“How about my wife’s pearl necklace?” broke in Calhoun-Cooper. “Did Miss Fordyce take that also?”
“I fear so,” faltered Marjorie. “But I have never seen the necklace in her possession.”
“Have you any objection to sending for your daughter, Fordyce, and asking her to return the necklace to me?”
Before Fordyce could reply to Calhoun-Cooper’s question, Potter interrupted him.
“It will do little good,” he began. “Janet is herself again, and all is forgotten; the crime, the impulse, and the instigator.”
“Do you mean to say we cannot learn the name of the fiend who has used my daughter as a puppet to accomplish his villany?” cried Fordyce unbelievingly.
“Not unless we hypnotize Janet anew, when her loss of memory will return. She can then probably tell us the author of the suggestion, the time, the place, and the manner.”
“A witness cannot be constrained to undergo hypnotism,” put in Pauline, breaking her long silence. “It is against the law.”
“And how do you know that?” asked Potter.
“A friend, who attended Janet’s boarding-school, told me that a young teacher, who took a number of pupils to see Keller, discovered that Janet was susceptible to hypnotism. The magician used her as a subject in the audience. Afterwards the teacher often demonstrated her power over Janet. Mr. Fordyce found it out”—Calderon Fordyce drinking in every word nodded affirmatively, “and wished to prosecute the teacher, but her lawyer refused to permit Janet to be hypnotized so that she might testify against her.”