortable emotion by asking 
 help of them as a right, not as a favor, is unwise. 
 He resolved to remodel his own formula after 
 this. In the meantime he shook with wild 
 laughter to hear Miss Wetchell's address. It 
 was exactly, word for word, the same answer 
 she had given him, and not knowing that it was 
 a familiar form to her, beaten into her mind by 
 the constant repetition of it during fifty years 
 or more of resistance to the horrible evil of 
 pauperization, he wondered how she remem- 
 bered it so perfectly. 
 
 "You!" she hissed. "You, a man, six feet 
 tall (he was 5 feet 2), and healthy, asking help! 
 You ought to be ashamed of yourself! Why 
 don't you go to work? There is plenty to do. 
 You are lazy. Don't you dare ask me for 
 assistance, you you ugh " 
 
 She slammed the door in his face. 
 
 Hobus, peering around the post, preparing 
 to meet the rejected applicant with a face- 
 tious grin, was startled by the sudden deathly 
 pallor of his skin, and quickly drew back to 
 his hiding place. The young man slowly left 
 the yard and started in the direction whence 
 he had come, walking weakly, staggering a little, 
 and keeping near the houses, against which he 
 frequently leaned to steady his tottering steps. 
 At the corner he paused, looked dazedly around,
 
 rso EXPLOITS OF A PHYSICIAN-DETECTIVE 
 
 clapped his hand to his side, and then sank in 
 a heap on the sidewalk. 
 
 In an instant there was a crowd around him, 
 which Hobus joined, hovering on the outskirts 
 of it with morbid curiosity. A doctor came 
 hastily from his office near by, knelt over the 
 huddled body, and presently announced that it 
 was death, due to a weak heart and starvation. 
 Hobus waited until the ambulance arrived and 
 closed its doors on its ghastly burden, and 
 rattled away. Then he returned to his former 
 position by the tree, and stood eyeing the old 
 house opposite with a queer passion struggling 
 for expression in his weak face. 
 
 In a moment up the sidewalk came a little 
 girl with a cat in her arms, and, turning into 
 Miss Wetchell's doorway, rang the old fash' 
 ioned bell, expectancy in her bright eyes, the 
 flush of enthusiasm in her round cheeks. Miss 
 Wetchell opened the door, the tramp looking 
 on in curiosity. 
 
 "Oh, Miss Wetchelll" cried the child, "here 
 is a kitty and she is lost and I found her- 
 and and do you do you want her ? Mamma 
 said you belonged to the the oh > something 
 that takes care of kitties!" 
 
 "Oh, the dear little thing!" observed Miss 
 Wetchell loudly, with a cast of her eye up to 
 the windows opposite, as if addressing them. 
 "Come right in, darling, and I will give the 
 poor thing some milk. And I think that is 
 very nice of you to bring the poor, little kitty 
 here. I will give you a piece of nice candy for 
 it. Come."
 
 THE WETCHELL JOB 151 
 
 It was one of those idiosyncrasies of char- 
 acter which only the profoundest philosophy 
 can explain, that while she hoped and believed 
 that the neighbors would become cognizant of 
 her goodness to cats, and would applaud it, 
 thinking it was abstract goodness, she at the 
 same time never thought of their becoming 
 aware of her harsh treatment of men, and 
 resenting it, though the evidence she gave of 
 the latter was at least four times stronger than 
 that of the former. She always looked at the 
 surrounding windows with self-conscious benevo- 
 lence when she took in a cat, but when she drove 
 a human being away from her house in a voice 
 of strident power she never dreamed of any- 
 body's hearing it, except the person she ad- 
 dressed. 
 
 The door closed behind the two as the child 
 accepted the invitation with the delight of her 
 years and innocence. 
 
 A great man has said that so subtle are the 
 springs of conduct there is for every person, 
 even the lowest, some one action at least in the 
 external world that will infuse him with courage 
 and all the passions which the highest can 
 feel. Hobus, the moment he saw that trans- 
 action, became another man. He straightened 
 up, his flesh seemed suddenly to grow less 
 flabby, his eye brightened, and a look of intel- 
 ligence flashed into it, though it had long been 
 devoid of that excellence. And, this time with- 
 out smoothing his beard, or coughing or arrang- 
 ing his hat, he started across the street to the 
 big house, entered the yard, and put a dirty
 
 153 EXPLOITS OF A PHYSICIAN-DETECTIVE 
 
 hand to the bell. When Miss Wetchell ap- 
 peared he pushed in, took the little girl, who 
 had, childlike, followed her hostess at the sound 
 of the bell, by the arms, gently lifted her to the 
 the outside, and closed the door. 
 
 "Now, sizzle ye!" he said to the bewildered 
 Miss Wetchell, "arter you've fed the cat give 
 me something to eat." 
 
 He grasped her arm as he spoke and shook 
 her, scowling and masterful. "Sizzle ye!" he 
 reiterated. It was the first time in his life that 
 he ever could have been called masterful. 
 
 The horror of her situation nearly overcome 
 Miss Wetchell. She was alone in that great 
 house with an ugly tramp. To call out would 
 be foolishness. Nobody could hear. And even 
 if anybody could hear she would be murdered 
 before help could arrive. But Miss Wetchell 
 was not one to remain overwhelmed. She 
 knew exactly what to do in the circumstances, 
 once she had time to collect herself. A thousand 
 times had she practiced her perspicacity on the 
 neighbors in exigencies which, though they never 
 any of them had been as urgent as this, were 
 still of strategic importance. She had a prin- 
 ciple and she would employ it now. It was 
 oilyness. Therefore "Oh!" she exclaimed, as 
 if to a dear friend, "come right in. Now, what 
 would you like for breakfast? Lay off your 
 hat. Here, let me take it. Should you like 
 some strawberries and cream? I like them. 
 But you can have just what you want." 
 
 She bustled away through the sittingroom 
 and thence into the kitchen, where the table
 
 THE WETCHELL JOB 153 
 
 was kept continually set. Hobus followed 
 her closely. 
 
 "Anybody else in the house 'sides you?" 
 he asked. 
 
 "Oh, yes," she answered with emphasis. 
 "There's a family up stairs. I expect Mr. 
 Wockwell down every minute." 
 
 He laughed boisterously. Her manner con- 
 vinced him. They two were alone. He sat in 
 a chair, put his feet on the table, produced a 
 cigarette and said: 
 
 "Give us a light, old girl." 
 
 She brought it to him obediently, with an 
 exaggerated show of condescending hospitality. 
 
 "Do you enjoy smoking?" she asked in a 
 desperately friendly manner, working about the 
 range. 
 
 He threw his head back and laughed, blow- 
 ing blue clouds. But he said nothing except 
 "Hurry up! I'm hungry " and then, "Sizzle 
 yer!" 
 
 "I'll give you some nice ham and eggs," she 
 volunteered with a broad show of happiness. 
 "Should you like that?" She paused, with a 
 fork in her hand, over the gas range, and 
 looked inquiringly at him. There was fear, 
 deadly fear, in her eyes and face, and in all 
 her manner, which she strove with all her 
 might to hide, vainly, and this man, who, ten 
 minutes before, had cringed to her, saw that 
 fear, and the seeing made him her slave 
 driver. 
 
 "'Ham and' is all right," he said, changing 
 his legs, "but hurry up, sizzle yer!"
 
 154 EXPLOITS OF A PHYSICIAN-DETECTIVE 
 
 "Oh, yes," she cried, "I'll hurry." She ran 
 here and there in the kitchen, now for this thing, 
 now for that, and presently the fumes of the 
 frying meat filled the room. She started to 
 open one of the windows to let the smoke out, 
 but he leveled his forefinger at her from where 
 he sat, and said simply: 
 
 "Don't!" 
 
 "Oh, wouldn't you like the window open?" 
 she said. "I thought you would. But there, 
 I rather like the smoke of frying ham myself. 
 Only I thought you wouldn't, and " 
 
 She finished with a gasping cough, the com- 
 mingled stenches of gas, cigarette, and meat 
 nearly strangling her. He looked at her cyni- 
 cally and blew aerid puffs and badly made rings 
 toward her shrinking nostrils. The stray cat 
 was lapping milk out of a saucer in the sink, 
 and Hobus, putting his legs down, scuffled his 
 feet on the linoleum covered floor suddenly to 
 see her jump. When she answered his expecta- 
 tions by spitting and scuttling beneath the stove 
 he grinned delightedly. 
 
 "Say, old girl," he called in a loud voice, 
 in order to make himself heard above the 
 sputtering and sizzling of the ham, "it's 
 cheaper to feed cats 'n what 'tis humans 
 ain't it?" 
 
 She was so fully occupied with her fears for 
 her property and her bodily safety that she did 
 not take in the sarcasm of his remark. 
 
 "Oh, I don't mind that", she said auto- 
 matically. " I am sure you're very welcome to 
 thisl"
 
 THE WETCHELL JOB 155 
 
 "Yes," he sneered, and then, "Ain't yer 
 gonter give the pore little kitty none ? Say, yer 
 oughter give the dear little kitty the ham and 
 eggs, arter keepin' 'em away from that young 
 feller jest now. She's more importance 'n 
 what he was! Yer know what 'come of that 
 sick boy yer sent away hungry, on top of a 
 tongue lashin'?" 
 
 She was not following him in the least. Her 
 mind was deeply intent on turning over various 
 plans of escape or calling help, but his words 
 set vibrating within her certain chords of argu- 
 ment which, from long use, acted mechanically 
 when touched, and she said, hardly conscious 
 that she was speaking: 
 
 "A man has free will. He can take care 
 of himself. If he doesn't it is his own fault 
 and he doesn't deserve help. If a human 
 being is destitute, look back into his or her 
 record and you'll find the reason for it. But 
 the animals are helpless, they " 
 
 With a howl of rage Hobus threw himself 
 upon her, and, seizing her wrists, bent and 
 twisted her arms back until the joints cracked 
 and she sank to her knees on the floor. 
 
 "Humans has got free will, has they? Oh, 
 yes, humans can do jest what they want to, 
 I'll bait. I'll bait you can do just what yer 
 want to now! A lot you know about what 
 humans c'n do! I wish you had to go through 
 what I had, that's all yer ign'rent old cross 
 atween a rhinoceros and a jackass! You stand 
 up and fry them aigs, and when you say any- 
 thing, talk sense, or I'll know the reason why "
 
 156 EXPLOITS OF A PHYSICIAN-DETECTIVE 
 
 He flung her hands down, and as she rose 
 quickly, stood glaring at her. Then, as she 
 spaded out the ham into a plate, setting it on 
 the range to keep hot, and broke the eggs into 
 the griddle, he resumed his seat, muttering and 
 scowling. She went on with her work as if 
 nothing had happened, perfectly cowed, anxious 
 to conciliate him. 
 
 "Do you like your eggs turned?" she asked, 
 looking up and hanging on his answer as if it 
 were a matter of international importance. 
 
 "Give 'em here jest's they bel" he growled, 
 hitching his chair to the table. He ate vora- 
 ciously, leaving not a scrap behind, while she 
 waited on him assiduously. Once she started 
 to another room, ostensibly for the sugar, but he 
 scowled and motioned, and she returned in- 
 stantly. 
 
 "You got any more cats in the house?" he 
 asked abruptly, when he had lapped his plate 
 clean. 
 
 "Yes, I have seven," she answered promptly. 
 "I expect a man from the animal home to call 
 for them any moment. I sent for him yes- 
 terday." 
 
 He examined ner narrowly. 
 
 "Yer sech a liar that I dunno how t' take 
 yer. Yer said there was fambly up stairs, 
 and there ain't. I dunno whether there's a 
 man comin' er not, but you show me where 
 them cats is. I wanter see 'em." 
 
 "They are in the cellar," she said. 
 , "Wai, come on, show 'em to me," he com- 
 manded rising. : -.
 
 THE WETCHELL JOB 157 
 
 She was greatly perturbed over the thought 
 of being alone in the cellar with this horrible 
 vagrant that she forgot the lamp which was 
 necessary to dispel the gloom of the windowless 
 place, and with shaking hand withdrew the 
 bolt to the door, which opened on the stairs 
 directly from the kitchen, and started down, 
 with him close on her heels. He did not pro- 
 ceed farther than the door at the foot. Gazing 
 into the damp, gloomy beyond he grunted with 
 satisfaction. 
 
 "Say," he growled, as he stopped, "seems 
 to me this is just about the kind of a place an 
 old addle-head like you oughter live in 
 along with yer dear little kitties. Yer ain't fit 
 fer human society, that's straight. So I'm 
 agonter leave yer here. And when yer mind 
 runs out of other pleasant things to think of 
 how yer c'n do jest as yer wanter, bein' 
 human, not a cat, and all that yer can jest 
 remember that that sick young feller yer turned 
 away is dead. He died jest down to the cor- 
 ner. It was starvation. You killed him yer 
 high minded, lovely gentle-woman." 
 
 He shut and hasped the door as he spoke 
 and hobbled upward to the kitchen, 
 
 This was on Monday. On Thursday morn- 
 ing the neighbors notified the police that Miss 
 Wetchell had not been seen around her home 
 lately, and, after a conference at the station, 
 it was decided to force an entrance and investi- 
 gate the suspicious circumstances. Then Miss 
 Wetchell was found in the cellar cowed and 
 frightened, but in good bodily condition, for
 
 158 EXPLOITS OF A PHYSICIAN-DETECTIVE 
 
 the cellar was well stocked with food and 
 water. The moment she was released she 
 rushed into her sleeping room, and no sooner 
 had entered than she uttered a shriek of anguish 
 and terror. A board had been removed from 
 the side of the disused fireplace, revealing a 
 cavity behind, which was now empty. All her 
 ready money and all her jewelry had been 
 taken, she lamented, and she had nothing left 
 to live on. 
 
 Then she told her story, and the police, 
 spreading the net for the criminal, had Hobus 
 in charge inside of twenty-four hours. 
 
 But the story of Hobus differed materially 
 from that of Miss Wetchell. 
 
 In the first place, he declared that he had 
 not taken a thing out of the house except the 
 dinner she had given him. Moreover, it was 
 only for an hour or two that she was confined 
 in the cellar, not three days, for somebody had 
 come and let her out. He had been there at 
 the time and it was the arrival of this some- 
 body that had frightened him away. 
 
 Of course he was not believed. But, though 
 he was given the "third degree" in the endeavor 
 to sweat the truth from him, he stuck to his 
 original statement and would not change a 
 word of it. He said that after locking the 
 woman in the cellar to frighten her, he sat 
 down in the kitchen and smoked, intending to 
 release his prisoner when he had rested and 
 was ready to leave the house. He did look 
 around a little after a while, to see if there was 
 anything worth appropriating, but he saw
 
 THi: WETCHELL JOB 159 
 
 nothing very desirable, and besides, he had so 
 much contempt for the lady that he was afraid 
 it would bring him bad luck if he should steal 
 from her. She had just the same as killed a 
 man. She was a hoodoo. So he went back 
 into the kitchen and smoked and read an old 
 newspaper that lay there. Finally he fell 
 asleep, and some time afterward was awakened 
 by the ringing of the doorbell, which was right 
 above his head. He jumped up and peeked 
 through the window. He could just see the 
 elbow of a man standing on the steps, who 
 remained there a moment longer, giving the 
 bell another pull, and then started off. Hobus, 
 supposing he had gone for good, resolved not 
 to risk staying there after that. Somebody else 
 might come. 
 
 He had just about shot back the bolt on the 
 front door, ready to go out, when he thought 
 of the prisoner. She must not be left there, 
 locked in. But before he could take one step 
 to release her he heard a footfall on the walk 
 outside, the bell rang again, and the doorknob 
 rattled. He sprang into the front room just 
 in time to avoid facing the newcomer, for the 
 door swung open as he shook the knob and he 
 entered, crying out: 
 
 "Do you keep your doors unlocked here?" 
 At the same moment there came a vigorous 
 thumping on the floor from underneath, as if 
 it were being pounded with a stick of timber. 
 The stranger exclaimed under his breath and 
 hastened down the cellar stairs, when Hobus, 
 knowing what he would discover there, softly
 
 160 EXPLOITS OF A PHYSICIAN-DETECTIVE 
 
 slid into the street and hurried away. That 
 was all he knew about it. He had not intended 
 to hurt the woman; only to scare her and show 
 her how sometimes the best of us cannot do as 
 we would; and he had not seen any money in 
 the house, to say nothing of taking any away. 
 The man, whoever he was, had certainly let the 
 woman out, for he knew she or somebody was 
 down there, and Hobus had heard him descend- 
 ing the cellar stairs. 
 
 This story was ridiculed by the police; yet 
 they could not account for the fact that no 
 money was found on the prisoner. He was 
 sober, too, which hardly would have happened 
 if there were any cash where he could get 
 hold of it. They took him to Miss Wetchell 
 for identification, and when she declared him to 
 be the guilty one he repeated his yarn over again. 
 
 "I heard the doorbell ring," she said, in 
 answer, "and I thought I heard voices. So I 
 knocked on the floor with a stick. Then some- 
 body came down the cellar stairs, and I ran 
 to the door and cried out that I was locked in 
 there; but, as the person turned around and 
 went up, I supposed it was you and that nobody 
 had come in. Indeed, how could anybody get 
 in with the door locked ? I didn't suppose you 
 would open it for anybody." 
 
 "Wa'al he rattled the knob, and the door 
 come open ' began Hobus, when she started 
 up and stared at him, crying out in agitation: 
 
 "Did you say he shook the door knob?" 
 
 "Yes," said Hobus, sullenly. "I've said it 
 fifty times. Ain't that enough?"
 
 THE WET CHELL JOB 161 
 
 She sank back on the couch, where she had 
 been lying, with a pale and troubled face. 
 
 "What is it, Miss Wetchell?" asked the 
 officer of police who had the prisoner in charge. 
 
 "It can't be anything but a coincidence," 
 she said in a low voice, "but it is very strange, 
 very strange." 
 
 "But what is strange?" he urged gently. 
 Miss Wetchell was a person of property, and 
 as such entitled to the respect and deference 
 of the guardians of the city's peace. They 
 were all of them very polite when they came in 
 contact with her. 
 
 "Well," she answered, "you know I am 
 alone here, and I don't like to answer the bell 
 unless I can see who is ringing it, especially at 
 night. So usually I go upstairs and look from 
 the window down onto the steps. But to save 
 me that trouble with my own folks I haven't 
 many, you know, only two or three distant 
 relatives it is understood that when it is one 
 of them at the door, she will pull the bell and 
 then loudly rattle the knob, so I'll know. That 
 is all. If the person of whom this man speaks 
 
 rattled it it was was very " She looked 
 
 at the officer and he looked from her to Hobus, 
 with a subtle change of expression flitting over 
 his face. 
 
 "Are all your folks women?" he asked her. 
 "You said 'she' would rattle " 
 
 "No, they are not!" Miss Wetchell cried, 
 sitting up. "And if you can find out that any 
 of them did this horrible thing, and if you get 
 this money back "
 
 i6a EXPLOITS OF A PHYSICIAN-DETECTIVl 
 
 "It was him done it," interrupted Hobus, 
 nodding his head wisely. "'Twan't me." 
 
 The officer again glanced at him and back 
 at Miss Wetchell swiftly. 
 
 "Miss Wetchell," he said, "do you suspect 
 anybody?" 
 
 "Yes, I do now!" she answered, with 
 emphasis. "One of my folks is not a woman. 
 He is a man, or a small part of one, and it 
 
 would be more like him to do it " She 
 
 stopped speaking and lay back on the couch 
 as if exhausted. But she no sooner had touched 
 the pillow than she bounded up again. "His 
 name," she almost screeched, "is Ferdinand 
 Bostwell, and he lives at 41 Pearl street, in 
 Wentonville. If any man rang that bell, and 
 at the same time rattled the doorknob, he is 
 the one. I always knew he wanted my money, 
 and would do anything to get it the wretched 
 person! You come here!" 
 
 The last phrase was addressed to Hobus. 
 She seemed to think she had done him an 
 injury by suspecting him of the theft of the 
 money, and, overlooking his treatment of her 
 in the past, she sought now to forgive him for 
 this, as a kind woman would do, and make 
 honorable amends for her suspicion. 
 
 Hobus stood where he was. 
 
 "You go sizzle," he said, disgustedly. 
 "There's people that's low, 'n' there's people 
 that's high, I s'pose. Folks says so, anyhow. 
 I never seen no low people but you. You say 
 'come here!' You say it to me. Waal, I say 
 to you, 'You go to hell!' Yore a Jonah. You
 
 THE WETCHELL JOB 163 
 
 killed a man. I seen yer do it. There ain't 
 nobody no lower 'n what you are. You got 
 a plenty, an' 'twas all give to yer. Yer never 
 earned a cent 'n all yer low life. Yer didn't 
 have ter. But I had ter, 'n' I couldn't. Who'd 
 give me a job ? Nobody. How c'n I git work ? 
 The's too many folks like you in the world for 
 me to git anything to do. Yore one of them 
 twenty-five that looks inter a man's record, yer 
 told me so, and if it's bad why, yer fool! 
 Whose is good, when yer come ter know it? 
 Is yore's? How is it, then, that all yore money 
 is stole, and yer ain't got nothing ter live on? 
 Yore human, ain't yer, not a cat? Yer can 
 do as yer wanter! Why didn't yer keep yer 
 money? Sizzle yer! You pertend charity, and 
 yer give it ter cats, and let better folks 'n what 
 you be starve! I'd like ter " 
 
 The police officer, looking up from his note- 
 book, held him back when he started for her 
 as if he would throttle her. 
 
 " Don't mind him. Miss Wetchell," he said. 
 "He's only a hobo harmless. He dunno 
 what he's saying, and he wouldn't hurt a flea." 
 
 Without ceremony he took Hobus by the 
 arm and walked him back to the station. 
 
 Then Mr. Ferdinand Bostwell, the man 
 whom Miss Wetchell had named, was brought 
 in. But, having been questioned, he at once 
 made out what seemed to be a perfect alibi. 
 He kept a job book, and in it were noted all 
 his movements for practically every moment 
 of the fateful day. He had not been within 
 six miles of Miss WetchelPs residence on that
 
 164 EXPLOITS OF A PHYSICIAN-DETECTIVE 
 
 Monday, he said, had not called at her house 
 for three years, and, if he had his way, would 
 never call at it. He admitted that it was not 
 in the best of taste for a man to run down any 
 member of his own family, and therefore 
 he would not give any particular reasons why 
 he had stayed away and why he would always 
 stay away. He was a blacksmith by trade, an 
 honest appearing, sturdy, open mannered man, 
 and his evidence seemed conclusive. The 
 police were perplexed. They believed Hobus 
 had told the truth, for there was something 
 about him, an entirely new air, never seen in 
 him before an air almost of dignity, which 
 carried conviction with it; and this other man, 
 Bostwell, not only appeared sincere in his 
 declarations of innocence, but he had in his 
 notebook the names of men who, he took his 
 oath, could and would testify to work he had 
 done for them which would show that he had 
 been in his shop on Monday from 6 in the 
 morning until 7 at night, with an hour for 
 dinner and a pipe. It was just as he was fin- 
 ishing his denial that Sergeant Nulty came in. 
 
 "By gob!" he whispered to the lieutenant, 
 "there's wan man will get the thruth from 
 him. Phwat! Lave him loose on him onct. 
 He'll make the fur fly, I'll bet you! Dr. Fur- 
 nivall! He c'u'd bore holes in the sea wid 
 thim eyes of his, and make the fishes shpake. 
 Aha!" 
 
 The lieutenant's face brightened. 
 
 "That's right," he said. "It will save us 
 a lot of trouble. I wish I'd thought of it before.
 
 THE WETCHELL JOB 165 
 
 Ring him up, Nulty, and see if he can come 
 here right off." 
 
 So Dr. Furnivall entered a few minutes 
 later and questioned both the tramp and the 
 blacksmith. But to no purpose. They both 
 of them stuck to the stories they had already 
 told, and nothing new was elicited, except the 
 reason of the blacksmith's dislike for his wealthy 
 relative, which was, he said, because, among 
 other inhuman atrocities, she had refused to 
 furnish the money to send her young niece to 
 Colorado for her health, a move which the 
 doctor ordered, and she had died with lingering 
 consumption, a martyr to her nearest kindred's 
 penuriousness. She had no belief in ill health. 
 Work, she declared, was the remedy for all 
 so-called sickness. People were lazy, not dis- 
 eased, and pretended to be suffering only to 
 escape the common portion of labor. She 
 claimed all this, the blacksmith asserted, in 
 order to furnish herself with sufficient reasons 
 for never helping anybody out of her abundance. 
 As for wanting her money, he stated that though 
 all her property would at her death come to 
 him and his sisters in the absence of any will, 
 it had already been decided among them that 
 they would devote every cent of it to charity, 
 to human charity, in order to repair as far as 
 possible the wrongs this ignorant woman had 
 inflicted on countless wretched strugglers. Char- 
 ity to animals was good and necessary, but 
 inferior to charity for human beings, even the 
 lowest, and should not be allowed to supersede 
 it. A woman, he said, might have a perfect
 
 1 66 EXPLOITS OF A PHYSICIAN-DETECTIVE 
 
 right to do as she pleased with her money, and 
 never spend any of it on others, whether men 
 or cats, if she felt that way, but she had no 
 right to judge always harshly of those human 
 beings whose chief fault might easily be that 
 they were born weak minded and in low con- 
 ditions, and send them away with revilings and 
 condemnation. Somebody whom she had treated 
 thus was probably the thief. There must be 
 countless persons who hated her and would 
 seize the slightest opportunity for revenge. 
 
 Dr. Furnivall turned to the lieutenant. 
 
 "These men, both of them, have told the 
 truth," he said, "and I am persuaded that the 
 key to the mystery lies somewhere within the 
 woman herself. I must see her." 
 
 Accordingly, Sergeant Nulty accompanied 
 him to the home of Miss Wetchell and intro- 
 duced him to the lady. While he was making 
 the presentation the bell rang, and the sergeant, 
 as soon as he had finished speaking, turned, 
 and, taking two or three steps into the hall, 
 opened the front door. There stood, with a 
 large covered basket on his arm, a young man, 
 who, on sight of the officer, started and flushed. 
 
 "Well," he said, "I didn't expect to see 
 a policeman here. It kind of startled me. Is 
 Miss Wetchell in? I've come for the cats." 
 
 From where Miss Wetchell was lying on the 
 couch she could hear these words, and she 
 immediately cried out: 
 
 "Why, step in here! Is that you? Where 
 have you been all this time? You should have 
 come Monday morning."
 
 THE WETCHELL JOB 167 
 
 Dr. Furnivall, at this statement, threw a 
 quick glance at the newcomer. Then he re- 
 moved the thick, colored spectacles, and as the 
 man entered, hat in hand, leaving his basket 
 in the hall, he addressed him, looking him in 
 the eye. 
 
 "Do you come from some animal home?" 
 he asked. 
 
 "Yes, sir," he answered. He was a some- 
 what mild appearing youth, smooth of face, 
 rather slouchily attired, small in stature, and 
 not overclean. 
 
 "Are you a regular employee there?" 
 
 "Well, no, sir, I ain't. Dr. Blagden is laid 
 up with a cold and they're short of hands, so 
 they got me for this kind of work." 
 
 "Have you ever been here before?" 
 
 "No, sir, never " 
 
 "Yes, you have, too," exclaimed Miss 
 Wetchell, indignantly. "You came here once 
 I remember you and I gave you two cats " 
 
 "I mean not lately," he hastened to inter- 
 rupt. His face, which had been flushing and 
 paling alternately, grew calm as he spoke, 
 and his watery eyes, fixed on the doctor's, 
 having passed through the stages of furtive- 
 ness, mildness, peacefulness, and earnestness, 
 took on an expression of deep introspection. 
 
 "Now," said Dr. Furnivall, "tell me when 
 you were last in this house?" 
 
 "Monday morning," he replied. 
 
 "Describe that visit." 
 
