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肩書を与える: 燃やす, Witch, 燃やす! Author: Abraham Merritt * A 事業／計画（する） Gutenberg of Australia eBook * eBook No.: 0607481h.html Language: English Date first 地位，任命するd: Oct 2001 Most 最近の update: Sep 2018 This eBook was produced by Colin Choat and Roy Glashan. 事業／計画（する） Gutenberg of Australia eBooks are created from printed 版s which are in the public domain in Australia, unless a copyright notice is 含むd. We do NOT keep any eBooks in 同意／服従 with a particular paper 版. Copyright 法律s are changing all over the world. Be sure to check the copyright 法律s for your country before downloading or redistributing this とじ込み／提出する. This eBook is made 利用できる at no cost and with almost no 制限s どれでも. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the 条件 of the 事業／計画（する） Gutenberg of Australia License which may be 見解（をとる）d online at http://gutenberg.逮捕する.au/licence.html To 接触する 事業／計画（する） Gutenberg of Australia go to http://gutenberg.逮捕する.au
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"燃やす, Witch, 燃やす!" Liveright Inc., New York, 1933
"燃やす, Witch, 燃やす!" Methuen & Co., Ltd., London, 1934
"燃やす, Witch, 燃やす!" Avon Paperback, 1951
I AM a 医療の man 専攻するing in neurology and 病気s of the brain. My peculiar field is 異常な psychology, and in it I am 認めるd as an 専門家. I am closely connected with two of the 真っ先の hospitals in New York, and have received many 栄誉（を受ける）s in this country and abroad. I 始める，決める this 負かす／撃墜する, 危険ing 身元確認，身分証明, not through egotism but because I 願望（する） to show that I was competent to 観察する, and competent to bring practiced 科学の judgment upon, the singular events I am about to relate.
I say that I 危険 身元確認，身分証明, because Lowell is not my 指名する. It is a pseudonym, as are the 指名するs of all the other characters in this narrative. The 推論する／理由s for this 回避 will become ますます 明らかな.
Yet I have the strongest feeling that the facts and 観察s which in my casebooks are grouped under the 長，率いるing of "The Dolls of Mme. Mandilip" should be 明らかにするd, 始める，決める 負かす／撃墜する in 整然とした sequence and be made known. 明白に, I could do this in the form of a 報告（する）／憶測 to one of my 医療の societies, but I am too 井戸／弁護士席 aware of the way my 同僚s would receive such a paper, and with what 疑惑, pity or even abhorrence, they would henceforth regard me, so 反対する to 受託するd notions of 原因（となる） and 影響 do many of these facts and 観察s run.
But now, 正統派の man of 薬／医学 that I am, I ask myself whether there may not be 原因（となる）s other than those we 収容する／認める. 軍隊s and energies which we stubbornly 否認する because we can find no explanation for them within the 狭くする 限定するs of our 現在の knowledge. Energies whose reality is 認めるd in folklore, the 古代の traditions, of all peoples, and which, to 正当化する our ignorance, we label myth and superstition.
A 知恵, a science, immeasurably old. Born before history, but never dying nor ever wholly lost. A secret 知恵, but always with its priests and priestesses guarding its dark 炎上, passing it on from century to century. Dark 炎上 of forbidden knowledge... 燃やすing in Egypt before even the Pyramids were raised; and in 寺s 崩壊するing now beneath the Gobi's sands; known to the sons of 広告 whom Allah, so say the Arabs, turned to 石／投石する for their sorceries ten thousand years before Abraham trod the streets of Ur of the Chaldees; known in 中国—and known to the Tibetan lama, the Buryat shaman of the steppes and to the warlock of the South Seas alike.
Dark 炎上 of evil 知恵... 深くするing the 影をつくる／尾行するs of Stonehenge's brooding menhirs; fed later by 手渡すs of Roman legionaries; 集会 strength, 非，不，無 knows why, in 中世 Europe... and still 燃やすing, still alive, still strong.
Enough of preamble. I begin where the dark 知恵, if that it were, first cast its 影をつくる／尾行する upon me.
I HEARD the clock strike one as I walked up the hospital steps. Ordinarily I would have been in bed and asleep, but there was a 事例／患者 in which I was much 利益／興味d, and Braile, my assistant, had telephoned me of 確かな 開発s which I wished to 観察する. It was a night in 早期に November. I paused for a moment at the 最高の，を越す of the steps to look at the brilliancy of the 星／主役にするs. As I did so an automobile drew up at the 入り口 to the hospital.
As I stood, wondering what its arrival at that hour meant, a man slipped out of it. He looked はっきりと up and 負かす／撃墜する the 砂漠d street, then threw the door wide open. Another man 現れるd. The two of them stooped and seemed to be fumbling around inside. They straightened and then I saw that they had locked their 武器 around the shoulders of a third. They moved 今後, not supporting but carrying this other man. His 長，率いる hung upon his breast and his 団体／死体 swung limply.
