The Beaver herald. [volume] (Beaver, O.T. [Okla.]) 1895-1923, 1908-10-22


and at all times attracted special atten-
tion to the man; but coupled with this
distinguished personality, and sin
Cling him out as remarkable in the
highest degree, was the fact that he
lived in duplicate.
Thus--if on Monday he arose early,
breakfasted on coffee, toast and eggs,
afterwards retired to his rooms to
occupy himself until noon at his desk;
then, after partaking of lunch, quit his
rooms to ramble about the city, giving
aims to the cid blind organ woman,
going up and down particular streets
and through particular quarters, thence
back to his hotel, to his dinner to his
desk after dinner, and finally to bed
ON Tuesday he would go through
precisely the same regime.
On Wednesday he perhaps would
spend the day quite differently, arising
late, going out on horseback for the
entire day, attending the theater at
night, and to bed at midnight or later;
but howsoevcr he spent Wednesday,
Thursday-or the day following-was
sure to be repetition down to the
smallest detail.
Friday would see commenced a new
series of action for Saturday to dupli-
cate.
He was the ccho--as it were-of
himself, and a consummate echo at
that, for time and time again he had
been watched to see whether he would
not make some mistake or fail in his
series of duplication, but whenever it
was possible for an act to be dupli-
Gated he never had been known to fail
In its duplication; and, indeed, he
had grown so shrewd in the matter
that ne never did on one day what
could not reasonably be duplicated
upon the next-if that succeeding day
was to be duplication of the pre-
ceding one, and not the beginning Of
new series of action.
Living his own life in his own re-
served way, cultured and studious,
troubling no one, offending none;
doubly liberal in his expenditures and
never pressed for means, steadfast in
his chosen eccentricity-if such it were
and in his face and manner no ques-
tioning doubt of himself, perhaps in
time Henry Hobart had been accepted
like any other man, the curious had
ceased to be curious, and his mysteRi-
Gus character, without any further or
deeper scrutiny, had become one of the
mysteries of human life, had not the
man been suddenly struck down as by
an invisible hand and the appalling
IF
fold the mystery of his life.
On Tuesday morning. at Is min
utes of ten o'clock, an attendant was
summoned by the call-bell to room
63 of the Sumner house, and upon
obeying the call found Henry Hobart
struggling in the throes of a strange
and unnatural death.
The Man Who Did Things Twice
half dressed, standing in the center
of his outer room, was battling with
the invisible air about him for breath
lor, as the attendant put it later, Like
he was fightln' with something tha
weren't there"
The hotel was aroused, DR.. THE
was hastily summoned from his Office
on the next floor, and everything wa!
done that science could suggest o.
despair persuade, yet in less than tel
minutes Henry Hobart lay dead on tn,
floor, within his stilled brain hidder
the profound mystery of his life, ant
lstill echoing in the death room hi
one strangled cry ere death sealed hi
blue lips-"To-morrow!"
1t was strange case, questionabl,
case, a frightful case, but beyond al
1T proved baffing case, for the police
came, removed the body to the morgue
intimating death by poison or othe
foul play, and examined the.r rooms anC
'overhauled the possessions of the deaC
man, but who the deceased was, whit
his kindred or what his former resi-
dence, or the cause of his death, the,
could not discover. The scholarly tones
that filed his shelves bore no sigma
lures or bookmarks, and private pa
pers of any kind there were none. Tht
autopsy made the same day-after
noon--upon the body of the decease,
failed to discover any poison and DR.
Thiels belief that the man had beei
strangled seemed without support, a
no foreign substance or growth OF an.
kind was found in the windpipe or al
passages.
One thing only seemed certain, on,
thing only was undisputed-The MAJ
Who Did Things Twice, with severet
windpipe and autopsy-marred body
would not duplicate his own dealt
upon the morrow. He had come to hi
death on Tuesday a Tuesday witt
which-had he lived-he would hav
begun new course of action to b.
duplicated on Wednesday, But he ha
died, and now for once The Man VIII
Did Things Twice would fail in his &c
eentricity. Perhaps for that his spiri
would be troubled.
Next morning, while the attendan
who had been first on the death seen
of the previous day was holding fort