THE WHITE SLAVE
Kennedy and I had just tossed a coin to decide whether it should be a comic opera or a good walk in the mellow spring night air and the opera had won, but we had scarcely begun to argue the vital point as to where to go, when the door buzzer sounded - a sure sign that some box-office had lost four dollars.
It was a much agitated middle-aged couple who entered as Craig threw open the door.Of our two visitors, the woman attracted my attention first, for on her pale face the lines of sorrow were almost visibly deepening.Her nervous manner interested me greatly, though I took pains to conceal the fact that I noticed it.It was quickly accounted for, however, by the card which the man presented, bearing the name "Mr.George Gilbert" and a short scribble from First Deputy O'Connor:
Mr.and Mrs.Gilbert desire to consult you with regard to the mysterious disappearance of their daughter, Georgette.I am sure I need say nothing further to interest you than that the M.P.
Squad is completely baffled.
O'CONNOR.
"H-m," remarked Kennedy; "not strange for the Missing Persons Squad to be baffled - at least, at this case.""Then you know of our daughter's strange - er - departure?" asked Mr.
Gilbert, eagerly scanning Kennedy's face and using a euphemism that would fall less harshly on his wife's ears than the truth.
"Indeed, yes," nodded Craig with marked sympathy: "that is, I have read most of what the papers have said.Let me introduce my friend, Mr.Jameson.You recall we were discussing the Georgette Gilbert case this morning, Walter?"I did, and perhaps before I proceed further with the story I should quote at least the important parts of the article in the morning Star which had occasioned the discussion.The article had been headed, "When Personalities Are Lost," and with the Gilbert case as a text many instances had been cited which had later been solved by the return of the memory of the sufferer.In part the article had said:
Mysterious disappearances, such as that of Georgette Gilbert, have alarmed the public and baffled the police before this, disappearances that in their suddenness, apparent lack of purpose, and inexplicability, have had much in common with the case of Miss Gilbert.
Leaving out of account the class of disappearances such as embezzlers, blackmailers, and other criminals, there is still a large number of recorded cases where the subjects have dropped out of sight without apparent cause or reason and have left behind them untarnished reputations.Of these a small percentage are found to have met with violence;others have been victims of a suicidal mania ; and sooner or later a clue has come to light, for the dead are often easier to find than the living, Of the remaining small proportion there are on record a number of carefully authenticated cases where the subjects have been the victims of a sudden and complete loss of memory.
This dislocation of memory is a variety of aphasia known as amnesia, and when the memory is recurrently lost and restored it is an "alternating personality." The psychical researchers and psychologists have reported many cases of alternating personality.Studious efforts are being made to understand and to explain the strange type of mental phenomena exhibited in these cases, but no one has as yet given a final, clear, and comprehensive explanation of them.
Such cases are by no means always connected with disappearances, but the variety known as the ambulatory type, where the patient suddenly loses all knowledge of his own identity and of his past and takes himself off, leaving no trace or clue, is the variety which the present case calls to popular attention.
Then followed a list of a dozen or so interesting cases of persons who had vanished completely and had, some several days and some even years later, suddenly "awakened" to their first personality, returned, and taken up the thread of that personality where it had been broken.
To Kennedy's inquiry I was about to reply that I recalled the conversation distinctly, when Mr.Gilbert shot an inquiring glance from beneath his bushy eyebrows, quickly shifting from my face to Kennedy's, and asked, "And what was your conclusion - what do you think of the case? Is it aphasia or amnesia, or whatever the doctors call it, and do you think she is wandering about somewhere unable to recover her real personality?""I should like to have all the facts at first hand before venturing an opinion," Craig replied with precisely that shade of hesitancy that might reassure the anxious father and mother, without raising a false hope.
Mr.and Mrs.Gilbert exchanged glances, the purport of which was that she desired him to tell the story.
"It was day before yesterday," began Mr.Gilbert, gently touching his wife's trembling hand that sought his arm as he began rehearsing the tragedy that had cast its shadow across their lives, "Thursday, that Georgette - er - since we have heard of Georgette." His voice faltered a bit, but he proceeded: "As you know, she was last seen walking on Fifth Avenue.The police have traced her since she left home that morning.It is known that she went first to the public library, then that she stopped at a department store on the avenue, where she made a small purchase which she had charged to our family account, and finally that she went to a large book-store.Then - that is the last."Mrs.Gilbert sighed, and buried her face in a lace handkerchief as her shoulders shook convulsively.
"Yes, I have read that," repeated Kennedy gently, though with manifest eagerness to get down to facts that might prove more illuminating."I think I need hardly impress upon you the advantage of complete frankness, the fact that anything you may tell me is of a much more confidential nature than if it were told to the police.
Er-r, had Miss Gilbert any - love affair, any trouble of such a nature that it might have preyed on her mind?"Kennedy's tactful manner seemed to reassure both the father and the mother, who exchanged another glance.
