III
I came to myself on the floor of a lighted room, with Hewitt's face overmine. My wrist seemed broken, though it was free, there was oil andblood on my clothes, and in my left hand I still gripped a piece ofMayes's coat.
"Stop him!" I cried. "He's gone by the stable! Have they got him?"
"No good, Brett," Hewitt answered soberly. "You did your best, but he'sgone, and Peytral after him!"
"Peytral?"
"Yes. He brought his own message to town. But see if you can stand up."
I was well enough able to do that, and, indeed, I had only fainted fromthe pain of the strain on my wrist. Several policemen were in the room,beside Hewitt and Plummer. Mayes's stronghold was in the hands of hisenemies.
Then I suddenly remembered.
"The Admiralty code!" I cried. "It was in the office desk. Have you gotit?"
"No," Hewitt answered. "Come, Plummer, up the ladder!"
Little time was lost in forcing Mayes's desk, and there the document wasfound, grey cover, red tape and all intact. The police were left to makea vigorous search for any possible copy, and the original was handed toPlummer, as chief representative of the law present. He had been trappedprecisely as I had been, except that he had been led further, and shutin a cellar as well as fastened by the wrist. Mayes, it seemed, hadwasted very little time in attempting to pervert him, and I have nodoubt that, whatever fate might have been reserved for me, Plummer wouldnever have left the place alive had it not been for the timely irruptionof Hewitt, with Peytral and the police.
In half an hour Peytral returned. He had dashed out in chase of thefugitive, but failed even to see him--lost him wholly in the courts, infact. For some little while he persevered, but found it useless.
The dirty-whiskered man made no attempt to escape, though there was talkof another man having got away in the confusion by way of the stableroof. The police were left in charge of the place, and we deferred acomplete exploration till the next day.
Hewitt's tale was simple enough. He had endued himself in somewhat seedyclothes, and had visited 37 Raven Street, Blackfriars, which he foundto be merely a tenement house. It took some time to make inquiriesthere, with the necessary caution, because of the number of lodgers; andthen the inquiries led to nothing. It was an experience common enough inhis practice, but none the less an annoying delay, and when he returnedto his office he found Mr. Peytral already awaiting him. Peytraldescribed his following of Mayes at much greater length and detail thanbefore, and he and Hewitt had come on to Norbury Row at once and askednews of Mr. Moon.
Mr. Moon's description of the successive disappearances of Plummer andmyself, and of our continued absence, so aroused Hewitt's suspicionsthat he instantly procured help from the nearest station, and approachedthe door of Mayes's office. A knock being unanswered, the door wasinstantly broken in. The room was found to be unoccupied, but the ladderwas still standing at the open window, by which Mayes had descended tothe back premises. Down this ladder Hewitt went, with the police afterhim. The rest I had seen myself.
"But what," I said, "what is this mystery? Why did Telfer give up thecode, and what is the power that Mayes talks of?"
"It is a power," replied Hewitt, "that I have suspected for some time,and now I am quite sure of it. A secret, dangerous and terrible powerwhich I have encountered before, though never before have I known itspossibilities carried so far. It is hypnotism!"
"Hypnotism!" I exclaimed. "But can a person be hypnotised against hiswill?"
"In a sense, in most cases, he cannot. That is the explanation ofMayes's proposals to you to go through a 'form of initiation.' If youhad consented, the 'form' would have been a process of hypnotism. Onceor twice repeated, and you would have been wholly under his control, sothat if he willed it and forbade you, you could tell nothing of what hewished kept secret, and you would have committed any crime he mightsuggest. Consider poor Jacob Mason! Remember how he struggled to tellwhat he knew, oppressed by the horror of it, and how it all ended! Andremember Henning the clerk, Mayes's tool in that case of bond robbery!What has happened to him? He committed suicide, as you know, immediatelyafter Mayes had left him at the barn. Brett, this power of hypnotism, apower for healing in the hands of a good man, may become a terriblepower for evil in the hands of a villain!"
"But Telfer, to-day? He seems to have known nothing of Mayes, and hewas not one of his regular creatures--Mayes himself told me so."
"About that I don't know. But I expect we shall find that he has beenwillingly hypnotised at some time or another, perhaps more than once, bythis same scoundrel Mayes. Possibly in one of Mayes's appearances inrespectable society, at an evening party, or the like. In a case of thatsort the hypnotist may impress a certain formula--a word, a name, or anumber--on the subject's mind, by the repetition of which, at any futuretime, that same subject may be instantly hypnotised. So that, oncehaving become hypnotised, on any innocent occasion, the subject is inthe power of the hypnotist, more or less, ever after. The hypnotistsays: 'When I repeat such and such a sentence or number to you infuture, you will be hypnotised,' and hypnotised the subject duly is,instantly. Supposing such a case in this matter of Mr. Telfer, it wouldonly be necessary for Mayes to meet him in the corridor, repeat hisformula and command the victim to bring out the paper he specified. Thisdone he could similarly order him to _forget the whole transaction_, andthis the victim would do, infallibly."
It is only necessary to say here, parenthetically, that later inquiryproved the truth of Hewitt's supposition. Twice or three times Mr.Telfer had been hypnotised in a friend's chambers, by a plausible tallman whose acquaintance his host had made at some public scientificgathering. And in the end it became possible to identify this man withMayes.
Mr. Moon, of "The Compasses," was of great comfort to me that evening.My cuts and bruises were washed in his house, and my inner man revivedwith his food and drink.
"Allus glad to oblige the p'lice," said Mr. Moon; "allus. 'Cos why?Ain't they the p'lice? Very well then!"
THE ADVENTURE OF CHANNEL MARSH