A fourth man stepped from the automobile.
I 認めるd him. He was Julian Ricori, a 悪名高い 暗黒街 chieftain, one of the finished 製品s of the 禁止 法律. He had been pointed out to me several times. Even if he had not been, the newspapers would have made me familiar with his features and 人物／姿／数字. Lean and long, with silvery white hair, always immaculately dressed, a leisured type from outward seeming, rather than leader of such activities as those of which he was （刑事）被告.
I had been standing in the 影をつくる／尾行する, unnoticed. I stepped out of the 影をつくる／尾行する. 即時に the 重荷（を負わせる）d pair 停止（させる）d, 速く as 追跡（する）ing hounds. Their 解放する／自由な 手渡すs dropped into the pockets of their coats. Menace was in that movement.
"I am Dr. Lowell," I said, あわてて. "Connected with the hospital. Come 権利 along."
They did not answer me. Nor did their gaze waver from me; nor did they move. Ricori stepped in 前線 of them. His 手渡すs were also in his pockets. He looked me over, then nodded to the others; I felt the 緊張 relax.
"I know you, Doctor," he said pleasantly, in oddly 正確な English. "But that was やめる a chance you took. If I might advise you, it is not 井戸／弁護士席 to move so quickly when those come whom you do not know, and at night— not in this town."
"But," I said, "I do know you, Mr. Ricori."
"Then," he smiled, faintly, "your judgment was doubly at fault. And my advice doubly pertinent."
There was an ぎこちない moment of silence. He broke it.
"And 存在 who I am, I shall feel much better inside your doors than outside."
I opened the doors. The two men passed through with their 重荷（を負わせる）, and after them Ricori and I. Once within, I gave way to my professional instincts and stepped up to the man the two were carrying. They 発射 a quick ちらりと見ること at Ricori. He nodded. I raised the man's 長，率いる.
A little shock went through me. The man's 注目する，もくろむs were wide open. He was neither dead nor unconscious. But upon his 直面する was the most 驚くべき／特命の／臨時の 表現 of terror I had ever seen in a long experience with sane, insane and borderland 事例／患者s. It was not undiluted 恐れる. It was mixed with an 平等に 乱すing horror. The 注目する，もくろむs, blue and with distended pupils, were like exclamation points to the emotions printed upon that 直面する. They 星／主役にするd up at me, through me and beyond me. And still they seemed to be looking inward —as though whatever nightmare 見通し they were seeing was both behind and in 前線 of them.
"正確に／まさに!" Ricori had been watching me closely. "正確に／まさに, Dr. Lowell, what could it be that my friend has seen—or has been given—that could make him appear so? I am most anxious to learn. I am willing to spend much money to learn. I wish him cured, yes—but I shall be frank with you, Dr. Lowell. I would give my last penny for the certainty that those who did this to him could not do the same thing to me—could not make me as he is, could not make me see what he is seeing, could not make feel what he is feeling."
At my signal, 整然としたs had come up. They took the 患者 and laid him on a 担架. By this time the 居住（者） 内科医 had appeared. Ricori touched my 肘.
"I know a 広大な／多数の／重要な 取引，協定 about you, Dr. Lowell," he said. "I would like you to take 十分な 告発（する），告訴（する）／料金 of this 事例／患者."
I hesitated.
He continued, 真面目に: "Could you 減少（する） everything else? Spend all your time upon it? Bring in any others you wish to 協議する—don't think of expense-"
"A moment, Mr. Ricori," I broke in. "I have 患者s who cannot be neglected. I will give all the time I can spare, and so will my assistant, Dr. Braile. Your friend will be 絶えず under 観察 here by people who have my 完全にする 信用／信任. Do you wish me to take the 事例／患者 under those 条件s?"
He acquiesced, though I could see he was not 完全に 満足させるd. I had the 患者 taken to an 孤立するd 私的な room, and went through the necessary hospital 形式順守s. Ricori gave the man's 指名する as Thomas Peters, 主張するd that he knew of no の近くに relations, had himself 記録，記録的な／記録するd at Peters' nearest friend, assumed all 責任／義務, and taking out a roll of 通貨, skimmed a thousand dollar 法案 from it, passing it to the desk as "予選 costs."
I asked Ricori if he would like to be 現在の at my examination. He said that he would. He spoke to his two men, and they took positions at each 味方する of the hospital doors—on guard. Ricori and I went to the room 割り当てるd to the 患者. The 整然としたs had stripped him, and he lay upon the adjustable cot, covered by a sheet. Braile, for whom I had sent, was bending over Peters, 意図 upon his 直面する, and plainly puzzled. I saw with satisfaction that Nurse Walters, an 異常に 有能な and conscientious young woman, had been 割り当てるd to the 事例／患者. Braile looked up at me. He said: "明白に some 麻薬."
