| Show Ia1a aYr l i xxxxx EB Ii I i Tale of the Black Bag F I By Dr George F Butter and Herbert llsley I j Dr Furnivall Cracks Hardest Nut in Criminal Annals I Ingenuity of English Con Men and Its Result Story t r with Mysterious Opening Tells of Suspected Robbery in I i Room in Hotel Versailles Ultimate IT j mate Consequences of Wom 1 ans Fear That Burglar Was I 1 t i Y Ransacking Room Famous 4 5r I YhysicianDetectitJc ArritJes 1 at a Solution in QuicK Order ct If fI 7 L Ii M q f i1rq t sri to i t a 4 = = = i = I i I I I r of I H r h J l r I GOOD GOD 17AVv liri9TtS TIl IITTER a w i t rran T three oclock In t the morning the clerk at the small lit and select Hotel Versailles busy with his bopks paused suddenly with his pen poised and gazed toward the staircase 4 stair-case where he heard something f that sounded like i ° a rapid pat of fo ton t-on the soft carpet Instantly around the corner of the landing appeared a figure In white coming down two steps at a leap Good Lord I the startled clerk gasped and stopped from sheer InabilIty of inabil-ity to utter another word Ho had recognized one of the houses most beautiful and honored guests in the I flying shape Miss Thorndyke of London Lon-don and she was garbed solely in a spotless white robe de null Miss Thorndyke flow across the cold marble of the office floor her naked f feet twinkling her garment fluttering and with staring eyes and finger to lip beckoned the bewildered clerk Theres a man in my room Mr Bray she whispered excitedly I 1 have locked him in but he doesnt I r know Ithurryqulck She gave a quick exclamation and t seized the clerks arm spasmodically as a scream floated out suddenly on tho air seeming In tho solemn night f silence to fill the whole building so that it was impossible to judge from I what direction it came The clerk bewildered f l u wildered not knowing which way to turn stood looking helplessly this way and that while the girl clung to his arm white and speechless with fright = The sudden opening of a nearby 4s i door as a startled guest poked his Ii G r head out roused tho clerk from his I stupor and wrenching his arm free from the girls frantic grasp ho sprang > 1m Bioas the hall and down the stairs to ii 7 tha office Here he saw to the do J t mollshment of what shreds of sanity bad remained to him another woman t In night attire stretched on the floor and over her recumbent body stood f I y tha burly form of a policeman with his t 4 nichtstick drawn Good Godl Klannlgan whats the mutter ho managed to gasp The officer motioned to him to shut the street door against the curious eyes of any chance passerby Then he held toward the clerk a black bag made of fine broadcloth with a drawstring draw-string around the neck Do you know what Is in this he said In a low tone Mme Selbas diamonds he said thickly like a drunken man A misty notion of what perhaps had nearly happened drained tho strength from his body Snatching the bag from the officers hand ho examined the contents con-tents feverishly There wero 14 leathern leath-ern boxes of varying shapes and i sizes locked and scaled by means of a strip of gummed paper with his own name on each of them Just as ho had written it some hours before when ho took charge of the bag The blood returned re-turned to his cheeks and with a sigh of relief from his very heart he placed the bag in the safe without examining It any further and closing the door attempted at-tempted to turn the handle But the bolt refused to work She was monkeying with it whispered whis-pered the policeman I seen her through the back winder and I hit it for the front entrance for all I was worth and caught her doing the sneak act with tho bag When I grabbed her she screeched for fair and buckled over on the floor But say who is she By tho rig she is sporting she must belong to the house for she couldnt come far In It I It Is Mrs Van Dyke one of our best guests said the clerk as soon as he could secure a good look at the unconscious womans features I dont understand It at all he added helplessly and I dont know what to doOut Out from among the four or five guests who had been attracted to the spot by the commotion a physician stepped at this moment and after bending over the body a moment said to the clerk She is In a hypnotic trance Have her taken to her rooms at once Do you know what doctor she has She docs not believe in medicine and has no doctor responded the clerkThen Then I will attend to her for the moment for she must bo brought out of this coma said the physician Send to my rooms and ask my wife fpr some amly nitrite and Ill see Mrs Van Dyko through At this moment the husband of the unconscious lady Insufficiently clothed and wild with excitement came houndIng hound-Ing down the stairs The lady gave a deep sigh Tell me Evallno said Mr VanDyke Van-Dyke tenderly He gently drew the fingers