The Somnambulist and the Detective Part 20

A lady was already in Mrs. Warne's room, but she was easily dismissed with instructions to return next day. When she retired, Mrs. Thayer was admitted, and Miss Seaton wished to follow, but this could not be allowed, as only one could have an audience at a time. Mrs. Thayer entered the room with her veil down; and, what with her nervousness and the superst.i.tious terror inspired by the weird appearance of the room, she was hardly able to walk to the visitor's chair. When she became somewhat accustomed to the peculiar light, she saw Madam Lucille standing beside the table. Her tall, commanding figure struck Mrs.

Thayer with awe, and Mrs. Warne already felt sure of drawing out everything that she knew.

"Come hither, my daughter," said Lucille, in a clear, sweet voice.

Mrs. Thayer advanced falteringly, and sank into the large chair which the sibyl pointed out.

"What would you know, my child?" continued Lucille. "State your errand quickly; as my time is short, to unfold the mysteries of the future.

Like the Wandering Jew, I must forever advance upon my mission. What do you seek to know?"

Lucille's powerful mind, aided by her fantastic surroundings, had gained a complete ascendency over Mrs. Thayer's superst.i.tious nature; in a voice trembling with emotion, she replied:

"I have come to learn my future."

"Then you must unveil; I can tell you nothing until I see your face,"

said Lucille.

Mrs. Thayer slowly removed her veil and sat motionless, regarding the fortune-teller as a frightened bird watches a snake.

"You wish to know your destiny, do you?" asked Lucille, gently. "Well, I can tell it, if the stars are propitious; but I must first look at your hand."

She paused and waved her wand with several mysterious gestures over Mrs.

Thayer's head; then she swept forward and took her hand.

"Tell me the day and hour of your birth," continued Lucille.

"I was born about daybreak on the eighteenth of October, 1816," replied Mrs. Thayer; "I cannot tell you the exact hour."

"That will be sufficiently accurate for the present," said Lucille; "though it may cause me much trouble in casting your horoscope."

Lucille continued to examine the lines of the hand, and presently commenced speaking in a low, but clear voice:

"Your parents are dead, and also one brother; your father pa.s.sed through great dangers safely--ah! I see, he was a sailor. You have been surrounded by other sea-faring people; still, I cannot certainly tell what relations.h.i.+p they bore to you. I shall learn all when I cast your horoscope. Your father acquired moderate wealth, of which you have received your share; but you desire more, and you are not too scrupulous as to how you get it. Why, what means this?" she exclaimed, starting back and fixing a piercing glance on the cowering woman before her. "You are in danger! Yes; there is danger all about you, but it is impossible to tell now how it will end. There is a man in your trouble, who claims to love you; and there is a woman who comes between you. Ah! what is she doing!" she suddenly demanded in tragical tones, starting back with a look of terror in her eyes.

Mrs. Thayer fell back as if stabbed to the heart, and her whole att.i.tude denoted guilty fear. Lucille, fearing that she would faint, handed her a gla.s.s of water, which soon revived her strength.

As soon as Mrs. Thayer had sufficiently recovered, Lucille again took her hand and carefully examined it; she then continued:

"I cannot do much now, but you must come again, when I have more time; then I will cast your horoscope, and will be able to tell you all you can wish to know----" Breaking off suddenly, she changed her tone and demanded imperiously: "Who is this woman? Is she his enemy, or yours?

_Are you sure that man loves you?_"

"Oh, yes; I am sure he does," Mrs. Thayer replied, hastily.

"Then what is the trouble between you and this woman?" asked Lucille.

"She is older than you, yet she constantly crosses your path." Then, closing her eyes, Lucille broke out pa.s.sionately and rapidly, like a person in a trance: "Why does she act so? What is the matter with her?

She is often interfering with you, but is always followed by that man; he must be her enemy. See! a shadow falls over her! What does it mean!

She fades away and vanishes--_it must be death_!"

"Death!" shrieked Mrs. Thayer, and then she fell back lifeless.

[Ill.u.s.tration: "_'Death!' shrieked Mrs. Thayer, and then she fell back lifeless._"--Page 199.]

Lucille did everything possible to revive her visitor, but it was some minutes before she recovered sufficiently to be able to stand alone. She finally joined Miss Seaton, but promised to call the next day to have her horoscope read. She left a fee of ten dollars for the prepayment of the labor which Lucille would be forced to perform in reading the stars.

When Miss Seaton and Mrs. Thayer left the room, the latter was scarcely able to walk, so much was she agitated and alarmed. They reached their boarding house in safety, however, and Mrs. Thayer at once retired to her room.

A large crowd of visitors had already a.s.sembled in Madam Lucille's reception room, so that there seemed to be a fair prospect that all the expenses of the affair would be paid out of the fortune-teller's receipts. Indeed, from the very first, Mrs. Warne had a great many more callers than she could attend to; but, by granting each one a short interview on the first day, long enough to learn what information they desired, it was an easy matter to satisfy them all to an exceptional extent. I put two good detectives at work to find out everything possible about the parties making the inquiries, and Lucille was thus able to astonish them with the accuracy of her knowledge as to the past.

Of course, she was at liberty to exercise her own judgment as to her predictions for the future, since no one could tell whether they would prove true or not.

