It was late in the evening of the day upon which Mrs Maitland, having
fulfilled the formalities required of her by Graham, had received from
him a cheque for the sum of four hundred and eighty-seven pounds,
seventeen shillings, and eightpence, which, apart from the house in
which she lived, represented all that remained to her of the very
comfortable fortune left to her by her late husband. Dick had escorted
his mother up to town, and, upon the conclusion of the transaction, had
taken her back to The Cedars; after which he had made the best of his
way to 19 Paradise Street; for the moment had now arrived when he must
come to an understanding with his friend Dr Julian Humphreys, and
consult with him respecting the future. Ten o'clock had struck a few
minutes ago, a belated patient had been attended to and dismissed, the
surgery had been closed by the simple process of drawing down the blind
and locking the outer door, and now the two friends were sitting
opposite each other in that same drug-scented apartment, conversing
earnestly together, as Humphreys pulled contemplatively, yet somewhat
vexedly, at a brier pipe which had seen so much service that it was now
charred down to about half its original size.
"The fact is," remarked Dick, in continuance of their conversation,
"that there is no other course open to me; for I am resolved that I will
not touch a farthing of the money that your friend Graham has so
cleverly rescued from the ruins of Cuthbertson's estate; every stiver of
it will be required for the maintenance of the poor Mater while I am
away. And I must go away, because, as you yourself have admitted, there
is no employment or occupation of any kind here at home to which, in my
present condition of unpreparedness, I could turn my hand with any hope
of earning a sufficient income to maintain her and myself, though ever
so modestly; even if posts were to be had for the asking, which--in this
country, at all events--they are not. You know that to be the plain,
unvarnished truth, do you not?"
"Yes," Humphreys answered unhesitatingly, "it is true--unfortunately."
"Very well, then," Dick resumed; "that being the case, the next question
is: Where am I to go, and what am I to do, in order to earn enough money
to maintain myself and my mother in the meantime, and eventually to
restore her to that position of security of which she was robbed by that
rascal Cuthbertson?"
"_De mortuis nil nisi bonum_!" reproved Humphreys gravely. "The poor
chap has gone to answer for his sins, whatever they may have been, and
there is an end of him, so far as you are concerned. To rail at him
now, and speak of him disparagingly, will not hurt him, or do you any
good, Dick, my friend, so do not unnecessarily bespatter his memory.
This by the way. And now to return to our muttons. The problem that
you propound is indeed a hard one to solve; to many it would probably
appear an impossibility. But, although I am by no means an old man, I
have been long enough in this world to have recognised that what many
people deem impossibilities are nothing of the sort, if only one has the
grit to face and tackle them. It is grit, my boy, that makes
impossibilities possible, and I believe you possess that quality in
sufficient measure to enable you to accomplish great things. The
question is: What is the particular great thing which will meet your
case? What is the work which you are best fitted to do? You are
already very well up in the profession which you have chosen. There is
many a man in successful practice to-day who knows less about it than
you do; but, unfortunately, you are not yet `qualified', therefore you
cannot set up for yourself, even if you could afford the time to create
a practice--which you cannot. And as to becoming an unqualified
assistant, that of course is out of the question; the pay is altogether
too poor to justify the entertainment of that idea. But there are
countries where the restrictions are not nearly so great as they are in
England; and there are others--beyond the pale of civilisation--where no
restrictions at all exist, and where a clever man, with plenty of grit
to back him up, might perhaps do remarkably well. Still, to penetrate
to such countries a man must take his life in his hands, and, even then,
all his courage may prove insufficient to save him from an unspeakable,
horrible death. Now, what can you do besides doctoring?"
"Nothing that will help me in my present strait," answered Maitland. "I
can sail a boat, swim, ride, or drive a horse, and I can shoot straight;
consequently if I possessed sufficient influence I might be able to get
a job as groom, stableman, or even under-gamekeeper. But none of those
things is good enough for me; I am capable of better things than
grooming horses, cleaning harness, or looking after pheasants; I want
employment that will bring me in good money, and I mean to have it too."