 "I came for the cats. Nobody answered 
 when I rang, and I started away, but as I was
 
 i68 EXPLOITS OF A PHYSICIAN-DETECTIVE 
 
 going out of the yard I thought I heard the 
 doorknob turn, so I waited a second, and then 
 came back and rang again and rattled the door. 
 It swung open and I walked in. Somebody 
 began pounding on the floor under my feet 
 and screaming and I started down the cellar 
 stairs to find out what the matter was, as there 
 didn't seem to be anybody else around, and I 
 knew Miss Wetchell lived alone. I heard a 
 woman calling out that she was locked in the 
 cellar, and just then I felt a draught of air and 
 heard a noise that sounded as if somebody had 
 opened and shut the front door. I was rattled 
 and didn't know what to make of it. The 
 neighborhood was bad and the house was 
 alone. I ran back to the hall, but saw nobody, 
 and then the pounding below got louder than 
 ever. It shook the floor and knocked down 
 a bo^ird over the fireplace, and a zinc box 
 fell on the bricks and burst open, letting out 
 a lot of money and jewels. I couldn't help 
 taking it. I was all worked up and hardly 
 knew what I was " 
 
 Miss Wetchell sprang upon him with clinched 
 hands and flashing eyes. 
 
 "Wretch! Give me back my money!" she 
 screamed. But he did not hear her. He was 
 intent on his story, and finished calmly with 
 " doing. And going over on the ferry I lost 
 the box overboard, so I didn't get anything 
 out of it, after all." 
 
 "Villain! Lost? Lo-lost?" shrieked Miss 
 Wetchell, and sank back in a swoon on the 
 couch.
 
 The Missing Bride
 
 THE MISSING BRIDE 
 
 There was a rap on the door and a maid 
 put her head in. 
 
 "Here's a man " she began, but as she 
 
 spoke a large gentleman with a red face, white 
 mustache, and an excited blue eye pushed in 
 past her. 
 
 "Dr. Furnivall, pardon me!" he said has- 
 tily. "It is a matter of more than life or 
 death. Name your own price, but I must 
 have your assistance at once." 
 
 The maid laid the visitor's card on the 
 table before Dr. Furnivall, but he had no 
 need to read it. He knew the man by sight 
 as one of the multimillionaires of the city, 
 George B. English of banking fame. Mr. 
 English took the seat pointed out by Dr. Furni- 
 vall and rushed on: 
 
 " My daughter was kidnapped last night on 
 the eve of her marriage, and I have good 
 reason to believe that she is at this moment in 
 the hands of a villain whose object is is 
 not money!" 
 
 He paused, his red face growing almost 
 purple with anger and excitement, queerly 
 mingled with fright, and looked into the col- 
 ored spectacles of the doctor as if expecting 
 some demonstration on his part. But he said 
 merely : 
 
 "Goon."
 
 172 EXPLOITS OF A PHYSICIAN-DETECTIVE 
 
 He braced himself and, with an evident 
 effort at calmness, in which he did not succeed 
 too well, continued: 
 
 "Everything was ready last evening for the 
 wedding ceremony, which was to be celebrated 
 this noon. The whole household retired early 
 by 10 or a little later and not a suspicious 
 sound was heard, not a namable thing out of 
 the common happened, that anybody noticed, 
 during the night. There were no guests 
 only my two daughters, one of them a child 
 of ten years; my sister who is a maiden lady; 
 myself, and the servants, fourteen of them. 
 This morning the first thing we discovered was 
 that the house had been robbed of all the smal- 
 ler and more valuable wedding presents; and 
 then we learned that Evelyn was missing. Her 
 bed had not been occupied, and the only clothes 
 of hers that the women couldn't find were 
 those she wore last evening. Her wardrobe 
 was intact. She did not even take a hat 
 disappeared bareheaded! And there isn't a 
 trace of her. The police and detectives have 
 been scouring the city since early morning, but 
 without avail. The loot the miscreants got 
 is nothing; I don't care for that, and would 
 say nothing about it. They are welcome to 
 it if only they would bring back my daughter. 
 The idea of her being in the power of that " 
 
 He stopped, overcome by his feelings. 
 
 "You spoke of suspecting somebody?" 
 
 "Yes, yes; that is why I am here. They 
 told me at the police station that you, by your 
 hypnotism, could make the man talk. The
 
 THE MISSING BRIDE 173 
 
 trouble is that there are no grounds on which 
 to make an arrest; and even if there were, 
 how could he be induced to confess his guilt 
 and give her back to me?" 
 
 "He could be shadowed " 
 
 "Oh, yes! And that is what is being done. 
 Three men are watching his every move. But 
 in the meantime what will happen to Evelyn? 
 And they won't catch him. He is sharp as 
 a fiend. He will outwit them. All his plans 
 were laid long ago, of course, and, knowing 
 very well that he would be suspected, he has 
 provided for everything." 
 
 "We are getting a little ahead of the story. 
 Who is the man? What does he do? And 
 what are your grounds for thinking him guilty? 
 And then the robbery do you lay that to him 
 also?" 
 
 "The robbery I don't understand unless 
 it was a blind. The police gave me that no- 
 tion when I told them whom I accused. But 
 to begin right the man is Baron von Castle. 
 He once courted my daughter " 
 
 "What, he who has just inherited so many 
 millions?" 
 
 "Yes, the same. He is a rascal the de- 
 generate son of an old German house, cast 
 off long ago as a good for nothing spendthrift, 
 but now made rich through the neglect of his 
 late uncle to leave a will behind him at his 
 death. He asked me for Evelyn two years 
 ago, but I had looked him up and I seized the 
 opportunity to tell him what I thought of him. 
 He had the unparalleled impudence to laugh
 
 174 EXPLOITS OF A PHYSICIAN-DETECTIVE 
 
 in my face. Afterward I heard that he had 
 sworn that he would have her at all costs; 
 and, to tell the t$ith, being somewhat shaky 
 er I somewhat about Evelyn " 
 
 He paused, gnawing ^us/mustache. 
 
 "I suppose I must go into all the details, 
 however distasteful," he went on, after a 
 moment. " Evelyn \ liked the fellow and took 
 his part said that j he had been grossly mis- 
 represented to me, fcnd all that the way girls 
 always talk in such cases! So I sent her 
 abroad to separate them from each other 
 as widely as possible. But what did he do but 
 borrow money from my own bank, too 
 and follow her! Under an assumed name he 
 courted her in the very face and eyes of the 
 chaperon to whom I was paying high wages 
 to keep her away from him! What do you 
 think of that? It was four months before I 
 found out what was going on. Then one day 
 in a hot temper I dropped in on them suddenly 
 it was in Paris, in a hotel parlor. But was 
 he disconcerted? Not in the very least. He 
 laughed at me again in my face! The man 
 is Satan himself! Nothing disturbs him. He 
 seems to enjoy being put in difficult positions, 
 in which other men would cringe with mor- 
 tification and shame. He walks out of them 
 with the air of a conqueror, as a victor who 
 disdains to profit by the advantages he has 
 gained, holding the vanquished in too much 
 contempt even to notice him. When I ordered 
 him from the room this time he threw himself 
 down on the sofa, smiling, without giving me
 
 THE MISSING BRIDE 175 
 
 the least notice, and began talking gayly with 
 two or three women there, and when I led my 
 daughter out he hurried to open the door for 
 her, begging her not to forget her engagement 
 for the evening. 
 
 "Those are a few among many details I 
 could give you of the man's conduct. He 
 stops at nothing. And he has pursued her 
 ever since in spite of every precaution I can 
 take. But he is careful not to overstep the 
 law. He is too shrewd for that. He has 
 sworn that he will have the girl, and now, since 
 
 FVP"^*W O ' 19 
 
 she has been stolen away on the very night 
 before her wedding day, what can be thought ? 
 He has got her, of course. Thcreos no other 
 possible explanation of her sudden \iisappear- 
 ance." \. \> 
 
 "This man whom she was. to marry does 
 she care for him? Or is she m love \yith the 
 other yet?" asked Dr. Furnivull. "Was the 
 match made by you, or did it come about in 
 the usual way?" 
 
 "Well." He coughed and hesitated. Then 
 he went on. "It was I who wished it in nj^e first 
 place. He is the son of one of my bus'kuss 
 associates, and his father and myself had long 
 entertained the idea of their marriage to each 
 other. As soon as I broached the subject to 
 Evelyn she seemed pleased, and has, at least, 
 never made any objections. They get along 
 well together. And since the engagement she 
 has never mentioned Von Castle's name. In 
 fact, there is where my greatest fear comes in. 
 I think that after he heard of the betrothal he
 
 176 EXPLOITS OF A PHYSICIAN-DETECTIVE 
 
 met her somehow and frightened her vowed 
 revenge, perhaps. It would be just like him 
 to do it. And there was something strange in 
 her manner. If he should get possession of her 
 after that, Gods knows how he would act! Not 
 honorably, you may be sure! It is a thousand 
 times worse than if I had allowed them to 
 marry in the first place." 
 
 As Mr. English began his answer Dr. Fur- 
 nivall removed his spectacles and looked him 
 steadily in the eye, continuing to hold his gaze 
 for some seconds after he had finished, and when 
 he saw the various changes pass over his face 
 nervousness, running into hesitancy, into 
 earnestness, and finally into calmness, accom- 
 panied by a deeply introspective expression of 
 the eyes, he asked: 
 
 "What is your real objection to Von Castle 
 as a son-in-law, Mr. English?" 
 
 "I dislike him," he answered at once. "I 
 feel a sense of inferiority when I meet him. I 
 have money enough to attract the kind of a 
 husband for my daughter that I want one 
 who will defer to me, respect me, consult my 
 opinions. Von Castle I never could move in 
 any direction. He despises me because I wrung 
 my wealth, as he puts it, from the hearts and 
 souls of the poor, and has regard neither for my 
 opinions nor my personality." 
 
 "Is he really a good-for-nothing?" 
 
 "He is very far from that. He has great 
 abilities, and in time will make his mark. He 
 is a naval architect, and has produced more 
 than one work of genius has just taken the
 
 THE MISSING BRIDE 177 
 
 prize offered by the Emperor of Germany for 
 the best model of a warship. " 
 
 "The complaints you made against him to 
 your daughter were wholly unfounded then?" 
 
 "Yes." 
 
 "Why do you wish her to marry the other 
 man?" 
 
 "He wants her, in the first place, and I am 
 under obligations to his father, who also wishes 
 her for his son, which I cannot deny. Besides, 
 I can rule the boy. We shall live together and 
 the union will be harmonious all around. I 
 shall have my daughter with me, as before, and 
 she will be as much subject to me as she always 
 has been." 
 
 "Hm-m!" Dr. Furnivall cleared his throat 
 and put on his glasses. "I don't think you 
 need fear for your daughter," he said, as Mr. 
 English, released from the power of his gaze, 
 began to rub his eyes and look about him per- 
 plexedly. "She has undoubtedly gone with 
 Von Castle of her own accord, partly, perhaps 
 to escape the rigorous control which, it is 
 plain, you hold over her, as well as for love 
 of the man. They are probably safely married 
 by this time, and soon you will receive notice 
 to that effect perhaps today. The burglary I 
 do not understand yet, but her apparently will- 
 ing acceptance of the man you wished her to 
 marry " 
 
 At this instant the office door opened with- 
 out ceremony and a young man appeared on 
 the threshold, the maid's face, gathered in an 
 expostulatory scowl, showing at his shoulder.
 
 i 7 8 EXPLOITS OF A PHYSICIAN-DETECTIVE 
 
 "Von Castle!" exclaimed Mr. English. 
 
 The newcomer, who was a self-reliant look- 
 ing young fellow, dark and big and handsome, 
 cast one glance at the speaker, and then, giving 
 him no more attention, addressed Dr. Furnivall. 
 
 "You will forgive me, Dr. Furnivall," he 
 said, "for this rudeness on my part when you 
 know the reason of it. In extremities all rules 
 of deportment may be broken. The fact is that 
 my betrothed wife has been either kidnapped 
 from her home or shut up in it illegally and 
 hidden from her friends, and I " 
 
 Dr. Furnivall, the instant the newcomer's 
 name was cried out by Mr. English, threw a 
 swift glance at the two men. What he thought 
 it would be impossible to conjecture from his 
 face, which was immobile and, apparently, dis- 
 interested. But as the young man hurried on 
 in his speech he rose, and motioning to the 
 maid, said: 
 
 "I am busy. Show this gentleman to the 
 reception-room." 
 
 " Ah !" the gentleman breathed. He regarded 
 Dr. Furnivall haughtily. "I am not accus- 
 tomed to this sort of treatment 
 
 "Laura!" said Dr. Furnivall. 
 
 The maid came forward. 
 
 "Show this man to the reception-room." 
 
 The young man stood scrutinizing Dr. Fur- 
 nivall. He had large black eyes, a high, 
 square forehead, and a strong nose and mouth 
 and his manner was forceful. He plainly was 
 used to having things his own way. Mr. 
 English sat with his eyes rolled up at him as
 
 THE MISSING BRIDE 179 
 
 if prepared to dodge a missile which he ex- 
 pected him to throw. 
 
 The maid touched the young man's elbow. 
 Dr. Furnivall stood looking at him. He finally 
 bowed low to the doctor. 
 
 "I beg your pardon," he said. "I was 
 wrong I admit it. The urgency of but I 
 will wait. I only add that I suspect her father!" 
 
 With that he bowed again and, without a 
 glance at English, followed the maid. 
 
 As he left, Dr. Furnivall, who had held his 
 spectacles in his hand while speaking, laid 
 them on the desk, and fixing Mr. English with 
 his eyes, said: 
 
 "Sir, if you come to me for help in this 
 crisis you must tell the story as it is. All this 
 shilly-shallying and subterfuge is useless, and 
 worse than useless. It retards the investiga- 
 tion." By this time the subject was again 
 under control, and Dr. Furnivall added: "Do 
 you know where your daughter is?" 
 
 "I do not," he answered automatically. 
 
 "Had you any fear that Von Castle would 
 attempt to get possession of her before the 
 marriage?" 
 
 "I had a general fear of what he might do. 
 I did not suspect that he would try to take her 
 by force, of course. It is only since her dis- 
 appearance that I have considered him capable 
 of that capable of succeeding in doing so, at 
 any rate, for Evelyn had given up all thought 
 of him. It plainly would be against her will 
 to go with him, and without her consent what 
 chance had he for her?"
 
 i8o EXPLOITS OF A PHYSICIAN-DETECTIVE 
 
 "What do her maids say about it? Did 
 they attend her to her room last night? When 
 ci; d how did they leave her? At what time 
 did she go upstairs?" 
 
 "The last that was seen of her was at IT 
 o'clock. Bettine, her maid, who had got her 
 ready for bed, left her at that time to go to her 
 own room. Evelyn was at her table writing 
 a note 
 
 "Has this note been found?" 
 
 "No, there is no trace of it." 
 
 " Go on. She was not seen by anybody after 
 that, and that was at n o'clock. Who dis- 
 covered her absence in the morning?" 
 
 "Bettine. She was waiting to be called by 
 Evelyn, who had not rung at the usual hour, 
 when the burglary was discovered, and she ran 
 in to inform her of it. She was not there, and 
 could not be found anywhere." 
 
 "You say that she was prepared for bed, 
 yet this morning the clothes she wore last 
 evening were missing with her, and those 
 only?" 
 
 "Yes." 
 
 "Of course, then, she must have dressed of 
 her own accord. What was the nature of the 
 costume she wore?" 
 
 "I don't know." 
 
 "You can't say whether it was a walking 
 suit or a ball gown?" 
 
 "Well, it was something er medium. I 
 don't know what the things arc called. An 
 everyday affair, you know." 
 
 "How did the burglars get in?"
 
 THE MISSING BRIDE 181 
 
 "Through a window in the dining-room. 
 They must have sprung back the lock somehow, 
 for the butler takes his oath it was fastened 
 last night; but it was unlocked this morning 
 and open." 
 
 "Mr. English, sit where you are and listen 
 to what Von Castle will tell me," said Dr. 
 Furnivall suddenly, and, having pressed a 
 button, he waved Von Castle, who was im- 
 mediately ushered in by the maid, to a seat near 
 him. 
 
 The young man seemed not to be aware of 
 Mr. English's presence in the room. 
 
 "Doctor, I have come " he began, when 
 Dr. Furnivall interrupted him. 
 
 "I must tell you, Baron Von Castle," he 
 said, "that we are not alone here. Whatever 
 you say will be overheard by another. More- 
 over, you will be compelled to tell the exact 
 truth regarding your connection with this 
 matter. If you consent to these conditions I 
 will hear you, but unless you are willing that 
 Mr. English should know, as well as I 
 
 Von Castle bowed and waved his hand. 
 
 "I see you are prejudiced against me," he 
 said, smiling. "Well, no matter! And as for 
 Mr. English, I came here for the very purpose 
 of asking you to interview him and wrench the 
 truth from him. Nothing could have fallen 
 out more appropriately than his presence here. 
 I am told on the very best authority that you 
 are able, by some occult or scientific process, 
 to force a man to relate things as they are. 
 Question this man, then, and you will learn
 
 i8a EXPLOITS OF A PHYSICIAN-DETECTIVE 
 
 that his daughter is being illegally restrained 
 of her freedom by him. She is her own mis- 
 tress, and not a minor, in the eyes of the law 
 has been since yesterday morning. He has 
 no right to incarcerate her." 
 
 "But I have already questioned him and 
 am positively certain that he has no notion 
 where she is." 
 
 Von Castle picked up his hat, looking iron- 
 ically at the doctor. 
 
 "In that case," he said, rising, "I con- 
 gratulate you on your extreme perspicacity and 
 the value of your occult powers. No doubt 
 they are great to the vulgar! I wish you good 
 day, sir." 
 
 He did not go out, however. He remained 
 as he was, standing in front of his chair, his 
 eyes fixed on Dr. Furnivall's, his strikingly 
 handsome face undergoing several marked 
 changes of expression, beginning with per- 
 plexity, running through irresolution to calm- 
 ness, to earnestness, and finally ending with 
 deep intentness. Then Dr. Furnivall said: 
 
 "Tell me at once if you know where Miss 
 Evelyn English is." 
 
 "I do not, sir," he answered. Mr. English 
 made a quick movement of protest, but Dr. 
 Furnivall put out a warning hand, and he sub- 
 sided in his chair, eyeing the young man with 
 a singular mixture of wonder, fear, dislike, and 
 incredulity in his face and eyes. 
 
 "Are you willing to state before witnesses 
 where you were last night?" 
 
 "Perfectly."
 
 THE MISSING BRIDE 183 
 
 "Be seated, then! Now, begin with n 
 o'clock. \Vhere were you at that hour?" 
 
 "At the Athletic club." 
 
 "Had you any engagement for a later hour 
 anywhere?" 
 
 "Yes." 
 
 "Where and with whom?" 
 
 "At the home of Miss Evelyn English, and 
 with her!" 
 
 "There!" almost shouted Mr. English, start- 
 ing up. 
 
 "Interrupt me again and you leave the 
 room," said Dr. Furnivall to him, without re- 
 moving his gaze from Von Castle. Mr. 
 English now sat forward on his chair, his eyes 
 bulging at the young man, his face apoplectic, 
 his hands trembling on his knees, his thick lips 
 working under his white mustache. "Did you 
 keep that engagement?" Dr. Furnivall said 
 to his subject. 
 
 1 I kept it, yes." 
 
 "You saw Miss English, then, after n?" 
 
 "No. I did not. I was in her house, and 
 searched it for her, but she was not to be found, 
 though she had agreed to - n 
 
 "In my house! Searched! Good heavens! 
 I'll have a policeman here in three minutes!" 
 ejaculated Mr. English, and ran from the 
 room. Neither of the two gave him any atten- 
 tion. Von Castle kept right on: 
 
 " meet me in the library at 12 o'clock. 
 We were to go away and be married at once 
 Everything was arranged the minister, the 
 passage for Europe in the morning, some
 
 i84 EXPLOITS OF A PHYSICIAN-DETECTIVE 
 
 necessary clothing which she had bought 
 ready made, in the baggage-room at the wharf 
 everything. When I came " 
 
 "But you are getting ahead of the story," 
 Dr. Furnivall interrupted. "Answer my ques- 
 tions. First, when did you make this arrange- 
 ment with her?" 
 
 "A week ago tonight." 
 
 "Her apparent willingness to marry this 
 other man was a blind?" 
 
 "Yes. I had suggested it to her." 
 
 "Why?" 
 
 "She was afraid of her father, who domi- 
 neered her, and I was in no position to marry 
 until very recently. Besides, my family would 
 have objected to an American girl as my wife. 
 But we were settled upon it. Nothing can 
 part us. I advised her to appear docile, and 
 then at the last moment, if no better way could 
 be found, we would elope." 
 
 "Yes. And was the burglary planned as a 
 blind also?" 
 
 "I know nothing of any burglary?" 
 
 "You don't know that the wedding pres- 
 ents have been stolen?" 
 
 "No." 
 
 "You say you searched the house. How 
 could you search it, or get into it even?" 
 
 "Evelyn was to unlock the front door as 
 soon as she could, after the family and servants 
 had retired for the night, and I was to come 
 into the library, where she would be waiting for 
 me. She is timid in the dark, and I would net 
 have her stay outside. Besides, something
 
 THE MISSING BRIDE 185 
 
 might happen to detain me. I don't have much 
 luck with motor cars. They go back on me 
 often. We thought the best way for her would 
 be to sit in the library, where there are inside 
 blinds, which would prevent the light from 
 showing in the street. I found the door un- 
 fastened all right, and went along the hall to 
 the library, turned the knob, and looked in. 
 But, though the room was lighted, she was not 
 in it." 
 
 "Then you went over the house?" 
 
 " Over the lower floors yes." 
 
 "And you saw nothing of the wedding 
 presents?" 
 
 "No." 
 
 "What did you do then?" 
 
 "I went outside, and after waiting a while 
 returned to the library. I thought she might 
 have forgotten something and gone to her room 
 for it. Or a number of reasons for her 
 absence occurred to me. But she did not come. 
 I spent the night waiting, stealing back and 
 forth between the front vestibule and the library. 
 Then I gave the case up and resolved to appeal 
 to you. I believe her father somehow got 
 wind " 
 
 "But if he had done so he would not have 
 allowed the door to remain unlocked all night, 
 nor would you have been allowed to enter and 
 depart as you did, freely. Did you unlock a 
 window in the dining-room?" 
 
 "No. Why should I? I touched nothing 
 that I was not obliged to touch in my 
 search."
 
 186 EXPLOITS OF A PHYSICIAN-DETECTIVE 
 
 "Was a window of the dining-room open 
 when you were in it?" 
 
 "I did not see any open, though one might 
 have been. I was not looking for any such 
 thing, only for her." 
 
 At this moment the maid tapped at the door 
 and opened it. Her face was flushed. 
 
 "There's that other man and a policeman 
 outside," she said. "Shall I let them in?" 
 
 "Outside?" questioned Dr. Furnivall, releas- 
 ing Von Castle from his gaze and arching his 
 eyebrows a trifle humorously. 
 
 "Yes, sir, if you please, sir, outside. There's 
 nobody else will get in this house today in them 
 unceremonious ways," said the girl, folding her 
 wrists and putting her head up at Von Castle. 
 She was a Yankee farmer's daughter, loyal, 
 and had not to be told anything twice, and 
 seldom once. 
 
 "Bring them here," said Dr. Furnivall. 
 "They have come to arrest you," he added 
 to Von Castle, who was at the moment looking 
 dazedly around. Instantly he arose. 
 
 "Not while Miss English's fate is un- 
 known," he said calmly. With one movement 
 he turned the key in the doorlock and with 
 another he pulled out a revolver. Dr. Furni- 
 vall sat in his chair and laughed. His laugh 
 was wholesome and free, and the young man 
 regarded him in some surprise. But he cocked 
 his revolver at the same time. 
 
 "Dr. Furnivall, you will not attempt to 
 interfere with me, will you?" he said. "You 
 are not like these other these animals. You
 
 THE MISSING BRIDE 187 
 
 are a gentleman. And you are wise, I know 
 that. Advise me. But do not counsel sur- 
 render. I tell you plainly that Miss English 
 is more to me than my life, and I absolutely 
 refuse to give myself up before I know what 
 has become of her. She is crying out for me 
 at this minute " 
 
 "Unlock the door, put away your foolish 
 pistol, and sit down," said Dr. Furnivall. 
 "That sort of thing may do in German uni- 
 versities, among your light-headed students, 
 but not here. How much chance would you 
 stand? The whole world is against you when 
 you resort to firearms. It is both cowardly 
 and ignorant. Unlock the door!" 
 
 "Dr. Furnivall," he said, with a calmness 
 that was visibly forced, and looking him in 
 the eye, "I should be sorry to proceed to ex- 
 tremities with a man like you. But the woman 
 I love is in danger, some sort of danger, I 
 don't know what, and by the good God above 
 
 us " leveling his revolver, "if you make 
 
 one move to delivei me to these men, or to 
 help them in any way tc capture me, before 
 I learn what has happened to her, I will shoot 
 
 you like a dog dog d d er er " 
 
 His voice trailed away to silence. His eyes 
 took on a deeply introspective expression, the 
 hand that held the revolver dropped to his 
 side. He stood like a tree, firm rooted, strong, 
 handsome, but helpless. His gaze seemed 
 to turn in upon itself as the leaves of the tree 
 curl inward blindly. 
 
 "Unlock the door!" repeated Dr. Furnivall.
 
 i88 EXPLOITS OF A PHYSICIAN-DETECTIVE 
 
 He complied at once, feeling unerringly 
 behind him, his eyes in the doctor's. 
 
 "Now, sit in that chair! Give me that 
 revolver, young ass! You have everything 
 your own way, but haven't the sense to realize 
 it. You would spoil all if you could. It will 
 cost you some fifty years yet to learn that 
 though everything in this world is gained by 
 force, it is by force of merit, not by force of 
 the brute by the force of wisdom and knowl- 
 edge, by love and intellect, not by force of 
 arms! If I didn't know that it would do you 
 no good I would give you a lesson on the asinin- 
 ity of that confident way of yours, and make 
 you grovel! But you wouldn't learn! The 
 shears of experience, not vicarious but per- 
 sonal, alw r ays have to clip the wings of a person 
 like you, and the act is accompanied' by great 
 suffering. My object now is to get at the 
 bottom of this mystery. Come in!" 
 
 The phrase was addressed to somebody 
 who was fumbling at the door knob. In walked 
 a policeman, and behind him, not very con- 
 fidently, came Mr. English. 
 
 The officer, at sight of Dr. Furnivall, stopped 
 short. 
 
 "Sure, I was not afther knowin' 'twas 
 yezsel', docther!" he said in singular confusion, 
 his helmet in his hand. "Excoose mesel'! 
 Coom on noo," he added, turning suddenly on 
 English and taking him by the collar. "Oi 
 arrist yez!" 
 
 "M-Me!" gasped the astonished man, who 
 had summoned him. "Wha-what .for?"
 
 THE MISSING BRIDE 189 
 
 "On suspeecion! Coom on noo, or Oi'll " 
 
 "Wait a moment." 
 
 Dr. Furnivall spoke, and sat forward in 
 his chair. 
 
 "What's your name?" he asked the police- 
 man. 
 
 "Soolivan, sor r!" he answered somewhat 
 doggedly. 
 
 "Do you know me?" 
 
 "Oi saane yez onct at th' station," he 
 returned with hesitation, keeping his eyes per- 
 sistently away from the doctor's, turning them 
 on English, on the floor, on the walls, on Von 
 Castle, out of the window. 
 
 Dr. Furnivall looked at Mr. English. 
 
 "How did you happen to run across the 
 officer whose beat takes him past your house?" 
 he asked. 
 
 "Sure th' mon is th' divil! He knows arl 
 things!" muttered the policeman dazedly. "Me 
 own bate, an' arl! Coom noo, out of this wid 
 yez!" he cried with a sudden forced show of 
 authority, flourishing his club and shaking 
 English by the shoulder. 
 
 "Wait a moment, Sullivan!" said Dr. Furni- 
 vall. "Mr. English, how is it that you bring 
 here this officer, whom you know because 
 your house is on his beat, instead of one of 
 the several others you must have passed be- 
 tween here and there?" 
 
 "Because, Dr. Furnivall, it was he for whom 
 I went, for the very reason that I did know 
 him. I did not wish to stop for a warrant, 
 and I knew he would act for me without one.
 
