Hugh Gordon straightened up and threw back his head. It seemed to his companion almost as if his body grew suddenly larger in the tensing of his purpose and his will.
"And I must tell you, Dr. Annister," he exclaimed, his eyes flashing and his face determined, "that I shall succeed in spite of you both.
You cannot make a good man out of him; and it is outrageous, it is impossible, that evil should thus triumph over good. I will not be submerged again. I have grown stronger as he has grown weaker and more wicked. He cannot hold out against me any longer. I shall give him one more chance to put his affairs in order and make it known that he will never return.
"It has been a hard-fought battle between us for the possession of this body. But I have won it. I am stronger than he is now and, if I wished, I could go out from this office and never let him see the light of day again. But it is right for him to have a few days more.
"And I want him to tell you one thing that he has done. He shall tell you with his own lips. It is your right to know, but he will not tell you the truth unless I make him. He shall come to see you tomorrow and you can try hypnotizing him if you want to. But before you begin give him an opportunity to make his confession. I shall make him speak.
Goodnight, Dr. Annister."
The physician sat long in his big arm-chair, his forehead upon his locked fingers. When he arose his face was haggard and, unconscious of the movement, he pressed one hand against his breast.
"No," he said aloud, "I was right. There is a possibility that I can yet reincarnate these two warring principles of selfishness and altruism into one big-hearted, splendidly endowed human being. I must take the chances and do my best. Oh, man, man! How little you know what you are doing when you trifle with either your soul or your body!
And what miracles you expect of us, to save you from the consequences you have richly earned--us who know so little more than you do!"
CHAPTER XXII
"A MOST INTERESTING CASE!"
Nine o"clock of the next evening came and pa.s.sed. Dr. Annister dismissed his last patient, looked into his waiting room and found it empty, then sat down to wait for a few minutes, unwilling to take from Felix Brand what he feared might be his last chance.
"If I can give him some help tonight," the physician"s thoughts ran, "if I can restore his self-confidence and his grip on himself, that will be just the impulse in the right direction that he needs. After that it will be easier for him and he may win yet. A most interesting case! More interesting even than Dr. Prince"s Miss Beauchamp! The cleavage is complete and clean. If I can cure it, it will be the most remarkable case on record!"
There was a tap at the open door behind him and he heard Brand"s voice saying, "Are you here, Dr. Annister?"
"Come in, Felix, come in," the doctor replied, rising, with more of professional interest than personal friendliness in his tones. "You"ve come for your first treatment, I suppose? Well, we"ll see what we can do."
Brand was moving about the room with seemingly aimless steps, a curious unwillingness upon his face. Within himself he was feeling a sense of compulsion that was moving him against his will. Within his brain he seemed not so much to hear as to feel a voice saying, "Tell him! Tell him!" And with all his strength he was battling against these inward commands.
Dr. Annister noticed his stubborn look and the defiant poise of his head. "What is it, Felix?" queried the physician. "Don"t you want to take the treatment? Have you changed your mind?"
"No, sir. I"ve not changed my mind. I"m more anxious than ever about it. Shall we begin at once?"
Suddenly his ears seemed to roar with the sound of "Tell him! Tell him! Tell him!" He started and glanced fearfully about the room.
"I will not! I will not! I will not!" His tongue formed the words of refusal behind closed lips, pressed together in a hard line.
Dr. Annister drew a quick, deep breath. "I"m not in very good shape tonight, Felix, but I"ll do the best I can for you," he said, as he stepped to a cabinet at the back of the room, where he measured out and swallowed a dose of medicine. "Now, if you"re ready, we"ll begin,"
he went on, and was surprised to see his companion stagger back a step or two and pa.s.s his hand irresolutely over his face.
"Yes, Dr. Annister, at once. But there is something--" the words came slowly, in a monotonous, strained tone through his barely opened lips.
Sudden recollection flashed upon the doctor"s mind of something Gordon had said the night before. He had forgotten it, in his interest in the peculiar features of the case, until that moment. "Oh," he exclaimed, "is there something you want to speak of first? What is it?"
Brand"s face was pale, his eyes staring and his hands clenched in the struggle he was still making against that inward mastery bent on forcing him to a confession he was determined he would not make. For he greatly feared its effect upon Dr. Annister"s intention to help him, while its other probable consequences he was most unwilling to accept.
But that other will within himself was stronger than his own determination. Already he felt his defiance growing numb before it. He walked irresolutely across the room and back while Dr. Annister looked at him with surprise and dawning suspicion.
"Well, what is it?" the physician repeated.
Felix stopped short and gave himself an angry shake. Then with a little snarl he faced about and began, with eyes averted:
"I don"t suppose it will please you to hear it," he blurted out, and the other could not know that the sharpness in his tones was merely the expression of his futile rage against that hated other will, housed within his own body, that was forcing him to do a thing sure to interfere with his plans and pleasures. "But I"m going to tell you and you can make the best of it."
In his impotent anger he was ready now to say any ruthless thing that occurred to him. And not for any price would he have had Dr. Annister discover that he was not making this confession of his own accord.
"You said yesterday that the engagement between Mildred and me must be ended. Well, it is ended, but not in the way you meant. We are married."
"What! What do you say?" the doctor exclaimed, wheeling toward him with frowning brow.
"I said, we"re married already. We"ve been married two months. I took her over to Jersey one day and we were married there."
"You dared--Felix Brand, you dared do this, knowing what you knew?"
"It seems so," the other coolly replied. "Mildred was quite willing,"
he went on with a little sneer. "I needed her love. I"d have been a fool not to take what she was ready to give me. And I married her.
Maybe I was a fool to do that, but I did."
"A fool? You were a knave, a wretch, to take advantage of an innocent girl"s love!" cried her father, moving toward him with threatening manner and blazing eyes. Then, suddenly, the physician staggered back and sank into his arm-chair.
"Leave me, Felix," he said, and though his tones were suddenly grown feeble, they still vibrated with angry contempt. "Go, now, at once. I don"t want you near me. But I"ll see you again about this matter. And if you try to communicate with Mildred I"ll have you arrested! Go!
Go!"
The architect turned on his heel and left the room. Dr. Annister sank wearily into his chair and his hands sought their accustomed position.
Then they too fell back against his chest. "Mildred!" his white lips whispered, then stiffened and were still.
[Ill.u.s.tration: "MILDRED!" HIS WHITE LIPS WHISPERED, THEN STIFFENED AND WERE STILL]
CHAPTER XXIII
WHITHER?
Felix Brand opened his eyes, then let the lids quickly flutter down again. He was afraid to look about him, for he was no longer sure where he might awaken after what seemed to him to have been no more than an ordinary night"s sleep. Apprehensively he lifted one hand to his face and felt of his upper lip. There was no mustache upon it.
Rea.s.sured, he opened his eyes again, and with deep relief gazed about his familiar bedroom.
"I guess it"s still the next day after yesterday," he said to himself with profound satisfaction. For a moment he centered his attention upon himself. "And that d.a.m.ned Gordon has subsided," he muttered. "I don"t feel him at all this morning. That"s promising. I"ve had a good night"s rest, now I"ll have a good day and tonight I"ll go to see Dr.
Annister and let him begin--the devil!" Remembrance had flashed upon him of his last night"s interview with the physician.
"But he promised to help me and he"ll have to do it. I"ll do anything he says about Mildred--let her divorce me if he wants her to. A wife"s a nuisance. I"m sure I don"t want to be tied up with one. What did I do it for anyway?"
Notwithstanding his confidence that there had been no hiatus in his life since his last waking hours, Brand glanced with some trepidation at the date line of the morning paper. "That"s right," he thought.