The Brookings register. [volume] (Brookings, Brookings County, S.D.) 1903-1971, 1906-06-14
The Hypnotic Burglar.
II JOHN KENNETH TURNER.

Copyright. 1906. by Daily story Pub. Coz
The town of Harvey was in =
state of terror over a series Ut
most astounding burglaries.
The local police force had been
temporarily doubled in numbers
and the lone plain clothes man of
the department, Detective Keene,
| had been made chief of a score OF
men specially sworn in to assist
in hunting down the mysterious
and elusive criminal. =
Evidence went far to prove that
a trained hypnotist was operating
in the town and rendering his vic
Tins powerless by THE influence
of the Svengali eye. People
wakened in the dead of night by
the presence of a thief in the room
had been Overpowered by mes
meric influence, and the detec-
tives believed that some law
breaker versed in the science of
hypnotism was using his devilish
art in the work of footing the resi-
dences of the wealthy persons of
the little city.
The first case reported to the
police had been met with incredu--
lily, even derisiOn. Abraham
Martin had told how, while sleep
ing peacefully beside his wife, he
had suddenly been awakened by
noises in the room. AS he sat up
he became conscious that two
glaring eyes were staring directly
into his own and that a face was
pressed close to his. For. an in
slant he sat there aStOnished and
terrified: then he lost all sense of
fear and surprise and yielded to
some soothing, deadening influ-
ence. He had sat back and
watched, as from the outside.
while the intruder took his val
uables and departed.
"The man was either drunk or
dreaming" Opined Detective
Keene. when Martin was gone.
"There may have been a burglar
in the house, but if there was.
Martin was simply too frightened
to move. You can't tell me any
thing about hypnotism."
But when the following day Il
prominent merchant came in with
a story of a precisely similar ex-
perience, the sleuth was impelled
to sit up and take notice. AS
Martins story had not been made
public, the police were startled
and began a rigid investigation.
But the remarkable burglaries
continued - all alike - in each
case the victim reported that,
after awaking to find "a pair of
brilliant eyes staring into his
own, he had lapsed into a state of
conscious Indifference and watch
ed the loss Of his valuables with
out any sense of injury. The au-
thOrities were appalled,, nom
plussed; the citizens were terror
stricken, many refusing to sleep
at night lest their turn to play the
part of victim might come next.
Large subscriptions were raised
to pay for the bringing of outside
detectives to cooperate with the
local police, but all the efforts to
catch a glimpse of the criminal
except in the actual commission
of his crime were vain.
Some there were who held to the
opinion that there was more than
one burglar. They pointed to the
reports of the victims to prove
that there could not be fewer
than three or four. Indeed, hard
ly two descriptions were alike.
One would have the thief tall, an
other short, n slim, another
stout, one light, another dark;
and so it went.
keene himself slept only in the
daytime, and he had not been to
bed for four consecutive nights
previous to his own experience
with the hypnotic burglar. Keene
was a shrewd fellow enough, but
he was especially noted for his
iron nerve. No burglar could
hypnotic him, he was sure, and
when bafied in his attempts to
secure some clew to the villain, he
had yearned for just such an en-
counter as his neighbOrs on every
side were quaking in fear of.
But Keene's own time came at
last and the detective was hardly
as ready for the experience as he
had thought himself. Feeling I'M