 190 EXPLOITS OF A PHYSICIAN-DETECTIVE 
 
 I don't understand his sudden change of atti- 
 tude toward me at all." 
 
 "Neither do I," said the doctor. "For some 
 reason or other he wants to escape my ^ye. 
 Sullivan, look at me!" 
 
 The policeman broke away for the dooi. 
 But Von Castle, who had watched with ex- 
 treme interest the little drama since the two 
 entered, was there before him, big, smiling, 
 facing him. He stopped. 
 
 "Sullivan," said Dr. Furnivall, "there is 
 something in you that is wrong, and whatever 
 it is has got to come out. You can't get away 
 from it. I don't know what it is yet, but I 
 shall know, at least, if it has to do with this 
 missing girl, which is all I am interested in at this 
 moment. If the guilt which you show as 
 plainly as if it were written in black letters 
 on your forehead, does not relate to her, look 
 at me and say so! Does it?" 
 
 The policeman, with sudden bravado, looked 
 directly into his eyes. 
 
 "Sor-r, docther," he said, with the air of 
 one making a candid confession. "Oi knows 
 nowthing at arl about th' case. Yez says Oi'm 
 guilty lukin', an', begob, Oi am that, fer 'twas 
 kissin' Sadie McGuire, Oi was, th' cuke at 
 Stacey's, behindt th' dure, an' Oi tort yez had 
 me on it. 'Twould be afther raisin' throuble 
 wid th' ould woman onct she heard of it! Oi 
 was frighted, jist! B't Oi knows nawthing at 
 arl at arl about yez case. Th' gintlemun for- 
 ninst, Misther English, he comes rhunnin' oop 
 to mesel' an' he says, sez he, 'Soolivan, coom
 
 THE MISSING BRIDE 191 
 
 arrist a mon that shtole me dochter!' 'Hov yez 
 found him?' Oi says, 'Oi hov that!' says he. 
 'Begob!' says Oi t' mesil', 'that's dombed funny, 
 jist, becaze Oi am th' mon mesel', an' bedam 
 if Oi'm found be youse '" 
 
 Two excited ejaculations issued simultane- 
 ously from two separate mouths, but Dr. 
 Furnivall put his hand up and Von Castle and 
 Mr. English sank back upon their seats, hang- 
 ing with breathless excitement on the words 
 of the policeman, as without a break he went on, 
 being now under full control: 
 
 " ' ixcept to arrist mesil',' Oi says, 'an' 
 
 how th' divil can Oi be afther doin' thot same 
 annyhow,' Oi says, 'an' who is he?' says Oi. 
 An' thin " 
 
 "Sullivan," Dr. Furnivall interrupted, "do 
 you know where Miss Evelyn English is at 
 this moment?" 
 
 "Oi do, jist! None betther! She's wid me 
 woife, Bridget Soolivan, that calls hersel' 
 Beatrice since Oi was ilivated t' th' foorce, 
 at twinty-siven and a half A, Falmouth shtrate!" 
 
 The door whirred open. Von Castle was 
 out of it like a streak of lightning, with English 
 a hopeless second. 
 
 By aid of a few additional questions Dr. 
 Furnivall learned that the policeman had over- 
 heard the agreement between the lovers, which 
 was made at night in the darkness of the park 
 in front of her father's house. At the time 
 he was interested only in the fact that the door 
 to that rich house would be left unfastened, 
 with all the costly wedding presents within
 
 IQ2 EXPLOITS OF A PHYSICIAN-DETECTIVE 
 
 easy reach. On the given night he secreted 
 himself in the dark vestibule, trusting to his 
 uniform for explanation should he be dis- 
 covered, and a moment after he heard the lock 
 ana bolt click softly back he opened the door 
 and stole along to the dining-room, the location 
 of which he knew well, where the wedding 
 presents were displayed in readiness for show 
 in the morning. He unlocked the door with 
 a skeleton key, lighted the gas, and helped 
 himself to the jewels and silver. While he 
 was busy the girl, attracted by the light through 
 'the keyhole, opened the door, and he grabbed 
 her to prevent her from crying out. What to 
 do then he did not know, but she must be kept 
 quiet. Luckily for him she fainted at once, 
 and seeing that he was in for it, for she knew 
 him, he bore her in his arms through the de- 
 serted streets to his home, which was only 
 two blocks away, determined to hold her for 
 ransom, hoping to get enough to take him out 
 of the country. 
 
 Von Castle, however, got the girl, and, it 
 is whispered, with her father's full consent 
 after all. For one reason, perhaps, he knew 
 he might as well give it; for another 
 
 But what is the use of considering other 
 reasons ! 
 
 When we must, we must, and that seems 
 to be all there is to it.
 
 The Strange Sickness 
 
 of Mr. Whittaker 
 
 Ransome
 
 THE STRANGE SICKNESS OF MR. 
 WHITTAKER RANSOME 
 
 A middle aged man with: a freshly shaved 
 red face and a short clay pipe in his mouth 
 came rolling burlily up the street, his hands 
 in his jacket pockets, cap pulled over his brows, 
 his eyes darting here and there, taking in all 
 the sights of the great city that came in his 
 \vay. A good student of character would set 
 him down at once as an English sailor ashore 
 in a strange country, his wages securely stowed 
 away in some secret part of his painfully new 
 and ill-fitting suit of blue serge. Short of 
 stature, but bulky and solid, after the fashion 
 of his native oaks, with features whose natural 
 stolidity was enlivened startlingly by the un- 
 expected brilliance of his eyes, which, though 
 gray, were of so dark a shade that the effect 
 was nearly that of piercing black, and with the 
 assurance of well considered and unshakable 
 opinions in his manner, he was plainly no 
 sort of prey whatever for the landsharks. If 
 he had his roll in his clothes he was able to 
 keep it there, as far as they were concerned. 
 And the proof was, if one had needed other 
 proof than his appearance, that here he was 
 two miles up from the wharves, safe in the 
 heart of one of the best residential districts, 
 having passed under the very noses of the 
 longshore barkers, runners, heelers, and strong
 
 196 EXPLOITS OF A PHYSICIAN-DETECTIVE 
 
 arm men, like a sturdy old battle-ship among 
 river pirates and mudscows. His build and 
 gait were enough to inspire respect, even seen 
 from a distance, and the fiery glitter of his 
 eyes as he approached would be nothing less 
 than appalling to a person with secret intentions 
 toward him. 
 
 Arrived at the entrance to the public garden 
 the sailor turned his back upon it, spread his 
 legs, took his pipe from his mouth with his 
 right hand, and, blowing a cloud of smoke 
 upward, with a lift of the chin, ran his eyes 
 over the buildings across the way. Then he 
 lowered his gaze to the hurrying crowds on 
 the sidewalk, glanced swiftly at the street signs, 
 put his pipe back into his mouth, relieved the 
 congestion of his nose between his thumb and 
 finger, wheeled and rolled into the park. On 
 an empty bench he seated himself, fitted the 
 tin stopper to his pipe, thrust it into his coat 
 pocket, and drew forth a small piece of paper 
 lined with diagrams. This he studied for 
 ten minutes, his face gathered in a perplexed 
 scowl. Then, "Dang!" he burst out, crashing 
 his great fist down upon his knee. He looked 
 at the diagram again for a long moment, again 
 said "Dang!" and repeated the pounding of 
 the knee. 
 
 From a little flat pin cushion which he 
 fished from his pocket he selected four pins, 
 picking them out with a sureness and grace 
 that no ordinary landsman would believe 
 possible, after a glance at the enormous thumb 
 and awkward appearing square fingers, and
 
 STRANGE SICKNESS OF MR. RANSOME 197 
 
 with these he fastened the small paper to the 
 slats of the seat. Then, following the lines 
 with a careful forefinger, he traced out certain 
 figures, muttering his calculations as he worked 
 them. 
 
 "This 'ere's a bloody purty how-d'-do, this 
 is! As how? Why, then, here's the ship, and 
 here's the park, and here's yore Common- 
 wealth avenoo. But then agin here's yore 
 Arlington street, and here's yore blessed Church 
 street, way off up here, no'theast by east, and 
 yore Park street clean away down here sou'east 
 by halfeast, and here is Summer street, running 
 the same tacks identical as Winter, and on the 
 chart Summer is west and Winter is east, and 
 blarst my bloody eyes if I didn't heave out o' 
 there a minute back, and they're the other 
 way about or I'm a landsman. And here I lay, 
 up here, by Park street here's the church," 
 casting his eye at the tall spire over the way, 
 "but the sign says Boylston. And the' ain't 
 no Boylston on the chart! And here's Beacon, 
 only a little furder on its Commonwealth, and 
 not Beacon, and here's Beacon 'way off sou'east 
 agin, and Park street church becalmed under 
 her lee, when it oughter be layin' up alongside 
 about where I be this blessed minute. And, 
 shiver me! here it is, too, on Boylston street, 
 right in hail, but stern foremost, at the wrong 
 end of the park!" 
 
 He straightened up with a jerk and cast 
 his eye toward the heavens as if in search 
 of the sun, by which to get his bearings, but 
 it was a gray day and there was no sun in sight.
 
 JQ8 EXPLOITS OF A PHYSICIAN-DETECTIVE 
 
 He pulled out his pipe with a surly growl, 
 lighted it, and sat puffing stolidly, now and 
 then glancing at the map, and occasionally 
 looking up and down the mall and into the near 
 by paths among the trees. Presently, as a 
 young man and woman entered the gates, 
 strolling slowly along, he gathered the map 
 up with a hasty movement, folded it in his 
 hand out of view, and turned his head away 
 from the advancing couple. Three other per- 
 sons passed immediately after these, without 
 gaining from him more than a quick glance 
 as they approached. But the fourth, who was 
 in the yeoman's uniform of the United States 
 navy, he accosted. 
 
 "Mate," he said, "where's this here Arling- 
 ton street?" 
 
 "Right here," he answered, pointing to the 
 street behind them. 
 
 "Right here!" he growled, throwing a sus- 
 picious, menacing eye at the bluejacket. "Why, 
 ain't that there Park Street Church?" 
 
 The bluejacket laughed. 
 
 "So you're up against the curves of this 
 town, too!" he said. "Well, we've all been 
 there! The streets is sure crooked, that's a 
 fact. This church is the Arlington street. 
 Park street is at the other end of the common 
 a mile up there! You've been sailing in 
 circles, likely. Where you from, mate?" 
 
 But the sailor's only answer was to get up 
 and, muttering anathemas against landsmen's 
 charts, and everything else that belorged to 
 them, or was related to them in the remotest
 
 STRANGE SICKNESS OF MR. RANSOME 199 
 
 degree, walked off, puffing his pipe, his hands 
 in his pockets, his eyes set straight ahead as 
 if in search of some known light. 
 
 At the corner of Commonwealth avenue, two 
 blocks beyond, he stopped short at sight of the 
 long double rows of trees stretching away into 
 the distance, with the graveled walk between 
 them, and pulled out his map. A moment's 
 scrutiny of it elicited a grunt of satisfaction from 
 him, and he set off along the sidewalk, looking 
 at the numbers of the houses as he went. 
 
 At length he paused before a brown stone 
 front, tucked his pipe away, settled his cap on 
 his head, coughed foggily, mounted the steps, 
 and was hunting for the bell when he saw a 
 printed notice: "Sickness; don't ring; please 
 walk in." 
 
 "This here is what I call a rum go!" he 
 muttered, standing back a step or two and 
 throwing a calculating eye up and down the 
 facade. Then, "Well, anyhow, if I c'n board 
 him without nobody's seein' He softly 
 
 turned the knob, and, greatly to his surprise, 
 stood face to face with a footman over six 
 feet tall. 
 
 "Lud!" he exclaimed, thrown off his habit- 
 ual poise, and doubtless awed by the servant's 
 gorgeous livery. 
 
 "Did you wish to see anybody?" the foot- 
 man said, with a supercilious glance at the 
 visitor's ill fitting clothes. 
 
 "Not to say as how I don't, shipmate," he 
 answered, dryly, having immediately regained 
 his accustomed stolidity, "seein' as I've sailed
 
 200 EXPLOITS OF A PHYSICIAN-DETECTIVE 
 
 twelve thousand miles to meet up long er 
 Cap'n Whittaker Ransome. Does he live here ?' 
 
 "Yes, but he's sick, on his death bed, and 
 nobody is admitted " 
 
 A girlish figure, with pale face and large 
 brown eyes, beneath which dark semi-circles 
 showed, came forward softly. 
 
 "Are you an old friend of Mr. Ransome's?" 
 she asked of the sailor. "You said you had 
 come so far so see him " 
 
 She paused, her childish, innocent, but 
 unattractive face upturned to him, seeming 
 almost spectral in the darkness of the hall. 
 
 "My father, Miss, was Stephen Parker," 
 he answered, pulling off his cap, "and I 
 
 "Oh, I have heard my father speak of him 
 frequently. Please come this way," she said. 
 "But nobody can see him," she continued, 
 when she had led him up stairs and into a little 
 reception-room. "I am so sorry! How he 
 would have liked to meet the son of his old 
 friend!" She put her handkerchief to her eyes, 
 while he sat uncomfortably on the edge of a 
 sofa and twirled his cap in his hands. 
 
 "So he's goin,' is he?" he said, as she 
 finally, brushing the tears away, raised her 
 head. 
 
 "There is no hope/' she answered. "The 
 doctors have given him up. It is only a ques- 
 tion of time a very short time." 
 
 "Well, of course," he condoled, "it's hard. 
 But he's an old man and and of course, 
 ye see but there, that ain't what I come to 
 say! It's particl'er unfortnit it is, all round
 
 STRANGE SICKNESS OF MR. RANSOME 201 
 
 that's what it is. Because, d'ye see, my 
 father, who was great friends long of him 
 when they was cap'ns together, and after- 
 wards, too, when Cap'n Ransome gut rich in 
 tea, in Ceylon, leavin' the sea, though my 
 father kept it till he died. You knowed about 
 that, didn't ye?" he asked suddenly. 
 
 "Oh, yes! He often has told me of Cap- 
 tain Parker and what great friends they used 
 to be. But I thought I thought " 
 
 She stopped in confusion, arresting her 
 glances which were straying over his face and 
 general appearance as if she were surprised 
 that a son of Captain Parker should show so 
 little refinement. 
 
 "Ye see, I runned away!" he said, as one 
 replying to a criticism. " No colliges for me ! 
 The sea, d'ye mind ? I was all for that. 'Twas 
 agin the old man's will, but he was a kind 
 sort, the old man was, and when he died he 
 didn't hold it out agin me. No, he left me 
 everything. So there ye are. And among 
 other things he left me somewhat to say to 
 Cap'n Ransome, a somewhat that's important." 
 He paused and glanced at her face, which was 
 anxious. Then he proceeded. "It has to do 
 with a thing long gone by to right a great 
 wrong, to say it above board, and it can't be 
 done onless I can see him. Jest two minutes 
 alone with him 
 
 "But, sir, Mr. Parker!" she cried in agita- 
 tion, rising and standing before him, "he can't 
 meet anybody. The least exertion wears him 
 out. The doctors say
 
 202 EXPLOITS OF A PHYSICIAN-DETECTIVE 
 
 "Miss," he interrupted, "yore his adopted 
 daughter, ain't ye, not his real one?" 
 
 "Yes, sir, I am; but he has been more than 
 a father to me, and 
 
 "Well, it's for yore sake that I want to see 
 him!" 
 
 He crossed his knees and sat back confi- 
 dently. But the girl, with a wan smile of 
 relief, answered: 
 
 "Then, sir, no matter about it, if it is only 
 for me. I certainly should not have him dis- 
 turbed on my poor account. It it were for 
 another " 
 
 He seemed taken aback for an instant. 
 
 "Well, there is another," he said, after some 
 hesitation, "but I didn't want to speak of 
 him. I don't know him, not even his name, 
 but you do, lady. It will make all the dif- 
 ference to him. Whoever he is, he is yore 
 promised husband 
 
 Her face, a moment before pale, and deter- 
 mined as a face of its meek character could 
 well be, now flushed to a real beauty, the set 
 lines softened, the lips quivered, and the mild 
 eyes flashed into eagerness. Her whole small 
 form took on a womanly coyness almost impos- 
 sible to imagine in her until it was seen, and 
 she spoke with an excitement which she tried 
 in vain to hide, interrupting him: 
 
 "Mr. Parker," she said, "if you will wait 
 here one minute I will see what I can do. 
 The doctors are with him now, and I will ask 
 their advice. If it is possible for him to receive 
 anybody in the world, you shall be that one."
 
 STRANGE SICKNESS OF MR. RANSOME 203 
 
 She ran out hurriedly, blind to the expres- 
 sion on his face, whatever it might be, scarcely 
 seeing him or anything, recognizing no logical 
 gaps in the situation, intent only on one thing 
 the thought of HIM. 
 
 The sailor jumped up and softly followed 
 her down the dim hall, his face grim, his eyes 
 glittering. Four doors beyond she stopped 
 and went in. The sailor stole on to the next 
 door, turned the knob stealthily, peered into 
 the vacant room, ran to a cabinet of ebony, 
 inserted a key, pushed the slide back, exchanged 
 for a long envelope he saw there one which 
 he took from his pocket, locked the cabinet, and 
 inside of one minute was back in the reception- 
 room, sitting as he was when the girl left him. 
 
 Presently she returned, regarding him 
 strangely. 
 
 "My father says that he was under the 
 impression that his friend's son was an Oxford 
 university man, and that he was no longer liv- 
 ing," she said, hesitatingly. 
 
 "Oh, well, ye see," he answered, readily, 
 "I runned away from there. Yes, that's it; I 
 runned away. No college for me! And so 
 'twas give out that I was dead. That's it. 
 D'ye see?" 
 
 His words were far from reassuring her, 
 innocent as she was of the world's ways, and 
 she still regarded him with eyes in which 
 some undefined fear lurked. 
 
 "Are you sure it is about HIM that you 
 wish to see my father?" she asked, anxiously, 
 " Because if it isn't " She hesitated.
 
 804 EXPLOITS OF A PHYSICIAN-DETECTIVE 
 
 "Well, I'll tell ye what," he said, as if sud- 
 denly arrived at a satisfactory conclusion. 
 "I'll go git the papers I didn't fetch 'em 
 along this time, d'ye see and I'll come agin. 
 Then ye'll see for yerself, for I'll show 'em to 
 ye." 
 
 He picked up his cap and arose. 
 
 "But, sir, my father wishes to see you!" 
 she exclaimed. "Though the doctors do not 
 approve, he wishes it, for he cannot imagine 
 what the important thing is " 
 
 "Well, I'll git the papers and come agin," 
 he interrupted, moving toward the door. She 
 stood well away from him, but her anxiety 
 regarding his message overcame her fear of 
 his person, and she asked hastily: 
 
 "Couldn't you tell me the nature of the 
 communication you wish to make to him? 
 He cannot imagine what it may be, and I, you 
 know you said that I that it was for my 
 sake too. I have a right to know." 
 
 "Well, I'll bring the papers, that's all," he 
 growled, glaring at her. With that he passed 
 down the stairs and out, the footman opening 
 the door for him stiffly, while she followed him. 
 with troubled eyes. 
 
 "What a strange man! What could his 
 message be?" she murmured. Then she hur- 
 ried softly back to the sick room. 
 * * * * 
 
 Dr. Furnivall, seated in his library, drew a 
 breath of relief. He had had a hard day and 
 was tired. What with his prison duties as 
 resident physician, his private practice, and,
 
 STRANGE SICKNESS OF MR. RANSOME 205 
 
 recently, since the fame of his hypnotic powers 
 had spread so widely, the grind he had been 
 called upon to undergo in police circles, he was 
 pretty well worn out. But this evening there 
 was nothing on the tapis and he would 
 
 The door opened without ceremony and in 
 walked Dr. Gerrish. He was flushed and 
 excited, and held a paper in his hand. Though 
 he was privileged to burst in upon his friend 
 hi this sort of way if he so wished, he began 
 an apology. 
 
 "If it weren't so important " he began. 
 
 "Oh, yes! Everything is important with 
 you young fellows. But to tell you the truth, 
 there hasn't been an important happening 
 since 6,000 B. C. That is according to Usher's 
 chronology. Adam and Eve were born then. 
 My own notion is, plagiarized from Rabelais, 
 Montaigne, Mr. Shakespeare, and others, all 
 equally unknown today, except in name, 
 nothing ever happened that was or is or in 
 any way can be important. Well, go on!" 
 
 He smiled affectionately at his younger 
 friend, leaned back in his chair, put on his 
 spectacles of colored glass, and looked atten- 
 tion. 
 
 But Dr. Gerrish was in earnest. He did 
 not respond to his friend's banter, except by 
 a fleeting smile. Then he began: 
 
 "Three of us were in consultation this 
 afternoon over a case that will puzzle even 
 you." 
 
 "Who were they?" 
 
 "Whewell and Hersey, with me."
 
 ao6 EXPLOITS OF A PHYSICIAN-DETECTIVE 
 
 "Good men! What was the case?" 
 
 "That's it. What is it? Listen now." 
 Dr. Gerrish leaned eagerly over the table 
 toward Dr. Furnivall and continued: "Take 
 a man 60 years old, hale and strong never 
 been sick in his life. Gradually he becomes 
 weak; no apparent disease; organs intact; no 
 bad habits; just sinks, and goes to bed. For 
 a long time no physician called because not 
 considered necessary; just a weakness which, 
 with ordinary care, will pass away. But it 
 doesn't pass away. On the contrary, it grows 
 greater, and keeps on growing greater, he 
 refusing medical advice, until a whole year is 
 gone by. Then the daughter will wait no 
 longer, and calls in Hersey. Hersey can make 
 nothing at all of the symptoms and calls in 
 Whewell. Whewell is all off, too, and calls 
 in me. I also am all off. Now I want you, 
 we all of us want you, and I am here to get 
 you; and," he added, thrusting the paper he 
 had held in his hand since he entered, under 
 Dr. FurnivalPs eyes, "here is the document 
 that will fetch you." 
 
 Dr. Furnivall put out his hand for it, but 
 Dr. Gerrish withdrew it. 
 
 "It is a record of symptoms," he said, 
 "filed down to the last analysis. You need 
 not know them all. This will be enough for 
 you, or I am much mistaken. Listen." 
 
 Searching here and there in the written 
 diagnosis, leaving out the minor details, he 
 read, eagerly, the symptoms of a disease so 
 strange that it never had been heard of by
 
 STRANGE SICKNESS OF MR. RANSOME 207 
 
 merely practising physicians in the United 
 States of America and by but few of the best 
 physicians anywhere. Yet these symptoms 
 sounded so simple! The following is all Dr. 
 Gerrish read: 
 
 "Almost utter muscular weakness breath- 
 lessness upon least exertion palpitation of 
 heart puffy face enlarged spleen and lym- 
 phatic glands slight fever badly denned red- 
 dish patches on body profound mental leth- 
 argy; all this, with no mania, no delusions, but 
 of course with no optimism, no hope. Leth- 
 argy the predominating feature. Patient's age 
 60 years or so." 
 
 Dr. Furnivall arose at once. 
 
 "Is it far from here?" he inquired, his 
 hand on a push button. 
 
 "Whittaker Ransome's!" replied Dr. Ger- 
 rish succinctly. 
 
 "Indeed! Then we'll just walk around the 
 corner. We shall need no conveyance." 
 
 The patient lay a massive ruin in his great 
 bed, like a giant tree stricken down. The 
 flesh over his ponderous bones had shrunk 
 until the corrugated skin, except over his 
 face, which was puffy, resembled thick bark 
 more than the cuticle of a man. His great 
 hands, pale and thin, lay like skeleton claws 
 outside the quilt, the veins showing large 
 and knotted, but filled apparently with some 
 lighter hued fluid than good red blood. The 
 eyes were closed wearily, the whole body 
 expressed weariness in the last degree, and 
 the man seemed even to breathe with the
 
 308 EXPLOITS OF A PHYSICIAN-DETECTIVE 
 
 reluctance of one over a hard and painful 
 task. It was a ghastly spectacle. 
 
 But Dr. Furnivall cast only one glance at 
 the patient himself. His attention was all 
 concentrated on a vase and its accompani- 
 ments on the mantel from the instant he first 
 saw it. Long necked, of well levigated clay, 
 it was gilded without and within with a dull, 
 golden colored mica. By the side of it stood 
 a glass jar containing a brownish red powder, 
 and close to that was a forked stick, one fork 
 of which was split and filled with chicken feath- 
 ers, while inside hung a little clay pot con- 
 taining a number of chicken bones. 
 
 Dr. Furnivall, having finished his examina- 
 tion of this unique curio, looked from it inter- 
 estedly to the patient, and then beckoned Dr. 
 Gerrish. 
 
 "I did not know he ever was in Africa," 
 he said, motioning toward the patient. 
 
 "It was not Africa, it was India there is 
 where he made his money in the tea busi- 
 ness." 
 
 "Yes, but this vase and these " 
 
 "Oh, his nephew gave him those. He is 
 a surgeon, a young Englishman, his sister's 
 son, and his heir, out somewhere in the Anglo- 
 Egyptian Soudan." 
 
 Dr. Furnivall threw him a quick, singular 
 glance. 
 
 "Do you suspect nothing?" he asked. 
 
 Dr. Gerrish shook his head, with a quick 
 glance in his turn. 
 
 "No. Why?"
 
 STRANGE SICKNESS OF MR. RANSOME 209 
 
 Dr. Furnivall stepped to the bedside and 
 looked down earnestly at the slumbering pa- 
 tient. He took his pulse. Then he whispered 
 to Dr. Gerrish: 
 
 "I am going home to refresh my memory 
 with an authority that occurs to me. Bring 
 me some of the patient's blood as soon as you 
 can. If we haven't run up against the most 
 subtle, fiendish crime " 
 
 "Crime!" gasped Dr. Gerrish, taken wholly 
 by surprise. 
 
 "You say this nephew is his heir is there 
 a likeness of him of any kind in the house that 
 you know of?" 
 
 This seemed to Dr. Gerrish to be exceed- 
 ingly irrelevant, but he answered readily by 
 pointing to the wall, on which was hung a fine 
 oil painting of a young man in uniform. Dr. 
 Furnivall stood back and examined it. His 
 mental processes as he did so were somewhat 
 as follows. The interpretation has become so 
 famous among physicians and phrenologists 
 that it would be supererogatory to introduce 
 here any more than the striking points of it: 
 
 "The brain is large at the base, as com- 
 pared with the upper superior convolutions of 
 the cerebrum, especially in the upper frontal 
 lobes at the seat of the faculties of benevolence 
 and veneration. The development immedi- 
 ately over the eye shows perception in a marked 
 degree, and the fullness of the eyes themselves 
 means a flow of language words, words, 
 words, to such an extent that a superficial 
 observer, or one who loved the speaker, would
 
 2io EXPLOITS OF A PHYSICIAN-DETECTIVE 
 
 believe him much deeper and more accomplished 
 than is the case. The forehead, in the abrupt 
 recession of the upper superior convolutions, 
 indicates also this same lack of benevolence. 
 Causality, comparison, and veneration are 
 largely deficient. His most striking faculty is 
 that of human nature. The head, through the 
 regions of the ears and the temporal lobes, is 
 extremely broad it means destructiveness, 
 acquisitiveness, secretiveness. There is great 
 energy and executive ability, love of money and 
 power, active slyness and cunning. Roof shaped 
 at the vertix, sloping toward the parietal emi- 
 nences, the head here indicates a lack of con- 
 scientiousness. The still, small voice in this 
 man is so -very small and still that he never 
 heard it. His self-esteem will give him abso- 
 lute confidence in his ability to carry out what- 
 ever scheme his selfish propensities may con- 
 coct, and he has the determination and stead- 
 fastness of the bulldog. His cerebellum is 
 abnormally developed, which indicates muscu- 
 larity, and he is doubtless strong and vigorous. 
 Caring primarily for his own feelings and 
 wants, sly, surreptitious, yet at the same time 
 forceful, he is a dangerous type of man, one 
 in whom it would be difficult to find any natural 
 quality of a gentleman neither love, honor, 
 trust, nor conscience." 
 
 Dr. Furnivall turned to Dr. Gerrish. 
 "What uniform is that in the picture?" 
 "I don't know. But he is a surgeon, in the 
 Egyptian medical service, until recently work- 
 inc: with the Soudan commission."
 
