Waterbury evening Democrat. [volume] (Waterbury, Conn.) 1887-1895, 1894-05-19
CHAPTER VI


velopments to encourage a faltering and
disguised police. 1t was the more strange
because a full description of poor An
nette had been published in all the pa
pers, and there had been deal of in
terest in the matter. But public interest
to be kept alive must be fed, and one
morning the city editors of the several
dailies awoke to find a choice collection
of new material for interesting reading
and straightway pigeonhOled the old
till duller times. And so the poor crea-
ture with the wounded intellect was for
gotten.
A very rich man had suddenly and COM
pletely disappeared under circumstances
so suspicious as to warrant the most
shocking speculations. And the newspa-
| pers did not spare their readers feel
! ings. The reason was simply that the
newspapers had learned from long expe-
| riencc that their readers did not desire
to be spared-in fact, would be rather
| inclined to resent any such forethought
ON the part of the newsgatherers. For
this and the other good reason that the
supplemental mystery of the assault on
| Ellen Maxey never got into print at all
the matter dropped
And so Maxey's great double mystery
remained in spite of his almost frantic
attempts to dispel it. No new clews ap-
| peared, and the old ones, like the foot
steps in the field at Somerset, led no.
where. The police were discouraged, and
even DR.. Lamar gave it as his opinion
that time spent in looking into this mat
| ter was time wasted.
Miss Maxey fulfilled the physicians
predictions by getting well in a few
! days, but the poor, frightened face that
looked forth from the pillows in the lit
| tie alcove room was as pale and pitiful as
ever. The experiments with music, as a
power for good, which promised so
much in the beginning, justified DR..
Lamar's forebOdings in the end. Never
after that first day were the emotions
aroused in the patient of sufficient
strength to cause her to lose conscious
ness. Music always attracted her, inter
ested her, even drove off for time that
monotonOus motion of the hands which
seemed SO dreadful to the strong, healthy
people about her, but it left no perma-
nent impression. 1t was not progressive.
1t was not an educator. Alas for honest
JUlian's simple and beautiful idea of
bringing her back to her lost world!
The thought was too poetic for reality.
In vain did pretty Ellen Maxey sing her
sweetest songs. The wan face still turned
with the same mute terror upon her sur
rOundings. The eyes never ceased the
restless search for the horror that did not
come, and the small, white hands con-
tiuucd TO clasp and unclasp themselves
as of old.
But one day there was change in the
symptoms. A peculiar spasmodic action
of the muscles of the face and limbs be-
gan 20 manifest itself. When DR.. Lamar
saw this, his face lighted up with a sud
den hope.
For long time he had been very
grave. He had gone about in a continual
abstraction and had even been occasion
ally seen with his umbrella under his
arm i'll fine weather, an unmistakable
indication that he was becoming absent
minded. Never before had he met with
q Gaze which baffled him so persistently
as this. From the hour when he knelt
beside her in the snow by the sea road
and had given his opinion that it was
q very serious matter" the patient had
never been wholly out of his mind.
1t made him angry to think that the
information contained in this first state
ment of his impressions of the case as
he bent over Ellen Maxey's shoulder
and saw the white face looking up by
the light of the lantern was about the
sum and substance of all he had been
able TO learn since, but such was the
fact. What more could he say with any
certainty today than this? To be sure,
it had puzzled older men than he, but
that was small consolation to mind
like Lamar's. The greater the obstacles
the more determined he became to over
come them.
Either will be the death of this
problem or it will be the death of me"
he said to himself and with this con-
viCtion he had set to work to save his
own life. He saw the patient so often
that he photographed every look and
motion she was accustomed to make
upon his mind. Not the movement of
muscle, not the twitching of an eyelid
escaped him He went about studying
every one of these apparent trivialities
and trying TO account for it.
Just as Maxey treasured up every
scrap of evidence which promised to
throw any light on the great double
mystery which entirely nonplused the
police, so the physician, constituting
himself medical detective, looked upon
the various symptoms of the girls con-
dition as SO many clews to the great
pathological mystery which was battling
him. During the weeks following the
discovery of Annette he reread almost
his entire library ON brain diseases. Aft
erward he borrowed from friend
One night he came across passage
which startled him. 1t was the particu-
lar statement of the symptoms of pa
tient in German hospital who died
with a strange malady that completely
mystified the physicians. The result of
the post mortem examination appended
showed that the secret cause of his death
was cerebral complication, the chief
factor in which was q tumor in the
brain. A foOtnote suggested that this
abnormal growth had probably been
caused by a fall
Perhaps it was because he watched
with a new idea in his mind, but it was
the very next day, when Lamar renewed |
his observations at the bedside of the pa |
tent in Ballavoine place, that he detect !
ed the spasmodic symptoms for the first |
time. The result was that he became |
convinced He could scarcely conceal his
delight when he came to take his depar-
ture.
Miss Maxey was quick reader of |
faces, and of his face in particular. She |
stopped him at the door and said shyly, |
but determinedly:
You have some good news for Us,
but you are SO afraid that we shall be |
disappointed that you hesitate to tell it?''
NO." said Lamar, "'but think !