The Dream Doctor

you have noticed the precautions we are taking against intruders? Yet it seems to be all of no avail. I can not be alone even here. If a telephone message comes to me ov

omewhat pompous speaker at banquets and the cynosure of the financial district. But there was something differe

t of inverted hemisphere of glass, concealing and softening the rays of a powerful incandescent bulb which it enclosed. It was not the l

things that were weighing on Brixton's own mind. "I feel pretty badly, too. Curse it," he added bitterly, "coming at a time when it is absolutely necessary that I should have all my strength to carry through a negotiation that is only a beginni

w from a drawer of his desk, and contin

get one or two every day, either here

moved forwar

I shall come back to the letters. That is not the worst. I've

en and been im

on. "It was designed especially to be, am

he walls was a sort of heavy, velvety green wall-paper. Exquisite hangings were draped abo

network of wire stretched tightly by means of pulleys in the adjacent walls and not touching at any point the surface to be protected against sound. Upon the wire network is plastered a composition formed of strong glue, plaster of Paris, and granulated cork, so as to make a flat slab, between which and the

ented his quarry. I sniffed, too. Yes, there was a faint odour, almost as if of garlic in the room. It was unmistakable. Craig was looking abo

t perfect system of modern ventilation installed in th

said n

tain times when I am alone. They repeat the words in some of these letters-'You must not take up those bonds. You must not endanger the peace of the world. You will never live to get the interest.' Over and over I have heard such sentences spoken in this very room

e he believed it or because he was diplomatic, Craig took the thing at its face value. He moved a blotter so that he could stan

ut a hundred candlepower, I

Laboriously, with such assistance as the memory of Mr. Brixton could give, he began tracin

ictures, the rugs, everything. Kennedy was tapping here and there all over the wall, as if

elvety wall-paper wherever he had tried it. Hastily, from a corner where it would not be noticed, he pulled off a piece

e out the course of the telephone and light wires in the house. Brixton excused himself, a

erefore began at the other end, and having found the points in the huge cellar of the house

dark storeroom in a corner Craig examined more closely than ever. Seemingly his search was rewarded, f

orner concealed by an old chest of drawers, stood a battery of five storage-cells connected with an in

this is, all right. Any amateur could do it, with a little knowledge of electricity and a source of direct current. The

s as he was speaking. In another corner he ha

omething, too, by Ge

he house, had run extensions into the little storeroom, and was prepared

to Brixton's den. No sooner had he discovered it than Kennedy became intensely interested. For the moment he seemed entirely to forget the electric-light wires and became absorbed in tracing out the course of the telephone trunk-line and its extensi

matches he had dropped in his hasty search. "We must devise some means of catc

seem that in entering the library we came from the den, not from the cellar. As we waited in the big leather chairs

are foreigner with a close-cropped moustache entered. I knew at on

which betrayed that he had been under good teac

?" interrogated

ed easily, with a gl

are from the St

rows the fraction of an inch. It was so politely c

see Mr. Brixton,"

asked, with the air of a man expecting to hear what

opped a moment. I knew it was Miss Brixton. She had recognised Ken

Conrad?" she asked,

believe, to see your father

mere newspaper talk about this lat

icing the title of a history which sh

nations and the intrigues," sh

er face. "They are a violent people-

ask Miss Brixton, as they walked slowly down the

k of him?" I whis

through, for Craig merely shrugged his shoulde

ated, throwing a letter down on the librar

government, they say. No-because if there is a

is in constant communication with a person or persons outside. All the watchmen and Great Danes on the estate are of no avail against the subtle, underground connection that

arrange to have you met at the station

that he was no longer mas

ound connection between some one inside and someone outside Brixton's house, Craig would prepare an equally subtle method of meeting it on his own account. Very little was said by either of us on the journey

find that the basement and dark storeroom were deserted, as we cautiously made our way

holes in one face. Carelessly he tossed it into the top drawer of the chest under some old rubbish, shut the drawer tight and ran a flexible wire out of the back of the chest. It was a simple matter to

t with Brixton. Neither

atively engaged in rea

tering, singing noise

, clapping the book shut and

ar part of the room, but merely from somewhere overhead. There was no hallucination about it. We

moment the sound began and was holdi

ird, uncanny. Suddenly a voice said distinctly: "Let Americ

two ear-pieces and was

he ceiling. Was

e these two receivers o

whether you can re

"I can't place it, but I've heard it befor

in the storeroom in

nto a very sensitive te

e?" interrupted Br

tus it is supposed to be. Under the right conditions it can be made to speak exactly as the famous 'speaking-arc,' as it was called

as a telephone receiver. All that is necessary is to superimpose a microphone current on the main arc current, and the arc reproduces sounds and speech distinctly, loud enough to be heard several feet. Indeed, the arc could be used as a transmitter, too, if a sensitive receiver replaced the transmitter a

Osram lamp. The talki

superposed on the current passing through the lamp produce corresponding variations of heat in the filament, which are radiated to the glass of the bulb, causing it to expand and contract

he must have been a scientist of no mean attainment. That did not surprise me, for I realised that from that part

basement netted us nothin

in the use of the detectaphone we said good night, were m

ng ride in the accommodation train to the city. "That warning means

to the question, which was also unsolved, as to the queer malad