A Hypnotic Crime

It happened in this way. We of the Capital Comerïy company, having one suinmer a month's vacation, decided to fill it in with a "stock season, " worked on the joint stock system at BeachiDgton. We extended the commonwealth principie from the stage to the home and took a ininished house, wherein we all resided with more comfort and at less expense than is possible in seaside lodgings. We fellows had a smoking billiard room for our amusement, the girls had a boudoir for their gosaip, and the married ladies kindly looked after the consumable properties and the proprietiea And very good company we voted onrselves. My sister Vere and her husband, Edmond Hatherleigh, were in the "crowd, ' ' and their special favorito was a young Spanish girl, who had taken to the boards - the Señorita Aloida Velasquez. 8he was my especial favorite, too, but I mustn 't anticípate. Being seriously in love with the fair Spaniard - who was dark, by the bye - my jealons eyes noted all things affecting her in any way, and it seemed to me that my brother-in-law admired her just a little too much. He was most polite and attentive to his wife, but every now and again I caught him looking at Alcida with more admiration in his impressive eyes than was good for him or for the object of it either. One evening after the performance at the theater, the ladies having retired for the night, we gentlemen adjourned to the smoking room for weeds and whisky. There the desultory talk somehow veered round to hypnotism and such phenomena, whereon most of us, being ignorant of the subject, expatiated with force and volubility. Hatherleigh, however, who had been a medico before he became a mummer, spoke about it as one having authority, and we were all astonished, though I was by no means convinced by the arguments he advanced and the evidence he adduced in support of the theory of hypnotic suggestion, especially in its relation to crime. "But do you mean to say, " siid I incredulously, "that if you suggest a crime to a hypnotized subject he will commit it?" "Certainly, " Hatherleigh replied. "When in practice, I hypnotized several patients and by suggestion relieved many of thern of diseases which had hitherto been considered incurable. ' ' "So you have frequently said, " I returned, "bufc for my part I doubt if there is any such thing as hypnotism at all. You may possibly obtain influence over weakminded persons and by workiug on their credulous imaginations effect cures of nervous disorders, but - well, I should like to see the man who could hypnotize me!" "Wouldyou?" Hatherleigh inquired, with a smile that was half a sneer. "What do you say to allowing me to make the experiment?" "Oh, I'm game, if you're willing!" I retorted rather warmly. "Very well, " said my relative coolly. "When shall we begin?" "Now, " I answered boldly. "Thanks," said Hatherleigh, with another sarcastic smile. "Now, gentlemen" - turning to the others - "may I ask you to leave us alone for a few minutes?" For answer the fellows went solemnly out of the room, adjuring me to bear up and promising me a really handsome funeral should the experiment prove fatal. As for me, I now feit pretty much as a man feels when he's going to have a tooth out. "Now, Sir Doubtful, " said my brother-in-law, "just throw away your cigar and look me full in the face. ' ' I did so. Looking up into the man's face, I began to realize that it was a serious matter for him, and that it might be serious for me also. For a moment I feit inclined to withdraw, for Hatherleigh looked as though he really did possess the power he claimed, but obstinuicy and pride overéame fear, and I said carelessly, "Go on with your hypuotizing. ' ' "I have already commenced, " he replied, fixing his eyes on mine. I had expected him to make passes with his hands and perform all that sort of inummery, but he sat quite still, looking me quietly in the faca For a time I fearlessly returned his gaze, but suddenly all my surroundings seemed to fade away, and I saw nothing but a pair of fiery eyes which seemed to burn into my soul. I tried to shut my own eyes to the sight, but in vain. Those terrible eyes grew larger and larger until they seemed to fill the limits of spaoe, and then I awoke to fiud Hatherleigh regarding me with an anxious but satisfied look. The other fellows had returned, and they began aaking me all sorts of questions. But I had nothing to teil. I had no unpleasant f eeling. I seemed to have been dozing - that was all. The clock, too, showed that the experiment had lasted but a few minutes. "Well, " I asked Hatherleigh, "how have you succeeded?" "Beyond my most sanguine expectations, " he replied, with deep meaning in bis tone. "How do you feel?" "Oh, pretty well, '' I answered. "I don't want to hurt your feelings, Edmoiid, but I don't feel hypnotized a bit!" "No? Well, we sball see," he said ! quietly, shrugging his shouldere. Ha looked fatigned, and staggered as he crossed the room. "Aren 't you well?" I asked. "Quite well, thanks, " he replied, "but these experiment weaken me for % time - it is nothiug. Qood night!" So sayiug, he sank into a chair, and we left him to finish his oigar by the fireside while we wended our ways to bed, all woudering how he would convince me that I was hypnotized. I intended to turn in at once; but, to my dismay, I could not do so. I tried to nndress, but I was by some strange force impelled to open my tronk and take from it a curious old hunting knife I once frequeutly used as a "property. " I never use it now. I exerted all the will power I possessed and endeavored to replace the weapon, for a sense of impending daiiger was upon me, but my will seemed paralyzed, and I carefully drew the knife from its sheath, leeling its keen edge with my thumb. By the same mysterious influence I was next forced to remove my slippers and creep stealthily to my sister's bedroom. A hundred times I tried to retrace my steps, but still the awful force impelled me forward nntil I silently entered Vere's chamber. Closing the door noiselessly behind me, I advanced on tiptoe to the bedside. The room was in semidarkness, but the light of the ïhaded lamp on the dressing table ihowed me that my sister was sleeping peacefully, though there were traces of recent tears npon her palé faca Every detail of the room is stamped apon my memory, and I remember noticing that the flngers of the tiny doek on the mantelshelf pointed to 10 minutes to 3. "Good heavens, " I thought, "why am I here? What dreadful influence is it that deprives me of my will?" Then in a flash I knew that my purpose was murder - to murder my own sister ! ' ' Why does she not awake? ' ' I thought in my agony. "Why does not her hus,band save her from this death and me from this cirme? Her husband ! That was the solution of the mystery. He had hypnotized me after all, and I was the agent of his will. But why was I to kill his wife, my darling sister Vere? Then I remembered the words he had whispered to me during my brief hypnotic sleep. "You doubted my power, " he said or rather hissed. "Fooi! But greater fooi to think to win Alcida. She is for me - do you hear? - for me. Your puling, white faced sister must be removed, and you shall do it. Yes, you shall kill her and suffer for the crime, leaving me f ree for love - and Alcida. ' ' All was plain to me. I knew that I was compelled to shed my innocent sister's blood. All this I knew, yet had no power to stay my own murderous hand. Think of my position, and imagine, if you can, the mental agony I endured. Advaucing closer to the bedside and carefully drawing back the coverlet, I raised the knife to strike. Then the little clock on the mantelshelf chimed 2. I had regained my will. With a cry of infinite relief I flung the knife from me and rushed out of the room. Hatherleigh was still seated beside the fire when I burst, breathless, into the smoking room. I called him by name. But he returned no answer. He was dead. No doubt my brother-in-law had died at 2 o'clock precisely, his death being due to the intense excitement consequent upon the strain he had, by hypnotizing me, put upon himself. If so, the reasou of my sudden recovery of will power is plain enough, for with his death his influënce over my will naturally ceased. Anyhow I am more than thankf ui that something between heaven and earth, until then undreamed of in my philosophy, saved me from committing a crime of which my moral innocence would have availed me little in a court of justice. What became of the Señorita Alcida? Oh, she is now my wife. - London TitBits.