Evening star., 1895-06-08
CHAPTER V.

We made way to Lazattis, and it
was over our dinner that Hewitt put me in
full possession of the earlier facts of this
| case, which l have set down as impersonal
narrative in their proper place at the be-
ginning.
But" 1 said, "what of that aimless
scribble you spoke of that Gerard made in
the police station? Can see it?''
Hewitt turned to where his coat hung
behind him. and took handful of papers
from his pocket. Most of these he said,
mean nothing at all. That is what he
wrote at first and he handed me the first
of the two papers which were presented in
fac simile in the earlier part of this mar
rative You see'' he said, "he has begun
mechanically from long use to write Mon
sieur-the usual beginning of a letter. But
he scarcely makes three letters before tall
ing off into sheer scribble- He tries again
and again, and, although once there is
something very like que and once some
thing like word preceded by negative
n, the whole thing IS meaningless. This"
he handed me the other paper. which had
been printed in fac simile-"does mean
something. though Gerard never intended
1t. Can you spot the meaning? Really. l
think its pretty plain, especially now that
you know as much as / about the DAYS
adventures. The thing at the top left-hand
corner, may tell you, Gerard intended for
q sketch of a clock on the mantelpiece in
the police station
l stared hard at the paper but could
make nothing whatever of it Il only see
the horseshoe clock, l said. land sort of
second unsuccessful attempt to draw it
again. Then there is horseshoe dotted,
but Scribbled over, and then a sort of kite
or balloon on string, Highlander, and
well. l don't understand it, confess. Tell
me-"
I'll explain what I learned from that"
Hewitt said, "and also what led me to look
for it. From what the inspector told me l
judge the man to be in a very curious
| q fp
1 was curious to know why he should have
terror of bread at one moment and eat il
ravenously at another. When I saw him l
felt pretty sure that he was not mad in the
common sense of the term. AS far as l
could judge. it seemed to be a case of
asphaSia. Then, when the doctor came, i
had chat (as l have already told YOU
with tho policeman who found the man
He told me about the incident of the bread
with rather more detail than / had had
from the inspector. Thus 1t was plain that
the man was terrified at the bread only
when 1t was in the form of loaf and ate
it eagerly when it was cut into pieces
That was one thing to bear in mind He
was not afraid of bread but only of a loaf
Very well. l asked the policeman to
find another uncut loaf and to put it near
the man when his attention was diverted
Meantime the doctor reported that my sus-
plclon as TO aphasia was right. The man
grew more comfortable and was assured
that he was among friends and had nothing
to fear; SO that when at length he found
lenty territied-only very uneasy / watch
ed him and saw him turn it bottom up-a
very curious thing to do. He immediately
became less uneasy-the turning of the
loaf seemed to have set his mind at rest in
some way! This was more curious still. l
thought for some little while before ac-
cepting the bomb theory as the most prob
able.
THE doctor left, and l determined to give
the man another chance with pen and pa
per. l felt pretty certain that if he We're