When every one had gone, Mrs. Warne changed her dress and returned to my office, where we had a hearty laugh over the superst.i.tious folly of the many ladies who had consulted her. She told me many amusing secrets, which her fair visitors had confided to her, and I learned that some of the most fas.h.i.+onable people in the city had invoked her aid. She was rather fatigued by her labors, however, as the weather was warm, and the atmosphere of her room, at times, became almost suffocating. She said that she had made an engagement to admit Mrs. Thayer the first one, the next morning.

"Very well," said I, "you have succeeded in startling her very much indeed, and to-morrow you will be able to do much more. Be careful, however, to warn her against informing any one else of what you have told her, until her whole future is determined. It will not do to have her alarm Pattmore."

"I will caution her particularly on that point," replied Mrs. Warne; "I think I understand pretty well about how far I can go without terrifying her too much. I will send for Miss Seaton, and learn how Mrs. Thayer has acted since visiting me."

In the afternoon, Captain Sumner came in and asked what steps I had taken in his case. I told him that I could not tell him what I had done, nor what I was doing; but he could rest a.s.sured that the best talent I had was employed in his behalf; if everything worked as I hoped, I should accomplish the object which he sought, inside of a month.

"Well," he replied, "I should like to take Annie back to Springfield as soon as possible; for I fear that she is again losing her health, and for the last day or two, she has been quite ill. Yesterday she received a letter from Pattmore, which I tried to s.n.a.t.c.h from her; but she was too quick for me, and I obtained only a small part of it. Here it is,"

he continued, showing me the lower corner of a letter; "see how he signs himself."

I took the fragment and saw the same signature as that which Pattmore had used in his former letters: "Your affectionate husband." The Captain went on:

"My blood got up when I read this, and I told her that if she ever saw Pattmore again, I would shoot them both; that I would no longer permit her to disgrace our family. Then she also flew into a violent pa.s.sion, and said that she loved Pattmore, and that he intended to marry her when he next came to Chicago. As usual, she finally succeeded in appeasing my anger, and she promised to leave Pattmore forever. I also agreed to make my will in her favor, and we thus became friends again. I may now be able to get her away, as she has promised to go as soon as she is able; but I can easily destroy my will, if she refuses to keep her promise. What do you think about it?"

"Well, it can't do much harm, I guess, for you are probably in no particular danger just now."

"Then I will make my will to-day. By-the-by, there is a great fortune-teller in town; have you seen her advertis.e.m.e.nt?"

"Yes," I replied; "but there is nothing unusual in that. You can find such people here at all times."

"I know that," said the Captain; "but they are generally mere humbugs, while this one appears to be of a different cla.s.s. She has been in the East Indies, and the fortune-tellers there are not humbugs, as I know by experience. I shall go to see her to-morrow. I had my fortune told once by a Hindoo in Calcutta, and he was correct in every particular as far as he went."

After the Captain had gone away, I sent for Mrs. Warne and told her that she would receive a visit from the Captain next day, and that she could learn all about his past history by referring to the conversation which my stenographer had taken down some time before. I then looked over a report I had just received from Miller, who was still watching Pattmore in Greenville. There was little of importance in it except an account of a conversation between Miller and Pattmore, in which the latter said that he was staking everything upon the hope of getting the congressional nomination; if he should fail in that, he would not remain in Greenville, but would go to Kansas to live. Miller added that Pattmore received letters daily from Mrs. Thayer.

I immediately wrote to Miller to secure a copy of one of Mrs. Thayer's letters; and, if possible, to intercept every one of them. I felt confident that she would describe her visit to the fortune-teller in part, at least, and I was anxious to know how much she would reveal to him. Besides if he were disposed to be superst.i.tious, he would probably be more or less affected by her account, and I might use the knowledge thus gained, to good advantage.

Late in the evening, Miss Seaton came in and told Mrs. Warne that Mrs.

Thayer had been greatly agitated by her interview with Lucille; that she had shown great dejection and grief all the way home; and that she had immediately retired to her room, where she had thrown herself on the bed; that she had risen, late in the evening, and had written a very long letter, which she had asked Miss Seaton to put in the post-office for her, being too weak to go out herself. Of course, Miss Seaton gave the letter to Mrs. Warne, who immediately brought it to me. I opened it at once and hastily read it through. It began, "My dear husband," and went on to describe her visit to Lucille. She gave a full account of all that Lucille had said, and also related the effect which the fortune-teller's revelations had had upon her. She said significantly that Pattmore could understand how much she had been alarmed by the references to the woman who came between them, for the inference was that Lucille meant Mrs. Pattmore. However, she was going, she said, to have her full fortune told the following day, and she would write all about it in her next letter.

I had the letter copied and sent to the post-office in time for the first mail.

_CHAPTER IX._

I had sent word to my New York correspondent to make a thorough search for Henry Thayer, as I wished to learn definitely whether he was alive or dead. By communicating with the London board of underwriters, my agent learned that Henry Thayer was in command of an English whaler in the South Sea. At the latest advices from him, he was nearly ready to sail for England, as he needed only a few more whales to complete his cargo. I received this information the morning after Mrs. Thayer's first visit to Lucille, and I communicated the news to Mrs. Warne at once, instructing her to make the best possible use of it in her coming interview with Mrs. Thayer.

Shortly before ten o'clock the next morning, I took my place behind the curtain. In a few minutes Mrs. Thayer and Miss Seaton arrived, and Mrs.