"Maybe," I answered. "But if so then a 麻薬 I have never 遭遇（する）d. Look at his 注目する，もくろむs-"
I の近くにd Peters' lids. As soon as I had 解除するd my fingers they began to rise, slowly, until they were again wide open. Several times I tried to shut them. Always they opened: the terror, the horror in them, 衰えていない.
I began my examination. The entire 団体／死体 was limp, muscles and 共同のs. It was as flaccid, the simile （機の）カム to me, as a doll. It was as though every モーター 神経 had gone out of 商売／仕事. Yet there was 非，不，無 of the familiar symptoms of paralysis. Nor did the 団体／死体 答える／応じる to any sensory 刺激, although I struck 負かす／撃墜する into the 神経 trunks. The only reaction I could 得る was a slight 収縮過程 of the dilated pupils under strongest light.
Hoskins, the 病理学者, （機の）カム in to take his 見本s for 血 実験（する）s. When he had drawn what he 手配中の，お尋ね者, I went over the 団体／死体 minutely. I could find not a 選び出す／独身 穴をあける, 負傷させる, bruise or abrasion. Peters was hairy. With Ricori's 許可, I had him shaved clean—chest, shoulders, 脚s, even the 長，率いる. I 設立する nothing to 示す that a 麻薬 might have been given him by hypodermic. I had the stomach emptied and took 見本／標本s from the excretory 組織／臓器s, 含むing the 肌. I 診察するd the membranes of nose and throat: they seemed healthy and normal; にもかかわらず, I had smears taken from them. The 血 圧力 was low, the 気温 わずかに subnormal; but that might mean nothing. I gave an 注射 of adrenaline. There was 絶対 no reaction from it. That might mean much.
"Poor devil," I said to myself. "I'm going to try to kill that nightmare for you, at any 率."
I gave him a 最小限 hypo of morphine. It might have been water for all the good it did. Then I gave him all I dared. His 注目する，もくろむs remained open, terror and horror 衰えていない. And pulse and respiration 不変の.
Ricori had watched all these 操作／手術s with 激しい 利益／興味. I had done all I could for the time, and told him so.
"I can do no more," I said, "until I receive the 報告（する）／憶測s of the 見本／標本s. 率直に, I am all at sea. I know of no 病気 nor 麻薬 which would produce these 条件s."
"But Dr. Braile," he said, "について言及するd a 麻薬-"
"A suggestion only," interposed Braile あわてて. "Like Dr. Lowell, I know of no 麻薬 which would 原因（となる） such symptoms."
Ricori ちらりと見ることd at Peters' 直面する and shivered.
"Now," I said, "I must ask you some questions. Has this man been ill? If so, has he been under 医療の care? If he has not 現実に been ill, has he spoken of any 不快? Or have you noticed anything unusual in his manner or 行為?"
"No, to all questions," he answered. "Peters has been in closest touch with me for the past week. He has not been 病んでいる in the least. Tonight we were talking in my apartments, eating a late and light dinner. He was in high spirits. In the middle of a word, he stopped, half-turned his 長，率いる as though listening; then slipped from his 議長，司会を務める to the 床に打ち倒す. When I bent over him he was as you see him now. That was 正確に half after midnight. I brought him here at once."
"井戸／弁護士席," I said, "that at least gives us the exact time of the seizure. There is no use of your remaining, Mr. Ricori, unless you wish."
He 熟考する／考慮するd his 手渡すs a few moments, rubbing the carefully manicured nails.
"Dr. Lowell," he said at last, "if this man dies without your discovering what killed him, I will 支払う／賃金 you the customary 料金s and the hospital the customary 告発（する），告訴（する）／料金s and no more. If he dies and you make this 発見 after his death, I will give a hundred thousand dollars to any charity you 指名する. But if you make the 発見 before he dies, and 回復する him to health —I will give you the same sum."
We 星／主役にするd at him, and then as the significance of this remarkable 申し込む／申し出 sank in, I 設立する it hard to 抑制（する） my 怒り／怒る.
"Ricori," I said, "you and I live in different worlds, therefore I answer you politely, although I find it difficult. I will do all in my 力／強力にする to find out what is the 事柄 with your friend and to cure him. I would do that if he and you were paupers. I am 利益／興味d in him only as a problem which challenges me as a 内科医. But I am not 利益／興味d in you in the slightest. Nor in your money. Nor in your 申し込む／申し出. Consider it definitely 拒絶するd. Do you 完全に understand that?"
