RAY'S EXPERIENCE.
While Mona was plodding her monotonous way among sheets and pillow-slips,
table linen and dressmaking, in Mrs. Montague's elegant home, Raymond
Palmer was also being subjected to severe discipline, although of a
different character.
We left him locked within a padded chamber in the house of Doctor
Wesselhoff, who was a noted specialist in the treatment of diseases
of the brain and nerves.
It will be remembered that Ray had been hypnotized into a profound
slumber, from which he did not awake for many hours.
When at last he did arouse, he was both calmed and refreshed, while he
was surprised to find that a small table, on which a tempting lunch was
arranged, had been drawn close beside the lounge where he lay.
He was really hungry, and arose and began to partake with relish of the
various viands before him, while, at the same time, he looked about the
artfully constructed chamber he was in with no small degree of curiosity.
He remembered perfectly all that had occurred from the time he left his
father's store in company with the charming Mrs. Vanderbeck until he had
been so strangely over-powered with sleep by the influence of those
masterful eyes, which had peered at him through an aperture in the wall.
As his mind went back over the strange incidents of the day he began to
experience anew great anxiety over the loss of the rare stones which had
been so cleverly stolen from him, and also regarding the fate in store
for him.
He knew that the diamonds were in his pocket when the carriage stopped
before the house, for he had not removed his hand from the package until
Mrs. Vanderbeck discovered that her dress had been caught in the door of
the carriage.
That very circumstance, he felt sure, was a part of the skillfully
executed plot, and he was convinced that the woman must have robbed him
during the moment when he had bent forward and tried to extricate it
for her; while she must have concealed the package somewhere in the
_coupé_ while she was apparently trying to pin together the rent in her
dress.
Then, as soon as he alighted, how adroitly she had filled his arms with
her bundles and kept his attention so engaged that he did not think of
the diamonds again, until the gentleman of the house appeared in the room
where Mrs. Vanderbeck had left him.
Oh, how negligent he had been! He should not have released his hold
upon that package under any circumstances, he told himself; and yet, he
argued, if he had been ever so careful he might have been over-powered
and the stones taken by violence, if the woman's cunning had failed to
accomplish the desired object.
He firmly believed that he was in a den of thieves, and that the man who
had come to him in the reception-room and conducted him into that chamber
was in league with the beautiful Mrs. Vanderbeck, who had so fascinated
him and hoodwinked his father into sending out such costly jewels for
examination.
Then his mind reverted to the strange sensations which he had experienced
beneath those human eyes after being trapped into the padded chamber,
and a shiver of repulsion ran over him. Was he a captive in the hands
of, and at the mercy of, a gang of conjurers and mesmerists? The thought
was horrible to him. He had courage enough to defend himself in a
hand-to-hand encounter, but he felt powerless to contend against such
diabolical influences as he had already been subjected to.
While he was pondering these things, he heard the bolt to the door shoot
back, and in another moment a strange man entered the room.
Ray started to his feet, and boldly confronted him.
"Who are you?" he haughtily demanded.
"My name is Huff, sir," the man returned, in a calm, respectful tone,
"and I have come to see what I can do for you."
"There is but one thing I desire you to do--release me instantly from
this wretched place!" Ray responded authoritatively.
"Yes, yes; all in good time. Doctor Wesselhoff will attend to that," Mr.
Huff mildly replied.
"Doctor Wesselhoff?" exclaimed Ray, astonished. "I have heard of him. He
is the noted brain and nerve specialist, isn't he?"
"Yes, sir."
"And--am I in _his house_?" the young man demanded, his amazement in
nowise abated.
"Yes, this is Doctor Wesselhoff's residence."
"That is very strange! I cannot understand!" Ray remarked, deeply
perplexed. "Why am I here?"
"You--have not been quite well of late, and you are here for treatment."
"For _treatment_? Do you mean that I am here as a patient of Doctor
Wesselhoff?" cried Ray, aghast.
"Yes, sir, for a little while, until you are better."
"Who brought me here? Who made arrangements for my coming here?"
"Your own friends; and really, sir, it would be better if you would
accept the situation quietly," said the man, in a conciliatory tone.
Ray began to get excited again at this information, and the more so,
that he did not believe it, while the mystery of his situation seemed
to deepen.
He had heard of Doctor Wesselhoff, as he had said; he knew that he was
regarded as one of the finest brain specialists in the metropolis, if not
in the country, and that, as a man, he stood high in the estimation of
the public.
This being the case, he certainly would not lend himself to such an
outrageous trick as had been practiced upon him that day.