 STRANGE SICKNESS OF MR. RANSOME 211 
 
 "Until recently? Where is he now?" 
 
 "On his way here. He was sent for three 
 months since, and is expected daily." 
 
 "How long ago was this vase received?" 
 
 "Oh, he brought it himself when he was in 
 the city last year." 
 
 "Ah, he has visited here himself! Do you 
 know if the patient has been out- of the United 
 States lately?" 
 
 "Not for eight years, certainly, for I have 
 known him for that length of time." 
 
 "Well, bring me the blood." 
 
 Dr. Furnivall straightened up from his 
 microscope and, putting on his spectacles, 
 looked at Dr. Gerrish. 
 
 "It is as I thought," he said. "Bacterio- 
 logic culture of trypanosomes !" 
 
 "Good heavens!" ejaculated Dr. Gerrish, 
 stepping quickly to the microscope. "How on 
 earth did you ever come to suspect such a 
 thing?" 
 
 "In the first place, the symptoms of the 
 patient indicated it. And as soon as I saw 
 that odd vase in his room I was practically 
 certain. For vases of that sort, as I see by my 
 authority here, are made only in the Bahr-El- 
 Ghazal province in the southern Soudan, 
 where trypanosomiasis, or 'sleeping sickness,' 
 is common." 
 
 Dr. Gerrish, who was eagerly studying the 
 culture, raised his head quickly. 
 
 "But," he said, "the patient was never 
 there and how could he contract "
 
 212 EXPLOITS OF A PHYSICIAN-DETECTIVE 
 
 "The disease is spread in two ways, first 
 by the bite of the tsetse fly. That is the com- 
 mon way." 
 
 "Well, there are no tsetse flies here!" 
 
 "No, there are not. But theie is the second 
 way direct inoculation of the parasites into 
 the blood and we have hypodermic needles 
 here." 
 
 Dr. Gerrish stared at him blankly for a 
 moment. Then he comprehended, and his face 
 paled. 
 
 "Good God! Can he be such a subtle 
 fiend!" he murmured. 
 
 "The disease proves fatal, you understand, 
 always not until a long time subsequent to 
 inoculation, however, anywhere from three 
 months to three years after decided symp- 
 toms appear. And there is no sign of poison 
 only general paralysis, or chiefly that." 
 
 "But why should he wish to do it? He 
 was his uncle's heir, and would get his prop- 
 erty anyway, or most of it. And, indeed, all 
 of it, in effect, for he is to marry the adopted 
 daughter, who is the only other living person 
 likely to be thought of in the will." 
 
 "The reasons we may leave until we inter- 
 view the nephew. Rest assured he had good 
 ones in his own estimation. I'll get a warrant 
 for him, and as soon as he arrives he and I 
 will have a little chat together on the subject." 
 
 The next day, accordingly, found Dr. Fur- 
 divall face to face with the young English- 
 man, who had reached his uncle's house that 
 morning. The portrait which the doctor had
 
 STRANGE SICKNESS OF MR. RANSOME ai 3 
 
 studied was a good likeness, and he shud- 
 dered inwardly as he looked into the pitiless 
 gray eyes and felt the atmosphere of brutal 
 selfishness that enveloped the man beneath 
 the cultivated suavity of manner, which, to the 
 casual observer, was very far from uninviting. 
 Stout and florid, of the pure English type, in 
 the traditional slouchy suit of gray tweed, he 
 conversed with the doctor as one of his uncle's 
 physicians, manifesting much sorrow over his 
 condition. He said that he supposed they 
 had abandoned all hope of his recovery. 
 
 "Yes," answered Dr. Furnivall, looking 
 into his eyes. "You have just seen him, I 
 understand. What, in your opinion, is he 
 afflicted with?" 
 
 "Oh, I haven't examined him, don't you 
 know. Not yet. You have very fair physi- 
 cians in this country, and I fancy everything 
 has been done for him er properly, and all 
 that. I don't say what might have been if I 
 could have seen him in time. Er too late 
 now, and all that er!" 
 
 "You have no idea what his disease is?" 
 
 "I fancy it is er old age, don't you know 
 er general paralysis er er " 
 
 His face having shown several remarkable 
 changes of expression as he talked, his eyes 
 in the doctor's, beginning with perplexity, 
 running into vacancy, into stolidity, and then 
 earnestness, now settled into deep introspec- 
 tion; and his voice, trailing away to silence 
 for an instant, began again *">hout hesitancy, 
 but with a mechanical intonation.
 
 ai4 EXPLOITS OF A PHYSICIAN-DETECTIVE 
 
 "What did you ask me?" he continued. 
 
 "What disease is your uncle afflicted with?" 
 
 As Dr. Furnivall put the question this time 
 the door of the room, which had been slightly 
 ajar up to this moment, swung wide, and Dr. 
 Gerrish and another man came in. The sub- 
 ject gave them no attention, but answered at 
 once: 
 
 "Sleeping sickness!" 
 
 "How did he contract it?" 
 
 "I inoculated him with trypanosomes four- 
 teen months ago!" 
 
 "How did you manage to do that without 
 his suspecting it?" 
 
 "I put enough arsenic in his food to give 
 him violent pains in the stomach and bowels, 
 and followed with hypodermic injections to 
 relieve the suffering, one containing the try- 
 panosomes, the other morphine. For the arsen- 
 ical poisoning I gave him hydrated sesquioxide 
 of iron." 
 
 The man in plain clothes with Dr. Gerrish 
 stepped nearer, but Dr. Furnivall put another 
 question. 
 
 "What was your object in inoculating your 
 uncle with this fatal disease?" 
 
 "He was a strong man, likely to live long, 
 and I wanted his money as soon as I could 
 get it. Besides, he had made conditions in 
 his will that did not suit me. By its terms 
 I am to marry his adopted daughter or else 
 give up half the property to her. I was pres- 
 ent when the will was made, and pretended 
 to agree to its provisions, knowing that with
 
 STRANGE SICKNESS OF MR. RANSOME 215 
 
 a man like him it would be useless to do other- 
 wise; he would have his way. I had a dupli- 
 cate key to his cabinet made while I was here, 
 and when, some months after my return to the 
 Soudan, I learned that he was too sick to be 
 up and around, I sent here a man, a sailor, 
 who is in my power, with the key. I coached 
 him up on a cock-and-bull story that he was 
 the son of an old friend of my uncle's, and 
 on some pretext or other he was to get into the 
 room, which I described to him, where the 
 cabinet was kept, and change the real will, 
 which was locked up there, for one I had 
 forged myself. All this was done while I was 
 thousands of miles away, so that no suspicions 
 could attach to me should occasion of suspicion 
 of anybody arise. Even that was not likely. 
 There is nobody interested but the girl, who 
 will accept meekly whatever happens; and, 
 you know, I didn't want her, but I did want 
 the money." 
 
 "And I want you," said the plain clothes 
 man, stepping up to him as Dr. Furnivall 
 turned away in disgust. "I arrest you for 
 the poisoning of your uncle, Mr. Whittaker 
 Ransome. Later the charge will be murder. 
 Come! Step lively!" 
 
 With a look of the deepest astonishment on 
 his usually self-satisfied face, the young man 
 was hustled from the room, not too gently.
 
 The Man With The 
 Glass Eye
 
 THE MAN WITH THE GLASS EYE 
 
 "Friendship," said Delancy, lighting his 
 briar root, "consists in overlooking faults." 
 
 "One would have to overlook quite a few 
 in you," returned Sewell, sourly. 
 
 Delancy grinned and blew rings. 
 
 "You're my friend, aren't you ?" He crossed 
 his knees and crowded down the tobacco in 
 his pipe with a knife handle. 
 
 "Not when you want money not by a 
 blessed sight!" retorted Sewell, also crossing 
 his knees. 
 
 "There's one thing I like about you, you 
 most humble apology for an old chum," said 
 Delancy, blowing clouds of smoke debonairly, 
 "and that is you are rich but honest. Most 
 men would be ashamed to confess to your 
 principles." 
 
 Sewell snorted smoke. 
 
 "How much do you owe me now?" he 
 burst out, leaning forward, his pipe in his 
 hand, his bald head glistening in a ray of sun 
 that lay across the corner of the room, his 
 white mustache lifting up and down over his 
 thin lips, his black eyes shooting sparks, his 
 face full of condemnation. 
 
 "What's that got to do with it? It isn't 
 what I've had, it is what I want, that bothers 
 me. And you've got enough, more than ten 
 times enough. Come, shell out! Lend me a
 
 320 EXPLOITS OF A PHYSICIAN-DETECTIVE 
 
 thousand ha, ha, ha!" He threw himself 
 back in his chair and laughed boisterously at 
 the astonished expression on the other's face. 
 "Anybody would think you were surprised," 
 he added. And then ruminatively, "What a 
 queer devil!" 
 
 "It's you who are the queer devil!" exploded 
 Sewell, hitching excitedly around in his Morris 
 chair, and, his pipe in his fingers, the stem 
 pointed at Delancy, scowling thunders. "I 
 can't keep going on forever lending you money! 
 What do you take me for? An ass! You 
 must! Or else you wouldn't have the gall 
 
 "Well," grumbled Delancy, his fresh face, 
 smooth shaven and rotund, crinkling lugubri- 
 ously, "I can't live the way you do. It's dis- 
 graceful! A man with $10,000 a year income, 
 with nobody but himself to look after it's 
 disgraceful, it is, spending only three thou- 
 sand! What is money for? Why, if I had as 
 much as you have " 
 
 "You wouldn't be worth a dollar in two 
 years," interpolated Sewell with spirit. 
 
 "Very likely not. But other people would 
 be the people on whom I would blow it. I 
 can take care of myself they can't! And 
 there you are! I should be a philanthropist." 
 
 He laughed again, pleasantly, kicking a 
 hassock end over end. 
 
 "You are the most inconsequential ass I 
 ever saw in my life. See here! If I should 
 lend you a hundred, what would you do with 
 it?"
 
 THE MAN WITH THE GLASS EYE 221 
 
 "A hundred? Oh, a hundred! Well, I'd 
 take Mattic out and give her a supper. We 
 might get a fairly decent one for that. But 
 what should I do tomorrow ?" He examined the 
 toes of his patent leathers, twisting them about 
 to get the view on all sides. Sewell thumped 
 the arm of his chair with a strenuous fist. 
 
 "That's what I thought or something like 
 it an actress and at your age br-r-r!" 
 
 "It would be a good thing for you yourself 
 to do 'something like it!' A girl, any kind of 
 a girl, is an education. But you? Why, 
 man, did you ever in all your life get a fluffy 
 lot of lace and feathers and soft, rolypoly 
 in your arms and hug it and kiss it? Not 
 you, you crustacean! You don't know what 
 it. means. But look at me! I know!" 
 
 "Never mind about what I ever did!" he 
 answered, querulously. "And you can't shove 
 me off like that, Dick! I know you! You're 
 trying only to run me off on an infernal tangent, 
 chinning about something else, and before 1 
 am on to you you'll have me good natured 
 and forking over the rhino! But I won't do 
 it again, I've given you enough. What you 
 think I'm made of gets me. Why, confound 
 it here!" He jumped up and ran to the desk 
 in the corner of the elegantly furnished room 
 and pulled out a ledger. "There! look at that 
 date! Only two weeks ago I gave you $500, and 
 here you are again gunning for a thousand." 
 
 "Why," said Dick, eyeing the book in 
 amazement, "you don't mean to say you set 
 down what I borrow, do you?"
 
 222 EXPLOITS OF A PHYSICIAN-DETECTIVE 
 
 "Set it down! Set it down! Of course I 
 set it down. How else can I remember how 
 much it is when you come to settle?" 
 
 Mr. Dick Delancy lay back and roared. 
 
 "Well, of all the queer Willies!" he chortled. 
 "I knew, of course, that you were fool enough 
 to lend it to me, but I didn't suppose you 
 were fool enough to expect ever to see it 
 again!" 
 
 Sewell slammed the ledger upon the desk 
 and resumed his seat. 
 
 "That's enough, Dick!" he said in a tone of 
 exasperation. "You know you'll pay it in 
 time, when your pictures go! You have honor, 
 anyway, I know that." 
 
 "Honor! Honor! What has honor to do 
 with it ? Did honor and money ever yet meet ? 
 It's a simple matter of business with me. I 
 get all I can, the same as you do. You grind 
 your tenants, I grind you, somebody else 
 grinds me, and it's that somebody else that you 
 grind. And there you are the vicious circle! 
 If God put me into this world with beauty and 
 brains, and put you into it with nothing but 
 money, why, then, I'll be generous with you 
 I'll allow you to feast on my good looks and 
 sample my gray matter, as displayed in the 
 facility with which I grind you, and all you 
 have to do is to stand the grind. If that isn't 
 generous in me, what could be? That's what 
 I want to know." 
 
 He reclined in his chair with a self-satisfied 
 expression on his face, threw his leg over the 
 arm, ran his fingers through his thick chestnut
 
 THE MAN WITH THE GLASS EYE 323 
 
 colored hair, tousling and mauling it fantastic- 
 ally, and blew a cloud of smoke ceiling- 
 ward. 
 
 "Well, I'm aware," said Sewell meekly, 
 "that I never could have taken my degree at 
 college but for you, Dick, old man. And I'll 
 not soon forget that. I owe you a good deal, 
 no doubt. But I don't owe you everything- 
 not all my money. And sometimes it seems as 
 if you thought I did. I've coughed up six 
 thousand for you in the last eighteen months. 
 It isn't business. It's worse than unbusiness- 
 like its downright tomfoolery in me. How 
 have you got on all these years without me 
 over there in Paris, and Rome, and Venice, 
 and those places?" 
 
 "That's just it!" explained Mr. Dick, start- 
 ing up. "How did I? Ask my creditors, but 
 don't give me any such conundrum as that. 
 Why, Neil, I'm a wonder to myself! I don't 
 know how I managed to pull through. You 
 ought to see the cribs I've been obliged to 
 sleep in barns and old snaky ruins! And 
 the grub! Man, it was frightful, the whole 
 experience! I used to think of you and the 
 dinky feeds we laid in together, and the soft 
 mattresses in the dormitory, and the glad 
 clothes, and sometimes I felt like chucking 
 the complete thing Art and all her relations 
 and going in for groceries or coal or dry 
 goods in them there are food and raiment, at 
 all events! Or I could put on my natural face 
 and pose as a born idiot in a dime museum 
 a hundred plunks a night what!"
 
 224 EXPLOITS OF A PHYSICIAN-DETECTIVE 
 
 "I don't see how it is that you have to use 
 so much now, after running the gait on nothing 
 so long, Dick," Sewell grumbled. "I'd do any- 
 thing for you, in reason " 
 
 " Why, man, don't you know that the greatest 
 spenders are those who never had anything 
 until they made their strike! It's natural, of 
 course 1 Begin with nothing, finish with satiety; 
 begin with satiety, end with nothing! There 
 you are! It's law, the law of compensation, 
 which is universal, working in all things; and 
 do you suppose I am going to sit still and see 
 you break the law, a law as big as that, spread 
 everywhere? Why, no, I am too much your 
 friend, old man! You've always had enough, 
 and never would throw anything. Don't you 
 see what the gods are doing for you? They 
 are sending you a clean cut young fellow like 
 me to do the blowing which you owe to the law, 
 but which you refuse to do yourself. It's per- 
 fectly simple. And it's your only salvation. 
 Good heavens, Neil, think what would hap- 
 pen to you if you should deny me money, try- 
 ing to buck all by your lonesome against a 
 universal law hello!" 
 
 The exclamation was called forth by the 
 sudden appearance of a woman in the doorway. 
 
 "I knocked," she said apologetically to 
 Sewell, "and the gentleman was talking so 
 loudly that I couldn't tell whether you said 
 'come in' or not." 
 
 She was a tall, handsome, somewhat faded 
 woman, very dark, svelte, and stylish in a 
 tailor made gown, and as she finished speaking
 
 THE MAN WITH THE GLASS EYE aa$ 
 
 she glanced at Delancy with a curious expres- 
 sion in her large black eyes. There was dis- 
 trust in them, and a little fear and a glint of 
 indignation. 
 
 "Mrs. Dillingham, my old friend Delancy! 
 Mrs. Dillingham is our new lodging mis- 
 tress, Dick," said Sewell. "She makes it very 
 pleasant here. Is there anything, Mrs. Dill- 
 ingham?" 
 
 She acknowledged the introduction with a 
 conventional nod and smile at Delancy, and 
 then answered: 
 
 "The man has come about the automo- 
 bile." 
 
 "That's good! Ask him right up; and 
 thank you, Mrs. Dillingham. Too bad you 
 should have to come away up here, three 
 flights ! I must have some sort of a bell arranged 
 or a speaking-tube, or something." 
 
 "Oh, it is nothing! I am sure you are very 
 welcome," she returned, and with another 
 nod and smile that included both men she went 
 out, closing the door behind her. 
 
 Delancy glanced slyly beneath his lashes 
 at Sewell, and, as he met his somewhat sheep- 
 ish eye, burst out laughing. 
 
 "Pretty stylish rig, isn't it, for a lodging 
 mistress and before noon!" 
 
 "Oh, roti" Sewell threw one leg over the 
 other impatiently. "You always think every 
 woman in the house where I happen to be is 
 after me or my money! It's low, Dick, 
 Quit it! This is a good woman, and does all 
 she can to make me comfortable "
 
 aa6 EXPLOITS OF A PHYSICIAN-DETECTIVE 
 
 "Even to dressing up in her glad rags and 
 mounting three flights of stairs to tell you 
 you have a caller, instead of sending him right 
 along, or deputing a maid!" 
 
 "Dick! " 
 
 "Well, well, no matter! Say no more. 
 What did you begin the argument for, anyway ? 
 It's useless to give you advice. You'll fall 
 into the trap whatever warning you may have. 
 You never could look out for yourself in any 
 but money matters. In those great Scott! 
 You make up for all the rest! And that brings 
 me back to my mutton. What are you going 
 to do about that little matter at once, before 
 your man arrives?" 
 
 "I'm not going to give you a dollar!" 
 
 "Really, Neil?" 
 
 "Really, Dick!" Sewell looked at his friend 
 with a determined eye. "In the first place," 
 he went on, "I can't spare it now. Every- 
 thing is tied up so tightly that I can't lay hold 
 of what I need myself. All the ready cash 
 I've got is in that desk, two thousand, and 
 that is going for the auto tomorrow, providing 
 the machine suits as I have no doubt it will 
 do. I shall be terribly short for three or four 
 days 
 
 " 'Caterwauling calamities cannonading come 
 Dealing death's devastating doom ' 
 
 The man is to be broke for three days!" 
 uttered Delancy in great horror. 
 
 Sewell waved his hand impatiently. 
 
 "And there's another thing, Dick. I feel 
 sure that you will sell your pictures in time.
 
 THE MAN WITH THE GLASS EYE 337 
 
 And then you'll pay up. Of course! But it 
 may be a long time, and I don't feel like lend- 
 ing er er " 
 
 He paused, puffing his pipe uncomfortably. 
 
 "Proceed," said Delancy, eyeing him won- 
 deringly. 
 
 "Well, hang it, you're always slipping into 
 the poor old uncle so! Of course, I am aware 
 that he was a grinder, piling up all he could 
 get hold of in any old way, denying himself 
 everything, and 'doing' everybody that he could, 
 and all that. I'm reaping all the good of the 
 harvest he sowed, and it doesn't seem the 
 square thing in me to give or even lend his 
 money to a man who despises his memory, 
 loading him down with all the opprobrious 
 epithets in the book of slang. He wasn't a 
 good sort at all, I admit, and there is something 
 in your point of view that appeals to me a little 
 that poetic justice is being done when a high 
 roller like you gets hold of a skinflint's money 
 and distributes it all over the world that he 
 skinned. I suppose that is one great reason 
 why I have let you milk me so. But I'm 
 through now, Dick. At least I can't do any- 
 thing for you today. I must think it over. 
 You have always had a better time than I have, 
 anyway, if I am the prince and you are the 
 pauper, as you so often have said. Look at 
 my bald nut and white hairs and you haven't 
 a sign of age about you, though we are both 
 35. You don't look 30." 
 
 "Aha, so that's it jealousy!" exploded 
 Delancy, immenselv pleased. " Why don't you
 
 22 8 EXPLOITS OF A PHYSICIAN-DETECTIVE 
 
 cut out worrying, you poor old addle headed 
 hippopotamus? That's what's the matter with 
 you " 
 
 A rap at the door interrupted him. Smil- 
 ing, he arose as the automobile agent appeared, 
 winked at Sewell, clapped on his hat, and 
 departed, humming a gay air. 
 
 "Dick! Dick!" exclaimed Sewell in an 
 excitement of contrition. "Yell at him, will 
 you, Mr. Burbank! Tell him to come back 
 I want him!" 
 
 Mr. Burbank shot into the hall, crying, 
 "Mr. Dick! Mr-er-Dick! Hi-hi!" No answer! 
 He ran down the stairs, the three nights, and 
 even opened the front door, looking up and 
 down the street. There v.'-as no sign of Mr. 
 Dick Delancy, and he returned with the decla- 
 ration that it was curious that he had disap- 
 peared so suddenly, but he was gone. There 
 was no doubt about that. It was one of the 
 most singular things that he had ever 
 heard of! 
 
 "Why, Mr. Sewell," he said, with bulging 
 eyes, "I passed him right here in this doorway, 
 and immediately he vanished! Where did he 
 go? Up stairs " 
 
 "There's only the roof up there," inter- 
 rupted Sewell, perplexedly, "and at the head 
 of the stairs is a trapdoor locked with a pad- 
 lock. He couldn't get out that way and 
 what the nation would he want to for?" 
 
 "But he didn't go down, that is certain! 
 He wouldn't have had time even to drop bodily 
 down the stair rail well!"
 
 THE MAN WITH THE GLASS E\E 229 
 
 Mr. Burbank was a small man of sandy 
 complexion, with nervous light eyes, which 
 were now dancing in excitement. 
 
 Sewell sat with wrinkled brows. He had 
 not moved from the chair in which he was 
 sitting when Delancy left him. 
 
 "I'm not going to talk 'automobile' today," 
 he said, suddenly. "I don't feel like it. But 
 I'm inclined to ask a favor of you, Mr. Bur- 
 bank." 
 
 "You are welcome, Mr. Sewell, whatever 
 it is," answered Mr. Burbank, with the readi- 
 ness of a salesman dealing with a good cus- 
 tomer. 
 
 "I've done my best friend an injustice," 
 Sewell went on, rising and putting his pipe 
 in the rack. "I want you to help me right it. 
 Take me in the auto to his rooms, the Fen- 
 wag, will you? That will be as good as 
 a longer spin, and we'll let it go at that. 
 I am sure I shall accept the machine, any 
 way." 
 
 "With pleasure. Let me help you with 
 your overcoat why, what's the matter?" 
 
 Sewell was standing, his light overcoat on 
 his arm, before an open drawer in his desk, 
 his face as pale as ashes. That instant he 
 tottered and fell weakly into the chair he had 
 just vacated. 
 
 "Good God!" he gasped. 
 
 "Why why what is it?" 
 
 "Good God!" Sewell muttered again, dash- 
 ing his hand against his forehead. "Oh, 
 Dick, Dick, Dick!"
 
 230 EXPLOITS OF A PHYSICIAN-DETECTIVE 
 
 "Mr. Sewell, if there is anything I can do 
 " began Mr. Burbank, anxiously. 
 
 "For heaven's sake keep still, and let me 
 think!" cried Sewell distractedly. "Some- 
 body has stolen two thousand let me think 
 let me think!" 
 
 He dropped his coat on the floor, sank 
 back in his chair, and covered his face with his 
 hands. The automobile agent stood embar- 
 rassed before him, not knowing what to do. 
 The situation continued some moments. Then 
 Sewell roused himself. 
 
 "Burbank," he said, with a business-like 
 air, which, though plainly forced and with the 
 greatest effort, was determined, "will you step 
 down to the front room on the first floor and 
 ask Mrs. Dillingham to come up here?" 
 
 And as the automobile agent hurried to do 
 his bidding he again buried his face in his hands. 
 
 "Dick, Dick, poor old Dick!" he groaned. 
 "Oh, why, for heaven's sake, couldn't you 
 wait until this poor fit passed away from me! 
 I'd have given it to you, Dick! You knew I 
 would! Why, Dick, we're chums! How could 
 you forget it! And you'll "He famous some day, 
 with your art I know it I've always said so 
 you're a genius and to think that you could 
 stoop . But, by heavens, if it is you, I'll 
 prosecute you to the . Come in!" 
 
 Mrs. Dillingham entered, Burbank holding 
 the door for her, and stood waiting while Sewell 
 gazed at her undeterminately. 
 
 "I I thought I would ask you, Mrs. Dil- 
 lingham," he hesitated, "whether you could
 
 THE MAN WITH THE GLASS EYE 231 
 
 say . But please take this seat! Sit down, 
 
 Burbank! I wish you both to hear." 
 
 He jumped up and offered his chair to the 
 woman, who accepted it with grace. Mr. 
 Burbank sat on the couch, looking from the 
 one to the other anxiously. Sewell walked 
 over to his desk and put his hand on it. 
 
 "Mrs. Dillingham," he said, "it is unfor- 
 tunate but but and you are so recently 
 come here I shouldn't wish you to receive 
 the opinion that the neighborhood is bad but 
 the fact is, $2,000 have been taken from this 
 desk this morning. I was out of the rooms 
 for only an hour, and and was there any- 
 body in here, besides the maid, during that 
 time?" 
 
 His manner was strained. It would not 
 require a superlative degree of insight in a 
 listener, certainly no greater degree than this 
 woman possessed, to see that he was fighting 
 against a conviction in his own mind, and that 
 even to him the question was irrelevant. 
 
 "Mr. Sewell," she answered, with dignity, 
 sitting straight in her chair, "I hope I con- 
 duct my house properly " 
 
 " Oh, I beg you a thousand times to pardon 
 me!" Sewell exclaimed, "I did not mean that. 
 It is very far from my intention to charge the 
 maid or anybody connected with your " 
 
 "I should think not," the lodging mistress 
 interrupted, with curved eyebrows, and rising. 
 "And," she continued, with contracted lins, "if 
 you want to know who got your money I can 
 tell you!"
 
 232 EXPLOITS OF A PHYSICIAN-DETECTIVE 
 
 Sewell shivered. He felt what was coming, 
 and he dreaded it horribly; but his code of 
 ethics, which taught him to hold honesty, 
 business honesty, above all other qualities in 
 a man, and to punish its lack implacably, 
 inspired him with bravery, or at least with 
 bravado. He straightened up, clutching the 
 desk to steady himself. 
 
 "That is what I wish," he said, and his 
 voice caught in his throat so that it seemed 
 as if a frightened child were speaking. 
 
 "Mr. Sewell," she answered, holding her 
 head high, "there has been nobody but me in 
 this room today, except that rowdy that 
 friend of yours, Mr. Delancy. I made up your 
 apartments myself, while you were out, and 
 if you care to know what I think 
 
 Sewell made a gesture of denial. 
 
 "I feel extremely obliged to you, Mrs. 
 Dillingham," he interpolated, hastily, "for all 
 your trouble regarding this trifling matter. 
 Allow me!" 
 
 He opened the door for her and stood politely 
 waiting. She moved to the threshold, and then 
 turned her flashing eyes on him. 
 
 "I have always known that man was rob- 
 bing you," she hissed, "and I have been afraid, 
 because I was sure that sooner or later you 
 would lay it on me, or on the house in some 
 way. I have been here only three weeks, but 
 I have heard and seen " 
 
 He began closing the door. She stepped 
 over the sill, and then discharged her Parthian 
 shot:
 
 "And I heard him say to you this very 
 morning that something terrible would happen 
 if you refused him money today " 
 
 The door closed and her voice ceased. 
 
 The automobile man looked at Sewell 
 curiously. 
 
 "Did he threaten you?" he asked. 
 
 "No, no, nonsense! He was chaffing about 
 a universal law, and my bucking against it. 
 He said something about things happening to 
 me if I did so, jokingly, in his way, and this 
 ignorant woman " 
 
 "Do you know what I think?" cried Bur- 
 bank excitedly. "She took it! See the way 
 she acted tried to be dignified under her 
 paint and was the only one in here and 
 tried to lay it on somebody else " 
 
 Sewell groaned. 
 