He betrayed no 憤慨.
"So much so that more than ever do I wish you to take 十分な 告発（する），告訴（する）／料金," he said.
"Very 井戸／弁護士席. Now where can I get you if I want to bring you here quickly?"
"With your 許可," he answered, "I should like to have—井戸／弁護士席, 代表者／国会議員s—in this room at all times. There will be two of them. If you want me, tell them—and I will soon be here."
I smiled at that, but he did not.
"You have reminded me," he said, "that we live in different worlds. You take your 警戒s to go 安全に in your world—and I order my life to 最小限に減らす the 危険，危なくするs of 地雷. Not for a moment would I 推定する to advise you how to walk の中で the dangers of your 研究室／実験室, Dr. Lowell. I have the 相当するものs of those dangers. Bene—I guard against them as best I can."
It was a most 不規律な request, of course. But I 設立する myself の近くに to liking Ricori just then, and saw 明確に his point of 見解（をとる）. He knew that and 圧力（をかける）d the advantage.
"My men will be no bother," he said. "They will not 干渉する in any way with you. If what I 嫌疑者，容疑者／疑う to be true is true they will be a 保護 for you and your 援助（する）s 同様に. But they, and those who relieve them, must stay in the room night and day. If Peters is taken from the room, they must …を伴って him—no 事柄 where it is that he is taken."
"I can arrange it," I said. Then, at his request, I sent an 整然とした 負かす／撃墜する to the doors. He returned with one of the men Ricori had left on guard. Ricori whispered to him, and he went out. In a little while two other men （機の）カム up. In the 合間 I had explained the peculiar 状況／情勢 to the 居住（者） and the superintendent and 安全な・保証するd the necessary 許可 for their stay.
The two men were 井戸／弁護士席-dressed, polite, of a singularly tight- lipped and 冷淡な-注目する，もくろむd alertness. One of them 発射 a ちらりと見ること at Peters.
"Christ!" he muttered.
The room was a corner one with two windows, one 開始 out on the 運動, the other on the 味方する street. Besides these, there were no outer 開始s except the door to the hall; the 私的な bathroom 存在 enclosed and having no windows. Ricori and the two 検査／視察するd the room minutely, keeping away, I noticed, from the windows. He asked me then if the room could be darkened. Much 利益／興味d, I nodded. The lights were turned off, the three went to the windows, opened them and carefully scrutinized the six- story sheer 減少（する） to both streets. On the 味方する of the 運動 there is nothing but the open space above the park. Opposite the other 味方する is a church.
"It is at this 味方する you must watch," I heard Ricori say; he pointed to the church. "You can turn the lights on now, Doctor."
He started toward the door, then turned.
"I have many enemies, Dr. Lowell. Peters was my 権利 手渡す. If it was one of these enemies who struck him, he did it to 弱める me. Or, perhaps, because he had not the 適切な時期 to strike at me. I look at Peters, and for the first time in my life I, Ricori—am afraid. I have no wish to be the next, I have no wish to look into hell!"
I grunted at that! He had put so aptly what I had felt and had not 明確に表すd into words.
He started to open the door. He hesitated.
"One thing more. If there should be any telephone calls 問い合わせing as to Peters' 条件 let one of these men, or their 救済s, answer. If any should come in person making 調査, 許す them to come up—but if they are more than one, let only one come at a time. If any should appear, 主張するing that they are relations, again let these men 会合，会う and question them."
He gripped my 手渡す, then opened the door of the room. Another pair of the efficient-appearing retainers were を待つing him at the threshold. They swung in before and behind him. As he walked away, I saw that he was crossing himself vigorously.
I の近くにd the door and went 支援する into the room. I looked 負かす／撃墜する on Peters.
If I had been 宗教的な, I too would have been doing some crossing. The 表現 on Peters' 直面する had changed. The terror and horror were gone. He still seemed to be looking both beyond me and into himself, but it was a look of evil 見込み—so evil that involuntarily I 発射 a ちらりと見ること over my shoulder to see what ugly thing might be creeping upon me.
There was nothing. One of Ricori's gunmen sat in the corner of the window, in the 影をつくる／尾行する, watching the parapet of the church roof opposite; the other sat stolidly at the door.
Braile and Nurse Walters were at the other 味方する of the bed. Their 注目する，もくろむs were 直す／買収する，八百長をするd with horrified fascination on Peters' 直面する. And then I saw Braile turn his 長，率いる and 星／主役にする about the room as I had.
Suddenly Peters' 注目する，もくろむs seemed to 焦点（を合わせる）, to become aware of the three of us, to become aware of the entire room. They flashed with an unholy glee. That glee was not maniacal—it was diabolical. It was the look of a devil long 追放するd from his 井戸／弁護士席- beloved hell, and suddenly 召喚するd to return.
