attempting to pervert him, and I have no
doubt that, whatever fate might have been reserved for me, Plummer would
never have left the place alive had it not been for the timely irruption
of Hewitt, with Peytral and the police.

In half an hour Peytral returned. He had dashed out in chase of the
fugitive, but failed even to see him--lost him wholly in the courts, in
fact. For some little while he persevered, but found it useless.

The dirty-whiskered man made no attempt to escape, though there was talk
of another man having got away in the confusion by way of the stable
roof. The police were left in charge of the place, and we deferred a
complete exploration till the next day.

Hewitt's tale was simple enough. He had endued himself in somewhat seedy
clothes, and had visited 37 Raven Street, Blackfriars, which he found
to be merely a tenement house. It took some time to make inquiries
there, with the necessary caution, because of the number of lodgers; and
then the inquiries led to nothing. It was an experience common enough in
his practice, but none the less an annoying delay, and when he returned
to his office he found Mr. Peytral already awaiting him. Peytral
described his following of Mayes at much greater length and detail than
before, and he and Hewitt had come on to Norbury Row at once and asked
news of Mr. Moon.

Mr. Moon's description of the successive disappearances of Plummer and
myself, and of our continued absence, so aroused Hewitt's suspicions
that he instantly procured help from the nearest station, and approached
the door of Mayes's office. A knock being unanswered, the door was
instantly broken in. The room was found to be unoccupied, but the ladder
was still standing at the open window, by which Mayes had descended to
the back premises. Down this ladder Hewitt went, with the police after
him. The rest I had seen myself.

"But what," I said, "what is this mystery? Why did Telfer give up the
code, and what is the power that Mayes talks of?"

"It is a power," replied Hewitt, "that I have suspected for some time,
and now I am quite sure of it. A secret, dangerous and terrible power
which I have encountered before, though never before have I known its
possibilities carried so far. It is hypnotism!"

"Hypnotism!" I exclaimed. "But can a person be hypnotised against his
will?"

"In a sense, in most cases, he cannot. That is the explanation of
Mayes's proposals to you to go through a 'form of initiatio