The Dream Doctor

Miss White was making a minute examination to determine wha

beginning. Others have suffered, too, and some are even gone. It is impossible that any visitor could have done it. On

ated conversation, so much in contrast with the bored air with which Spencer had listened to Dr. Lith that even I noticed that the connoisseur was completely obliterated in the man, whose love of beauty was by no mean

n what you Americans call 'hoodooed.' They hare always brought ill luck, and, like many things of the sort

ispose of the emeralds or the other curios

ne cost fifty thousand dollars. I believe Mr. Spencer bought them for Mrs. Spencer some

"Never mind that," he interrupted. "Let me introduce Miss White. I thi

dalism was first discovered she and Dr. Lith at once began a thorough search of the building to ascertain the extent o

ing off the objects in the catalogue which were either injured or missing. I had been working in the library. The noise of something like a shade flapping in the wind attracte

light switch, but in my nervousness could not find it. There was just enough light in the room to make out objects indistinctly.

the flood of electric light that now illuminated everything. Spencer reached over

he priestess! Such wonderful eyes! They seem to pierce right through your very soul. Often in the daytime I have stolen off to look at them. But at night-remember the hour of night, too-oh, it was awful, terrible. The lid of the mummy-case moved, yes,

r protection against something she was powerless to name. Spencer, who had not taken hi

or. The lid of the sarcophagus had really been moved. He saw it. Not a thing else had been

ught I saw those eyes the other night. They haunt me. I fear them, and yet I would not avoid them, if it killed me

ed and fought for breath, frantically beating with their swathed hands in the witching hours of the night. And I knew that the lure of these mummies was so strong for so

in fact, go over the whole museum," put i

with a good night to Miss White which was noticeable for its sympathy with her fears, said, "I s

nt reluctance, and yet, I thought, with just a little shudder

p a broad flight of steps, past beautiful carvings and

ouble skylight each half of which must have been some eight or ten feet across. The light falling through this sky

priceless art for the time and went direc

gn influence of that greenish yellow coffin. You know the ancient Egyptians used to chant as they buried their sacred dead: 'Woe to

had said, almost literally stare through you. I am sure that any one possessing a nature at all affected by such things might after a few minutes gazing at them in self-hypnotism really conv

ment later he pulled out his magnifying-glass and carefully examined the interior. At last he was apparently satisfied with his searc

with nails in the heels, and nails that are not like those in American shoes. I shall have to compare the marks I have found with mark

cting Kennedy's attention particularly, he asked about the ba

art treasures which Spencer had purchased. Apparently Dr. Lith and Miss White had been so engrossed in discovering wh

e windows at first sight. A low exclamation from Kennedy brought us to his side. He had opened one of the windows and thrust his hand out against the grating, which had fallen on the outside pavement with a clang. The bars had been completely and labo

exert a pressure sufficient to lift two tons. Not one window in a thousand can stand that strain. The only use of locks is to keep out sneak-thieves and compel the modern scientific educated bur

nt. As yet apparently nothing down there had been disturbed. But while rummaging about, from an angle formed behind one of the cases

to occur to him. He gave the handle a twist. Sure enough, i

tric light cane, with a little incandescent lamp and a battery hidden in it. This grows interesting. We must at last have found the

inder. He fitted a hard rubber cap snugly into the palm of his hand, and with the f

unpacked, at the opposite end of the base

at the end was so delicate as to shoot it off at a touch. It's one of those aristocratic little Apache pistols that one

at the chance find. Apparently the

s mysterious intruder expected to use these again. Well, let him try. I'll put

d not help asking myself whether the story that Miss White had told was absolutely true. Had there been anything more than superstition in the girl's evident fright? She had seen something, I felt sure, for it was certain she was very much disturbed. But what was it she had really seen? So fa

h Dr. Lith so that we could get into the museum that night to watch, than he excused himsel

all the pawn-shops of the city at least once a week, looking over recent pledges and comparing them with descriptions of stolen articles. I gave him a list

ch time Kennedy gazed vacantly at his food. Only once did he men

ze and marble. In fact, the spread of a taste for art has taught the enterprising burglar that such things are worth money, and he, in turn, has educated up the receivers of stolen goods to pay a reasonable per

Dr. Lith had loaned Kennedy. He had been anxious to join us in the watch, but Craig had diplomatically d

ctrolier were switched on. Hour after hour we waited. But nothing happened. There were strange and we

ruitful vigil in the art-gallery that Dr. Lith himself a

ig's hurried question. "When I opened the museum, she was

ng hastily written

that has pursued me from Paris. I cannot escape

LLE

her at a loss to understand the en

way, the shoenails were French, as I surmised. They show the marks

sly. As for myself, I had learned that it w

atue of the Egyptian goddess Neith, had instituted a thorough search with the result that at least part of the pilfered jewels had been located. There was only one clue to the thief, but it looked promising. The pawnbroker described hi

that Miss White had not returned home at all the night before. The landlady seemed to look on her as a woman of mystery, and confided to us that it was an open secret that she was not an American at all, but a French girl whose name, she believed,

en word came to us that one of the city detectives had apparently located the studio of Delaverde. It was coupled with the interesting

ed as a sort of little eddy to one side of the current of business that had swept everything befo

ate of disorder. A half-finished picture stood in the centre of the room, and several completed ones were leaning against

a cupboard near the door he disclosed a row of dark-colored

e light and read th

at the wild, formless pictures. "Our crazy Frenchman was an absintheur. I tho

,' the 'enemy,' the 'queen of poisons.' Compared with other alcoholic beverages it has the greatest toxicity of all. There are laws against the stuff in France, Switzerland, and Belgium. It isn't the alcohol alone, although there is from fifty to eighty per cent. in it, that makes it so deadly. It is th

ishness, softening of the brain. It gives rise to the wildest hallucinations. Perhaps that was why our absintheur chose first to destroy or steal all things green, as if there were some merit in the colour, when he might have made away with

oman." Kennedy glanced at them, then at a crumpled manuscript that was stuck into a pigeonhole

ney wrung from the blood of the people in useless and worthless toys of art while the people have no bread, in old books while the people have no homes, in jewels while the people have no c

used and standing in rows as if waiting to be filled. A bottle labelled "Sulphuric Acid" stood at one end of a shelf, while at the other was a huge jar full of black grains, n

the powder, and perhaps the outside tubes were filled with spirits of turpentine. When it is placed in position, it is so arranged that the acid in the center tube is uppermost and will thus gradually soak through the cotton wool and cause great heat and an explosion by contact with the potash. That would ignite the powder in the next tubes, and that would s