 "Burbank," he said in a low voice, "to me 
 stealing money is the meanest, the lowest, most 
 abominable thing a man can do; and my heart 
 is broken. I had that vulgar woman brought 
 up here only in hope of something something 
 impossible! I knew I knew! Yet I wished 
 to evade the knowledge. And hoped against 
 hope that she would give me some reason to 
 do so. But she only added to it. Good 
 heavens, Burbank!" he almost shouted, start- 
 ing toward him with hands stretched out, 
 "think of it! A man you love a man who is 
 your dearest friend a man for whom you 
 would do anything in reason a man who has 
 done things for you, too, even beyond reason, 
 who has given his time to you, time that was
 
 3+ EXPLOITS OF A PHYSICIAN-DETECTIVE 
 
 worth money to him, while you had all the 
 money and he had none 
 
 "There, there, calm yourself, Mr. Sewell!" 
 exclaimed Burbank soothingly, putting his 
 arm around Sewell's shoulders and guiding him 
 to the Morris chair, "Come, it's a small matter. 
 to you, and, besides, you are not sure it was 
 he. How can you be ? There are lots of ways 
 out of it. I should sooner suspect the woman. 
 She looks like it, fast enough!" 
 
 "Man!" cried Sewell with sudden energy, 
 " it is not a small matter the principle isn't! 
 And I know I know See here! I put that 
 package of bills into that drawer while Dick 
 Delancy was here, observing me do it ! Nobody 
 comes in until he leaves, and the next moment 
 I find that the money is gone at the same 
 time he goes! Not a soul in the room besides 
 us two in the meantime! And he was all 
 over the place ten times at the desk, as well 
 as at every other spot in the apartment! What 
 can I think! What can I but know?" 
 
 "If I can do anything, Mr. Sewell " 
 
 Sewell arose, walked to the pipe rack, put 
 his hand on a pipe, a great meerschaum with 
 a figure supposed to be that of Lief, the Norse- 
 man, on it, and, as if inspired by contact with 
 the image, turned with sudden rage on the agent. 
 
 "Get out of here!" he howled. "Never let 
 me see you again! Confound it, can't a man 
 be let alone in his own place!" 
 
 "Why, Mr. Sewell" began the man, startled. 
 
 "Leave the room!" commanded Sewell, 
 fiercely.
 
 THE MAN WITH THE GLASS EYE 335 
 
 Mr. Burbank looked at him an instant. 
 Then, with raised eyebrows, he picked up his 
 hat, and, an expression of injury in his face, 
 opened the door, bowed with dignity, and with- 
 drew. 
 
 Sewell stood looking after him with the gaze 
 of a blind man. Then he fumbled at the pipes, 
 taking up one and putting it down, repeating 
 the operation with others, finally turning away 
 altogether. As he did so his eyes fell on a 
 morning newspaper that lay on a chair, with 
 the following headlines staring at him: 
 
 DR. FURNIVALL'S MYSTERIOUS 
 
 POWER AGAIN! 
 ANOTHER CRIMINAL FOUND BY ITS 
 
 AID! 
 
 SCIENTISTS AND POLICE ALIKE PUZ- 
 ZLED BY THIS OCCULT FORCE 
 WHICH COMPELS A MAN ALWAYS TO 
 SPEAK THE TRUTH! 
 
 "Jove!" he cried. "The very thing! Why 
 didn't I think of him at once!" 
 
 In less than a quarter or an hour from that 
 moment he was telling his story to Dr. Furni- 
 vall. 
 
 'As I understand it, then," said the doc- 
 tor, regarding him through his colored spec- 
 tacles, "you can't believe that this rather 
 frivolous friend of yours is guilty, while at the 
 same time you must believe it because all the 
 circumstances indicate his guilt." 
 
 "Yes, yes, that is it!" cried Sewell. "And 
 I was hoping that, with your hypnotism, you
 
 236 EXPLOITS OF A PHYSICIAN-DETECTIVE 
 
 might force him to confess privately, you 
 know! We would have no publicity about it, 
 and all that. The confession would be pun- 
 ishment enough for him and I would let 
 him keep the money, and he could go away. 
 For I can't have him around any longer 
 
 "It appears to me," said Dr. Furnivall, 
 sitting back in his chair, "that you have begun 
 at the wrong end of the matter. It is true 
 that from what you say your friend is a spend- 
 thrift, altogether too light of mind for his own 
 material good, but that does not make him a 
 thief. If it did most all our artists would be 
 thieves. And to steal from his own best friend, 
 too! Isn't that an enormous charge to make " 
 
 "But the circumstances! the circumstances!" 
 Sewell burst forth, excitedly. "I tell you I put 
 that money into the desk while he was there 
 he saw me do it and not another soul was 
 in the room from that moment until I missed 
 it " 
 
 "There was the lodging mistress, and there 
 was Burbank!" 
 
 "Oh, but they don't count! How can 
 they? Dick and I, both of us, had our eyes 
 on the woman every instant she was there 
 
 "No matter if you did have! Human 
 affairs take on strange twists sometimes. The 
 money might not have been in the desk at all 
 might have rolled to the floor, where she 
 could kick it behind her out of the door as 
 she entered, under cover of her skirts a 
 dozen different ways might--
 
 THE MAN WITH THE GLASS EYE 237 
 
 Sewell shook his head hopelessly. 
 
 "No, no it is useless," he interrupted. 
 "It was there in the drawer, and the drawer 
 was open, so that I could see it all the time. 
 I did not move from my chair, except once, 
 when I went to the desk for a ledger, after 
 putting the package of bills into that drawer, 
 and I was facing it every instant until I sud- 
 denly missed it, nobody having approached 
 it in the meantime except Dick." 
 
 "The other man, Mr. Burbank, he " 
 
 " Oh, he passed Dick in the doorway. Bur- 
 bank drew back to give Dick room hadn't en- 
 tered at all before I sent him to call Dick back." 
 
 "You sent for Delancy to come back? 
 Why didn't he come, then?" 
 
 "Burbank couldn't find him. He had dis- 
 appeared like a flash of lightning, and that is 
 one of the counts against him. He must 
 have started down those stairs three at a leap 
 the instant he reached them. Now, why 
 should he do that unless he were guilty?" 
 
 "Do you mean to say that you asked Bur- 
 bank to call out to Delancy, who had just 
 passed him in the doorway, that Burbank had 
 not entered the room so short a time as that 
 had elapsed and he could not make him 
 hear?" 
 
 "I do. And, further, he ran as fast as he 
 could safely go down to the front door, and 
 looked up and down the street, and even the.i 
 could see him nowhere." 
 
 "After Burbank came back didn't he enter 
 the room?"
 
 238 EXPLOITS OF A PHYSICIAN-DETECTIVE 
 
 " Certainly, but not until I had missed the 
 money. He stood right on the threshold while 
 he told me that Dick had vanished. I am 
 positive of that, for I thought at the time it 
 was queer. It was as if he felt timid about 
 coming in I couldn't understand it. It was 
 just at the moment when I discovered my loss 
 that he first stepped on the rug, coming for- 
 ward with the offer to assist me with my over- 
 coat." 
 
 Dr. Furnivall gave a long look into his face 
 through his spectacles. He then with an 
 ophthalmoscope examined his eyes. 
 
 "Of what firm are you buying your auto- 
 mobile?" he asked suddenly. Sewell told him. 
 He went into the telephone closet, and after 
 a few words with station 16 put on his hat, 
 saying: 
 
 "I am abdut to show you something so 
 strange that you wouldn't believe it possible 
 until actually compelled to do so! Come, let's 
 go for a short walk." 
 
 "Shall we call on Delancy now?" asked 
 Sewell, as they reached the sidewalk. 
 
 "Delancy! Oh, no, we have nothing to do 
 with him at present! Quite another person! 
 And if the experience teaches you to accept the 
 evidence of character against circumstances but 
 there!" He stopped, with an amused glance at 
 Sewell. What did he know about reading 
 character! No more than a child who, because 
 he can see nothing beyond appearances, must 
 be swayed by them, and them alone! "I am 
 unacquainted with Delancy," he continued
 
 THE MAN WITH THE GLASS EYE 39 
 
 "and can judge of him only by your descrip- 
 tion, which was meager; but I should say he 
 is careless rather than dishonest. He is more 
 fool than knave, but unless I am greatly mis- 
 taken he is not fool enough to rob you sur- 
 reptitiously, knowing that the act would cut 
 his supplies off, when he has so little difficulty 
 in doing it openly through loans, which might 
 go on indefinitely. We must look in quite 
 another direction for the thief." 
 
 Sewell shook his head. He had gone over 
 all the details in his own mind, and he could im- 
 agine no possible chance of Delancy's being inno- 
 cent. But he said nothing. There was some- 
 thing in the doctor's manner that inspired con- 
 fidence, and Sewell felt an undercurrent of 
 satisfaction in the view the celebrated scientist 
 took of the case, though he could see no rea- 
 son for it, and his mind rejected at the same 
 time that his heart accepted it. In a few 
 minutes they arrived at the police station, and, 
 to SewelFs surprise, Dr. Furnivall took him 
 by the elbow and guided him up the steps 
 and in. There stood Mr. Burbank talking 
 with the desk man, a policeman on each side 
 of him. The officer, by a look, invited Dr. 
 Furnivall forward, and he, removing his spec- 
 tacles, gazed into Burbank's eyes steadily, 
 saying: 
 
 "Mr. Burbank, what do you know about 
 this robbery?" 
 
 "I know nothing about it!" Burbank 
 exclaimed angrily. "It is monstrous to bring 
 me here in this way and put these questions
 
 240 EXPLOITS OF A PHYSICIAN-DETECTIVE 
 
 to me. There is Mr. Sewell himself, who 
 will testify that I was not in the room at all 
 until He started to turn his eyes in Sewell's 
 direction, but did not do so. The head moved 
 slightly, but the eyes remained fixed in Dr. 
 Furnivall's. His face at first showed quick 
 surprise, then the expression changed to be- 
 wilderment, from that to earnestness, and 
 then both face and eyes became deeply intro- 
 spective. It was not ten seconds from the 
 time of Dr. Furnivall's first glance into the 
 eyes to the moment when it became evident 
 to the hypnotist that he was under control. 
 He then asked at once: 
 
 "Mr. Burbank, who took that money?" 
 
 "I did!" he answered without a hint of 
 inflection in his voice. It was as if a machine 
 were speaking. Sewell started forward with 
 an exclamation of astonishment and disbelief, 
 but Dr. Furnivall waved him back. 
 
 "How could you do it? Start at the begin- 
 ning and tell me all about it." 
 
 "I came up the stairs, and was just going 
 to knock on the door when I heard Mr. Sewell 
 say he had $2,000 in the desk. I waited a 
 moment and then rapped. A man came out, 
 singing, and I entered the room, saying 'How 
 do you do, Mr. Sewell?' He did not seem to 
 see me sat in a sort of trance, gazing after 
 the man who had just gone out. I thought 
 instantly of the money in the desk, and, glanc- 
 ing over there, saw it in an open drawer. I 
 looked at him again. He still had that far 
 away light in his eyes. I remembered the
 
 THE MAN WITH THE GLASS EYE a 4 i 
 
 peculiar expression my grandfather used to 
 be that way, and many a time I had taken 
 things right out from under his nose without 
 his being aware of it. It's a sort of disease, 
 I suppose, with old people, but I never had 
 seen it in a young man before. I was almost 
 too much afraid to risk it, and, in fact, I spoke 
 to him the second time to test him. As he 
 did not answer, I gained courage and in three 
 steps snatched the package of bills, slipped 
 them into my overcoat pocket, and darted 
 back to the door. Then I spoke again, and 
 still again, but he did not hear. His mind 
 was too busy with its own thoughts. I couldn't 
 help thinking of the story Mark Twain tells 
 of the woman. He was sitting on the piazza 
 when he saw her coming up the walk toward 
 him, and suddenly she disappeared as if the 
 ground had swallowed her up. He found that 
 she had passed right by him, rung the door 
 bell at his side, and been admitted to the house 
 without his seeing her. I explained that by 
 absent-mindedness. He was thinking so deeply 
 of something else that he had no room in his 
 memory for her. My grandfather had been 
 that way, I have seen drunken men that way, 
 and Mr. Sewell was that wav. It didn't last 
 long perhaps a minute. lie suddenly woke 
 up, and, as if his friend had just left, sang out 
 to him; and as there was no answer he asked 
 me to yell, too, and I went down the stairs 
 even to the front door. But, of course, the 
 man was clean out of sight by that time." 
 "Where is the money?"
 
 943 EXPLOITS OF A PHYSICIAN-DETECTIVE 
 
 "Here!' 
 
 He produced it as he spoke, and Dr. Furni- 
 vall passed it over to the bewildered Sewell. 
 
 "You are diseased," he said to him, "af- 
 flicted with cerebrovacuisitis, otherwise oph- 
 thavitreousitis, otherwise the glass eye. But, 
 seriously, you are suffering from amnesia, 
 and you were near to making your friend 
 settle dearly for your sickness. Go home 
 now and take care of yourself. Call in a phy- 
 sician. He will tell you, among other things, 
 to quit your eternal smoking, exercise more, 
 choose your food, not for its daintiness and 
 the taste of it, but for the good, honest blood 
 it will make; and, above all, to occupy your 
 mind with some useful avocation. Then you 
 will be able to see what is going on or what 
 is going on under your very nose at least 1"
 
 The Kleptomaniac
 
 THE KLEPTOMANIAC 
 
 A little old man with a warty face, hooked 
 nose, wide mouth, stooping shoulders, small 
 beady black eyes, and a generally inferior 
 presence, but nevertheless with decision of 
 character in his manner, to one who could 
 see beneath the surface, walked swiftly up 
 the steps of police station 16 and accosted 
 the first man in uniform he met. 
 
 "There has been the most unheard of 
 crime " he began. 
 
 "Speak to the lieutenant!" the officer inter- 
 rupted, nodding toward the desk behind the 
 high network iron railing. 
 
 The ugly little man advanced to the pigeon- 
 hole window, through which he could see the 
 upper part of the night desk man. 
 
 "I have just been robbed in the most mon- 
 strous way," he said, speaking rapidly, but with 
 no sign of excitement, "and I wish no pub- 
 licity " 
 
 "I'll take care of that. We don't need any 
 
 advice from you " began the lieutenant. 
 
 But he stopped there to glance at the visiting 
 card which the little man placed before him, 
 and when he raised his eyes again to his caller's 
 face he eiiso raised his body from his chair and 
 ^Owed, touching his round silk office cap. 
 
 "Excuse me, Mr. Emmons," he said, "I 
 didn't know it was you. We have to be pretty
 
 246 EXPLOITS OF A PHYSICIAN-DETECTIVE 
 
 short here with strangers, or they'd ride right 
 over us. But with the richest man in the 
 district Step in this way, sir, please!" 
 
 He swung wide the gate in the railing. The 
 richest man in the district walked in and seated 
 himself in the chair that the officer drew up 
 for him in a retired corner. 
 
 "Now, sir, no publicity, you say? Very 
 well! We'll do all we can." 
 
 He waited with respectful attention for the 
 story. 
 
 "It's a queer matter," began Mr. Emmons 
 at once, in the incisive voice, which, coming 
 from such an insignificant appearing personality, 
 always excited surprise in a listener and drew 
 his attention. "In the first place I must tell 
 you that a few days ago our firm became pos- 
 sessed, in the way of business, of one of the 
 most valuable diamonds in the world. It has 
 a name famous in history but no matter about 
 that. The chief thing is that it is worth well, 
 
 say er " He paused with the shrewd 
 
 glint in his eye that was known among his 
 business acquaintances as the sure sign that 
 he was not going to commit himself, and then 
 added, "thousands," as evenly as if the word 
 were "hundreds." The lieutenant could not 
 restrain an exclamation. 
 
 "Ah!" he breathed, his face flushing with 
 the thought of fat rewards. 
 
 "This diamond," went on the great jeweler, 
 with no hint, either in voice or manner, of the 
 terrific surprise he was about to give his listeners, 
 "was swallowed this evening by my wife's pet
 
 THE KLEPTOMANIAC 347 
 
 monkey, and in less than two minutes after- 
 ward the monkey was stolen!" 
 
 The officer's full, round face became almost 
 apoplectic. 
 
 "A mo-monkey!" he stammered. 
 
 "I will give you the main points of the 
 case so that you may know how to start the 
 investigation intelligently," continued the jeweler 
 in a clear, rapid, matter of fact tone. They 
 were odd traits, this clarity of head and speech, 
 this iciness and poise, which nothing could 
 melt or disturb, in a man of such an inferior 
 aspect, never failing to evoke in a stranger, and 
 often in every-day acquaintances as well, the 
 same stare of wonderment with which the 
 policeman was now regarding him as he went 
 on: 
 
 "For reasons of a strictly private nature I 
 took this valuable diamond home this evening. 
 Two other men, well known diamond cutters, 
 were the only living persons who knew I had it 
 in the house. It was to show it to them, and 
 consult with them about it, that I brought it 
 there. We three had been examining it for 
 ten minutes, perhaps, and I was holding it up 
 to the light between my thumb and finger, 
 when the monkey leaped in at the door like 
 a flash of lightning, snatched the stone, and 
 swallowed it. It nearly choked him, and, 
 jabbering and twisting in pain, he ran to his 
 mistress four doors away. I followed him 
 immediately and found him whimpering in 
 my wife's arms. I thought at first of giving 
 him an emetic to make him vomit it up, but
 
 248 EXPLOITS OF A PHYSICIAN-DETECTIVE 
 
 Mrs. Emmons suggested that it would be safer 
 to call a physician, and then I decided on doing 
 that. We might have to cut the animal open. 
 So cautioning her to hold on to him and not 
 let him escape I hastened to the telephone 
 closet, but before I could get the physician's 
 number I heard my wife scream, and, hurrying 
 back to her room, I found her collapsed on the 
 floor, crying out that a woman had suddenly 
 rushed in, grabbed Bruno, and fled out of the 
 door with him in her arms. 
 
 "That is practically the case. Of course, 
 we searched the premises inside and out at 
 once, but to no purpose. The stone, the 
 monkey, and the thief had vanished as if by 
 spontaneous combustion. Now ask your ques- 
 tions, for I suppose you have some to ask?" 
 
 The lieutenant indeed had; but he was 
 almost too much astonished to speak. If 
 the narrator of this queer story had not been 
 the richest man in the district he would have 
 thought him either a practical joker or a lunatic. 
 Finally he found his voice. 
 
 "There was no chance for either of those 
 men you were showing it to 
 
 "Not the slightest. I was always between 
 them and my wife's room, even when I was 
 at the telephone. In fact, in the telephone 
 closet I stood facing them, and could see them 
 all the time through the doorway. Until Mrs. 
 Errimons screamed they never moved from 
 their seats, though then they ran with me to 
 her room. Besides, the thief was seen, and 
 was a woman."
 
 THE KLEPTOMANIAC 249 
 
 "Is the telephone fixture near Mrs. Emmons' 
 room ? ' ' 
 
 "Yes; but the walls are circular in shape, 
 rounding outward into the hall, so that a per- 
 son coming from the rear of the house, keeping 
 close to the north partition, might enter her 
 door without being seen by one in the telephone 
 closet." 
 
 "Hm-m!" The lieutenant cleared his throat. 
 "Why do you wish to keep the matter quiet, 
 Mr. Emmons? It seems to me the more 
 publicity that is given 
 
 "To the loss of a monkey, doubtless the 
 better yes. But nothing must be known 
 about the diamond. We should be sure never 
 to see it again." 
 
 "Yes, yes of course. We will work quietly. 
 Every night man in the city shall be notified 
 as soon as possible to be on the lookout for 
 the monkey. If you will write a description 
 of him I'll see that it is given to the men. A 
 little reward, now 
 
 He looked inquiringly at Mr. Emmons, who 
 nodded. 
 
 "A hundred dollars," he said. "Great 
 family pet. Worth nothing to anybody but 
 the ov/ners. I think it should be put that 
 way." 
 
 ''Could Mrs. Emmons say how the woman 
 looked?" 
 
 "She saw her very plainly. She was short, 
 plump, red cheeked, with black eyes that 
 seemed to strike out sparks as she snatched 
 the animal, and with hair so white that the
 
 350 EXPLOITS OF A PHYSICIAN-DETECTIVE 
 
 contrast between it and her fresh face and 
 youthful form was nothing less than startling. 
 We knew nobody of that description, neither 
 among our friends nor among the servants 
 and tradespeople. Her dress, too, was the 
 oddest imaginable a yachting cap of blue, 
 with a small visor worn sidewise over her ear, 
 a short Eton jacket, and flowing out from under 
 it a voluminous train of salmon colored satin, 
 over white, high heeled shoes. This train she 
 threw over her arm, covering Bruno completely 
 and hiding him from sight as she rushed from 
 the room. Her appearance was so wild that 
 Mrs. Emmons took her for a crazy person 
 who had escaped from some hospital. That 
 is what frightened her so. An ordinary woman 
 coming in on her in that manner would not 
 have got off so easily, for Mrs. Emmons is 
 brave enough and quick enough to act. But 
 this nondescript fairly scared her strength 
 away. In fact, she never in her life came so 
 near fainting." 
 
 "You saw nothing of the woman?" 
 "No, the door was beyond my view. She 
 must have come and gone like a flash of light- 
 ning, as Mrs. Emmons said. She didn't know 
 she was in the room until she saw her eyes 
 sparkling into her own and felt Bruno being 
 pulled out of her lap." 
 
 "But where could she have come from 
 and where could she disappear to so sudden- 
 ly?" said the lieutenant, staring at him. "It 
 sounds like witchcraft. What guess can you 
 make, Mr. Emmons?"
 
 THE KLEPTOMANIAC 351 
 
 Mr. Emmons threw out his hands. 
 "None at all," he said. "She simply could 
 not get into the house by the back way, through 
 a gate and two doors, all of which were fastened, 
 pass among eight servants at least, mount 
 two flights of stairs, and appear on the scene 
 at the very instant of time necessary to ac- 
 complish her purpose. And if she couldn't 
 get in she couldn't get out. By the front way 
 she would be obliged to pass me." 
 "None of the servants saw her?" 
 "No. That is, one of them, a half imbe- 
 cile, came to the conclusion that she had dis- 
 tinguished what looked like a dark shape 
 running down the back stairs to the basement; 
 but she did not reach this conclusion until 
 she had found out that something mysterious 
 was going on and that she would be regarded 
 as a heroine if she had seen anything of it. I 
 am convinced that her first denials were un- 
 doubtedly the real truth. The rest was a 
 vivid fancy." 
 
 "Hm-m!" The lieutenant, who had made 
 a number of notes, now put down another 
 one, coughing deprecatingly as he did so. 
 "Every little straw shows something of the 
 wind's direction, Mr. Emmons," he said. 
 "However, we will come to that later. Were 
 the gate and the doors found fastened all right 
 after the theft as before it?" 
 
 "Yes; all locked up tight, and the servants 
 running around all the time between them 
 and the stairs, with plenty of light on lighter 
 than in the daytime. There was absolutely
 
 as* EXPLOITS OF A PHYSICIAN-DETECTIVE 
 
 no chance for even a mouse to leave the place 
 unseen in that direction or enter it, either." 
 
 "And the roof?" 
 
 'I should certainly have seen anybody who 
 should start up that way. The foot of the 
 stairs was not ten feet away from the room 
 in which the crime was done, and I commanded 
 a full view of them every instant I was absent 
 from my wife." 
 
 The officer looked up from his notes quickly. 
 Then he scratched his head. He did not like 
 to contradict a man worth so much money 
 as Mr. Claggett Emmons was, but it was cer- 
 tain, from the description already given of 
 the rooms and halls, that if a person in the 
 telephone closet could see the two men in the 
 front room, in order to do so he would neces- 
 sarily turn his back on the stairway in the rear. 
 A thrill of exultation shot through the lieuten- 
 ant's breast as he realized that this stairway 
 must be the key to the mystery. The foot of 
 it was only ten feet away from the door of 
 the room in which Mrs. Emmons sat; while 
 Mr. Emmons was walking to the telephone his 
 back must have been turned on it; while he 
 was in the closet his back must have been 
 turned on it also if he could see the men who 
 sat in the front room; and, without a particle 
 of doubt, the woman, who had been waiting 
 above, seized this opportunity to accomplish 
 her purpose. She would have plenty of time 
 if she had acted as quickly as she seemed to 
 have done. It was perfectly plain. She had 
 escaped as she had entered by way of the
 
 THE KLEPTOMANIAC 453 
 
 roof. It was strange that a man with Mr. 
 Emmons' perspicacity should overlook so pal- 
 pable a truth; but he had done so, and it was 
 a matter of warm self -congratulation to the 
 officer that he should prove so much sharper 
 than this man of heavy affairs, and that, too, 
 regarding the arrangement of his own house. 
 But he would say nothing about it. It was a 
 case for action rather than words, and after he 
 had made the capture and received the reward 
 
 At this point in the jubilant flow of his 
 thoughts he was struck with a sudden chill. 
 Reward? What was it? A hundred dollars! 
 He had been dreaming of thousands! 
 
 "I suppose," he ventured, tapping his book 
 with his pen handle carelessly, "that if any 
 one in the secret er er who knew about 
 the diamond, I mean should find and re- 
 turn it, the reward " 
 
 The little old man glanced keenly at him. 
 
 "Of course," he said, nodding. "I under- 
 stand that. A thousand eh? And influence 
 supposing the finder needed it. Oh, of 
 course all that sort of thing." 
 
 The lieutenant breathed freer. A thou- 
 sand! It was not so vast a sum as his dreams 
 had pictured, but it would do very well. There 
 were ways he knew of making it all his, dividing 
 only the hundred for the monkey with whom- 
 soever he might be obliged to call upon for 
 assistance in his search. He could already 
 feel the crisp, delightful crinkling of the bank 
 notes in his fingers. That woman was simply 
 a lunatic he was sure of it who had escaped
 
 254 EXPLOITS OF A PHYSICIAN-DETECTIVE 
 
 from her home in some neighboring house by 
 way of the roof, entered by the scuttle oh, it 
 was all plain. A few minutes searching among 
 the families in the block - But he must not 
 let it be seen that he was getting his money 
 too easily He would explore the Emmons 
 mansion first, to give some color of labor to 
 his easy task, pretend then with much scientific 
 figuring to evolve a solution of the great mys- 
 tery, the only solution that could be possible 
 under all the conditions, walk out with the 
 declaration that he would return in ten minutes 
 with the diamond, according to the most ap- 
 proved methods of detectives in the fiction 
 thrillers, and then would keep his word, just 
 as they do; and the next morning he would 
 be in all the papers, just as they are, with 
 $1,000 in his inside pocket which none of 
 them ever yet got, except to give away, being 
 too delicate of soul to work for mere money! 
 
 But when in company with Mr. Emmons 
 and a man from the office, he entered the 
 hall of the Emmons house, a few minutes later, 
 he grew pale green with chagrin. In his 
 mental plan of the floor he had figured on 
 straight walls and staircases, while in fact there 
 was scarcely a straight line in sight, and circles, 
 semi-circles, ovals, and spirals predominated 
 to such an extent that there seemed to his un- 
 accustomed eye to be a perfect witches' dance 
 of them, turning topsy-turvy all his ideas of 
 interior architecture. He stepped into the 
 telephone closet, and saw that, owing to these 
 surprising shapes, Mr. Emmons had really
 
 THE KLEPTOMANIAC 355 
 
 been right about facing both the back stairway 
 and the front room at the same time, if the 
 ability to see one of these objects out of one 
 eye and the other out of the other eye might 
 be called "facing." It was near enough to 
 it for practical purposes, at all events, for the 
 walls were so deeply concave on the telephone 
 side, and so highly convex on the other, that 
 the closet, while it was between the stairs and 
 the room, was far enough back from a straight 
 line between the two points to command them 
 both. 
 
