The Argosy, Vol. 81, No. 4 — page 154: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

720 THE might get on to what I was dabbling with his strange little playmates for. The Hin- doo said I could go anywhere for the test. ‘New York City?’ I asked him. That would do, yes. But, I stipulated, there was to be no taking me into some room already rigged up with clap-trap. I re- fused to be fooled. He’d have to play square. So what could he give me in the line of a test? “He thought for a minute or two, and then he asked me at what hotel I would stop in New York. That made me stop and think. The fellow certainly sounded mighty sure of himself. If he and his gang started pulling the sword-and-basket stunt, or maybe the growing-mango-tree trick around the halls and lobbies of- any hos- telry, there’d surely be a rumpus. And that I was mixed up im it would be just as certain to get back to my unele. And then I thought of my friend, Dr. Pruell, here—he could put me up at the Amblers’, as he’d often offered to do. I told Naigai that was where I’d go. “ «Start to walk down Fifth Avenue be- tween ten and eleven o’clock next, Monday morning, from that club,’ the Hindoo di- rected me, ‘and you will see a test of the supernatural that will convince you—done in no closed room, but out in the open air itself!’ “Well, that’s all. I came down last night, and I slept at the club. When I got up this morning, though, I had cold feet. Those same stunts I’ve mentioned might be pulled off in the street. I tell you, that East Indian had me going with his confident way of talking. I was afraid of all sorts of unpleasant publicity. So I stayed inthe club’s smoking-room till an hour ago. Then I came around here to ask Dr. Pruell’s advice. do about believing the fellow was a genuine seer, and all that. And the doctor has told me—”’ Charles Dempster, no longer able to re- strain his impatience, here rose very abruptly. “Pardon me!” he broke in upon Satter- lee’s words. ‘Doctor, I wish you to hear my case at once! This morning I was followed by a foreigner, who sold me a ring for a dollar. And with it on my finger I have been unable to purchase and keep another dollar’s worth of anything since. I was told by the man that the ring was enchanted—” | What I’d better. ARGOSY. © Still smiling, Dr. Pruell rose. He re- quested Satterlee to do likewise, and then he turned him and Charles Dempster around ‘to face the mirror in the room. “There’s the explanation of what is'the matter with you, Dempster?” the physician informed the latter. like this young gentleman. it yourself?” Staring into the glass, from the face of the stranger beside him to his own mir- rored countenance, Mr. Haviland could see that they bore a startling resemblance to each other. This, then, was what had struck him as being so peculiar about the other’s face when he had first seen it. Slowly, Charles Dempster turned back to the physician. ““Isn’t it all clear to you now?” the latter questioned. “This was the test that was to be made to Mr. Satterlee. The Hindoo’s proof of his ability to produce miracles. So that he could get hold of his thou- sand dollars for making a guess—it would have been nothing more than that—as to what was in his uncle’s will. The demon- stration was. made to you by mistake. You say you were given a ring, and told that it would make you sell whatever you bought after that for double? Then all sorts of people began coming up to you every time you bought anything—” - “They did!” almost snapped Mr. Havi- land. “They most certainly did! Men, absolute strangers to me, snatched every- thing away from me as fast as I paid for it. J met four in all—”. “Not ‘met,’” corrected the doctor. “They were all hired ‘supers’ in the game, who had been following you from the mo- ment the Hindoo left you. out each time you made a purchase, each one a different individual to help make the charm seem really at work. A game, Dempster, my son—that’s all it was!” Mr. Haviland was slowly unbuttoning-his glove. A light had broken on his face. He looked at the doctor and then at his double, Satterlee, from Larchmont. And, walking to the open window, with a rather Can’t you see Ready to bob: “You look too much ~ «a. sheepish smile, he thrust his hand out | of it. _ There was a tinkle on the pavement be- low. “Well, now, if you'll excuse me,” said Mr. Charles Dempster Haviland, starting toward the door, “I think I’ll go and buy that other ring!” ¢ CORNICGLOOOLK (E@)