The Dream Doctor

orately fitted up, wafted us up with express speed. As the door opened we saw a vista of dull-green lattices, little gateways hung with roses, windows of diamond-paned glas

nd the seductive scents and delicate odours beto

enervating luxury of the now deserted beauty-parlour,

to find a single cause for her death. The people up here say it was a suicide, but I never accept the theory of

nervous. He was alternately wringing his hands and rumpling his hair. Beside him was a middle-sized, middle-aged lady in a most amazing state of preservation, who evidently pre

gaze and taking his arm to hurry him down a long, softly carpeted corridor, flanked on either side by

motioned to us to look in. It was a little dressing-room, containing a single white-enamelled bed, a

sser, fell in a tangle over her beautifully chiselled features and full, rounded shoulders and neck. A scarlet bathrobe, loosened at the throat, actuall

pallor of her face it

ing. And yet there she

the little dressing-ro

ed as in life by

O'Connor silently drew a letter from his pocket. It was wr

. Listen. It is just a line or two. It reads: 'Am feeling better now, though that was a great party last night. Thanks for the newspaper puff which I have just read. It was very kind of you to get them to print it. Meet me at the

aimed Kennedy and I t

icer in half a dozen charities and social organisations, patron of art and opera. It seemed impossible, and I a

there seemed to be only one conclusion, and that was to accept it. What it was that interested him I did not know, but finally he bent down and sniffed, not at the sc

lly closing his eyes as if considerin

n that had masked his face was broken through by a gleam of c

t in the corridor,"

the now weird little dressing-room, alone with that horribly lov

if she were still the living, pulsing, sentient Blanche B

, followed. "What's that, those little spots on her

t superstition of "corpse lights" and the will-o'-the-wisp. It was really due, I knew, to living bacteria. But there surely had been no time for such micro-organisms to develop, even in the almos

t again before Craig spoke. We

ing that would explain it. He caught sight of the envelope still lying on the dresser. He picked it up, toyed with it, looked a

ht out again

here and there on Blanche Blaisdell's lips and in her mouth. The truth flashed over me. Some one had placed the stuff, whatever it was, on

alve, which are insoluble in anything else except ether and absolute alcohol. Some one who knew that tried to eradicate the

those strange coincidences, Walter. You remember the girl at the hospital? '

asket was a newspaper which was open at the page of theatrical news, an

m together. "Dearest Blanche," they read. "I hope you're feeling better after

down the corridor we could hear a man apparently raving in good English and bad French. It proved to be Mill

don't go on so,

t will be in all the papers.

O'Connor's officers. "You can tell it all wh

tions. There seemed to be much that was forced about them, tha

ew who left it, but one of the girls had picked it up and delivered it to her in her dressing-room. A moment later she rang her bell and called for one of the girls named Agnes, who was to dress her hair. Agnes was busy, and the

levator, which happened to be up at the time. That was the last they had seen of her. The other girls saw Miss Blaisdell lying dead, and a panic followed. The

to agree on the story; that is, supposing it were not true. Only a scientific thir

hat there was a hiatus somewhere in their glib story, at least some

he light. "It was in the back of a cabinet in the operating-room, and it is marked 'Ether phosphore".' Another of oil of turpentine

fty parts sulphuric ether. Phosphorus is often given as a remedy for loss of nerve power, neuralgia, hysteria, and melancholia. In quantities from a fiftieth to a tenth or so of a gra

nd nauseous. "I don't see why it wasn't used in the form of pills. T

oungish look about his clothes and clean-shaven face stepped out. His face was pale, and his hand shook with e

o having everything done for him merely because he, Burke Collins, could afford to pay for it and

lfishness of the man cropped out, "only I called to ask you that nothing of my connection with her be given out. You understand? Spare nothing to get at the truth. Employ the best men you have.

ut a great deal of political influence, and even a first deputy may be "broke" by a m

et me introduce Profes

eady call

d warmly. "I hope you will take me as your client in this case. I'll pay handsomely. I

tone is itself, for instance. "On one condition," he replied slowly, "and that is t

" he answered at last. "O'Connor has called you in. Work for him and-well, you know, if you need anything just draw

ou see, I'm frank and confidential about my relations with Blan-er-Miss Blaisdell. I was at a big dinner with her last night with a party of friends. I suppose she came here to get straightened out. I hadn't been able to get h

piece, the torn letter which he had picked up from the basket,

hat? Why, man alive, you're crazy. Didn't I just tell you I

te. Kennedy picked up a pen. "Please write the same thing as you read in the note on this

is word doubted, but Kennedy was no respe

s possible," remarked Kennedy, glancing

then he excused himself. The man was so obviously sincere, I felt, as far as his selfish and sensual limitatio

quickly again to the cosmetic arcadia whic

iscovered Miss Blaisdell?" he

l in his excitement. Like his establish

Why, she was one of Mad

he gentlemen the b

nts," hygienic rolls, transformators, and the numberless other things that made the fe

f patrons. "Mrs. Burke Collins, 3:3

ame. "She used to come

We all knew her, an

he wife slaving to secure that beauty which would win back the man with whom she had worked and toiled in the ye

isdell's company. He is having his hair restored. Why, I gave him a treatment this afternoon. If ever there is a crazy man, it is he. I believe he would kill Mr. Collins for the way Blanche Blaisdell

o woman need be plain who will visit the Novella," evidently the motto of the place. The hair-dressing room was next to the little writing-room. There were manicu

directly to his laboratory. There he pulled out from a corner a sort of little squa

ket, "which detectives use in studying forgeries. I don't know that it has a name, although it might be called a 'rayograph.' You see, all

pposite end of the room, and there, in huge charac

d disguise what the rayograph shows. Now, for instance, this is very important. Do you see how those strokes of the long letters are-well, wobbly? You'd never see that in the original, but when it is enlarged you see how plai

his face the moment I mentioned the note to Miss Blaisdell. Now I know he was. There is no such evidence of heart trouble in his writing as in the other. Of course that's all aside from what a study of the handwri

for him. At one time I had suspected Collins himself, but now I could see perfectly why he had not concealed his anxiety to hush up his connection with the case, while at the same time his instinct as a lawyer

"all these notes are written on the same kind of paper. That first torn note to Miss Blaisdel

hink I'll go up to the hospital. Do you want to come along? We'll stop for Barr

f she was again restless and still repeating the words that she had said over and over before. Nor had she been able to give any clearer account of herself. Appa

ening intently to her ravings. Suddenly he managed t

called in

could escape from his mental grasp again he added: "Your date

ee. It was as though she had come out of a tra

thing in the world. Then she realised the strange surroundings

rest. Try to forget everything for a little while,

fell back, now physicall

ned. Unwittingly you brought me a very important contribution to a case of which the