 "I never see such a built house!" he growled 
 in the anger of his great disappointment. In 
 this mood his mind was rich soil for the seeds 
 of suspicion, and, from the certainty that he 
 could in no way explain the robbery, he passed 
 at one bound to the doubt that any robbery 
 had been committed. It was a foolish thing, 
 come to think of it, to say that a monkey 
 snatched that diamond and swallowed itl 
 Who ever heard of such an absurdity? It 
 was a lie on the face of it. And even granting 
 that absurd lie, it was a bigger absurdity still 
 to suppose it possible that a crazy woman 
 from outside, or any kind of a woman, could 
 be there at just the opportune moment that 
 all these various queer things could happen 
 at the same time. In short, Emmons had that 
 princely stone himself, and for some reason 
 wished it believed that it had been stolen. 
 The great mystery was that a man of his known 
 shrewdness should have invented such a clumsy 
 story to explain its disappearance.
 
 356 EXPLOITS OF A PHYSICIAN-DETECTIVE 
 
 Having reached this conclusion, the lieu- 
 tenant assumed a magisterial expression of 
 countenance and asked to see Mrs. Emmons. 
 The lady received him with an eager smile 
 on her keen old face, in the expression of which 
 the officer saw at once a close resemblance to 
 that of her husband, and invited him to be 
 seated. 
 
 "Oh, dear!" she exclaimed, "I do so hope 
 you will find out about all this! It is so trying 
 and such a queer thing! I never heard of 
 anything like it in my life." 
 
 He would not sit, but stood before her, 
 asking every question touching the case that 
 he could conjure up. All in vain! Emmons 
 had told him her story already, and the most 
 searching cross-questioning failed to elicit any- 
 thing new, or alter the facts as already given. 
 She was much more prolix than her husband 
 had been, going into every detail with volubility 
 and minuteness. But the sum of her testimony 
 was that the strange woman had pounced 
 upon her, snatched the monkey, and disap- 
 peared apparently into nothingness. 
 
 The two visiting jewelers during all this 
 time had remained, after their first hurry into 
 Mrs. Emmons' room when they heard her 
 scream, where they were sitting at the moment 
 the monkey seized the diamond, locked in. 
 This was by their own request, Mr. Emmons 
 said, for in the circumstances they felt that 
 to leave would invite suspicion of collusion on 
 their part with the thief, and that they would 
 better remain until the diamond should be
 
 THE KLEPTOMANIAC 457 
 
 found, or some definite course decided on. 
 These men the officer now questioned as 
 closely as he had Mrs. Emmons, but with no 
 better result. They had seen a black thing 
 shoot in the door, snatch the stone, swallow 
 it, and scamper out, and almost immediately, 
 hearing a scream, and seeing Mr. Emmons 
 running across the hall from the telephone, 
 they had jumped up and hastened with him 
 to his wife's door, where they heard her story 
 of the thief. They acknowledged that the 
 whole matter had a queer look, and they 
 wished they were well out of it. But they 
 could not give any information. It certainly 
 would be impossible for anybody to pass 
 along the hall toward the front of the house 
 without their seeing him, and they had seen 
 nobody. The thief must have gone to the 
 rear, and if she were not one of the servants 
 disguised, and in conspiracy with all the rest 
 of them, they could not imagine how she 
 was able to escape that way. There was, in 
 fact, no possible chance for a person to do 
 what, it seemed, had been done. The problem 
 was too big for them. 
 
 The suggestion of a disguised servant infused 
 a little hope into the officer's mind. He had 
 now become convinced that it was as absurd 
 to suspect Mr. Emmons as he had formerly 
 thought it was to suppose that the beast should 
 swallow the stone. These men vowed they 
 had seen the swallowing, and honesty and 
 distress were too evident in their words and 
 manner to be disputed. Besides, even if this
 
 258 EXPLOITS OF A PHYSICIAN-DETECTIVE 
 
 very rich man were not above secreting the 
 diamond his intellect was above concocting 
 such a paltry scheme for doing it. On the 
 notion of a servant in disguise he based his 
 last hope, and asked to have them every one, 
 men and women, summoned before him. 
 
 But at the very first view of them this last 
 hope vanished. The thief was short and 
 stout, and by the same accursed spite of fate 
 which seemed to have met the lieutenant at 
 each turn and crossing of this case every man 
 and woman among these servants was thin 
 and tall! The butler, it seemed, who hired all 
 the help, was a lath in shape himself, and, 
 maintaining that short, stout people were usually 
 drinkers and always slow, if not downright 
 lazy, he would have none of them. The officer 
 in disgust motioned them away. A short per- 
 son may by the exercise of skill and taste be 
 made up to resemble a taller one, but the 
 reverse metamorphosis is out of the question. 
 Monsieur Lecocq himself never could have 
 turned a tall spindle shanks into a chunky 
 sawed-off. 
 
 With this wise reflection the officer made 
 a few notes, ostensibly of great importance, 
 but really only for appearance sake, and promis- 
 ing Mr. Emmons that every effort should be 
 made for the apprehension of the thief was 
 about to take his departure with his assistant, 
 when he thought of the servant who claimed 
 to have seen the dark shape gliding down the 
 basement stairs. So he had her brought back 
 to him, and put her through such a rigorous
 
 THE KLEPTOMANIAC 959 
 
 examination that she suddenly burst out cry- 
 ing, supposing that he was charging her with 
 the theft. It was plain that she was a woman 
 who could see shadows anywhere. He gave 
 her up for a fool, and then it occurred to him 
 to explore the back way and see things down 
 there for himself. He did so, but learned 
 nothing except that it would be absolutely 
 impossible for anybody to come in that way 
 unseen by the servants. Finally he searched 
 Mrs. Emmons' room, she giving him full 
 liberty to do so, pulling out drawers for him 
 herself and moving tables and sofas around, 
 till not a square inch in the apartment remained 
 unseen by him. Then he went away. Though 
 he left encouraging words behind him for the 
 benefit of the husband and wife he felt that as 
 
 far as he was concerned the case was closed. 
 * * * * 
 
 "Docther Fur-rnivall, sor-r," said Sergeant 
 Nulty, with red face and bulging eyes, "c'n 
 a monkey swally a rooty bagy tur-rnip?" 
 
 "What's that?" said Dr. Furnivall, wheel- 
 ing around in his chair. Seeing Sergeant 
 Nulty 's head, helmetless, sticking around the 
 edge of the door, he smiled a welcome. "Come 
 in, sergeant," he invited. "What's up now?" 
 
 "Well, noo, 'tis wan shtrange thing," an- 
 swered the sergeant, stepping carefully over 
 the polished floor to the chair the doctor in- 
 dicated. "Here's wan mon cooms rhunnin' 
 t' th' shtation wid blood in his eye, an* he 
 says, says he, 'B'yes,' he says, 'here's a tousan' 
 dollars,' he says, 'fer a woman an' a monkey,
 
 a6o EXPLOITS OF A PHYSICIAN-DETECTIVE 
 
 an' she swalleyed it,' he says, 'b't 'twas a dimont,' 
 he says, 'an' th' woman swiped it off me,' he 
 says, 'an' 'twas not me own, b't me woife's,' 
 he says, 'an',' he says, 'Oi'll give,' he says, 
 'a tousan' dollars fer her, an' she's th' soize of 
 of a rooty bagy tur-rnip, or mabbe a car-rt- 
 wheel,' he says." 
 
 "That is rather strange," said the doctor 
 dryly. "Aren't you somewhat excited, Nulty?" 
 
 "Well, mebbe!" The sergeant, with a deep 
 breath relaxed himself, and proceeded more 
 calmly: "Has a monkey a t'roat on him like 
 a whale, an' c'n he swally a dimont, jist, as big 
 as himsel', an' walk off wid it unbeknownst, 
 an' thin swally himsel' forby an' dhrop out of 
 th' wor-rld at wanct, loike thim moving pic- 
 thures off th' shtage? Becos, af he c'n do that 
 same, he's a wondher, an' af he cannot, the's 
 a t'ousan' dollars in ut, an' ayther way aboot 
 he's afther bein' a val'able craythur, whativer, 
 an' wort' th' throuble, jist, or Oi miss me 
 guess intirely." 
 
 It required some minutes of hard work on 
 the doctor's part to arrive at the excited ser- 
 geant's meaning, but finally he succeeded, and 
 was in possession of the strange tale of Mr. 
 Emmons' loss. The sergeant had a theory, and 
 wished Dr. Furnivall's aid in working it out. 
 He believed that Emmons had the diamond, 
 that the whole thing was a conspiracy between 
 Emmons, his wife, and the two jewelers, and 
 that Dr. Furnivall, with his hypnotism, could 
 get at the truth of the matter in two minutes 
 by interviewing Emmons. He based his con-
 
 THE KLEPTOMANIAC 261 
 
 elusions on two facts the impossibility of a 
 monkey's swallowing such an enormous stone, 
 to say nothing of the beast's miraculous dis- 
 appearance, and the self-evident truth that no 
 thief could have escaped in the circumstances 
 as this alleged one had done. As for the first, 
 Dr. Furnivall asked him: 
 
 "Did Emmons say how big the diamond 
 was?" 
 
 "He did, begob 'twas wort' t'ousans of 
 dollars!" 
 
 "Oh, I see! Because it was worth thou- 
 sands it must be as big as a cartwheel?" 
 
 "Sure! Phy, me woife has wan wid twinty- 
 siven pearls set roond ut that cost $4, th' soize 
 a pratie ball, an' phwat wud a fifty t'ousaner 
 beloike?" 
 
 He was deeply chagrined to learn his mis- 
 take that the value of precious stones depends 
 on quality as well as size; that the capacities 
 of different monkeys' throats vary as widely 
 as those of the human family, some members 
 of which cannot take a pill, while others can 
 swallow a handful of swords; and that therefore 
 it was quite within the bounds of belief that 
 this animal had done as represented, or could 
 do so. The second point of the sergeant's 
 theory Dr. Furnivall admitted. But, then, 
 what of it? 
 
 "Why should I mix up in this affair?" the 
 doctor said. "Nothing is at stake, no inno- 
 cent person is accused; it is a trivial affair, of 
 no interest whatever to me. What is the 
 philosophic or scientific value of the fact that
 
 262 EXPLOITS OF A PHYSICIAN-DETECTIVE 
 
 a rich jeweler has lost a diamond, or has stolen 
 one?" 
 
 The sergeant looked disappointed. He 
 moved uneasily in his chair, and ruffled his 
 mustache with a quick rub of his hand. Then 
 a shrewd beam flicked into his blue eye. 
 
 "Shure, docther," he said, deprecatingly, 
 "yez wud not lave thim say yez is bate, an* 
 th' job is wan too much for yez!" 
 
 Dr. Furnivall regarded him tolerantly 
 through his colored spectacles. 
 
 "Nulty," he returned, with just a hint of 
 sharpness in his voice, "no doubt you have 
 set many persons by the ears in your time by 
 that sort of an argument! A 'stump yer' or 
 a 'dare' may work with children and imbeciles, 
 but I didn't suppose you were ass enough to 
 think it would have any effect on me." 
 
 "B't docther! Jist luk at it, now! How 
 th' quare woman wint oop in air an' th' 
 monkey, jist phwere wes th' chanct fer him 
 
 "Nulty, out with it now, and no more eva- 
 sions! What is the real reason why you wish 
 me to take up this matter?" 
 
 The sergeant's face grew violently red, and 
 he looked sheepishly at the floor. 
 
 "Well, thin, docther dear," he said slowly, 
 "Oi knows Oi c'n kape nothing at all fr'm 
 yez b't 'bt t' tell th' trut', me woife is ailin' 
 an' nades th' counthry air, an' shure Oi'm 
 near broke, phwat wid wan thing an' anither, 
 an' this an' that, an' I tort th' reward, or me 
 own share of ut "
 
 THE KLEPTOMANIAC 163 
 
 "You should have said so at once. That 
 adds just the touch of human interest to the 
 case which alone makes anything worth while 
 
 "Will yer take it, docther?" cried Nulty, 
 jumping up with glistening eyes. "Faith, 
 I'll rhun out t' th' tilephone an' tell Maggie 
 t* pack oop fer free mont's in th' counthry 
 tomorry mornin' on th' tin-twinty that laves 
 at noon " 
 
 "Don't get rattled again, Nulty. I thought 
 something was wrong with you when you 
 came in, and I am sorry to learn that it is 
 your wife's sickness that troubles you. But 
 say nothing until you get your money. We 
 havent found the diamond yet " 
 
 Nulty curled his lip in disdain. 
 
 "As good as as good as!" he said. "An*, 
 begob, Oi hov th' reward all spint! 'Tis 
 something fine, Oi tell yez, docther, t' spind 
 ut wanst before yez git ut an' wanst afther, 
 an' thin, av yez do not git ut at all, phy, thin 
 yez hov lost nothing, an' av yez do git ut yez 
 c'n put in th' bank." 
 
 Dr. Furnivall, during this lucid formulation 
 of a philosophy as old as the beginnings of 
 poverty, was selecting an instrument or two 
 from his surgical case and preparing an emetic. 
 With these in his pocket he took his hat and 
 told Nulty to lead the way to the Emmons 
 house. 
 
 "I won't venture any theory yet, though I 
 have the threads of one in my mind," he said 
 as they walked along. "I know nothing
 
 264 EXPLOITS OF A PHYSICIAN-DETECTIVE 
 
 whatever of the characters of these different 
 persons who figure in the case. I have never 
 seen any of them even, that I am aware of. 
 The right beginning, however, is with Emmons, 
 and if we find him at home " 
 
 "Shure we will thot!" said the sergeant. 
 " 'Twes wid an eye fer his hours, jist, that Oi 
 coom fer yez. Oi knows thim well. He's 
 wid his woife this minute." 
 
 And so they found him. Dr. Furnivall 
 talked with them both a few moments and 
 then drew the husband aside. 
 
 "Mr. Emmons," he said, regarding him 
 through his spectacles, "have you no theory 
 of this matter?" 
 
 The little man stooped forward, his beady 
 black eyes growing even smaller and more 
 brilliantly black, and crossed his wrists over 
 his waistband. 
 
 "I had none but on thinking it all over 
 I believe I have," he answered, incisively. 
 
 " I understand that there is a reward, offered 
 by you, of $1,000 for the recovery of the dia- 
 mond." 
 
 "This is correct," he returned, in the same 
 tone. 
 
 "No matter who is hit by the detection of 
 the guilty person?" 
 
 "None whatever. If you are the great Dr. 
 Furnivall, the hypnotist, who can read men's 
 souls like an open book, you should have no 
 need to ask that question." 
 
 "I can read no man's soul. Neither would 
 I care to do so if I could. But I can read
 
 THE KLEPTOMANIAC 265 
 
 some things, and one of them is that you would 
 sooner see this person of whom we both speak 
 humiliated than any one else. In fact, you 
 know well who has the stone, and you are 
 irritated almost to insanity because you can't 
 force the possessor to give it up." 
 
 Mr. Emmons bowed coldly. 
 
 "I honor your perspicacity," he said, iron- 
 ically. "Perhaps if you had my reasons you 
 would feel as I do." 
 
 "I have no doubt of it. Still, you are 
 wrong. The whole difficulty is as much your 
 fault as hers. Kleptomania is a disease, and 
 should be treated as such. It sticks out all 
 over her." 
 
 "All I want is the diamond," he said, add- 
 ing quickly, "and to know how she managed 
 the business." 
 
 "We will arrange that on one condition 
 
 "The $1,000?" he interrupted, with irony. 
 
 Dr. Furnivall went on: 
 
 "It is that when you have received this 
 information and recovered the stone you will 
 call in the physician for your wife that I shall 
 name to you." 
 
 The ugly little man hesitated. A bright 
 color flowed into his cheeks, as of burning 
 anger, but he still held to his coldness of manner 
 
 "Very well; I agree on condition that you 
 fulfill your promise," he finally said. It was 
 plain that he was doubtful of this alleged 
 hypnotic power; and, indeed, he added, as Dr. 
 Furnivall removed his spectacles and started
 
 a66 EXPLOITS OF A PHYSICIAN-DETECTIVE 
 
 toward Mrs. Emmons: "I think you'll find 
 your match there." 
 
 She would not have been a promising spectacle 
 to one who fondly looks upon softness and lova- 
 bility as the distinguishing characteristics of the 
 sex. Small, wrinkled, pettish, with nerves of 
 fire, and a will that lay cold in her glittering 
 little 'beads of eyes, unbreakable, not to be 
 bent, and merciless as fate, she resembled her 
 husband so strongly that one would say they 
 were brother and sister, rather than husband 
 and wife. But Dr. Furnivall was interested 
 only in her disease, the indications of which 
 he saw in her eyes and around the homely, 
 quivering mouth and pointed chin, as well as 
 in the shape of her head. The strength of her 
 will would be a help to him in his hypnotism, 
 rather than an obstacle; and with Sergeant 
 Nulty standing a little behind her on one side 
 of her chair, scarcely able to refrain from 
 dancing in jubilation over the coming fruition 
 of his hopes; and Mr. Emmons on the other 
 side, darkly attentive, the doctor looked her in 
 the eye and talked with her easily a moment 
 or two about the strange robbery. And when 
 he saw the various inevitable changes pass 
 over her keen, hard, nervous face, surprise at 
 first, then excitement, running swiftly into 
 earnestness and ending in fixed introspection, 
 he asked: 
 
 "Mrs. Emmons, where is the diamond?" 
 "In Bruno's stomach!" she answered, at 
 once, in a voice like that of a deaf person 
 who cannot hear himself speak.
 
 THE KLEPTOMANIAC s6f 
 
 ."And where is Bruno?" 
 
 "In the closet." 
 
 "What closet?" 
 
 Mr. Emmons darted up to her upon this, 
 and probably for the first time in many years, 
 if not the first in his adult life, a look of wonder 
 crept into his usually steady eyes. "Closet!" 
 he repeated as one stupefied, "Closet!" 
 
 She gave him no attention, did not even see 
 him. Her eyes were on Dr. Furnivall's, and 
 she answered: 
 
 "The closet where I keep my things the 
 things I take." 
 
 "Where is it?" 
 
 "In ihe corner of this room, down low, in 
 the wainscot, by the large table." 
 
 Emmons and the sergeant stared in amaze. 
 The corner was as bare as a wall could be. 
 There was not the slightest indication of any 
 closet there. But Emmons, after a moment's 
 thought, seemed satisfied and bestowed his 
 attention again on the examination. 
 
 "It is plain now," said Dr. Furnivall to 
 him, still holding Mrs. Emmons' eyes with 
 his own, "how the monkey was made to dis- 
 appear so suddenly, and unless you wish to 
 hear more we will find the closet at once " 
 
 "Let her tell the whole story," he inter- 
 rupted grimly. 
 
 Dr. Furnivall therefore went on: 
 
 "Mrs. Emmons, how did it happen that 
 the monkey should seize the diamond?" 
 
 "Why, you see, I suppose it was this way: 
 There is a kind of bon-bon that he is very
 
 268 EXPLOITS OF A PHYSICIAN-DETECTIVE 
 
 fond of, and I always hold it up for him to 
 leap for. It is astonishing how far he can 
 jump and how swiftly, when he sees one of 
 them in my fingers, or indeed anywhere. They 
 are round, and sparkling like rock candy, 
 and I suppose he thought the diamond was 
 one of them. So he snatched it and swallowed 
 it. But it hurt him and'he has been sick over it." 
 
 "You had no idea of his doing such a 
 thing until your husband told you it was done ?" 
 
 "No, indeed, of course not!" 
 
 Emmons* face softened the merest shade 
 at this. He had evidently believed that in 
 some way the theft had been premeditated. 
 
 "And when you found that he had swal- 
 lowed the diamond you resolved to hide him?" 
 
 "Yes, I did not propose to have my pet 
 cut open, or even given an emetic." 
 
 "Was that the only reason?" 
 
 "No, I wanted the diamond. Diamonds 
 are so pretty! I always take them wherever 
 I see them, if I can do so unobserved. I have 
 a lot of them in the closet." 
 
 "And you made up the story of the strange 
 woman in order to send suspicion astray?" 
 
 "Yes!" 
 
 "I think," said Dr. Furnivall to Mr. Em- 
 mons, that that is all we want to know, isn't 
 it? It was the description of the alleged 
 thief's appearance that put me immediately 
 on the track. Such a description could ema- 
 nate only from a mind disordered in some 
 way, and, considering all the circumstances, 
 I at once suspected kleptomania."
 
 THE KLEPTOMANIAC 969 
 
 But Mr. Emmons was already pounding 
 the wainscot in search of the closet. When 
 finally it was laid open it was found to be 
 a small cavity behind the sheathing used to 
 round the corners of the circular room, the 
 door of which was perfectly hidden, and fitted 
 in tightly without lock or spring. The floor 
 was Uttered with many valuables, stolen by 
 the kleptomaniac, among them a good hand- 
 ful of diamonds of various shapes and degrees 
 of beauty. 
 
 Stretched in the midst of the glittering 
 array the poor monkey lay dead, suffocated. 
 
 The diamond was recovered, and Ser- 
 geant Nulty received the reward from Dr. 
 Furnivall, to whom alone Emmons would pay 
 it.
 
 The Lodging House 
 Mystery
 
 THE KLEPTOMANIAC 857 
 
 found, or some definite course decided on. 
 These men the officer now questioned as 
 closely as he had Mrs. Emmons, but with no 
 better result. They had seen a black thing 
 shoot in the door, snatch the stone, swallow 
 it, and scamper out, and almost immediately, 
 hearing a scream, and seeing Mr. Emmons 
 running across the hall from the telephone, 
 they had jumped up and hastened with him 
 to his wife's door, where they heard her story 
 of the thief. They acknowledged that the 
 whole matter had a queer look, and they 
 wished they were well out of it. But they 
 could not give any information. It certainly 
 would be impossible for anybody to pass 
 along the hall toward the front of the house 
 without their seeing him, and they had seen 
 nobody. The thief must have gone to the 
 rear, and if she were not one of the servants 
 disguised, and in conspiracy with all the rest 
 of them, they could not imagine how she 
 was able to escape that way. There was, in 
 fact, no possible chance for a person to do 
 what, it seemed, had been done. The problem 
 was too big for them. 
 
 The suggestion of a disguised servant infused 
 a little hope into the officer's mind. He had 
 now become convinced that it was as absurd 
 to suspect Mr. Emmons as he had formerly 
 thought it was to suppose that the beast should 
 swallow the stone. These men vowed they 
 had seen the swallowing, and honesty and 
 distress were too evident in their words and 
 manner to be disputed. Besides, even if this
 
 258 EXPLOITS OF A PHYSICIAN-DETECTIVE 
 
 very rich man were not above secreting the 
 diamond his intellect was above concocting 
 such a paltry scheme for doing it. On the 
 notion of a servant in disguise he based his 
 last hope, and asked to have them every one, 
 men and women, summoned before him. 
 
 But at the very first view of them this last 
 hope vanished. The thief was short and 
 stout, and by the same accursed spite of fate 
 which seemed to have met the lieutenant at 
 each turn and crossing of this case every man 
 and woman among these servants was thin 
 and tall! The butler, it seemed, who hired all 
 the help, was a lath in shape himself, and, 
 maintaining that short, stout people were usually 
 drinkers and always slow, if not downright 
 lazy, he would have none of them. The officer 
 in disgust motioned them away. A short per- 
 son may by the exercise of skill and taste be 
 made up to resemble a taller one, but the 
 reverse metamorphosis is out of the question. 
 Monsieur Lecocq himself never could have 
 turned a tall spindle shanks into a chunky 
 sawed-off. 
 
 With this wise reflection the officer made 
 a few notes, ostensibly of great importance, 
 but really only for appearance sake, and promis- 
 ing Mr. Emmons that every effort should be 
 made for the apprehension of the thief was 
 about to take his departure with his assistant, 
 when he thought of the servant who claimed 
 to have seen the dark shape gliding down the 
 basement stairs. So he had her brought back 
 to him, and put her through such a rigorous
 
 THE KLEPTOMANIAC 359 
 
 examination that she suddenly burst out cry- 
 ing, supposing that he was charging her with 
 the theft. It was plain that she was a woman 
 who could see shadows anywhere. He gave 
 her up for a fool, and then it occurred to him 
 to explore the back way and see things down 
 there for himself. He did so, but learned 
 nothing except that it would be absolutely 
 impossible for anybody to come in that way 
 unseen by the servants. Finally he searched 
 Mrs. Emmons' room, she giving him full 
 liberty to do so, pulling out drawers for him 
 herself and moving tables and sofas around, 
 till not a square inch in the apartment remained 
 unseen by him. Then he went away. Though 
 he left encouraging words behind him for the 
 benefit of the husband and wife he felt that as 
 
 far as he was concerned the case was closed. 
 * * * * 
 
 "Docther Fur-rnivall, sor-r," said Sergeant 
 Nulty, with red face and bulging eyes, "c'n 
 a monkey swally a rooty bagy tur-rnip?" 
 
 "What's that?" said Dr. Furnivall, wheel- 
 ing around in his chair. Seeing Sergeant 
 Nulty 's head, helmetless, sticking around the 
 edge of the door, he smiled a welcome. "Come 
 in, sergeant," he invited. "What's up now?" 
 
 "Well, noo, 'tis wan shtrange thing," an- 
 swered the sergeant, stepping carefully over 
 the polished floor to the chair the doctor in- 
 dicated. "Here's wan mon cooms rhunnin' 
 t' th' shtation wid blood in his eye, an* he 
 says, says he, 'B'yes,' he says, 'here's a tousan* 
 dollars,' he says, 'fer a woman an' a monkey,.
 
 6o EXPLOITS OF A PHYSICIAN-DETECTIVE 
 
 an' she swalleyed it,' he says, 'b't 'twas a dimont/ 
 he says, 'an' th' woman swiped it off me,' he 
 says, 'an' 'twas not me own, b't me woife's,' 
 he says, 'an',' he says, 'Oi'll give,' he says, 
 'a tousan' dollars fer her, an' she's th' soize of 
 of a rooty bagy tur-rnip, or mabbe a car-rt- 
 wheel,' he says." 
 
 "That is rather strange," said the doctor 
 dryly. "Aren't you somewhat excited, Nulty?" 
 
 "Well, mebbe!" The sergeant, with a deep 
 breath relaxed himself, and proceeded more 
 calmly: "Has a monkey a t'roat on him like 
 a whale, an' c'n he swally a dimont, jist, as big 
 as himsel', an' walk off wid it unbeknownst, 
 an' thin swally himsel' forby an' dhrop out of 
 th' wor-rld at wanct, loike thim moving pic- 
 thures off th' shtage? Becos, af he c'n do that 
 same, he's a wondher, an' af he cannot, the's 
 a t'ousan' dollars in ut, an' ayther way aboot 
 he's afther bein' a val'able craythur, whativer, 
 an' wort' th' throuble, jist, or Oi miss me 
 guess intirely." 
 
 It required some minutes of hard work on 
 the doctor's part to arrive at the excited ser- 
 geant's meaning, but finally he succeeded, and 
 was in possession of the strange tale of Mr. 
 Emmons' loss. The sergeant had a theory, and 
 wished Dr. FurnivalPs aid in working it out. 
 He believed that Emmons had the diamond, 
 that the whole thing was a conspiracy between 
 Emmons, his wife, and the two jewelers, and 
 that Dr. Furnivall, with his hypnotism, could 
 get at the truth of the matter in two minutes 
 by interviewing Emmons. He based his con-
 
 THE KLEPTOMANIAC 961 
 
 elusions on two facts the impossibility of a 
 monkey's swallowing such an enormous stone, 
 to say nothing of the beast's miraculous dis- 
 appearance, and the self-evident truth that no 
 thief could have escaped in the circumstances 
 as this alleged one had done. As for the first, 
 Dr. Furnivall asked him: 
 
 "Did Emmons say how big the diamond 
 was?" 
 
 "He did, begob 'twas wort' t'ousans of 
 dollars!" 
 
 "Oh, I see! Because it was worth thou- 
 sands it must be as big as a cartwheel?" 
 
 "Sure! Phy, me woife has wan wid twinty- 
 siven pearls set roond ut that cost $4, th' soize 
 a pratie ball, an' phwat wud a fifty t'ousaner 
 be loike?" 
 