Or was it like the glee of some devil sent hurtling out of his hell to work his will upon whom he might?
Very 井戸／弁護士席 do I know how fantastic, how utterly unscientific, are such comparisons. Yet not さもなければ can I 述べる that strange change.
Then, 突然の as the の近くにing of a camera shutter, that 表現 fled and the old terror and horror （機の）カム 支援する. I gave an involuntary gasp of 救済, for it was 正確に as though some evil presence had 孤立した. The nurse was trembling; Braile asked, in a 緊張するd 発言する／表明する: "How about another hypodermic?"
"No," I said. "I want you to watch the 進歩 of this—whatever it is—without 麻薬s. I'm going 負かす／撃墜する to the 研究室／実験室. Watch him closely until I return."
I went 負かす／撃墜する to the 研究室／実験室. Hoskins looked up at me.
"Nothing wrong, so far. Remarkable health, I'd say. Of course all I've results on are the simpler 実験（する）s."
I nodded. I had an uncomfortable feeling that the other 実験（する）s also would show nothing. And I had been more shaken than I would have cared to 自白する by those alternations of hellish 恐れる, hellish 見込み and hellish glee in Peters' 直面する and 注目する，もくろむs. The whole 事例／患者 troubled me, gave me a nightmarish feeling of standing outside some door which it was vitally important to open, and to which not only did I have no 重要な but couldn't find the keyhole. I have 設立する that 集中 upon microscopic work often 許すs me to think more 自由に upon problems. So I took a few smears of Peters' 血 and began to 熟考する／考慮する them, not with any 期待 of finding anything, but to slip the ブレーキs from another part of my brain.
I was on my fourth slide when I suddenly realized that I was looking at the incredible. As I had perfunctorily moved the slide, a white 血球 had slid into the field of 見通し. Only a simple white 血球—but within it was a 誘発する of phosphorescence, 向こうずねing out like a tiny lamp!
I thought at first that it was some 影響 of the light, but no 巧みな操作 of the 照明 changed that 誘発する. I rubbed my 注目する，もくろむs and looked again. I called Hoskins.
"Tell me if you see something peculiar in there."
He peered into the microscope. He started, then 転換d the light as I had.
"What do you see, Hoskins?"
He said, still 星／主役にするing through the レンズ:
"A leucocyte inside of which is a globe of phosphorescence. Its glow is neither dimmed when I turn on the 十分な 照明, nor is it 増加するd when I 少なくなる it. In all except the ingested globe the 血球 seems normal."
"And all of which," I said, "is やめる impossible."
"やめる," he agreed, straightening. "Yet there it is!"
I transferred the slide to the micro-manipulator, hoping to 孤立する the 血球, and touched it with the tip of the manipulating needle. At the instant of 接触する the 血球 seemed to burst. The globe of phosphorescence appeared to flatten, and something like a miniature flash of heat-雷 ran over the 明白な 部分 of the slide.
And that was all—the phosphorescence was gone.
We 用意が出来ている and 診察するd slide after slide. Twice more we 設立する a tiny 向こうずねing globe, and each time with the same result, the bursting 血球, the strange flicker of faint luminosity—then nothing.
The 研究室／実験室 'phone rang. Hoskins answered.
"It's Braile. He wants you—quick."
"Keep after it, Hoskins," I said, and 急いでd to Peters' room. Entering, I saw Nurse Walters, 直面する chalk white, 注目する，もくろむs の近くにd, standing with her 支援する turned to the bed. Braile was leaning over the 患者, stethoscope to his heart. I looked at Peters; and stood 在庫／株 still, something like a touch of unreasoning panic at my own heart. Upon his 直面する was that look of devilish 見込み, but 強めるd. As I looked, it gave way to the diabolic joy, and that, too, was 強めるd. The 直面する held it for not many seconds. 支援する （機の）カム the 見込み then on its heels the unholy glee. The two 表現s 補欠／交替の／交替するd, 速く. They flickered over Peters' 直面する like—like the flickers of the tiny lights within the 血球s of his 血. Braile spoke to me through stiff lips:
"His heart stopped three minutes ago! He せねばならない be dead—yet listen-"
The 団体／死体 of Peters stretched and 強化するd. A sound （機の）カム from his lips —a chuckling sound; low yet singularly 侵入するing, 残忍な, the chattering laughter of a devil. The 銃器携帯者／殺しや at the window leaped to his feet, his 議長，司会を務める going over with a 衝突，墜落. The laughter choked and died away, and the 団体／死体 of Peters lay limp.
I heard the door open, and Ricori's 発言する／表明する: "How is he, Dr. Lowell? I could not sleep-" He saw Peters' 直面する.
