“Miss Marjorie,” began Calderon Fordyce. “Tell me who Janet has been with most frequently since coming to Washington, and who are her confidential friends.”
“Miss Langdon comes under that heading better than anyone else,” interpolated Pauline, and her spiteful manner made her meaning plain, but Marjorie did not flinch under the attack. She was about to speak when Potter answered for her.
“That is a matter of no moment,” he broke in. “If Janet voluntarily alienated her free-will to a magnetizer, though the latter may be only a casual acquaintance, she is at his or her mercy; and by the law of habit and repetition the control of a subject becomes more easy and complete.”
“But is not a long interval required in which to hypnotize a person?” asked Pauline doubtfully.
“No. Hypnotic sleep can be produced and terminated in the time it takes a subject to traverse a short passage from door to door, and an auto-suggestion can be made in fifteen seconds and affected in all places and at any hour of the day.”
Fordyce glanced at the physician appalled. “What a frightful power for evil in unscrupulous hands. Surely Janet will be able to tell us who has gained so fearful a hold over her.”
Potter shook his head. “A suggestion will destroy all recollection of what occurred during hypnotism. As a rule the process which produced the auto-suggestion leaves no trace of its symptoms, and the subject does not remember the way it was produced, and is altogether ignorant of the original source of the impulse she has received.”
“Are we to sit here and do nothing, Paul?” demanded Duncan hotly. The opening of the hall door interrupted him.
“Why are you all staying in here?” asked Janet, from the doorway. “Our other guests have left....” A stricken silence prevailed as she advanced into the room, and she was just becoming aware of their concentrated attention when Potter leaned forward, picked up the chamois-covered hammer and struck the Chinese gong until the vibrations filled the room. Thunderstruck, the others looked at him, but he only saw Janet.
“Janet, where did you put the ruby pendant?” he asked, authoritatively.