 He was deeply chagrined to learn his mis- 
 take that the value of precious stones depends 
 on quality as well as size; that the capacities 
 of different monkeys' throats vary as widely 
 as those of the human family, some members 
 of which cannot take a pill, while others can 
 swallow a handful of swords; and that therefore 
 it was quite within the bounds of belief that 
 this animal had done as represented, or could 
 do so. The second point of the sergeant's 
 theory Dr. Furnivall admitted. But, then, 
 what of it? 
 
 "Why should I mix up in this affair?" the 
 doctor said. "Nothing is at stake, no inno- 
 cent person is accused; it is a trivial affair, of 
 no interest whatever to me. What is the 
 philosophic or scientific value of the fact that
 
 262 EXPLOITS OF A PHYSICIAN-DETECTIVE 
 
 a rich jeweler has lost a diamond, or has stolen 
 one?" 
 
 The sergeant looked disappointed. He 
 moved uneasily in his chair, and ruffled hjs 
 mustache with a quick rub of his hand. Then 
 a shrewd beam flicked into his blue eye. 
 
 "Shure, docther," he said, deprecatingly, 
 "yez wud not lave thim say yez is bate, an' 
 th' job is wan too much for yez!" 
 
 Dr. Furnivall regarded him tolerantly 
 through his colored spectacles. 
 
 "Nulty," he returned, with just a hint of 
 sharpness in his voice, "no doubt you have 
 set many persons by the ears in your time by 
 that sort of an argument! A 'stump yer' or 
 a 'dare' may work with children and imbeciles, 
 but I didn't suppose you were ass enough to 
 think it would have any effect on me." 
 
 "B't docther! Jist luk at it, now! How 
 th' quare woman wint oop in air an' th' 
 monkey, jist phwere wes th' chanct fer him 
 
 "Nulty, out with it now, and no more eva- 
 sions! What is the real reason why you wish 
 me to take up this matter?" 
 
 The sergeant's face grew violently red, and 
 he looked sheepishly at the floor. 
 
 "Well, thin, docther dear," he said slowly, 
 "Oi knows Oi c'n kape nothing at all fr'm 
 yez b't 'bt t' tell th' trut', me woife is ailin' 
 an* nades th' counthry air, an' shure Oi'm 
 near broke, phwat wid wan thing an' anither, 
 an' this an' that, an' I tort th' reward, or me 
 own share of ut "
 
 THE KLEPTOMANIAC 6 3 
 
 "You should have said so at once. That 
 adds just the touch of human interest to the 
 case which alone makes anything worth while 
 
 "Will yer take it, docther?" cried Nulty, 
 jumping up with glistening eyes. "Faith, 
 I'll rhun out t' th' tilephone an' tell Maggie 
 t' pack oop fer free mont's in th' counthry 
 tomorry mornin' on th' tin-twinty that laves 
 at noon " 
 
 "Don't get rattled again, Nulty. I thought 
 something was wrong with you when you 
 came in, and I am sorry to learn that it is 
 your wife's sickness that troubles you. But 
 say nothing until you get your money. We 
 havent found the diamond yet " 
 
 Nulty curled his lip in disdain. 
 
 "As good as as good as!" he said. "An', 
 begob, Oi hov th' reward all spint! 'Tis 
 something fine, Oi tell yez, docther, t' spind 
 ut wanst before yez git ut an' wanst afther, 
 an' thin, av yez do not git ut at all, phy, thin 
 yez hov lost nothing, an' av yez do git ut yez 
 c'n put in th' bank." 
 
 Dr. Furnivall, during this lucid formulation 
 of a philosophy as old as the beginnings of 
 poverty, was selecting an instrument or two 
 from his surgical case and preparing an emetic. 
 With these in his pocket he took his hat and 
 told Nulty to lead the way to the Emmons 
 house. 
 
 "I won't venture any theory yet, though I 
 have the threads of one in my mind," he said 
 as they walked along. "I know nothing
 
 264 EXPLOITS OF A PHYSICIAN-DETECTIVE 
 
 whatever of the characters of these different 
 persons who figure in the case. I have never 
 seen any of them even, that I am aware of. 
 The right beginning, however, is with Emmons, 
 and if we find him at home " 
 
 "Shure we will thot!" said the sergeant. 
 " 'Twes wid an eye fer his hours, jist, that Oi 
 coom fer yez. Oi knows thim well. He's 
 wid his woife this minute." 
 
 And so they found him. Dr. Furnivall 
 talked with them both a few moments and 
 then drew the husband aside. 
 
 "Mr. Emmons," he said, regarding him 
 through his spectacles, "have you no theory 
 of this matter?" 
 
 The little man stooped forward, his beady 
 black eyes growing even smaller and more 
 brilliantly black, and crossed his wrists over 
 his waistband. 
 
 "I had none but on thinking it all over 
 I believe I have," he answered, incisively. 
 
 "I understand that there is a reward, offered 
 by you, of $1,000 for the recovery of the dia- 
 mond." 
 
 "This is correct," he returned, in the same 
 tone. 
 
 "No matter who is hit by the detection of 
 the guilty person?" 
 
 "None whatever. If you are the great Dr. 
 Furnivall, the hypnotist, who can read men's 
 souls like an open book, you should have no 
 need to ask that question." 
 
 "I can read no man's soul. Neither would 
 I care to do so if I could. But I can read
 
 THE KLEPTOMANIAC 365 
 
 some things, and one of them is that you would 
 sooner see this person of whom we both speak 
 humiliated than any one else. In fact, you 
 know well who has the stone, and you are 
 irritated almost to insanity because you can't 
 force the possessor to give it up." 
 
 Mr. Emmons bowed coldly. 
 
 "I honor your perspicacity," he said, iron- 
 ically. "Perhaps if you had my reasons you 
 would feel as I do." 
 
 "I have no doubt of it. Still, you are 
 wrong. The whole difficulty is as much your 
 fault as hers. Kleptomania is a disease, and 
 should be treated as such. It sticks out all 
 over her." 
 
 "All I want is the diamond," he said, add- 
 ing quickly, "and to know how she managed 
 the business." 
 
 "We will arrange that on one condition 
 
 "The $1,000?" he interrupted, with irony. 
 
 Dr. Furnivall went on: 
 
 "It is that when you have received this 
 information and recovered the stone you will 
 call in the physician for your wife that I shall 
 name to you." 
 
 The ugly little man hesitated. A bright 
 color flowed into his cheeks, as of burning 
 anger, but he still held to his coldness of manner 
 
 "Very well; I agree on condition that you 
 fulfill your promise," he finally said. It was 
 plain that he was doubtful of this alleged 
 hypnotic power; and, indeed, he added, as Dr. 
 Furnivall removed his spectacles and started
 
 a66 EXPLOITS OF A PHYSICIAN-DETECTIVE 
 
 toward Mrs. Emmons: "I think you'll find 
 your match there." 
 
 She would not have been a promising spectacle 
 to one who fondly looks upon softness and lova- 
 bility as the distinguishing characteristics of the 
 sex. Small, wrinkled, pettish, with nerves of 
 fire, and a will that lay cold in her glittering 
 little beads of eyes, unbreakable, not to be 
 bent, and merciless as fate, she resembled her 
 husband so strongly that one would say they 
 were brother and sister, rather than husband 
 and wife. But Dr. Furnivall was interested 
 only in her disease, the indications of which 
 he saw in her eyes and around the homely, 
 quivering mouth and pointed chin, as well as 
 in the shape of her head. The strength of her 
 will would be a help to -him in his hypnotism, 
 rather than an obstacle; and with Sergeant 
 Nulty standing a little behind her on one side 
 of her chair, scarcely able to refrain from 
 dancing in jubilation over the coming fruition 
 of his hopes; and Mr. Ernmons on the other 
 side, darkly attentive, the doctor looked her in 
 the eye and talked with her easily a moment 
 or two about the strange robbery. And when 
 he saw the various inevitable changes pass 
 over her keen, hard, nervous face, surprise at 
 first, then excitement, running swiftly into 
 earnestness and ending in fixed introspection, 
 he asked: 
 
 "Mrs. Emmons, where is the diamond?" 
 "In Bruno's stomach!" she answered, at 
 once, in a voice like that of a deaf person 
 who cannot hear himself speak.
 
 THE KLEPTOMANIAC s6f 
 
 "And where is Bruno?" 
 
 "In the closet." 
 
 "What closet?" 
 
 Mr. Emmons darted up to her upon this, 
 and probably for the first time in many years, 
 if not the first in his adult life, a look of wonder 
 crept into his usually steady eyes. "Closet!" 
 he repeated as one stupefied, "Closet!" 
 
 She gave him no attention, did not even see 
 him. Her eyes were on Dr. Furnivall's, and 
 she answered: 
 
 "The closet where I keep my things the 
 things I take." 
 
 "Where is it?" 
 
 "In the corner of this room, down low, in 
 the wainscot, by the large table." 
 
 Emmons and the sergeant stared in amaze. 
 The corner was as bare as a wall could be. 
 There was not the slightest indication of any 
 closet there. But Emmons, after a moment's 
 thought, seemed satisfied and bestowed his 
 attention again on the examination. 
 
 "It is plain now," said Dr. Furnivall to 
 him, still holding Mrs. Emmons' eyes with 
 his own, "how the monkey was made to dis- 
 appear so suddenly, and unless you wish to 
 hear more we will find the closet at once " 
 
 "Let her tell the whole story," he inter- 
 rupted grimly. 
 
 Dr. Furnivall therefore went on: 
 
 "Mrs. Emmons, how did it happen that 
 the monkey should seize the diamond?" 
 
 "Why, you see, I suppose it was this way: 
 There is a kind of bon-bon that he is very
 
 268 EXPLOITS OF A PHYSICIAN-DETECTIVE 
 
 fond of, and I always hold it up for him to 
 leap for. It is astonishing how far he can 
 jump and how swiftly, when he sees one of 
 them in my fingers, or indeed anywhere. They 
 are round, and sparkling like rock candy, 
 and I suppose he thought the diamond was 
 one of them. So he snatched it and swallowed 
 it. But it hurt him and'he has been sick over it." 
 
 "You had no idea of his doing such a 
 thing until your husband told you it was done ?" 
 
 "No, indeed, of course not!" 
 
 Emmons' face softened the merest shade 
 at this. He had evidently believed that in 
 some way the theft had been premeditated. 
 
 "And when you found that he had swal- 
 lowed the diamond you resolved to hide him?" 
 
 "Yes, I did not propose to have my pet 
 cut open, or even given an emetic." 
 
 "Was that the only reason?" 
 
 "No, I wanted the diamond. Diamonds 
 are so pretty! I always take them wherever 
 I see them, if I can do so unobserved. I have 
 a lot of them in the closet." 
 
 "And you made up the story of the strange 
 woman in order to send suspicion astray?" 
 
 "Yes!" 
 
 "I think," said Dr. Furnivall to Mr. Em- 
 mons, that that is all we want to know, isn't 
 it? It was the description of the alleged 
 thief's appearance that put me immediately 
 on the track. Such a descriptior could ema- 
 nate only from a mind disordered in some 
 way, and, considering all the circumstances, 
 I at once suspected kleptomania."
 
 THE KLEPTOMANIAC 6g 
 
 But Mr. Emmons was already pounding 
 the wainscot in search of the closet. When 
 finally it was laid open it was found to be 
 a small cavity behind the sheathing used to 
 round the corners of the circular room, the 
 door of which was perfectly hidden, and fitted 
 in tightly without lock or spring. The floor 
 was littered with many valuables, stolen by 
 the kleptomaniac, among them a good hand- 
 ful of diamonds of various shapes and degrees 
 of beauty. 
 
 Stretched in the midst of the glittering 
 array the poor monkey lay dead, suffocated. 
 
 The diamond was recovered, and Ser- 
 geant Nulty received the reward from Dr. 
 Furnivall, to whom alone Emmons would pay 
 it.
 
 The Lodging House 
 Mystery
 
 THE LODGING HOUSE MYSTERY 289 
 
 that saying. So I came to ask you, sir, to make 
 her change it and tell the truth. Then they 
 will let him out of jail. But I have not much 
 money. My father and mother laughed when 
 I told what I was going to do. 'Child,' they 
 said, 'the great doctor will want more money 
 for doing that thing than you will ever have 
 hi all your life.' But I said, 'Not so, because 
 it is right to make her tell the truth, and it is 
 a good action. He will not charge too much 
 for doing it.' " 
 
 She laid the little roll of bills on the table 
 and smiled at him in perfect confidence. 
 
 "Is your friend's name Frank Leavitt?" 
 he asked, gently. 
 
 "Oh, yes, doctor," she cried, eagerly. "Do 
 you know him? If you do you are sure he 
 could not do such a thing as that. He would 
 not hurt anybody. Oh no! He is good and 
 kind and very handsome!" 
 
 She uttered the last adjective as if it were 
 conclusive proof of his innocence. 
 
 "I don't know him, no," answered the doctor 
 gravely. "But I have read about the case in 
 the papers. So they took him to the hospital 
 and she identified him? Did she say what 
 he did it for, and how he did it?" 
 
 "She said only, 'That is the man!' Not 
 another word would she speak. And they 
 took him back to the jail, and he will have 
 to die unless you, sir, will make her take those 
 words back and say what is true." 
 
 "Have they found out who the woman 
 is?"
 
 290 EXPLOITS OF A PHYSICIAN-DETECTIVE 
 
 "No, sir. She will say nothing, and they 
 can't find out. They do not know how she 
 came there in the house. And Mrs. Doane 
 is not found nobody knows where she is. 
 It is very strange. I do not understand any 
 of it, only he did not do it; it is foolish to 
 think so. How could he, when we are going 
 to get married sometime? It is impossible, 
 and I would laugh at it if I did not feel so 
 frightened of the jail where he is." 
 
 The eyes grew moist again and resumed 
 their appeal. The doctor handed her back 
 the money. 
 
 11 1 don't accept pay in this way," he said. 
 "But," he hastened to add, seeing her look 
 of alarm, "I'll call on the woman, and if I 
 can do you any good I will let you know how 
 to make it right with me. And I'll go im- 
 mediately. Will that satisfy you?" 
 
 "Oh, I thank you so much, doctor!" she 
 cried, flushing with happiness. "Now I will 
 go home and laugh at my mother and father, 
 who said you would not do it. And how can 
 I know at once what she says " 
 
 "Do not think any more about it until 
 morning," he advised her. He knew that the 
 matter would be settled one way or the other 
 in a few minutes, providing the mysterious 
 woman was awake and able to talk, but he was 
 far from sure how it would turn out, and did 
 not wish to raise a hope in her breast that 
 might prove futile. 
 
 A quarter of an hour later, in company 
 with one of the hospital doctors, a policeman,
 
 THE LODGING HOUSE MYSTERY 391 
 
 and a justice of the peace, he was standing 
 at the bedside of the victim of the assault. 
 Looking at her at first through his spectacles, 
 he asked: 
 
 "Madam, will you tell me your name?" 
 
 She shook her head wearily. 
 
 "I only wish to be left alone," she answered. 
 
 "But other people they have rights, haven't 
 they? When one is in trouble wouldn't you 
 even speak a word in order to relieve him? 
 Think of that young man and his sweetheart! 
 Do you still assert that he is the person who 
 attacked you?" 
 
 "Yes." She said it coldly, and with a 
 flash of her black eyes despite her weakness. 
 
 "I don't understand why you were so tender 
 of him when they told you he had been caught, 
 and yet now show so much animosity towards 
 him." 
 
 She gazed obdurately up at him and said 
 nothing. He then removed his spectacles and 
 looked her in the -eye. 
 
 "Tell me now," he said, "who assaulted 
 you?" 
 
 Her eyes remained a moment in repose. 
 Suddenly they sprang to life, dilating as with 
 surprise, then perplexity shone there briefly, 
 passing into earnestness and finally into con- 
 centrated introspection; and she answered 
 in a wooden voice: 
 
 "John Merrill!" 
 
 "Who is John Merrill?" 
 
 "The man I love!" 
 
 "Yes, but what does he do?"
 
 apa EXPLOITS OF A PHYSICIAN-DETECTIVE 
 
 "He is a hypnotist." 
 
 "Where is he to be found?" 
 
 "I don't know. I suppose he has run 
 away." 
 
 "What is your name?" 
 
 "Ella Frost." 
 
 "Where do you live?" 
 
 "In Middleton." 
 
 "How happened you o be at Mrs. Doane's ?" 
 
 "I came to tell her that her husband had 
 met with an accident. He was at her sister's 
 in Middleton and wanted her to go there at 
 once. It was late at night, just in time for 
 the 10:45 train, and she asked me to stay in 
 the house for a day or two and take care of 
 the rooms. I said I would, and she left me 
 in charge, for she knew me." 
 
 "Now tell us how he came to assault you." 
 
 "Mrs. Doane let him sleep on the folding- 
 bed in the parlor that night. Along in the 
 forenoon I had a terrible headache, and I 
 went up to my room and lay down on the bed, 
 and John gave me a hypnotic treatment for 
 it. He had often done this. It never did me 
 any good, but it pleased him to think he could 
 control me and put me alseep, so I always 
 played that I was sleeping, and that his treat- 
 ment cured me. But I never was affected in 
 the least. When he believed I was under- 
 control he walked over to the bureau and began 
 to open the drawers. I had taken all my money, 
 about $1,200, out of the bank in Middleton 
 to bring to the city, and he knew I had it. I 
 opened my eyes and watched him. I knew
 
 THE LODGING HOUSE MYSTERY 293 
 
 he was searching for it, still I couldn't believe 
 it. Just as he found it he turned and saw 
 me looking at him, and his face grew so terrible 
 that I was scared and ran from the room. He 
 chased me, and when we got into the kitchen 
 he grabbed me, and pulled me toward the 
 table where the butcher knife was, and caught 
 it up and tried to stab me, but I dodged and 
 fought, getting cut all over my face and hands. 
 I tried to get out-doors, but he pulled me back, 
 and I ran again through the hall, but fell at 
 the foot of the stairs. There was an overcoat 
 hanging on the halltree and he put it on, and 
 then took me bodily in his arms up to the 
 bathroom, and left me there. I suppose he 
 thought he had finished me, but I came to 
 and started for my room. That is all about 
 it. Only, I don't see why he did it. I would 
 have given him the money willingly if I had 
 known he wanted it. Now he has done such 
 a terrible thing I want to die. I don't care 
 what becomes of me." 
 
 "You thought to shield him by accusing 
 the other man?" 
 
 "Yes. I fainted with joy when I found 
 they had got the wrong man." 
 
 Dr. Furnivall turned to the policeman. 
 
 "Go get a warrant for John Merrill, hypno- 
 tist. He will be exhibiting this evening hi 
 Allie's hall, where he causes a woman to hang 
 suspended on nothing in the air. That is the 
 kind he is!" 
 
 It was Frank Leavitt himself who, a little 
 later, was the bearer of the joyous news
 
 a 9 4 EXPLOITS OF A PHYSICIAN-DETECTIVE 
 
 of his release and exoneration to his sweet- 
 heart. 
 
 The hypnotist was arrested that evening, 
 and the money was found on his person. He 
 was given fifteen years. The woman recovered, 
 and to this day carries flowers and dainties to 
 the " who tried to murder her.
 
 The Spirit Club
 
 THE SPIRIT CLUB 
 
 Through his colored spectacles Dr. Fumivall 
 regarded the excited man before him calmly. 
 
 "Dr. Gerrish has already consulted me 
 about your wife's remarkable case," he said, 
 "so I know the salient points of it. But, of 
 course, before seeing her I should be glad to 
 learn its history from you, as you suggest. 
 But be brief, for " 
 
 His companion put up his hand suddenly. 
 A series of screams, laden with the mortal 
 terror of a human being, burst upon them 
 from somewhere above, seeming to fill to its 
 farthest reaches the lofty and splendid hall 
 in which the two were standing. There was 
 but one light visible among the shadows, which, 
 as it gleamed softly here and there on a marble 
 statue, scintillated evilly on some gilded picture 
 frame, or sullenly burned on a polished bit of 
 ancient armor, served scarcely more than to 
 exaggerate the somber gloom of the place and 
 amplify in the imagination its already huge 
 dimensions. In such vague, mysterious sur- 
 roundings the screams, startling enough in 
 themselves, were awesome, and with a cold 
 shudder Mr. Harish hastily drew the doctor 
 into one of the reception-rooms and switched 
 on the lights. 
 
 "She has been that way at intervals for 
 months," he whispered excitedly. He was
 
 298 EXPLOITS OF A PHYSICIAN-DETECTIVE 
 
 a fresh looking man of fifty, of light complexion 
 and regular features, in whose face the domi- 
 nant expressions were those of the acumen 
 and reserved force which we associate with 
 ihe highly successful captain of industry. The 
 gray eyes held the possibility of a merciless 
 glitter in their uncompromising depths, the nar- 
 row brow seemed always just about to gather 
 in a frown, the lips beneath the thin, bristly 
 brown mustache were firm to rigidity, and the 
 chin, square and solid, was relieved from an 
 appearance of downright brutality only by a 
 vertical cleft in the middle, resembling an over- 
 grown dimple. Some slight suggestions of 
 softness lay in that, and, of all his features, in 
 that alone. But at this moment it was evi- 
 dent, despite his normal atmosphere of impas- 
 sivity, that he maintained a fair degree of 
 composure only by great effort of will, and as 
 he spoke he sank heavily into a chair as if 
 in urgent need of its support for his trembling 
 body. 
 
 "It won't take two minutes to tell you 
 what I wish to," he continued, in a low, hur- 
 ried voice, "and it seems necessary to your 
 understanding of the case. It is as a hypnotist 
 only that you can be of service here. Medicine 
 we have tried in vain. The trouble began one 
 night last summer. She had been ailing for 
 some time, and we couldn't find out what the 
 matter was, except that it was of a nervous 
 nature, -when on this night she startled me out 
 of a sound sleep by screaming suddenly. I 
 thought at first that it must be an attack of
 
 THE SPIRIT CLUB 399 
 
 nightmare, and began to shake her; but she 
 shrieked louder than ever. So I sprang up 
 and turned on the lights. Then I saw that she 
 was cowering down in bed, with staring eyes, 
 screaming as you have just heard her doing 
 and flinging her arms about over her head as 
 I have seen boys fighting bees. When the light 
 flashed up she threw me a terrified look and 
 dived under the bedclothes, still fighting and 
 shrieking. It was terrible, terrible! To be 
 afraid of ME " 
 
 "What explanation did she make then or 
 afterward? Any?" 
 
 "Only that she was frightened and felt a 
 pain, as if a nail had been driven into her 
 brain. When the doctor came he pronounced 
 it a case of clavus hystericus nothing so very 
 serious, he said. But it has proved serious 
 enough. Two or three nights out of every 
 week since then she has had one of these spells. 
 I have called in the most famous physicians. 
 No use." He shook his head despondently. 
 " Though all of them say the same things about 
 the disease and prescribe much the same treat- 
 ment, she doesn't improve. They do not reach 
 the malady, whatever it is. It was Dr. Gerrish 
 who told me of you and your hypnotic power, 
 which he said was marvelous, and advised me 
 to call you. He said he was convinced that at 
 bottom the trouble was mental rather than 
 physical, and that if a cure were possible you 
 were the man to work it." 
 
 "Does she talk with you freely about her 
 case?"
 
 300 EXPLOITS OF A PHYSICIAN-DETECTIVE 
 
 "Ah, that is one of the incomprehensible 
 mysteries!" he cried, rising excitedly and 
 pacing a few steps rapidly back and forth. 
 Then he stopped with his hand on the doctor's 
 shoulder. "She won't talk about it with 
 anybody," he whispered. "She altogether shuns 
 the subject; will not listen to a word of it. 
 It is the strangest thing in the world. The 
 most that can be drawn from her is a 'no' 
 or a 'yes' in answer to some insistent questions 
 put by the doctor who happens to be in at- 
 tendance. But me she seems afraid of me! 
 She shrinks whenever I approach her. I I 
 can't understand it. Why, Dr. Furnivall, I 
 love her. She is all I care for on earth. 
 She has -always looked to me for everything. 
 Our married life has been ideal, but now 
 now " 
 
 He broke off suddenly. In order to hide 
 an emotion of which he was apparently ashamed 
 he presented his back to the doctor, and, mo- 
 tioning over his shoulder for him to follow, 
 mounted the wide staircase to the floor above, 
 without another word. 
 
 The doctor found the sickroom, a large and 
 magnificently appointed chamber, blazing in 
 the splendors of a cluster of electric lights 
 which depended from the ceiling in the center. 
 In answer to his questioning look Mr. Harish 
 whispered : 
 
 "She insists on that. The least sign of 
 darkness frightens her, even although she 
 tries to keep her head under the bedclothes, 
 as you see now. It is strange. She must have
 
 THE SPIRIT CLUB 301 
 
 either full sunshine or those lights. I don't 
 dare to go in with you. I'll wait out here." 
 
 A trained nurse and a helper were in the 
 room, whom the doctor, after a few words with 
 them, motioned to leave him alone with the 
 patient. Then, removing his glasses, he ad- 
 vanced to the sumptuous bed, in which he could 
 see the outlines of a human form beneath the 
 coverings, which rose and fell slightly with the 
 spasmodic breathing of the sufferer. The 
 screams had ceased, and the only sound to be 
 heard was the melodious ticking of a small gold 
 cased clock on the mantel. 
 
 "Mrs. Harish!" he said, touching the coun- 
 terpane where it was drawn smoothly over 
 the bowed head. 
 
 She sprang up with a low cry. He caught 
 the gleam of a white, pretty face, with lines of 
 weakness around the mouth, a pair of blue eyes, 
 the normal expression of which must be ex- 
 treme mildness, but which were now fixed on 
 him in a glare of fright, and a tangle of blond 
 hair. Then she turned frantically and sought 
 to crawl farther down into the bed, but he 
 put out his hand quickly, gently restraining 
 her. 
 
 "They can't hurt you any more," he said. 
 
 "Who? What do you mean? What do 
 you know about them?" 
 
 Her voice was quavering and high, and, 
 flashing a swift, scared look at him, she tore 
 at his supporting arm with her hands. "Let 
 me alone! Oh, let me alone, or I shall die!" 
 she gasped.
 
 302 EXPLOITS OF A PHYSICIAN-DETECTIVE 
 
 "I know all about them. I have met and 
 overcome them more than once before this, 
 and I can do as much for you now." He held 
 her as gently as he might, but firmly, and began 
 moving around so that he could gaze into her 
 eyes. "I am here to help you," he continued, 
 when he had accomplished this. "You are 
 suffering persecution; a persecution, too, that 
 is easily stopped. I will stop it for you. Look 
 at me, Mrs. Harish! Do you know me?" 
 
 His gaze held her. The staring eyes grew 
 less wild, a momentary wonder crept into them, 
 then their natural mildness reasserted itself, 
 and finally this mildness was replaced by a 
 rapt fixity of introspection. With a sigh of 
 relief she put her hand into his, saying: 
 
 "You are a physician, I suppose. No, I 
 don't know you. But I feel better. Thank 
 you." 
 
 He withdrew his arm, and, still holding her 
 eyes steadily, arranged the pillows so that 
 she could recline comfortably, facing him as 
 he sat at the bedside. 
 
 "Now, Mrs. Harish," he said, "carry your 
 mind back to the night on which you were 
 first seized with these attacks. Why did you 
 scream?" 
 
 "The room was full of spirits who were 
 beating me with clubs," she answered, without 
 emotion. 
 
 "Are you what is called a spiritualist?" 
 
 "No; but my husband is, and he wishes 
 me to believe, too; and these spirits, I have 
 always thought, beat me for my obstinacy."
 
 THE SPIRIT CLUB 303 
 
 "Did anybody ever tell you that they would 
 do so?" 
 
 "No; but I have heard of such things. No- 
 body knows anything about their coming to 
 me. I have never dared tell even my hus- 
 band. I had endured everything since Mr. 
 Jellipherson died. For a long time I was 
 horribly tormented, and at last, when he him- 
 self came to me in the dead of night at the 
 head of a host of frightful shapes, all of them 
 armed with clubs just like his, I could not 
 stand it any longer. I think I lost my mind " 
 
 "One moment. Who is Mr. Jellipherson? 
 Begin at the beginning and tell me all about it." 
 