away It Is I dear You are safe now dont feel afraid any longer long-er Tell me what you mean Of what man do you speak What has he done Why wero you out of bed at three oclock In the morning and what has happened Cant you speak and tell me dear With evident effort she succeeded In restraining the hysteria on the verge of which the symptoms showed her nerves to be tottering and answered In a low voice It Is Mr Wrinkle You know that in tho first place he hypnotized me and so cured my dreadful headaches Of course I was grateful and sometimes some-times allowed him to experiment on me in his classes so that his pupils could obtain a practical knowledge of his methods Being highly interested In hypnotism I was very glad to secure se-cure all the Insight into it that I could and so I wont frequently to see Mr Wrinkle He told me I was his best subject saying Jokingly that It was a great pity I was so very rich for if I had been poor ho would have given me a good salary to act regularly regular-ly as his subject and together we should make wonderful discoveries in the realm of mind He gave me telepathic telep-athic messages while I was wide awake and at a distance from him and I received them as strongly as If I were in the room with him He would command me mentally to do this or that and I hadnt it In my power pow-er to resist I always carried out his Instructions even against my will I could not help doing as he demanded demand-ed I could not rest either until I had done so after once receiving his messages His commands were always al-ways harmless and amusing little things until this last one came end we had great fun over them But this morning I awoke suddenly to hear his mental voice repeating this suggestion sugges-tion I Exactly at three oclock I wish you to rise go down stairs to your hotel office open the door of tho safe which you will find unlocked take from It a black bag carry the bag to your parlor and drop It out of the front window When you have done this return to your bed go to sleep ww and forget the whole Incident This was the message which he repeated several times until I had the words by heart Then he stopped and I remember nothing more But I have a vague consciousness of having done something dreadful what it can bo I dont The last words came In a weak whisper and as she uttered them she fainted In her husbands arms Dr Furnivall I am In great trouble trou-ble and I havo called to see If I can enlist your sympathies In my behalf I wish to keep my namo a secretor secret-or the moment In order tocrto you knowerto test tost He paused again In embarrassment Dr Furnivall completed the sentence for him Yes said Dr Furnivall with great dryness of tone How much so you shall Judge Listen You wore born In Kennobunk Me 37 years ago the 9th day of last April You studied for the Christian ministry were taken sick and never finished your college course went to i California for the climate sold life insurance In San Francisco became engaged to a girl who Jilted you for a famous featherweight pugilist which made you a womanhater for two months or until your Interest became awakened by psychology This you studied under a poor teacher who had himself entered only the outskirts of the telepathic city and taking up mental men-tal healing came to this town met a woman who proved to be the best subject sub-ject you ever had as yoU thought for a time but of whom now you dont know what to think for she has charged you wantonly with a crime which it Is not In your nature to commit com-mit and you are come here today to ask my assistance In freeing you of the charge And your name IsIs lets see RRno not the letter R but the sound R Wrinkle Your namo is William W Wrinkle Dr Furnivall sighed as If with relief re-lief over the accomplishment of a Titanic Ti-tanic task and sat back in his chair Now Dr Furnivall went on I am going to clear you of this charge on one condition For an instant the hypnotist remained re-mained as if he had not heard Then he raised his eyes with Inquiry in them to the doctors The condition is that you give me your promise to refrain from attemptIng attempt-Ing to practice hypnotism until you feel assured that you know what you are about Youll know when you have arrived at this state of knowledge if you over do arrivedont worry about that You will entertain no doubt about It whatever Do you promlse the fulfillment to rest contingent emmy em-my clearing you 1 Yes he said huskily and dropped his eyes again to tho floor The hypnotist looked at him unde termlnedly as if he wished to ask tha real reason but did not dare do so He did not understand Dr Furnlvallk smile which had in It a touch of the cryptic and occult At all events he finally screwed ip his courage to say It Is Impoa slblo to suspect this gentlewoman of any wanton misdoing She Is very rich very highminded a