tion
to the credulity of the applicant, and when all was told, it could not
be truthfully said that either, or all, had discovered about Dr.
Medjora aught save that which he may have permitted them to learn.
Probably no one thoroughly understood Dr. Medjora, except Dr. Medjora
himself. That he did comprehend himself, appreciating exactly his
abilities and his limitations, there cannot be a shadow of a doubt.
And it was this that made him such a master of men, being as he was so
completely the master of himself. Those who felt bound to admit that
in his presence they dwindled even in their own estimation, attributed
it to various causes, all erroneous, the true secret being what I have
stated. Some said that it was a certain magnetic power which he
exerted through his eyes. The Doctor's eyes certainly were remarkable.
Deep set in the head, and thus hidden by the beautifully arched brows,
they seemed to lurk in the shadow, and from their point of vantage to
look out at, and I may say into, the individual confronting him. I
remember the almost weird attraction of those eyes when I first met
him. Being at the time interested in an investigation of the phenomena
which have been attributed to mesmerism, hypnotism, and other "isms"
which are but different terms for the same thing, I could not resist
the impulse to ask him whether he had ever attempted any such
experiments. Evading my question, without apparently meaning to shirk
a reply, he merely smiled and said, "Do you believe in that sort of
thing?" Then he passed on and spoke to some one else. I relate the
incident merely to show the manner of the man. But on the point,
raised by some, that he controlled men by supernatural means, I think
that we must dismiss that hypothesis as untenable in the main. Of
course those who believed that he possessed some uncanny or mysterious
power of the eyes, might be influenced by his keen scrutiny, and would
probably reveal whatever he were endeavoring to extort from them. But
a true analysis would show that this was but an exhibition of their
weakness, rather than of his strength. Yet, after all, the man was
excessively intellectual, and as the eyes have been aptly called the
"windows of the soul," what more natural than that so self-centred and
wilful a man should find his lustrous orbs a great advantage to him
through life?

At the moment of his entrance into the private office of Messrs.
Dudley & Bliss, those two young men had partl