Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1894-09-22

upon his cheeks, and, as / live every hair
OF ms head stood upon end. We both real
ized that he had. by an over-application Of
his 6evilish power, slapped the life out of
the man before us, even as he had the life
OF the cat in my office. Suddenly Kegerly
started Tor the open window. AS he reached
IL ne turned to me. and said I'm a voice that
was husky with agony: When this Is dis
covered, tell the whole truth; that will
aosoiNe you As for me, 1 am branded with
. ,,s, p.ana Oh Cain; 1 am a murderer. but 1
sprang from the window and disappea rcd
MY situation can be better Imagined than
described L shudder even now as 1 think
OF that moment L had been called in 10
perform a simple operation, which. thourb
painful could not have proved fatal 10 any
one, had i been content to employ natural
methods. i realized then for the first time.
in all its intensity, the wrong / had been
doing in allowing such a power to be used
upon my patients. I did not dare i
could not, face the wife and children of
the dead pan. and tell them that
/ had allowed their husband and father ia
be murdered. For the first time in my life
1 was coward. Selling my hat and coat
i lowered myself from the window and
PASSED mt the street. Hailing a passing
cab, L drove to police headquarters and
made clean breast of the whole affair
and implore3 the sergeant to send soma
friend Of the family to break the fearful
tidings. I was promptly locked up accused
OF being an accessory to the crime, and
spent that night in prison. What a night
that was, 1 knew that, IL L ESCAPED sem
tence. my practice In Londan or even any
where In England was ruined I never
could be anything again. At first. Thought
l. could bear il. the shame, dishonor and
condemnation of my brother physicians
Then 1 thought of poor Kegerly, and real
lied that his lot was worse than mine
paced my cell all night Morning brought
piece of startling intelligence A messen-
ger hurriecly entered my cell and told me
that Elkserge was not dead, but in an hyp-
RI 90 an ND. fl.r
TO fool even myself. This was a great re-
lief 10 me, and threw a terrible burden on
my mind Then came the thought, could
1 ma or communicate with Kegerly? IL
he was seeking to hide himself from the
consequences OF his supposed crime would
he not go where he might not hear that
Eikserge was not dead. or might he not
In his terror and despair have committed
SUICIDE! i was set free and went back to
my office. to await events. There / dis
covered two things-that i had but few
friencs and no practice: but made my one
object in life to find Kegerly. 1 put ad-
vertisements IN all the papers and knew
that. IL he should chance to see one he
would come back to London. Week after
week passed. and Elkserge still lay In that
death-like trance. 1t was a mystery to
the profession ard to the world. The pa
rers were full Of IL, and IL was the talk of
the day. i was In my Office one night feel
ing discouraged in regard to ever hearing
ANYTHING from kegerly. when there came
in and in RESPONSE 70 my Invitation a
tall, dark-complexioned man wearing a full
beard entered. closing and locking the door
oehind him. L sprang TO my feet thinking
that some trick was about to be PLAYED
upon me- when he tore the false whiskers
from his face. 1t was Kegerly. My sur
prise was great. but no greater than my
JOY when L realized what his coming might
mean TO both of us. He was greatly
| changed and fatigued, but ne Immediately
told me the story of his escape He had
fed from the house that night partially in
sane. donned the disguise that he now wore
and shipped In vessel for America. They
had encountered heavy storms on the way
over, and were six weeks in reaching their
destination. He did not hear of the fact
that Elkserge still lived until he had been
IN America two weeks. He took passage
at once for England. and on arriving in
London had come direct to my office. You
know why 1 have come back said he
Since L was the one who put Ekserge In
his trance, 1 am the only man who can
bring him out Of it, and perhaps 1 cannot.
but mean to make the attempt. III fail
well, let the law take its course
i thought that, as he was very tired,
he had better get some rest before he made
his supreme effort. for 1t would require
immense mental power. but he said that he
felt as though he could do II that night
II ever. He donned his disguise, in order
that his appearance might not cause COM
ment. and possibly some Interference with
our plans. and We both proceeded to the
house of Elkserge. When we arrived there
L asked to see the oldest son. To him ex-
planned the matter. and requested him not
TO tell any other member Of the family,
as did not wish to arouse any hopes which
might possibly be vain. He admitted us TO
the room where his father lay. ana then
left US alone. The supreme moment had
arrived Kegerly stepped over to the bed
side. and. fixing his eyes on those closed
Ids OF Elkserge, said, in a tone, which
showed that all the will power of the man
m fnrA
awake" at the same time striking him
sharply on the breast. The eyes slowly
unclosed, Elkserge's breath came faster
ana faster: he moved: he awoke to con-
seriousness: then kegerly, with a cry Of
JOY, fell In faint"
The doctor paused, refreshed himself
from the sideboard, and then resumed:
There lis not much more to tell Elkseree
got We'll and when he first awoke. he ask
ed III We were through setting his leg think
Ing that he had been asleep but an hour or
so. at the most He had slept Just two
months and sixteen days. One peculiar
feature OF this sleep was that his leg had
been healing all the time. and when I re-
moved the bandages and splints IL was al
most WELL
What became OF Kegerly?" I inquired.
He was sick two months with nervous
prostration. and upon his recovery he went
to Rome, where he still practices law.
hear from him occasionally, and he writes
me that never from that time has he been
aple To exercise any sign of hypnotic power
whatever. AS for myself, / closed up nv
business in London. and after trayelinx
Tor two years, came here, settled under
an assumed name, and have built up a
large practice. My Investigations in hyp-
notism have been carried on but / never
yet have found a man who possessed the
hypnotic power in such a remarkable de,
gree as did Kegerly."
Divorced the Wrong Woman.