"That's right, Dick; that's the way to talk," returned Humphreys
approvingly. "Modesty is all right, a very desirable and admirable
quality in every young man's character, and one which is seen far too
seldom nowadays. Modesty, however, is one thing, and self-depreciation
quite another. It is a mistake for anyone to underrate his own value,
and, as you very truly say, you are capable of doing much better work
than that needed in either of the occupations that you have named;
therefore you are justified in insisting upon having it. A man has a
perfect right to the very best and most profitable work he is capable of
doing; but he must get it for himself; it is no use for him to sit down
supinely and demand that Providence shall put it into his hands. The
man who is worth his salt will get up and `hustle'--as the Americans
tersely express it--and not rest until he has secured what he wants.
Now, you, my boy, are very heavily handicapped. You have neither money
nor influence to help you to what you want, therefore you will have to
depend upon `hustle' and grit alone; also you have no time to waste in
looking about in this country for the kind of thing you want, which,
even with all the `hustle' and grit imaginable, may take you months, or
even years, to find. No, as you said at the beginning of this
conversation, you must go somewhere abroad to get what you want; and in
a foreign land you may find even such despised accomplishments as
riding, swimming, and straight shooting of the utmost value to you. But
in my opinion your mainstay must be the medical and surgical knowledge
which you have acquired. Now, whereabout on the face of this old globe
of ours are you likely to be able to employ your knowledge to the best
and most profitable account? It should be where wealth is abundant, and
where medical and surgical skill is pretty frequently in demand, also
where there is plenty of scope for a young fellow who, like yourself, is
imbued with the spirit of adventure. Now, let me consider for a
moment--where is the country which most nearly answers to these
conditions? What do you say to South Africa? It is the land of gold
and diamonds; it is not, I believe, overrun with medical men; and as to
adventure--" Humphreys shrugged his shoulders and spread his hands
abroad expressively.
Dick's eyes sparkled and his face lit up with enthusiasm.
"South Africa is the place for me, without a doubt," he exclaimed with
animation. "It is, as you say, rich; it is also a land of unbounded
possibilities; and-- But how am I to get there? The passage money
amounts to something considerable, and I have no money to spare for that
sort of thing; also, as I have said, I will not take a penny from the
Mater."
"What about borrowing?" suggested Humphreys. "As you know, Dick, I am
not a rich man, but I have no doubt I could manage to--"
"No!" interrupted Dick emphatically; "a thousand times no. It is like
you, Doctor, to offer to help me out of your own exceedingly limited
means, and I am more grateful to you than I have words to express; but I
simply will not avail myself of your kindness, or that of anybody else
indeed, for I should be starting with a millstone of debt hanging round
my neck. No, I have thought of a better way than that; I will work my
passage out."
"Work your passage out!" ejaculated the Doctor, staggered, in spite of
his whole-hearted belief in the virtues of self-help, at this bold
suggestion on Dick's part. "In what capacity, pray?"
"Oh, as anything!" returned Dick buoyantly; "as ordinary seaman, cook's
mate, stoker--what does it matter? I will find a way, never fear. I'll
take a trot round the docks to-morrow, and it will be strange indeed if
I cannot somewhere find a market for my labour. Why, even the
elementary knowledge of nautical matters that I have acquired in sailing
my little single-handed cutter during holiday time will be of service to
me. I can steer, I can box the compass, I know the name of every sail
on a full-rigged ship; and I will guarantee that before I have been
forty-eight hours out I will know the function of every bit of running
rigging, and where to lay my hand upon it in the dark."
"Ay, I'll bet that you will, Dick," answered Humphreys, with enthusiasm
as great as Dick's own. "And I have not much doubt as to your being
able to get a berth as ordinary seaman; for you are a big strong fellow,
and for mere pulling and hauling purposes any skipper ought to be glad
to get hold of you. Yes, I think we may consider that part of your
problem solved. But what about after your arrival in South Africa? How
do you propose to proceed at the end of the voyage when you have safely
landed? For you must remember that in all probability you will have no
wages to draw; people who work their passages are usually shipped at the
princely rate of pay of one shilling per month."