He did not believe what the old man told him--he did not believe that he
was in Doctor Wesselhoff's house at all. It was only a lie on the part of
the diamond thieves to further their own schemes, he thought, and yet the
man's manner was so respectful, and even kind, that he was deeply
perplexed.
"There is nothing the matter with me--I am as sane as you are," he said,
flushing angrily at the idea of being regarded as a lunatic.
"Yes--yes; we will hope so," was the gentle response, as the attendant
began to gather the dishes and remnants of Ray's lunch.
"You say that my friends brought me here," persisted the young man; "that
is false; I was brought here by a woman whom I never saw before, and who
robbed me of valuable diamonds. If she arranged for my coming, it is all
a trick. But what did she claim was my special malady?" he concluded,
with considerable curiosity.
"We will not talk any more about it now, sir, if you please," said his
companion, in a soothing tone. "Doctor Wesselhoff will explain it all to
you when he returns."
"When he returns? Where has he gone--how long will he be absent?" Ray
demanded, with a sinking heart, for time was precious, and he was almost
wild to get away to hunt for the thieves who had robbed him; while, too,
he knew that his father must already have become alarmed at his long
absence.
"The doctor was called away by a telegram only an hour ago," the
attendant replied, hoping by this explanation to divert the mind of his
charge from his mania of robbery. "His wife, who went South a week ago to
visit friends, has been taken suddenly ill, and he was obliged to hasten
to her; but he will return at the earliest possible moment."
"Gone _South_! and I must remain here until his return?" Ray cried, in a
voice of agony. "I _will_ not," he went on fiercely, his face growing
crimson with angry excitement. "I tell you I am perfectly well, and I
have been only tricked into this place by some cunning thief who has
robbed me. Whether Doctor Wesselhoff is concerned in it or not, I cannot
tell. I confess it seems very like it to me, although I have always heard
him well spoken of. Stay!" he cried, with a start, "you tell me the
doctor has already left the city! oh! then he must be a party to the foul
wrong of which I am the victim. Let me out--I tell you I _will_ not
submit to such inhuman treatment," and he turned fiercely upon the
attendant, as if he meditated attacking and overpowering him, with the
hope of forcing his way from the place.
But the attendant quietly retreated before him, looking him calmly in the
eye, and, as Ray pressed closely upon him, he made a few passes before
his face with his hands.
Instantly the young man began to experience that same sense of weariness
and drowsiness that had over-powered him when those masterful eyes had
fastened themselves upon him through the hole in the wall.
"Don't! don't!" he cried, throwing out his arms as if to ward off the
influence, while he tried to resist it with all his will-power.
But his arm fell powerless by his side and he sank into a chair near
which he was standing, and the attendant turned and left the room, a
smile of peculiar satisfaction on his face.
"That was very well done, I think, for a pupil of the great Doctor
Wesselhoff," he muttered, as he shot the bolt into the socket and turned
to go about other duties. "It will not be long before I shall be able to
exert the power as skillfully as he does."
Ray sat as one half dazed for a few moments after the departure of Mr.
Huff, and tried to combat with all the strength of his will the strange
desire to sleep.
Then suddenly his glance became riveted upon something that was clinging
to the leg of his trousers.
He stooped to pick it off, examining it closely, and uttered an
exclamation of surprise upon finding that it was a small piece of ladies'
cloth of a delicate mauve color.
"Ha!" he cried, excitedly; "it is as precious as gold dust, and may prove
to be very useful to me. How fortunate I am to have found it!"
It was a small piece of woolen goods that had been torn from Mrs.
Vanderbeck's dress, and Ray, after a moment, put it carefully away in his
pocket-book, in the hope of some time finding the rent that it would fit.
It was true that Doctor Wesselhoff had been suddenly called away to his
sick wife.
No other summons would have had the power to draw him away from New York
at that time, for he experienced great anxiety and interest regarding the
new and peculiar case that had just been confided to his care.
He really believed that Ray--or young Walton, as he believed his
patient's name to be, in spite of the fact that he had given it as
Palmer--was a monomaniac; for his words and manner fully corroborated
the statement which his visitor of the previous day had made to him. He
had not the slightest suspicion that he also was the dupe of a cunning
plot to secure diamonds that were worth a large sum of money.
But before leaving the city he gave the most careful directions to his
pupil, Doctor Huff, who had been studying with him for more than a year,
regarding the treatment of his patient, and then he was obliged to hurry
away, promising, however, that he would return just as soon as it would
do to leave his wife.
It took him two days of continuous travel to reach his destination, and
then he found Mrs. Wesselhoff so very ill that all his thought and care
were concentrated upon her.
