If the weather is clear, this drug will make life gorgeous; if it rains, tragic.Slight vexation becomes deadly revenge; courage becomes rashness; fear, abject terror; and gentle affection or even a passing liking is transformed into passionate love.It is the drug derived from the Indian hemp, scientifically named Cannabis Indica, better known as hashish, or bhang, or a dozen other names in the East.Its chief characteristic is that it has a profound effect on the passions.Thus, under its influence, natives of the East become greatly exhilarated, then debased, and finally violent, rushing forth on the streets with the cry, 'Amok, amok,' - ' Kill, kill ' - as we say, 'running amuck.' An overdose of this drug often causes insanity, while in small quantities our doctors use it as a medicine.Any one who has read the brilliant Theophile Gautier's 'Club des Hachichens' or Bayard Taylor's experience at Damascus knows something of the effect of hashish, however.
"In reconstructing the story of Georgette Gilbert, as best I can, I believe that she was lured to the den of one of the numerous cults practised in New York, lured by advertisements offering advice in hidden love affairs.Led on by her love for a man whom she could not and would not put out of her life, and by her affection for her parents, she was frantic.This place offered hope, and to it she went in all innocence, not knowing that it was only the open door to a life such as the most lurid disorderly resorts of the metropolis could scarcely match.There her credulity was preyed upon, and she was tricked into taking this drug, which itself has such marked and perverting effect.But, though she must have been given a great deal of the drug, she did not yield, as many of the sophisticated do.She struggled frantically, futilely.Will and reason were not conquered, though they sat unsteadily on their thrones.The wisp of hair so tightly clasped in her dead hand shows that she fought bitterly to the end."Kennedy was leaning forward earnestly, glaring at each of us in turn.
Lawton was twisting uneasily in his chair, and I could see that his fists were doubled up and that he was holding himself in leash as if waiting for something, eyeing us all keenly.The Swami was seized with a violent fit of trembling, and the other fakirs were staring in amazement.
Quickly I stepped between Dudley Lawton and Kennedy, but as I did so, he leaped behind me, and before I could turn he was grappling wildly with some one on the floor.
"It's all right, Walter," cried Kennedy, tearing open the envelope on the table."Lawton has guessed right.The hair was the Swami's.
Georgette Gilbert was one victim who fought and rescued herself from a slavery worse than death.And there is one mystic who could not foresee arrest and the death house at Sing Sing in his horoscope."VIII
THE FORGER
We were lunching with Stevenson Williams, a friend of Kennedy's, at the Insurance Club, one of the many new downtown luncheon clubs, where the noon hour is so conveniently combined with business.
"There isn't much that you can't insure against nowadays," remarked Williams when the luncheon had progressed far enough to warrant a tentative reference to the obvious fact that he had had a purpose in inviting us to the club."Take my own company, for example, the Continental Surety.We have lately undertaken to write forgery insurance.""Forgery insurance?" repeated Kennedy."Well, I should think you'd be doing a ripping business - putting up the premium rate about every day in this epidemic of forgery that seems to be sweeping over the country."Williams, who was one of the officers of the company, smiled somewhat wearily, I thought."We are," he replied drily."That was precisely what I wanted to see you about.""What? The premiums or the epidemic?"
"Well - er - both, perhaps.I needn't say much about the epidemic, as you call it.To you I can admit it; to the newspapers, never.
Still, I suppose you know that it is variously estimated that the forgers of the country are getting away with from ten to fifteen million dollars a year.It is just one case that I was thinking about - one on which the regular detective agencies we employ seem to have failed utterly so far.It involves pretty nearly one of those fifteen millions.""What? One case? A million dollars?" gasped Kennedy, gazing fixedly at Williams as if he found it difficult to believe.
"Exactly," replied Williams imperturbably, "though it was not done all at one fell swoop, of course, but gradually, covering a period of some months.You have doubtless heard of the By-Products Company of Chicago?"Craig nodded.
"Well, it is their case," pursued Williams, losing his quiet manner and now hurrying ahead almost breathlessly."You know they own a bank out there also, called the By-Products Bank.That's how we come to figure in the case, by having insured their bank against forgery.Of course our liability runs up only to $50,000.But the loss to the company as well as to its bank through this affair will reach the figure I have named.They will have to stand the balance beyond our liability and, well, fifty thousand is not a small sum for us to lose, either.We can't afford to lose it without a fight.""Of course not.But you must have some suspicions, some clues.You must have taken some action in tracing the thing out, whatever is back of it.""Surely.For instance, only the other day we had the cashier of the bank, Bolton Brown, arrested, though he is out on bail now.We haven't anything directly against him, but he is suspected of complicity on the inside, and I may say that the thing is so gigantic that there must have been some one on the inside concerned with it.