"Yes, I know," said Dick. "Still, I shall have reached the scene of my
great endeavour without cost, and that is the important thing. After
that I shall of course be obliged to trust to my own push and `hustle',
as you call it, for it is impossible to make any definite plans at this
distance from the scene of operations."
"Quite so," agreed Humphreys. "And you must also remember that there is
always the element of luck, or chance, or whatever you please to call
it, in the background, and to be watched for. Opportunity often
presents itself literally at a moment's notice and in the most
unexpected fashion, and the one who profits by it is he who is alert
enough to seize it as it passes. But there is one thing you must do,
Dick; you must take with you a well-stocked chest of drugs, as well as
your case of surgical instruments; and, since you will not let me lend
you any money to help you on your way, you must allow me to make you a
present of that medicine chest just as a token of my appreciation of the
way in which you have conducted yourself as my pupil-- Nay, boy, you
must not refuse me, for if you do I shall be deeply hurt as well as
seriously offended."
"Very well, then," acquiesced Dick, "since you put it in that way, and
so very strongly, I will accept your generous gift with a thousand most
hearty thanks, not only for the gift itself, but also for the kindly
feeling that prompts it."
"My dear Dick," protested Humphreys, "there is really no reason at all
why you should feel so extraordinarily grateful, for in doing what I
propose to do I shall only be very inadequately repaying you for much
valuable assistance rendered, and much very pleasant companionship
during the time of your pupilage with me. And do not think that because
I have not expressed much voluble regret at this abrupt severance of our
connection I do not feel it, for I do very keenly, I assure you; but I
see quite clearly that the thing is inevitable, therefore to complain
about it would be both useless and foolish.
"Now, there is one other way in which I can help you; and when I have
explained to you how tremendous is the power which I propose to place in
your hands you will understand, more clearly than I could show you in
any other way, the absolute trust that I repose in you. For I tell you
this, Dick, in all sincerity, there is not another person in the whole
circle of my acquaintance--and it is pretty wide--whom I feel I could
safely trust with this power, so potent is it for evil as well as good.
But I am convinced that I can trust you; and that is why I have
determined to endow you with the ability to perform deeds which to many
people will seem positively miraculous.
"You have often expressed amazement at the uniform success which attends
my treatment of even my most difficult cases, both medical and surgical,
but especially the surgical; and I know, from the remarks you have made,
that you attribute those successes purely to the extent of my knowledge.
Well, of course, knowledge has something to do with it; but the true
secret of my success lies in the free use which I make of hypnotism.
Yes, no doubt you are surprised; for you have never seen me employ any
of the well-known methods of the ordinary hypnotist. Very true. But my
method is not the ordinary method at all; it is one which I claim as my
own exclusive discovery, and it is as far in advance of ordinary
hypnotism as that is in advance of the methods of the stage hypnotist.
"Almost at the outset of my professional career I directed my attention
to the investigation of hypnotism, determined to ascertain whether or
not there was anything in the claims set up by its exponents; and I soon
discovered that there was something in it, despite the disrepute cast
upon it by the grotesque performances of certain so-called entertainers.
There is no need for me to detail to you the successive steps by which
I at length attained my present knowledge of the marvellous powers of
the science. Let it suffice me to say that by diligent study of it I
eventually acquired such a mastery of it that it has enabled me to--
well, to put it mildly--succeed where but for it I must have failed.
And a large measure of this success is due to the fact that I have
discovered an infallible method of instantly hypnotising a patient
without that patient's knowledge. They are hypnotised, but they don't
know it; haven't the remotest suspicion of it. Then I convey to them a
powerful suggestion that my treatment of them is going to be absolutely
successful, and--there you have the whole secret."
Humphreys paused for a moment, as if considering whether or not he
should say more; then he gazed abstractedly at his carefully kept finger
nails, and his right hand wandered to his waistcoat pocket. Then,
looking up, he extended the hand toward Dick, saying:
"Just lend me your penknife a moment, will you?"
Dick produced the knife and held it out to Humphreys, who looked at it,
then shrank back.
"Good heavens, man," he exclaimed, "I asked for a penknife, not for an
adder! Where did you get that brute from?"