The place to which he went was a remote Southern town, where Northern
newspapers seldom found their way; consequently he could not know
anything of the intense excitement that was prevailing in New York over
the mysterious disappearance of Raymond Palmer and the costly stones he
had taken with him.
To his pupil he had hastily explained all that he could regarding the
young man's case, and had told him that his name was Walton; so, of
course, Doctor Huff, on reading an account of the diamond robbery
and the strange disappearance of the merchant's son, never dreamed that
the patient left in his charge was the missing young man.
Mr. Palmer did not seem to be at all troubled over the non-appearance of
his son until the time arrived to close the store for the night; then he
began to feel some anxiety.
Still, he told himself, Ray might possibly have been detained longer than
he had anticipated, and finding it rather late to return to the store,
had gone immediately home, where there was also a safe in which the
diamonds could be deposited for the night.
With this hope to rest upon, he hastened to his residence, but was made
even more anxious upon being told by the housekeeper "that Mr. Raymond
had not come in yet."
He kept hoping he might come, so he ate his supper and then tried to
compose himself to read his papers; but his uneasiness only continued to
increase.
He endured the suspense until nine o'clock, and then went down town to
consult with the superintendent of police.
He confided to him what had occurred, and his fears regarding the safety
of his son, and he was by no means reassured when that official at once
exclaimed that "the whole thing was a put-up job."
"Keep quiet," he advised, "for a day or two, and we will see what we can
do."
He set his detectives at work upon the case immediately, while the
anxious father endeavored to endure his suffering in silence. But the
"day or two" brought no revelations, and his agony could no longer be
controlled; he believed that his son had been murdered for the sake of
the diamonds, and thus the matter became public.
The newspapers were full of the affair, and caused great excitement. The
city offered a large reward for any intelligence regarding the missing
young man or the diamonds, and this was doubled by Mr. Palmer himself.
But days and weeks passed, and no clew was obtained regarding either the
stolen jewels or Ray's mysterious fate; therefore the belief that he had
been foully dealt with prevailed very generally.
Mr. Palmer had placed in the hands of a private detective a detailed
account in writing of the woman's visit to the store, and also a minute
description of herself, and the moment he had finished reading it the
man's face lighted up with eager interest, even enthusiasm.
"Great Scott!" exclaimed the detective, with a resounding slap upon his
knee, "I'll wager my badge that it's a sequel to that Bently affair, when
a young broker of Chicago was wretchedly fooled with some diamonds about
three years ago!--that woman also had short, curly red hair."
He related the story to Mr. Palmer, and informed him that he had been
engaged upon the case, off and on, for a long time; but since he had come
to New York to reside he had about given it up as hopeless.
"This may put me on the trail again, however," finally remarked Mr.
Rider, who was the detective that Justin Cutler had employed.
Of course, the house which Mrs. Vanderbeck had given as her place of
residence was visited, but as in the Bently affair, it proved to be
empty, and Mrs. Vanderbeck seemed to have vanished as completely as
if she had been a visitant from some other sphere.
All this had occurred while Mona was so absorbed in her grief for her
uncle; when she had had no interest in anything outside her home, and so
not having read any of the newspapers, she was entirely ignorant of the
excitement that had prevailed over the robbery, and Ray's disappearance.
Thus she believed that he had deserted her, like most of her other
fair-weather friends, and was trying to make herself believe that he
was unworthy of her regard.
Poor Ray! it had fared hard with him during all this time, although not
in the way that his father and the detectives feared.
We last saw him just after he had discovered the shred that had been torn
from Mrs. Vanderbeck's dress; but when Doctor Huff again went to him he
found him prostrate upon the floor in a high fever and delirious.
For four weeks he lay thus. He had taken a severe cold, and that, with
the excitement and anxiety caused by the loss of the diamonds, had
brought on the illness.
When Doctor Wesselhoff returned after a hard fight with disease in his
wife's case, he found him very low, and just at the turning point in his
fever.
He bestowed great commendation upon his pupil, however, for his
management of the case, which, he said, he could not have treated
better himself.
He expressed himself as very much surprised, because none of the young
man's friends had called to make any inquiries about him; it certainly
showed a lack of interest, if not a positive neglect, he thought.
He believed that the fever would turn favorably, for the young man had a
naturally vigorous constitution, and he had known of persons recovering
who had possessed far less vitality.
Ray did pass the crisis successfully, but he was very weak for many days
longer; too weak even to notice where he was, or who was caring for him.
But, as he gained a little strength, he looked curiously about him, then
memory began to assert itself--he recalled the events which had occurred
on that fateful day, when he had been made a captive, and he realized
that he had been moved from that dismal padded chamber to a large and
airy room in another portion of the house.
