"No," said Forrest. "I was intensely surprised when I discovered these proofs of his identity and at first I thought they could not apply to him, but before I come to the connecting link, let me mention one curious thing in the letters, which may do something to explain the curious influence which Mannering exerted over Mrs. Sutgrove."
"He hypnotized me, I am sure," declared Evie, decidedly.
"Very possibly," replied the detective. "In nearly every letter was to be found an admonition to the effect—I cannot give you a verbatim translation—that the writer hoped his old pupil would not forget that to him was entrusted the secret power of Siva, which would, by practice, enable him to mould all men to his will."
"If he had possessed that," I interrupted, "there would have been no necessity for him to have practised piracy on the high-road."
"True," said Forrest. "But it is quite possible that Mrs. Sutgrove's conjecture is correct, and that even at that early age Mannering had learnt something about hypnotism from his native instructor, for I am very certain that of these semi-occult sciences, the East has much more precise knowledge than is realized by the Western world."
"Very likely," said my wife, shuddering slightly at the remembrance. "He certainly had a most singular power over me."
"He probably increased his knowledge when he returned to his native land, which, I gathered, must have taken place when he was about seventeen. Then there is a break for nearly ten years in his history."
"I don't quite see how you connect Ram Krishna Roy with Mannering," I interpolated.
"I'm coming to that," replied Forrest. "With these letters was another in its original envelope addressed in the same hand to Julian Mannering at San Francisco. It was the most interesting letter of the lot. It was full of reproaches addressed to the dear pupil, who had cut himself off from the asceticism of the East, and devoted himself to the gross materialism of Western civilization. It concluded by the expression of an intention to once more attempt to persuade him to return by a personal appeal. On the back of the letter was a note in Mannering's handwriting. 'Old Chatterji kept his promise. I had quite a long conversation with him in the ballroom last night. Everybody thought I was drunk or mad to be talking Hindustani, apparently to empty air. However, that's the last of him. I've done with the East.'".
"You make him more a man of mystery than ever," I exclaimed.