With an inarticulate cry, and an expression of unutterable disgust and
loathing, Maitland dropped the penknife to the floor, and then stamped
on it savagely, grinding the heel of his boot on it as though grinding
the head of a snake into the ground.
"Why, Dick!" exclaimed Humphreys, looking his assistant square in the
eye; "what are you doing? What has that good knife been doing to you
that you should treat it in that barbarous manner?"
Maitland stared back blankly into the Doctor's smiling eyes for a
moment, then looked long at the penknife on the floor, and finally
stooped and cautiously took it between his forefinger and thumb, eyeing
it doubtfully the while. Then he suddenly sat down, pulled out his
pocket handkerchief, and mopped off the perspiration that freely bedewed
his face.
"Well, I'll be shot!" he ejaculated. "What an extraordinary experience!
Will you believe me, Doctor, when I tell you that as I drew this
penknife out of my waistcoat pocket it actually seemed to change into an
adder in my hand? There was the flat, wicked-looking head, the
malevolent eyes, the characteristic markings of the body, and, above
all, there was the feeling of it writhing strongly in my grasp, as
though it were trying to get enough of its length clear to turn and
strike me! Talk about Aaron's rod and those of the old Egyptian
necromancers turning into serpents! Why, I could have sworn that this
knife of mine did precisely the same thing! Now, there is a problem for
you, Doctor: What sort of mental aberration was it that caused me to
imagine such an extraordinary thing as that, eh?"
"Simply, my dear boy, that I hypnotised you `unbeknownst', so to speak,
in illustration of what I have been telling you," answered the Doctor,
laying his hand upon Dick's shoulder. "Hope I didn't scare you very
severely, eh?"
"N-o," answered Dick slowly, "you did not actually scare me, Doctor; but
you managed to give me such a thrill of horror and disgust as I have not
experienced for many a long day. But, I say, do you really mean to tell
me, in sober earnest, that that abominable experience was due to
hypnotic suggestion on your part?"
"Yes, I do," answered Humphreys. "I wanted to bring home to you in a
very convincing manner the power which the hypnotist exercises over his
subject. I could have done it even more convincingly, perhaps, by
commanding you to take that perfectly cold poker in your hand, and then
suggesting to you that it was red hot, when--despite the fact of the
poker being cold--your hand would have been most painfully blistered.
But probably the `adder' experiment was convincing enough, eh?"
"It was indeed," assented Dick with a little reminiscent shudder. "But
look here, Doctor, you say that you hypnotised me. When did you do it?
I didn't see you do anything peculiar."
"No, my boy, of course you didn't, because I adopted my own especial
method, which is instantaneous and undetectable, and which I will teach
you if you care to learn it; for I seem to foresee that there may be
occasions, by and by, when you get out to South Africa, when you may
find the power extremely useful to you, particularly if you should get
any medical or surgical work to do. In such a case just hypnotise your
patient in the way that I will teach you, then powerfully suggest to him
that your treatment is going to cure him--and it will do so. As to when
I got you under my influence, it was done while I asked you to lend me
your penknife."
"By Jove!" exclaimed Dick; "it is marvellous, perfectly marvellous; and
if I did not know you to be an absolutely truthful man I do not think I
could bring myself to believe it. Now I can understand what you meant
when you spoke of the potency of hypnotism for good or for evil, and
why, as I understand, you have never yet dared to pass on the secret of
your power to anyone else. But I swear to you, Doctor, that, if you
will entrust it to me, I will never, under any circumstances whatsoever,
use it except for a good purpose, nor will I ever pass on the secret to
anyone else except with your express permission. And now that you have
given me an idea of its capabilities I simply long to know the secret,
for it seems to me that a chap with your powers could come very near to
working miracles."
"Yes," assented Humphreys quietly, "that is so; indeed, even with my
imperfect knowledge--for I have not yet nearly mastered all the
possibilities of the science--I have done things that without its aid
would have been impossible. And now, if you like, I will initiate you
into the secret of my power, which is very simple after all, and which,
once known, will enable you to do everything that I can do. First of
all, however, I propose to throw you into a cataleptic sleep, in order
that, while you are in that condition, I may imbue you with an absolute
faith in yourself, without which everything that I can teach you would
be practically useless, at least until you had acquired faith in
yourself by the somewhat slow and laborious process which I had to
pursue. I had to acquire faith in myself and my powers by repeated
experiments extending over a period of several months; but you have not
time for that, so I must imbue you with it by the process of suggestion
while you are in a state of trance. Now, are you ready?"