 "Mr. Jellipherson was my husband's friend 
 a spiritualist. He had an uncanny look 
 and a harsh, rasping voice that made me 
 shiver with fear whenever I heard it. I could 
 not bear him, and used to hide from him when 
 he came here, as he often did. He brought 
 mediums, who got messages from the spirit 
 world, and that frightened me. I could not 
 endure to think of being surrounded by an 
 army of invisible shapes who were watching 
 me, influencing me, knowing all my most secret 
 and sacred thoughts. I cannot tell you how 
 the fancy of such things preyed on my mind. 
 It was maddening even to hear them talked 
 about. But I loved my husband, and, know- 
 ing that he believed, and most earnestly wished 
 to continue doing so, I would not pain him 
 by confiding my trouble to him. It might 
 estrange us; and, besides, something the 
 spirits, I thought prevented me from speaking
 
 304 EXPLOITS OF A PHYSICIAN-DETECTIVE 
 
 of them to anybody. So I hid my fright and 
 pretended that I had no objections to the 
 meetings; that I found them merely amusing. 
 "But Mr. Jellipherson saw my antipathy 
 and resented it, not openly, but in various 
 covert ways. Once he had a toy club made 
 of some rare wood, inlaid with jewels, and 
 gave it to Mr. Harish for a watch charm, telling 
 him it should typify his spiritual attitude. It 
 was no use, he said, looking at me, to try to 
 talk sense to unbelievers. People were so stupid 
 that the only efficient argument was a good 
 dub. With that, he said, one could silence 
 opposition by knocking brains out, even if 
 one could not convince by knocking brains in. 
 Though this was said jestingly, it seemed very 
 wicked to me. I knew he half meant it. My 
 own creed was love. I said nothing, but it 
 made me wretched, for I saw that my husband 
 agreed with his friend in his aggressiveness 
 rather than with me. It was as if a something 
 of evil growth had been planted between us 
 by Mr. Jellipherson, and I dreaded him more 
 than ever. Then one evening, during a dis- 
 cussion, Mr. Jellipherson, who was nearly 
 seventy, solemnly promised that if he should 
 die before my husband, which he was likely 
 to do, he would prove indubitably to him and 
 the world that a dead man's spirit can return 
 to earth. In what manner he should do it 
 he could not tell, but it should be in a way 
 that must destroy all doubt forever. And that 
 promise was the real beginning of my trouble. 
 I saw that he really believed, and somehow it
 
 THE SPIRIT CLUB 305 
 
 made me believe, too. From that day I began 
 to fancy shapes in the air, hear ghostly whispers, 
 and feel the presence of evil spirits crowding 
 me in my room, not only at night, but sometimes 
 in the daytime as well. My health suffered, 
 and soon we went abroad for change of climate. 
 Scarcely had we arrived in Paris when we 
 received a letter from home informing us of 
 Mr. Jellipherson's death, and, more than that, 
 that his last words had been a message to 
 Mr. Harish telling him he would surely keep 
 his promise. Then, to cap the climax of 
 horrors, the toy club disappeared from my 
 husband's watch chain! 
 
 "What I began to suffer then no words 
 can describe. It was the spirit of the dead 
 man that had removed the club, that was 
 certain; we agreed on that, and all that had 
 gone before was as nothing. But I still man- 
 aged to conceal my fright from Mr. Harish. 
 For two weeks we remained in the hotel, never 
 ceasing to search for the lost club, expecting 
 all the time we knew not what, when one day 
 my husband in great excitement burst in upon 
 me with an open letter in one hand and the 
 little club in the other. The letter was dated 
 and postmarked 'New York.' It was this 
 every queer word of it is burned into my brain: 
 
 "'My Dear Harish: It was me that got 
 your club with my spirit hand, and it's me send- 
 ing it back to you to prove what I promised. 
 Now do you believe and know? Because you 
 got to, and can't help it. Go to the medium 
 that sends you this, for you ain't strong enough
 
 306 EXPLOITS OF A PHYSICIAN-DETECTIVE 
 
 to meet me in the spirit world yet, but he is, 
 and I will tell you many strange and glorious 
 things through this great medium. Don't 
 mind this grammar. There ain't none here; 
 we have greater things to think of.' The note 
 was signed, ' Yours in the spirit world, Jellipher- 
 son.' Below was the medium's address, with 
 an explanation by him of the conditions under 
 which the message was received, and an urgent 
 invitation to Mr. Harish to call upon him. 
 
 "There was but one possible meaning to 
 all this now. Mr. Jellipherson had kept his 
 word! It was proved beyond all doubt. No- 
 body but we three had ever known of the 
 promise, of the gift of the club, or of its strange 
 loss. And it was returned to us from America 
 only two weeks after having disappeared in 
 Paris! Perhaps that man even at that mo- 
 ment was watching me, close at hand in the 
 air, hovering, malevolent, on the point of 
 revealing himself to me in some unearthly 
 shape! How I controlled myself is a constant 
 surprise to me, but I did so; and, seeing that 
 Mr. Harish was in a fever of desire to consult 
 the medium, I proposed that we return to New 
 York in order that he might have his wish. I 
 felt better at home, I told him, than anywhere 
 else; and I knew I should feel safer. So we 
 came back. Mr. Harish hastened at once 
 to the medium, and was more than satisfied. 
 He told him many things which nobody in 
 the world or out of it knew, except Mr. Jelli- 
 pherson. Still, I made no sign of the tor- 
 ments I experienced. I managed to refrain
 
 THE SPIRIT CLUB 307 
 
 from shrieking out as my husband gave me 
 these positive proofs, but from then on I grew 
 worse and worse. The slightest noise sent me 
 nearly into hysterics I saw plainer than ever 
 horrible shapes in the air. They came to me 
 and gibbered, making threatening gestures, 
 leering at me, and touching me with their 
 shadowy fingers; and finally, when one night 
 Mr. Jellipherson himself appeared, as I had 
 always known he would do, at the head of a 
 legion of others like him, all of them with great 
 clubs after the pattern of the toy one, and 
 began to beat me, I knew I must give up. I 
 could suffer no longer in silence. Something 
 in my brain snapped, a sharp pain pierced my 
 head, and at the top of my voice I screamed 
 and hid beneath the bedclothes. But they 
 followed me even there, and continued to 
 beat me. They follow me always now at 
 night, so that in the morning I am literally 
 covered with black and blue spots from their 
 clubs. See! My body is like that all over." 
 
 She bared her arms to the shoulder, hold- 
 ing them up pitifully for his inspection. They 
 were beautiful arms, rounded, white, perfect. 
 He was not obliged to remove his eyes from 
 her own in order to see that, of the bruises 
 mentioned, there was no trace throughout their 
 lovely length! 
 
 "And you never told your husband a word 
 of all this?" he asked, evenly. 
 
 "No. I could not. The subject distracts 
 me. I have tried to speak, but the spirits 
 prevent me. All I have been able to do is to
 
 3 o8 EXPLOITS OF A PHYSICIAN-DETECTIVE 
 
 try to call his attention to the bruises by show- 
 ing him my arms; but he does not even see 
 them. I don't understand it. It makes me 
 afraid of him. It is as if he were against me, 
 on their side, not on mine, and refused to 
 accept any evidence of their hostility to me 
 would resent my accusing them of this thing." 
 
 He arose and rearranged the pillows. 
 "That is enough, Mrs. Harish," he said. "Lie 
 comfortably down again and free your mind 
 of all uneasiness. You shall never be troubled 
 in this way any more. The persecution shall 
 be stopped at once. I am going to bring you 
 a visitor, and, when he comes in you must not 
 cover your head, but, on the contrary, you 
 must listen to every word that passes between 
 him and me. Will you do this?" 
 
 "But you are not going to leave me alone? 
 Doctor, I can't 
 
 He was not holding her eyes now, and she 
 started up in fright. 
 
 "No," he reassured her; "you shall have 
 all the company you want, and all the light. 
 Feel no fear whatever. I know just what to 
 do in this matter, and from this moment you 
 are safe." 
 
 He called in the nurses, and, after giving 
 them his instructions, sought Mr. Harish, 
 who was in the hall. At sight of the doctor 
 he ran forward eagerly. 
 
 "I heard her voice," he whispered. "It 
 is wonderful that you could get her to speak. 
 What did she say? Can you do anything for 
 her?"
 
 THE SPIRIT CLUB 309 
 
 Without a word Dr. Furnivall led the way 
 down stairs to the reception-room. Here he 
 resumed his colored spectacles, motioning his 
 companion to sit facing him. 
 
 "Mr. Harish," he said, "I can certainly 
 restore your wife to sanity and health, but 
 only on condition that you aid me, at no mat- 
 ter what cost to your sentiments or hopes 
 or even beliefs." 
 
 "I I don't understand," he faltered anx- 
 iously. "Certainly," he continued, "I would 
 do anything in the world for my wife, and 
 as for beliefs, how can one change them? 
 Proof is necessarily convincing, and 
 
 "It is proof that I ;im going to give you," 
 the doctor interrupted. S 'I am merely pro- 
 viding against any shock you may receive in 
 that proof. I might proceed without let- 
 ting you know what I propose, but as your 
 aid is necessary, I will not ask it of you with- 
 out warning you of the results in advance. 
 Mrs. Harish is suffering from a not extremely 
 rare kind of delusion regarding the spirits of 
 the dead, and in order to restore her to sanity 
 and health, and make the cure permanent I 
 shall be obliged to convince not only her, but 
 you, of a certain truth which will startle you. 
 It is for this that I wish to prepare you." 
 
 "I don't think anything would shock me 
 that will cure my wife," said Mr. Harish, 
 with a touch, of resentment in his tones. "And 
 my mind is certainly open to conviction as 
 much as any man's. Proof is all I want, of 
 anything. If it is spiritualism you are hitting
 
 3 io EXPLOITS OF A PHYSICIAN-DETECTIVE 
 
 at," he went on, rising in sudden excitement, 
 "if you can bring stronger proofs against it 
 than I have for it I'll drop it at once, I promise 
 you. But you can't do it. I know! I know 
 by proofs so perfect that even you, if you only 
 dreamed of them, would be as strong in the 
 faith as I am." 
 
 Dr. Furnivall proceeded imperturbably : 
 
 "In every walk of life, in every art, pro- 
 fession, science, trade, religion, or society there 
 are some persons who are wise in their way, 
 and some foolish; some honest and sincere, 
 others dishonest and insincere. In most cases 
 it naturally happens that, by outsiders, the 
 class is judged by the lower ranks, by the 
 fools or impostors, rather than by the true 
 disciples, for it is they with whom the out- 
 siders come most in contact, and hear most 
 about. And it is the foolish or the evil, not 
 the wise and good, that the uncultivated delight 
 in spreading, because of their superior qualities 
 of excitement. In spiritualism as in every- 
 thing these ranks exist of course. But it is 
 not in spiritualism that I am interested now, 
 whether it be true or false, good or bad, or 
 indifferent. What I am intent upon is to 
 cure Mrs. Harish, and as you are sure to be 
 staggered by the very medicine that will effect 
 that cure, I think it right to prepare you for it, 
 rather than to lead you unconsciously on 
 to it." 
 
 Mr. Harish seized his hand. 
 
 "Forgive me, doctor," he said contritely. 
 "I am scarcely myself. I don't know how it
 
 THE SPIRIT CLUB 311 
 
 is, but that subject always irritates me out 
 of my normal state. The thing seems so 
 plain and indisputable to me, and its oppo- 
 nents are so obtuse and uncon vincible! I 
 thought you were an enemy at first, but I see 
 you are not. Come, tell me what to do. I'll 
 follow your directions to the letter. Shock out 
 of me whatever you will, only save her!" 
 
 "That is more like it. Now we can start 
 understandingly. It is all very simple and 
 easily arranged. In the first place it is neces- 
 sary for me to convince you not only of my 
 ability to hypnotize a man, but also that in 
 doing so I use no influence upon him except 
 to draw from him the truth of the matters 
 about which I question him. I put no thoughts, 
 and can put no thoughts, into his mind, but 
 can and do compel him to speak the true 
 thought which is already in his mind. Do 
 you follow me?" 
 
 "That is not the usual notion of what 
 hypnotism is," said Mr. Harish interestedly. 
 
 "No, it is not," returned Dr. Furnivall 
 dryly. "It is my notion, and since it is with 
 my notion that we have to do just now, that 
 is the one we will consider. I will tell you 
 the secret of it in two words, as the French 
 say. It is important that you should under- 
 stand it. It is simply this: A man of good 
 intelligence who will, instead of pursuing mere 
 ends, mere results, as is the usual way of men; 
 who will bend all his efforts upon abstract 
 truth regardless of private gain ; who is unbiased 
 by expediency, driven neither by debt nor
 
 3ia EXPLOITS OF A PHYSICIAN-DETECTIVE 
 
 credit, nor friends, nor foes, nor ignominy 
 nor fame, nor riches nor poverty, must set up 
 in his body a flow of forces unknown to and 
 undreamed of by the ordinary human being. 
 This is at once believable to any good phy- 
 sician, for we all of us know that the thoughts 
 of the mind influence the body more or less, 
 and that the longer or the stronger a certain 
 thought is held and dwelt upon the more pro- 
 nounced are its effects on the body contain- 
 ing it, especially in the more mobile parts, as 
 the face and eyes. Fear shows there at once, 
 and so do anger and joy and pain and weak- 
 ness and vigor, and so forth; and any thought 
 persisted in for a sufficient length of time will 
 result in a settled change of appearance there. 
 The eyes, when normal, are the most sensitive, 
 most mobile, most expressive register of the 
 owner's thought that he possesses. It is there 
 probably that every thought of our minds 
 finds its surest and quickest expression. Con 
 sequently, to hold continually to the desire 
 and thought of pure, unadulterated truth, 
 never to be swayed from that stand by any 
 possible consideration, is to evolve an eye 
 altogether different from that of the ordinary 
 man, who is continually sacrificing truth to 
 expediency. In fact, as I have learned by 
 research and experiment, an eye so formed 
 becomes, for every human being who looks 
 into it, a sort of physical-mental magnet, 
 drawing from him, even though he tries with 
 all his powers to resist, such truth as he has 
 in him on the subject suggested to him at the
 
 THE SPIRIT CLUB 313 
 
 moment. He couldn't lie to save his life. 
 That is the kind of hypnotism I possess. Does 
 it seem plain to you? And is it reasonable?" 
 
 Mr. Harish, for the first time since the 
 interview began, so far forgot his troubles, in 
 his interest, as to smile. 
 
 "I think the theory is first rate," he said, 
 "but can you declare that, in the midst of 
 all your professional cares, from your early 
 struggles onward, up to the famous position 
 you have made for yourself, to say nothing 
 of the necessity of expediency in your practice 
 today, you have held to the pursuit of abstract 
 truth as strongly as all that?" 
 
 "Does it seem so impossible?" 
 
 "To me, yes, I confess it does," Mr. Harish 
 returned somewhat dryly. "I am certain that 
 in my own case six months' adherence to 
 abstract truth, as opposed to expediency, would 
 ruin me outright. And I must believe it is 
 the same with all of us. I am as upright as 
 anybody, and I feel obliged to think that 
 other people's methods, if they are successful, 
 do not differ materially from my own. In 
 fact, I know they do not." 
 
 "That is, you would rather see the eyes 
 and experience their quality than to consider 
 a mere theory about them?" 
 
 "Well, yes." Mr. Harish spoke with polite 
 reluctance. "I do not question your theory," 
 he added hastily. "It seems logical and rea- 
 sonable. But to practice it! If it can be 
 carried out; if any man can succeed as you 
 have done amid all this hurly-burly and wild
 
 3U EXPLOITS OF A PHYSICIAN-DETECTIVE 
 
 scramble for dollars, still maintaining a con- 
 stant desire for the abstract truth of every one 
 of his transactions, refusing even to think of 
 expediency as opposed to that truth, why, 
 then I I should indeed be glad to receive 
 some proof of the fact that could not be dis- 
 puted." 
 
 "And nothing but that sort of proof would 
 satisfy you?" 
 
 "I think not." 
 
 He looked curiously into the thick colored 
 spectacles, but could see only an outline of 
 the eyes behind them. 
 
 "I wear these glasses," said Dr. Furnivall, 
 observing the scrutiny, "whenever I do not 
 wish to pry into a man's mind and force him 
 to say what he would rather keep to himself. 
 In fact, I wear them always on ordinary occa- 
 sions, for without them I could not help hyp- 
 notizing everybody who should look into my 
 eyes, even despite myself." 
 
 As he spoke he removed the disfiguring 
 disks, wiped them carefully, and slipped them 
 into his pocket. Mr. Harish started ner- 
 vously. But he immediately controlled him- 
 self, sitting with a half smile around his 
 mouth. 
 
 "I am going to give you the indisputable 
 proof you require," said Dr. Furnivall, gazing 
 him steadily in the eye. "Is there anything 
 in your mind that you would tell nobody, 
 something that wild horses could not draw 
 from you?" 
 
 "I don't know. Maybe there is."
 
 THE SPIRIT CLUB 315 
 
 "Well, you are going to tell it to me. Not 
 only that, but you will write it down, so that 
 you may be absolutely convinced that you 
 have told it. Will that satisfy you that I 
 do not put anything into a man's mind, but 
 simply draw out a truth already in it? It is 
 necessary for you to comprehend this dis- 
 tinction." 
 
 He passed a pencil and a leaf torn from 
 his notebook to Mr. Harish. 
 
 The gentleman took these smilingly, but the 
 steely gleam that one always suspected to be 
 lying asleep awaiting occasion in his gray eyes 
 leaped to alert life, the chin grew granite like 
 and squarer than ever, the body stiffened, the 
 breath came hard. He was nerving himself 
 for the trial. 
 
 "Go ahead," he said, grimly. "I don't 
 know the game, nor what you're after, but 
 go ahead." 
 
 "The game is to cure your wife. And 
 what I am after is to give you a sample of 
 the medicine that will do it. For you are a 
 man who will believe in nothing without ma- 
 terial proofs, and, once having been given 
 what you, in your finite, fallible mind, consider 
 to be proofs, you are convinced beyond all 
 doubt until a stronger proof to the contrary 
 is forced upon you. It would be of little use 
 for me to raise Mrs. Harish to a condition of 
 health and sanity without teaching you a cer- 
 tain kind of caution of the very existence of 
 which you seem unaware, a caution respecting 
 the acceptance of material proofs as conclusive
 
 3i 6 EXPLOITS OF A PHYSICIAN-DETECTIVE 
 
 in all cases; for without this caution you would 
 immediately begin sending her back again. 
 To a man of your self-sufficiency, who has 
 amassed $100,000,000 in twenty years, the 
 teaching will doubtless turn out to be some- 
 what drastic; but, if so, it is your lookout, 
 not mine. It is on your own demand. Now, 
 what is that thing in your mind that wild 
 horses could not draw from you? Answer 
 and write!" 
 
 Mr. Harish had summoned all his energies 
 to resist. His face flushed and paled, his 
 muscles grew tense, he set his jaw like a bull- 
 dog and clinched his hands, his teeth gritted 
 like grindingstones. In vain. It was the old, 
 old struggle brute force against science, sel- 
 fishness against love, one against the com- 
 bined strength of skilled humanity. The con- 
 clusion was foregone. His eyes, fixed upon 
 Dr. Furnivall as if nailed by some invisible 
 power, gradually took on a more settled ap- 
 pearance, passing from the steely to a nervous- 
 laughing expression, to soberness, to earnest- 
 ness, to peacefulness, and, finally, with the 
 doctor's closing words, to deep introspection. 
 Immediately he began to write, awkwardly, 
 without seeing the paper, pronouncing each 
 word slowly as he set it down, conscious only 
 of certain truths in his own soul. 
 
 "I perjured myself in court yester- 
 day on the B rand case. ' ' 
 
 "Very good, to start with! How much did 
 you save out of it or make?" 
 
 " I may make two millions."
 
 
 THE SPIRIT CLUB 317 
 
 "Charming! That admission would be 
 enough to convince most men; but what you 
 ask is real proof, indisputable proof, some- 
 thing that nobody but yourself could possi- 
 bly suspect. Of that perjury everybody sus- 
 pects you. What is the first lie you ever told 
 for money?" 
 
 "I can't think." 
 
 "Too long ago, eh? When you were very 
 young? You began almost at once, prob- 
 ably. What was the first mean thing you did 
 for money after you were twenty-one?" 
 
 "I fraudulently got and foreclosed - 
 a mortgage on Widow Gage's home - 
 and made four thousand dollars which 
 set me up in business. ' ' 
 
 "What is the latest thing of the kind you 
 have done, aside from the perjury?" 
 
 " This morning I closed a deal 
 that will practically ruin my late part- 
 ner's children. ' ' 
 
 "There are, besides, many other trans- 
 actions of yours that you would not acknow- 
 ledge to a living soul, aren't there?" 
 
 "Yes." 
 
 "Well, tell me one more, and that will 
 do." 
 
 "I swore off three million in 
 taxes in the city.' ' 
 
 "That's enough," said Dr. Furnivall, put- 
 ting on his spectacles. Mr. Harish sat im- 
 movable an instant, and then began to gaze 
 around as if just waking from sleep. His 
 eye caught sight of the doctor.
 
 3 i8 EXPLOITS OF A PHYSICIAN-DETECTIVE 
 
 "Ah!" he exclaimed, with a jocularity 
 somewhat forced, "I remember. I didn't doze. 
 It was the hypnotism, wasn't it? Ha ha! 
 How did it come out?" 
 
 Without a word, Dr. Furnivall pointed to 
 the paper in his hand. 
 
 He examined its appearance curiously at 
 first. Then he read the writing, read it again, 
 then stared at it in unbelieving horror. A 
 long minute he stood with bowed head, his 
 face the hue of chalk. Slowly he tore the 
 leaf into minute fragments, thrust them into 
 his vest pocket, shivered, pulled himself together 
 sharply, and, with the steely gleam in his 
 eyes, looked at the doctcr. 
 
 "What are you going to do about it?" he 
 said. His voice was as if his mouth were full 
 of sand. 
 
 "You are forgetting our business. Still, 
 since you ask is that Widow Gage yet living?" 
 
 "Yes." 
 
 "In poverty, of course?" 
 
 "Yes." 
 
 "No doubt some action in that matter 
 and at once, recommends itself to you?" 
 
 "Yes." 
 
 "And the children of your late partner " 
 
 "Yes." 
 
 "Very well. We will say no more about 
 these things unless it should become neces- 
 sary. They are for you to settle in your own 
 way. My purpose at present is to restore 
 Mrs. Harish. How long before you can have 
 that medium here the man you have been
 
 THE SPIRIT CLUB 31^ 
 
 consulting about Mr. Jellipherson ? Can you 
 telephone to him?" 
 
 Mr. Harish measured him darkly. His 
 face was very red now, he gnawed his Up 
 nervously, his mustache bristled, his fingers 
 opened and shut, and he breathed heavily. 
 
 "I can get him here very shortly, if you 
 wish it," he answered at last. "But is it neces- 
 sary to bring him into the matter?" 
 
 "It is. He must come at once. Mrs. 
 Harish's cure depends on him. I am going 
 to her now, and when he arrives show him up 
 immediately, for it is there that I wish to 
 see him." 
 
 "Ah, that's it, is it? I suppose I now know 
 what you want. But you can't do it." He 
 shook his head, with a touch of a cynical smile 
 around his mouth. "You can't do it," he 
 repeated. "I know." But as the doctor 
 turned and without a word looked at him he 
 added, "Well, if you insist." And he went 
 to the telephone. 
 
 A half hour later a tall, slim man of 30, 
 with curling black hair, staring eyes, in which 
 a wild gleam flitted furtively, and dark mus- 
 tached face, came into the sickroom with Mr. 
 Harish. Dr. Furnivall immediately removed 
 his spectacles. 
 
 "Business looking up?" he suggested pleas- 
 antly to him. 
 
 The other returned his gaze with a stare, 
 and then seemed inclined to shift his regards 
 in the direction of the bed, where Mrs. Harish 
 lay peering fearfully above the covers. But
 
 320 EXPLOITS OF A PHYSICIAN-DETECTIVE 
 
 he only moved his head slightly. His eyes 
 remained fixed on the doctor's, staring harder 
 and harder. After some hesitation he an- 
 swered : 
 
 "No, we don't do much. Truth is too 
 high for people. They won't come for it. 
 They don't want it. Money is what they 
 want, and fashionable clo'es the women any- 
 way." 
 
 He gave a little, hasty, deprecating laugh, 
 and moved his feet about awkwardly, as one 
 unused to conventional society. But his eyes 
 never left the doctor's. 
 
 "Yes, but aren't there ways of starting 
 people up, attracting their attention, making 
 them wish to come to you and pay for your 
 services?" 
 
 "I dunno what you mean." He said this 
 grievedly, as if he took it as a reflection of 
 some kind on himself; but even as he spoke 
 Dr. Furnivall saw the familiar, introspective 
 expression pass into his eyes. He asked at 
 once: 
 
 "Where did you get that little ornamental 
 club which you sent to Mr. Harish?" 
 
 "My sister gut it for me," he replied read- 
 ily. 
 
 "Where?" 
 
 "She took it off'n Mr. Harish's chain one 
 night in Paris." 
 
 "Who is your sister? How could she get 
 it?" 
 
 "She is Mrs. Harish's maid, and is with 
 'em all the time."
 
 THE SPIRIT CLUB 321 
 
 There was the sound of a startled move- 
 ment in the bed. 
 
 "Keep perfectly quiet, Mrs. Harish," cau- 
 tioned the doctor. "All you have to do is to 
 listen and understand. Mr. Harish, go to your 
 wife. Sit on the bed and take her hand. 
 Now," he continued to the medium, "tell me 
 about that transaction. Why did you do it ? And 
 how did you do it? Begin at the beginning!" 
 
 "Wai," he answered, "of course I try to 
 git the names of all the people I can that's 
 anyways interested in spiritualism, 'specially 
 the rich ones and them that's well known, 
 and find out all about 'em that I can, so's I 
 can answer their questions if they come to 
 me. I keep a list of 'em, and all about 'em, 
 and have their pictures so's I'll reco'nize 'em 
 and can tell 'em things they thought nobody 
 knowed of. When my sister said Mr. Harish 
 had mediums come here I told her she must 
 git him for me, so she listened to everything 
 they said, and read their letters, and found 
 out a lot of things, and all about that club 
 and Mr. Jellipherson's promise to come back 
 from the spirit world, and I told her to git 
 the club and send it to me if Mr. Jellipherson 
 died " 
 
 Another hasty movement, and an ominous 
 exclamation, rose from the bed. 
 
 "Keep perfectly quiet, Mr. Harish," said 
 the doctor. "And you, Mrs. Harish, listen 
 now attentively. Have you," he continued 
 to the medium, "ever known spirits to beat 
 anybody ?"
 
 323 EXPLOITS OF A PHYSICIAN-DETECTIVE 
 
 "Tha ain't no such thing, but it's cur'us 
 a lot of women think they do, women that's 
 nervous, and them that's jest begun to b'lieve, 
 but don't want to, and fight against it. They 
 git scared and see things that ain't there, and 
 think the spirits is mad at 'em and hurting 
 'em. I've had 'em come and show me their 
 arms and necks so I could see the bruises, but 
 tha never worn't no bruises there. They imagined 
 'em, 'cause their minds was set that way." 
 
 "Do you believe that the spirit of a dead 
 person can communicate with the living?" 
 
 "I dunno. I never had none communicate 
 with me; but great men, college perfessors, 
 say they can, and I s'pose they know better'n 
 what I do." 
 
 "In fact, then, while you believe there may 
 be honest mediums, who possibly receive 
 communications, you yourself are a medium 
 for business only, and all these messages which 
 for years you have pretended to receive from 
 spirits, including those you gave Mr. Harish 
 purporting to be from Jellipherson, were made 
 up by you for the purpose of getting money?" 
 
 "Yes, sir." 
 
 Dr. Furnivall turned to the bed, to a singu- 
 lar tableau. Mrs. Harish, the light of a great 
 joy in her face, her eyes streaming with happy 
 tears, was reaching out her arms to her hus- 
 band, while he, plainly torn between two power- 
 ful emotions great love for his wife and 
 bitter, overwhelming anger toward the medium 
 stared first at the one, then at the other, 
 and finally at Dr. Furnivall.
 
 ^25 332 7