"Mother of Christ!" I heard him whisper. He dropped to his 膝s.
I saw him dimly for I could not take my 注目する，もくろむs from Peters' 直面する. It was the 直面する of a grinning, 勝利を得た fiend—all humanity wiped from it —the 直面する of a demon straight out of some mad 中世 painter's hell. The blue 注目する，もくろむs, now utterly malignant, glared at Ricori.
And as I looked, the dead 手渡すs moved; slowly the 武器 bent up from the 肘s, the fingers 契約ing like claws; the dead 団体／死体 began to 動かす beneath the covers -
At that the （一定の）期間 of nightmare dropped from me; for the first time in hours I was on ground that I knew. It was the rigor mortis, the 強化するing of death—but setting in more quickly and 訴訟／進行 at a 率 I had never known.
I stepped 今後 and drew the lids 負かす／撃墜する over the glaring 注目する，もくろむs. I covered the dreadful 直面する.
I looked at Ricori. He was still on his 膝s, crossing himself and praying. And ひさまづくing beside him, arm around his shoulders, was Nurse Walters, and she, too, was praying.
Somewhere a clock struck five.
I OFFERED to go home with Ricori, and somewhat to my surprise he 受託するd with alacrity. The man was pitiably shaken. We 棒 silently, the tight-lipped gunmen 警報. Peters' 直面する kept floating before me.
I gave Ricori a strong sedative, and left him sleeping, his men on guard. I had told him that I meant to make a 完全にする 検視.
Returning to the hospital in his car, I 設立する the 団体／死体 of Peters had been taken to the 霊安室. Rigor mortis, Braile told me, had been 完全にする in いっそう少なく than an hour—an astonishingly short time. I made the necessary 手はず／準備 for the 検視, and took Braile home with me to snatch a few hours sleep. It is difficult to 伝える by words the peculiarly unpleasant impression the whole occurrence had made upon me. I can only say that I was as 感謝する for Braile's company as he seemed to be for 地雷.
When I awoke, the nightmarish 圧迫 still ぐずぐず残るd, though not so 堅固に. It was about two when we began the 検視. I 解除するd the sheet from Peters' 団体／死体 with noticeable hesitation. I 星／主役にするd at his 直面する with amazement. All diabolism had been wiped away. It was serene, unlined—the 直面する of a man who had died 平和的に, with no agony either of 団体／死体 or mind. I 解除するd his 手渡す, it was limp, the whole 団体／死体 flaccid, the rigor gone.
It was then, I think, that I first felt 十分な 有罪の判決 I was 取引，協定ing with an 完全に new, or at least unknown, 機関 of death, whether microbic or さもなければ. As a 支配する, rigor does not 始める，決める in for sixteen to twenty-four hours, depending upon the 条件 of the 患者 before death, 気温 and a dozen other things. 普通は, it does not disappear for forty-eight to seventy-two hours. Usually a 早い setting-in of the 強化するing means as 早い a 見えなくなる, and 副／悪徳行為 versa. Diabetics 強化する quicker than others. A sudden brain 傷害, like 狙撃, is even swifter. In this 事例／患者, the rigor had begun instantaneously with death, and must have 完全にするd its cycle in the astonishingly short time of いっそう少なく than five hours—for the attendant told me that he had 診察するd the 団体／死体 about ten o'clock and he had thought that 強化するing had not yet 始める，決める in. As a 事柄 of fact, it had come and gone.
The results of the 検視 can be told in two 宣告，判決s. There was no ascertainable 推論する／理由 why Peters should not be alive. And he was dead!
Later, when Hoskins made his 報告（する）／憶測s, both of these utterly 相反する 声明s continued to be true. There was no 推論する／理由 why Peters should be dead. Yet dead he was. If the enigmatic lights we had 観察するd had anything to do with his death, they left no traces. His 組織／臓器s were perfect, all else as it should have been; he was, indeed, an extraordinarily healthy 見本／標本. Nor had Hoskins been able to 逮捕（する） any more of the light- carrying 血球s after I had left him.
That night I でっちあげる，人を罪に陥れるd a short letter 述べるing 簡潔に the symptoms 観察するd in Peters' 事例／患者, not dwelling upon the changes in 表現 but referring 慎重に to "unusual grimaces" and a "look of 激しい 恐れる." Braile and I had this manifold and mailed to every 内科医 in Greater New York. I 本人自身で …に出席するd to a 静かな 調査 to the same 影響 の中で the hospitals. The letters asked if the 内科医s had 扱う／治療するd any 患者s with 類似の symptoms, and if so to give particulars, 指名するs, 演説（する）／住所s, 占領／職業s and any characteristic 利益／興味—under 調印（する）, of course, of professional 信用／信任. I flattered myself that my 評判 was such that 非，不，無 of those who received the questionnaires would think the request actuated either by idle curiosity or slightest unethical 動機.