"Yes, quite," answered Dick, with a quick indrawing of the breath; for
now that it came to the point he suddenly found that to submit himself
unreservedly to the hands of even his friend Humphreys, for the purposes
of an experiment that smacked rather strongly of the uncanny, was
something of a nerve-trying experience. Humphreys evidently noted his
momentary hesitation, for he said:
"You need not have the least fear; you will be profoundly unconscious
during the period of sleep, and will awake without the slightest trace
of any unpleasant feeling. Now, stretch yourself out comfortably on
that sofa, and do exactly as I tell you."
------------------------------------------------------------------------
When Dick descended to the surgery, a few minutes late, the next
morning, he found his friend Humphreys, with his coat off, his shirt
sleeves rolled up, and his clothes protected by a white apron extending
from his throat to the tops of his boots, busily engaged in dusting his
bottles and the shelves whereon they stood.
As Dick entered, the Doctor, mounted upon a step ladder, looked down at
him with a smile and nod of welcome, and said:
"Well, my boy, how did you sleep, and how do you feel after your ordeal
of last night?"
Dick laughed joyously. "My `ordeal'!" he exclaimed. "I hope I may
never have to undergo a more trying ordeal than that. I slept like a
top, thank you, and feel as fit as a fiddle this morning, indeed I don't
know that I ever felt so fit in all my life before. But that is not
all: I have not the remotest idea what mysterious thing you did to me
last night, but this I know, that you have imparted to me a something
that I have never hitherto possessed. I feel this morning a buoyancy of
spirit that it seems to me no amount of disappointment could damp or
lessen for a moment, and I have a belief in myself so complete, so
boundless, that I feel I cannot help but be successful in this new
venture of mine upon which I am about to embark."
"Yes," said Humphreys, nodding his head in a manner which very clearly
expressed his satisfaction, "that is the result of your `ordeal', and it
will be quite permanent. Mind you, I don't say that you will always
feel quite so buoyant and confident as you do at this moment, for it is
beyond the power of any man to make another absolutely immune to
circumstances; but in spite of circumstances, however adverse, you will
always retain some at least of your present buoyancy and confidence. I
do not think you will ever sink into that condition of utter and abject
despair which overwhelms some people and drives them to suicide. To
change the subject. Are you still minded to go to the docks this
morning in quest of a shipmaster benevolently enough inclined to allow
you to work your passage out to South Africa?"
"Rather!" answered Dick. "That is to say, if you think you can spare me
for a few hours."
"Of course I can spare you," answered Humphreys. "And I would advise
you to go immediately after breakfast, for, as you know, `it is the
early bird that catches the worm.' But how do you propose to set about
your quest? Not quite haphazard, I suppose?"
"No," answered Dick. "I thought of getting the _Shipping Gazette_, and
perhaps the _Telegraphy_ and consulting their advertisement pages, with
the view of learning what ships are on the berth for South African
ports, where they are lying, and their date of sailing."
"An excellent idea," declared the Doctor. "As soon as Polly has put
breakfast upon the table we will send her out to get the papers, and you
can consult them and prepare a list of likely vessels before you go
out."
This was done; and by nine o'clock, Dick, having breakfasted, was ready
to sally forth on the first stage of his journey in quest of fortune,
duly armed with a slip of paper containing a list of some half-dozen
ships loading for South Africa, "with quick dispatch."
And two hours later he returned to the surgery, his visage beaming with
satisfaction.
"Hurrah, Doctor!" he exclaimed, as he dashed in through the open
doorway. "I've done the trick; got the skipper of the _Concordia_ to
allow me to work my passage out to Port Natal as ordinary seaman at a
shilling a month. I `sign on' at the shipping office the day after to-
morrow, and have to be on board by eight o'clock the same evening in
readiness to haul out of dock at daylight on the following morning."