lovely char acter of an old family Come Dr Furnivall Interrupted giving this mans estimate of character and conditions as much attention as he would the chattering of a monkey I am Interested to know Just how tht scheme was worked and what part that lovely young English girl played in It It was she who lured the clerk from the office leaving the safe unguarded un-guarded In fact there are several little Items In this case that excite my thirst for knowledge Come But I have been hiding they Trili recognize me arrest me Ill take care of you cornel Mil Dr Furnivall and Wrinkle meekly obeyed At Station 1C Dr Furnivall picked up two policemen whom he took with hm to tho hotel There the landlnrJ after a few words that startled him a good doal bad been spoken In his car by Dr Furnlvall Immediately showed the party to the suite occupied by tte rich and exclusive Van Dykes Tat husband and wife wqro alone together and while the officers drew themselves up one on each side of the door Dr Furnivall removed his spectacles and advanced to tho lady who sat by the window with a book In her hand Madam ho said be good enough to look at moShe mo-She was a tall blonde with a beautiful beau-tiful skin of red and white a willowy form luscious lips and blue oyes that were incomparably lovely and molting and tender She beamed up at him with a smile that would capture tho i heart of almost any man except tho lone she was bestowing it on at tho moment Ho stood with one hand in I his pocket and easily repeated tho command Mrs Van Dyke tell mo in as few words as possible who you are and what you know about the attempted theft of Mme Selbas diamonds In a colorless voice sho answered at onceOur Our name Is Seely not Van Dykf We pretended to belong to that old family for social reasons Wa are adventurers ad-venturers My husband and I have followed this singer three months waiting for an opportunity to appropriate appropri-ate her diamonds which we discovered discov-ered she always loft In charge of the hotel wherever sho was stopping on returning from the theater At thii Email hotel there Is but one night clerk and tbe last bellboy goes to bed at two oclock In the morning We studied to got this clerk out of the way for a few minutes leaving the I safe unlocked and It must be after the bellboy had gone My husband learned the make of the safe examined ex-amined those like it at the salesrooms had a small piece of iron made to fit into tho boltsocket and last evening managed to spike the safe in the face and eyes of the clerkan easy matter for he used to be a professional sleight of hand performer We had become be-come acquainted with the Thorndlkes at the table and knew that the daughter daugh-ter would not dare to waken her mother moth-er by screaming for she has a serious seri-ous heart trouble and the physician has warned them against startling her In any way so that If tho daughter could be made to believe there was somebody in her room she would bs likely to run to tho clerk who would probably start so hastily or the scene that ho would not give much attention to the condition of the safe We had secured a room Just under Miss Thorndlkes and at three oclock this morning my husband through along a-long tube of tin made on time telescope tele-scope pattern which he thrust up to her open window Imitated certain noises as if a man were stumbling around in the dark This awakened I her and she did as we had studied It out that she would doshe ran for the office And while the clerk was absent ab-sent from his place I hastened down and secured the black bag containing the diamonds But a policeman who as we have since learned was In the habit of coming to the back door for a dram which was furnished him every morning at Just that time by tbe night clerk saw me at the safe and Yes but please tell me what Mr Wrinkle had to do with all this Mr Wrinkle was the provision WI made for my escape from conviction incase In-case I should be caught In the risky venture I posed before him and his pupils as a completely helpless hypnotic hyp-notic subject In his bands taking great care that he and they should become convinced that his mind dominated mt wholly even at a distance Then If our plan should fall In any way and I should be apprehended I could pretend pre-tend to be in a hypnotic trance produced pro-duced by him and acting under his direction di-rection with no responsibility of my own I had many witnesses his pu pits to prove that he could command mo In this way Then he not I would be convicted I The authors of this Ingenious I scheme were found to be two noted English confidence workers wanted ic London on so many serious charges that being sent back there by the United States authorities they warm each of them given sentences thll meant practically for life I Copyright 1909 by W Q Chapman COPlrtl U Great BrltalnJ |