I received in 返答 seven letters and a personal visit from the writer of one of them. Each letter, except one, gave me in さまざまな degrees of 医療の 保守主義, the （警察などへの）密告，告訴（状） I had asked. After reading them, there was no question that within six months seven persons of oddly dissimilar 特徴 and 駅／配置するs in life had died as had Peters.
Chronologically, the 事例／患者s were as follows:
Their 演説（する）／住所s, except two, were 広範囲にわたって scattered throughout the city.
Each of the letters 公式文書，認めるd the sudden onset of rigor mortis and its 早い passing. Each of them gave the time of death に引き続いて the 初期の seizure as だいたい five hours. Five of them referred to the changing 表現s which had so troubled me; in the guarded way they did it I read the bewilderment of the writers.
"患者's 注目する，もくろむs remained open," 記録，記録的な／記録するd the 内科医 in 告発（する），告訴（する）／料金 of the spinster Bailey. "星／主役にするing, but gave no 調印する of 承認 of surroundings and failed to 焦点（を合わせる） upon or 現在の any 証拠 of seeing 反対するs held before them. 表現 one of 激しい terror, giving away toward death to others peculiarly disquieting to 観察者／傍聴者. The latter 強めるd after death 続いて起こるd. Rigor mortis 完全にする and dissipated within five hours."
The 内科医 in 告発（する），告訴（する）／料金 of McIlraine, the bricklayer, had nothing to say about the 賭け金-mortem phenomena, but wrote at some length about the 表現 of his 患者's 直面する after death.
"It had," he 報告（する）／憶測d, "nothing in ありふれた with the muscular 収縮過程 of the いわゆる 'Hippocratic countenance,' nor was it in any way the 星／主役にするing 注目する，もくろむs and contorted mouth familiarly known as the death grin. There was no suggestion of agony, after the death—rather the opposite. I would 称する，呼ぶ／期間／用語 the 表現 one of unusual malice."
The 報告（する）／憶測 of the 内科医 who had …に出席するd Standish, the acrobat, was perfunctory, but it について言及するd that "after 患者 had 明らかに died, singularly disagreeable sounds emanated from his throat." I wondered whether these had been the same demonic vociferations that had come from Peters, and, if so, I could not wonder at all at my 特派員's reticence 関心ing them.
I knew the 内科医 who had …に出席するd the 銀行業者—opinionated, pompous, a perfect doctor of the very rich.
"There can be no mystery as to the 原因（となる） of death," he wrote. "It was certainly thrombosis, a clot somewhere in the brain. I attach no importance whatever to the facial grimaces, nor to the time element 伴う／関わるd in the rigor. You know, my dear Lowell," he 追加するd, patronizingly, "it is an axiom in 法廷の 薬／医学 that one can 証明する anything by rigor mortis."
I would have liked to have replied that when in 疑問 thrombosis as a diagnosis is 平等に as useful in covering the ignorance of practitioners, but it would not have 穴をあけるd his complacency.
The Dimott 報告（する）／憶測 was a simple 記録，記録的な／記録する with no comment whatever upon grimaces or sounds.
But the doctor who had …に出席するd little Anita had not been so reticent.
"The child," he wrote, "had been beautiful. She seemed to 苦しむ no 苦痛, but at the onset of the illness I was shocked by the intensity of terror in her 直す／買収する，八百長をするd gaze. It was like a waking nightmare—for unquestionably she was conscious until death. Morphine in almost lethal 投薬量 produced no change in this symptom, nor did it seem to have any 影響 upon heart or respiration. Later the terror disappeared, giving way to other emotions which I hesitate to 述べる in this 報告（する）／憶測, but will do so in person if you so 願望（する）. The 面 of the child after death was peculiarly 乱すing, but again I would rather speak than 令状 of that."
There was a あわてて scrawled postscript; I could see him hesitating, then giving way at last to the necessity of unburdening his mind, dashing off that postscript and 急ぐing the letter away before he could 再考する -
"I have written that the child was conscious until death. What haunts me is the 有罪の判決 that she was conscious after physical death! Let me talk to you."
I nodded with satisfaction. I had not dared to put that 観察 負かす／撃墜する in my questionnaire. And if it has been true of the other 事例／患者s, as I now believed it must have been, all the doctors except Standish's had 株d my 保守主義—or timidity. I called little Anita's 内科医 upon the 'phone at once. He was 堅固に perturbed. In every 詳細（に述べる） his 事例／患者 had 平行のd that of Peters. He kept repeating over and over:
"The child was 甘い and good as an angel, and she changed into a devil!"
