The Dream Doctor

ours, Professor Kennedy," announced the managing editor of the St

d in the litter on the top of his desk, he

ader who asks, 'Is this Professor Craig Kennedy really all that you say he i

d tipped bac

a newspaper, it means something. I might reply, in this case, that he is as real as scien

g himself momentarily loose from t

ow your friend Kennedy. Start in right now, on the first, and cross-section out of his life just one month, an average month. Take thi

ay and I knew that the interview wa

nything as ambitious as this assignment, for a whole month. At first i

it. We did so during those hours when he was not at his laboratory at the Chemistry Building on the University campu

untranslated treatises on the new psychology from the pen of the emin

t I proposed to do. He listened without comment and I

in my mind an idea that has long been latent. Why, Craig," I went on, "that is exactly what you want-to show people how th

ne tinkled

sion on my desk, which he had placed there as a precaution so that

indicate to me that, at least,

the coroner. Can you

l-right

Craig, hanging up the receive

. In the balmy sunshine the convalescing patients were sitting on benches or slowl

were conducted by an orderly to a

?" asked Craig, as

Price Maitland, the broker, you know, was picked up on the street an

impatiently for us. "Wh

sor Ke

ded half-sheet of typewriting and searched Craig's

Maitland's outside coa

ateless

st Ma

ess. I cannot bear to think that I am the cause, so I am going simply to drop out of your life. I cannot live with you, and

tracted

IC

und himself suffering from some incurable disease and

d up suddenly

was a suicide?" a

y note scrawled on a sheet of paper in trembling pen or pencil, that is what th

Maitland was conscious almost up to the last moment, and yet the hospital doct

refused to ta

r intoxication instead of sending him immediately to the hospital, it would have made no difference. The doctors simply c

h excited by the case

roner. "Perhaps the policeman was not really at fault at first for arresting him, but

peak, to write, but couldn't. A frothy saliva dribbled from his mouth, but he could not frame a word. He was paralyse

as he proceeded. Dr. Leslie paused aga

did not faint. She is not of the fainting kind. It was what she said that impressed everyone. 'I knew it-I knew it,' she cried. She had dropped on her knees by the side of the bed. 'I felt it. Only the other night I had the horrible dream. I saw him in a terrific struggle. I could not see what it was-it seemed to be an invisible thing. I

. Leslie at least was

u done since?

veryone I could find a

ng over a she

over them as they lay s

see the body," h

oom, awaiting Dr. Leslie's

lood. But no. We have tested for everything we can think of. In fact there seems to be no trace of a drug present. It is inexplicable. If Maitland really committed suicide, he must have taken SOMETHING-and as fa

aised one of the lifeless

autopsy shows nothing, it doesn't pro

rk. Dr. Leslie regarded it with pursed-up lips as t

n't clot. The fact of the matter is that the autopsical research revealed absolutely nothing but a general disorganisation of the blood-corpuscles, a most peculiar thing, but one the significance of which n

any progress in this case, we must look elsewhere than to an autopsy. There is no clue beyon

he coroner, glancing up a

ay of verifying a case of cobra poisoning except by the s

r, aghast at the thought of a poison

n by a snake?" I blurte

es for various medicinal purposes. Then, too, it would be easy to use it. A scratch on the hand in the passing crowd,

scientific murder and the meagreness of

nated Craig, before we had really gras

ach any importance to a dream?" I a

shoulders, but I could see

this letter out to

answered

say to do so. I sha

waiting. "We must see Mrs. Maitland first," said Kenned

d, in a large old-fashioned brown

us in as far as the library, where we sat for a moment looking

rooms. A moment later he was bending quietly over the typewriter in the corner, running off a series of characters on a sheet of paper. A so

seemed to be of anything but a hysterical nature, it was quite evident that her nervousness was due to much more than the shock of the recent tragic event, great as that must have

" began Kennedy. "We have called because the authorities are

e, at least. "Not a suicide?" she repeat

"Do you wish to speak to him? He begged to say that

to him-in my room,

a trace of well-concealed conf

out a word or look he completed his work at the typewriter

er Mrs. Maitland

med Kennedy, "he sp

Really I-I oughtn't to be-questioned in this way-

s were getting unstrung

ed. "But now-you must realise-it i

ou know of?" asked Kennedy, determi

ne that wou

d no quarre

ed. Oh, Price-why did

r. Kennedy bowed, and we withdrew silently. He had learned on

here's an Arnold Masterson," he considered. Then turning the pages he went on, "Now we must find this Dr. Ross. Th

oss proved to be a man whose very face and manner were magnetic, as

death of Price Maitland?" began Kennedy w

go." It was evident t

I believe, is a

y's manner was not to be mollified by anything short of a show of confidence, he added: "She came to me seve

asked Kennedy, "wa

h some reticence, "had called on me thi

tice anythi

ch worried," Dr. Ro

de note from his pocke

ave heard of thi

reticence to outward appearance gone, "Maitland seemed to have something on his mind. He came inquiring as to the real cause of his wife's nervousness. Befo

lking so freely, now, in contras

t?" shot out Kennedy quic

ly as if carefully weighing every word, "belongs to a large and growing class of women in whom, to speak frankly, sex seems to be suppressed. S

sing the second that I, at least, jumped to the conclusion that Maitland might have b

d cobra venom in any of your m

led in his ch

blood diseases, one of the most recently discovered and used par

use it

direction. I used it not long ago, once, though. I have a patient

sterson?"

id you kno

f he knew much more than he cared to tell. "H

hout being urged. "Ordinarily," he explained confidentially, "professional ethics seals

l woman she suppresses nature. But nature does and will assert herself, we believe. Often you will find an intellectual woman attracted unreasonably to a purely physical man-I mean, speaking generally, not in particular cas

osely. When he talked so, h

ddenly changed into a serpent. I may say that I had asked her to make a record of her dreams, as well as other data, which I thought might be of use in the study and treatment of her nervous tr

rompted

admitted, had a half-

Maste

ly shifting suspicion

hat reminds me again. I wonder if you coul

se me; I'll g

dy began prowling around quietly. In the waiting

ple of every character. Then he reached into drawer of the desk a

d Dr. Ross, as he returned. "You are as well acquainted as I am

nk you very much

ding in the

n the case?" the doctor asked. "It complicates, as y

do so," replied Kenn

nted bachelor apartment in a fashionable hot

y, as a slim, debonair, youngish-old man en

iled. "To what am I ind

rios with which he had made the room

nsiderably," remarked Kennedy, a

only a few weeks," Masterson replied, a

n, might be able to shed some light on the rather peculiar case of

I

Maitland a long tim

to school

ngaged, wer

t Kennedy in ill-c

t was a secret-only between us two

he engagement?"

ike your nerve, sir." Masterson frowned, then added: "I prefer not to talk of that. There are

jection to making a statement regarding your trip abroad and your recent ret

908, disgusted with everything in ge

o that I can get it straight?" asked K

ou a pen or

e it; it will take only a minute

bell. A young man a

his: 'I left New York i

ris, Vienna, and Rome.

s ago, when I returned

rv

secretary handed to him. "Thank you. I trust you won't consider it an impertinenc

or that reason, although he does not know it yet. I most strenuously obj

ion in trying to learn of the mental

e was anything I could do for her immediately, just as I would have done in the old days-only then, of course, I should have gone to her directly. The reason I did not go, but teleph

suavity masked a final de