The next time Doctor Wesselhoff came to his bedside, after he had come
thoroughly to himself, he said, in a grave but authoritative voice:
"Doctor Wesselhoff, sit down if you please; I want to talk with you for a
few moments."
The physician obeyed, but with some surprise, for both the look and
manner of his patient convinced him that he was perfectly rational.
"I have been very ill, have I not?" Ray inquired.
"Yes, but you are much better and steadily improving."
"How long have I been sick?"
"It is more than five weeks now since you were attacked."
Ray frowned at this information.
How must his father feel regarding his strange absence? What had become
of that cunning thief and the diamonds? were questions which suggested
themselves to him.
But he simply asked:
"When did you return to New York?"
"About a week ago," the physician replied. "I was very sorry to have to
leave you as I did, but the summons to my wife was imperative, and of
course my duty was by her side."
A sarcastic smile curled Ray's lips at this last remark.
"I am only surprised that you returned at all," he quietly responded.
"Why?" inquired the physician, with some astonishment.
"It is not always safe, you know," Ray answered, looking him straight in
the eye, "for one who has aided and abetted a stupendous robbery to
appear so soon upon the scene of his depredations."
Doctor Wesselhoff's face fell.
He had hoped that, when the young man should recover, all signs of his
peculiar mania would disappear; but this did not seem much like it, and
he began to fear the case might prove a very obstinate one.
"I think you must rest now," he remarked, evading the subject; "you have
talked long enough this time."
"Perhaps I have, but I do not intend to rest until I have come to some
definite understanding regarding my relations with you," Ray responded,
resolutely.
"Well, then, what do you mean by a definite understanding?" the physician
asked, thinking it might be as well to humor him a little.
"I want to know how far you are concerned in this plot to keep me a
prisoner here? I want to know in what way you are connected with that
woman who called herself Mrs. Vanderbeck, and who enticed me here with
valuable diamonds, only to steal them from me? I believe I am in the
power of a gang of thieves, and though I cannot reconcile it with what I
had heard of you previously, that you must be associated in some way with
them."
Ray had spoken rapidly, and with an air and tone of stern command, which
puzzled while it impressed the doctor.
"You bring a very serious charge against me, my young friend," he gravely
remarked, but without betraying the slightest resentment; "but perhaps if
you will tell me your side of the story I shall understand you better,
and then I will explain my authority for detaining you here."
Doctor Wesselhoff was strangely attracted toward his patient. He did not
seem at all like an insane person, except upon that one subject, and he
would not have regarded that as a mania if he had not been assured of it
by Mrs. Walton. He began to think there might at least be some
misunderstanding, and that it would be as well to let the young man
exhaust the subject once for all; then he could judge the better
regarding the treatment he needed.
"Well, then, to begin at the beginning," Ray resumed. "A woman, giving
her name as Mrs. William Vanderbeck, called at my father's store on the
day I came here, and asked to look at diamonds. You will remember, I told
you my father is a diamond dealer. They were shown to her, and she
selected several very expensive ornaments, which she said she wished to
wear at a reception that evening. But she represented that she could not
purchase them unless they were first submitted to her husband for
examination and his sanction. He was an invalid; he could not come to
the store, consequently the stones must be taken to him; was there not
some reliable person who could be sent to her residence with them, when,
if Mr. Vanderbeck was satisfied with the ornaments, a check for their
price would be filled out and returned to my father. This seemed fair and
reasonable, and I was commissioned to attend the lady and take charge of
the diamonds. I put the package in my pocket, and my hand never left it
until the _coupé_ stopped before this house, when Mrs. Vanderbeck
suddenly discovered that her dress had caught in the carriage door, and
she could not rise. Of course I offered assistance in disengaging it; but
in spite of our united efforts, the garment was torn during the
operation. I suppose she robbed me at that moment, but am not quite sure,
as I did not discover my loss until you--whom I supposed to be the lady's
husband--entered the room, and I slipped my hand into my pocket for the
diamonds, only to find that they were gone. You know the rest, and the
treatment I received from yourself. Is it any wonder that I believed you
an accomplice when I found myself in that padded chamber and losing all
sense and reason beneath the influence of a powerful mesmerist?"
Doctor Wesselhoff had listened gravely throughout the young man's
recital, and, though astonished and puzzled by what he heard, felt that
he was relating a very connected story.
He was upon the point of replying to his questions, when he chanced to
glance at his assistant, Doctor Huff, who had been in the room all the
time, and saw that he was startlingly pale, and laboring under extreme
agitation.
"Sir," cried the man, hoarsely, "can it be possible that he is the victim
of the recent diamond robbery, which has created so much excitement? The
newspapers have been full of the story that he has just related."