When Dentham asserted that the body of Adrian Lancaster had been
removed to Beryle Square, he told a lie, as the police refused to
allow any such thing. A doctor had been called in, who pronounced
life to be extinct, and the body was now lying on a couch in the
sitting-room, where it was to remain until the inquest. Olive had
refused to leave the house since the discovery, and in despair, Teddy,
afraid to leave her by herself, had telegraphed to her father to come
to Hampstead. Sir John immediately obeying the summons, had come up by
the night train, and the three of them were now in the room, talking
over the affair. Dentham had disappeared. The police were in
possession of the house, and now Sir John was trying to persuade his
daughter to come into town to the Metropole Hotel, and take the rest
she so sadly needed.
In spite of the verdict of the doctor, Teddy Rudall firmly refused to
believe that Adrian was dead, and declared with the greatest
confidence that he was only in a trance. It was this statement that
made Olive refuse to leave the house, as she half thought that Teddy
might be right in his belief, and Adrian would come back to life
again, so she was unwilling to be absent in case he should revive
while she was away. The sergeant of the police, who was present, now
insisted respectfully that they should all leave the house, as it was
nearly nine o'clock, and he was unable to retire until they did. Under
this pressure, Olive had consented to accompany her father and Teddy
into town.
"I'll come back in the morning," she said turning to the sergeant,
"and if he shows any signs of reviving, mind you send a messenger at
once to the Metropole.
"Yes miss--certainly!"
"What nonsense, Olive!" said her father testily, for the
unpleasantness of the situation was beginning to tell even on his
genial temper. "I'm afraid there's no chance of poor Adrian's revival,
he is dead--quite dead."
"There I disagree with you," interposed Teddy quietly, "he is in a
trance."
"But the doctor?"
"I don't care what the doctor says--he isn't the Pope, to be
infallible--if Adrian were dead, his body would have decayed long
ago."
"I'm sure, papa, if you believe in theosophy you can see that Dr.
Roversmire has hypnotised poor Adrian," said Olive firmly, "I daresay
if Dr. Roversmire were here, he could bring him to life again."
"Oh, he'll come back here, miss," observed the sergeant confidently,
"then he'll be arrested at once and to save his own skin, he'll do
what he can."
"I'm not so sure that Roversmire will return here," said Sir John
thoughtfully, "because he received a telegram to-day and went up to
town by the afternoon train, in a very agitated state."
"Who could the telegram have been from?" cried Olive.
"I daresay Dentham sent it," suggested Teddy "for I don't believe in
that fellow at all--he's away now."
"When he comes back sir, we'll not lose sight of him again," said the
policeman, "but now we really must go."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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