use for them. For where could he use them? Denson
had left his lodgings, and as to the office, that, he would guess, would
be in the hands of the police, on Samuel's complaint. The immediate
result of this affair on the only honest member of Mayes's circle I have
told in the case of Mr. Jacob Mason. He was not yet thoroughly in
Mayes's hands, but he had "dabbled," as he remorsefully confessed, and
Mayes had already found him useful. He was dangerous, and his end came
quickly. Another victim who had probably begun innocently enough was
Henning, the clerk to Kingsley, Bell and Dalton, and his death in the
Penn's Meadow barn leaves a mystery that never can be positively cleared
up. Was it murder or was it suicide by post-hypnotic suggestion? It will
be remembered that the fire burst out in the barn after Mayes had left
it.

The case of Mr. Telfer was explained clearly enough by Hewitt at the
time; but it is an example of the snares that lie open for the most
innocent person who allows himself to be made the subject of hypnotic
experiments at the hands of persons with whom, and with whose objects,
he is not thoroughly acquainted. And it must be remembered that at this
time there are persons advertising to teach the practice of hypnotism to
anybody who will pay; to anybody who may use the terrible power as he
pleases. More, the danger is so great that it has led two eminent men of
science to issue a public protest and warning, with an urgent plea that
the practice of hypnotism be restricted by law at least as closely as
that of vivisection.

As to what would have happened if Plummer and I had yielded to Mayes's
threats so far as to undergo the "initiation" he proposed, at the time
we were helpless in his hands--of that I have little doubt. I cannot
suppose that he would have wasted much time over me, once I had fallen
lethargic. When Hewitt burst in he would have found me lying dead, with
the Red Triangle on my forehead. It would have saved Mayes a lot of
noise and struggle, at least.

But I often wonder whether or not there was anything in his reference to
the place beyond the sea, where he would make me a great man if I did as
he wished. Was it his design, having accumulated sufficient wealth, to
return and take his natural place among the enlightened rulers of Hayti?
He would not have been so much worse than some of the others.

End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Red Triangle, by Arthur Morrison

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