The Washington times., 1913-04-16
DAILY SERIAL STORY
TITHCvT TTDT By Henry Kitchen Webster
Z uho Of The Whispering Man
Copyright Frank MC

plate, evidently'-he turned to JEFF
frey-"as the one you used for the
portrait. That picture gave me the
clue 1t was marked, spotted all over.
with pin-pricks.
1 heard little catch in Jeffrey's slow,
even breathing. and he sat up with
sudden look of illumination.
That's very interesting" he said.
1t was his first remark since Crow had
begun his story. 1T must have seemed
strange to come upan an evidence OF
Salem witchcraft here IN the beginning
OF the twentieth century,
You're rather wonderful" said
Crow, Ito get it all in a minute like
that. 1t took me three solid days to
figure 1t out, and I have heard of one
or two other modern cases that might
have given me precedent"
You will have to explain 1t to me,
said I.
why. she must have gone on hating
her niece for years in her cold. .re-
pressed Meredith way. / know that
during the time they lived in Paris she
was amusing herself with new reiis-
ions-some OF the pseudo mysuclsm
that is cropping up everywhere in Eu-
rope and America. and Is making life
such a cinch for a lot or these fake
East Indian Brahmins. The eccentric
streak that is SO characteristic In her
family happened to take that form.
She had a photograph taken Of her
niece, and began making pin-pricks N
| II, with the idea of exercising a ma
| lign influence on the girl-possibly even
with the idea that the effect of IT
would be fatal The idea was horrify-
ing to me, until / came to the conclu-
sion that the act itself had been a part
, OF her delpsion- Or perhaps she did 1t
& wholly experimental and incredu-
uithonf serious BELIEF
that IL could do her niece any harm.
But you win understand in a moment
| how the coincidence of the malady
that did overtake Claire must have
affected her. The marks of smallpox
| must have seemed perfectly definite
correspondents to the pin-pricks in the
| photograph. The fact that the doctors
| called II smallpox-even the fact that
/ there was an epidemic of it in the
! city at the time-didn't at all relieve
| her own interior conviction that she
and no one else was responsible for
| Claire's death.
Tie moment l discovered where the
| seat of the delusion was / set to work
| to removing it. 1 brought Miss Mere
dith into town, took her about with me
| wherever l thought 1t was safe; in
word. did everything l could TO divert
| her mind.
Meanwhile 1 had sent to the pho
! tographer in Paris who had made the
photograph and asked him for another
| print. When it came back l took it to
Beech Hill and substituted IT for the
pin-pricked one in Miss Meredith's box.
/ began talking about Claire, -
| finally succeeded in getting Miss Mere
| dith to talk about her in more or
| less normal way.
Finally L said I thought it would be
an excellent plan TO have Claire's por-
trait painted. / remarked that / had
come upon an excellent photograph of
her In Miss Meredith's box, and that
thought skillful partrait painter like
yourself'-he nodded toward Jeffrey
would be able TO produce satisfac-
tory as well as beautiful portrait
from il.
of course, the idea that | had found
out what she regarded as her, fatal
secret excited my patient exceedingly.
/ had taken her to Beech Hill for the
purpose of making the suggestion, and
against her vigorous protest, l went 10
the box, got out the photograph and
showed IL 10 her. OF course. she was
greatly excited to find II was not de-
faced.
But the result of the experiment was
as had anticipated. She knew she had
been ill., had been suffering from delu-
sions. arc she simply placed this among
them ard dismissed II as nothing worse
than long nightmare. She seemed TO
me 10 be on the road to a complete re-
cove,y.
And then something happened 1
couldn't possibly have foreseen-some-
thing that has gone far TO undo all that
| tried to accomplish in the way of ef-
fectine A cure.
BY some means or other which |
never have fathomed. pair of Spir-
ftualists learned or guessed that Miss
Meredith might be made their prey.
They get into communication with
her-a thing that Miss Merediths
greatly improved health made ii much
easier fer them to do than ii would
have been three months before and
persuaded her to come TO snance.
'.TheY got hold OF some woma n.
don't know where, who bore 4 rather
surprising likeness TO Miss Mercdiths
dead niece. They even succeeded in
the one Claire had worn when she had
her photograph taken, and they show
ed Miss Meredith a :naterlaliz lizdtion
vivid and lifelike enough to upset the
mind that had so recently regained its
balance.
There were circunstanc, which
made II impossible .ot me TO appeal
to the police, so | did the only thing
that seemed left for me to do. ! found
out the woman who had impersonated
Claire at the Seance and bribei her
with a good round sum 20 disap ppcar.
And since then j have made some
progress toward effecting a second
cure
Gu were iuChy 10 get rio OF me
imposter as easily AS that" said jeff
rey- Those people generally stick
like leeches. They 20 away with one
bribe only to come back for another"
'T've an idea that fate took a hand
in that game" 50 d Dr. Crow soberly
II believe that young woman met with
foul play. Certainly the pictures the
papers published Of thu girl who was
found in the ice few months ago
hore a striking resemblance to her.
I'd have been glad TO give the police
a hint that would lead toward her
Identification, II the circumsta a nces
had not made It impossible. But I