I 約束d to keep him apprised of any 発見s I might make, and すぐに after our conversation I was visited by the young 内科医 who had …に出席するd Hortense Darnley. Doctor Y, as I shall call him, had nothing to 追加する to the 医療の 面 other than what I already knew, but his talk 示唆するd the first practical line of approach toward the problem.
His office, he said, was in the apartment house which had been Hortense Darnley's home. He had been working late, and had been 召喚するd to her apartment about ten o'clock by the woman's maid, a colored girl. He had 設立する the 患者 lying upon her bed, and had at once been struck by the 表現 of terror on her 直面する and the 驚くべき／特命の／臨時の limpness of her 団体／死体. He 述べるd her as blonde, blue-注目する，もくろむd—"the doll type."
A man was in the apartment. He had at first 避けるd giving his 指名する, 説 that he was 単に a friend. At first ちらりと見ること, Dr. Y had thought the woman had been 支配するd to some 暴力／激しさ, but examination 明らかにする／漏らすd no bruises or other 傷害s. The "friend" had told him they had been eating dinner when "行方不明になる Darnley flopped 権利 負かす／撃墜する on the 床に打ち倒す as though all her bones had gone soft, and we couldn't get anything out of her." The maid 確認するd this. There was a half-eaten dinner on the （米）棚上げする／（英）提議する, and both man and servant 宣言するd Hortense had been in the best of spirits. There had been no quarrel. Reluctantly, the "friend" had 認める that the seizure had occurred three hours before, and that they had tried to "bring her about" themselves, calling upon him only when the 補欠／交替の／交替するing 表現s which I have referred to in the 事例／患者 of Peters began to appear.
As the seizure 進歩d, the maid had become hysterical with fright and fled. The man was of tougher 木材／素質 and had remained until the end. He had been much shaken, as had Dr. Y, by the after-death phenomena. Upon the 内科医 宣言するing that the 事例／患者 was one for the 検死官, he had lost his reticence, volunteering his 指名する as James ツバメ, and 表明するing himself as eager for a 完全にする 検視. He was やめる frank as to his 推論する／理由s. The Darnley woman had been his mistress, and he "had enough trouble without her death pinned to me."
There had been a 徹底的な 検視. No trace of 病気 or 毒（薬） had been 設立する. Beyond a slight valvular trouble of the heart, Hortense Darnley had been perfectly healthy. The 判決 had been death by heart 病気. But Dr. Y was perfectly 納得させるd the heart had nothing to do with it.
It was, of course, やめる obvious that Hortense Darnley had died from the same 原因（となる） or 機関 as had all the others. But to me the 優れた fact was that her apartment had been within a 石／投石する's throw of the 演説（する）／住所 Ricori had given me as that of Peters. その上に, ツバメ was of the same world, if Dr. Y's impressions were 訂正する. Here was conceivably a link between two of the 事例／患者s—行方不明の in the others. I 決定するd to call in Ricori, to lay all the cards before him, and enlist his 援助（する） if possible.
My 調査 had 消費するd about two weeks. During that time I had become 井戸／弁護士席 熟知させるd with Ricori. For one thing he 利益／興味d me immensely as a 製品 of 現在の-day 条件s; for another I liked him, にもかかわらず his 評判. He was remarkably 井戸／弁護士席 read, of a high grade of 全く unmoral 知能, subtle and superstitious—in olden time he would probably have been a Captain of Condottieri, his wits and sword for 雇う. I wondered what were his antecedents. He had paid me several visits since the death of Peters, and やめる plainly my liking was 報いるd. On these visits he was guarded by the tight-lipped man who had watched by the hospital window. This man's 指名する, I learned, was McCann. He was Ricori's most 信用d 護衛, 明らかに wholly 充てるd to his white-haired 長，指導者. He was an 利益／興味ing character too, and やめる 認可するd of me. He was a drawling Southerner who had been, as he put it, "a cow- nurse 負かす／撃墜する Arizona way, and then got too popular on the 国境."
"I'm for you, Doc," he told me. "You're sure good for the boss. Sort of take his mind off 商売／仕事. An' when I come here I can keep my 手渡すs outa my pockets. Any time anybody's cutting in on your cattle, let me know. I'll ask for a day off."
Then he 発言／述べるd casually that he "could （犯罪の）一味 a ４半期/4分の1 with six 穴を開けるs at a hundred foot 範囲."
I did not know whether this was meant humorously or 本気で. At any 率, Ricori never went anywhere without him; and it showed me how much he had thought of Peters that he had left McCann to guard him.
I got in touch with Ricori and asked him to take dinner with Braile and me that night at my house. At seven he arrived, telling his chauffeur to return at ten. We sat at the （米）棚上げする／（英）提議する with McCann, as usual, on watch in my hall, thrilling, I knew, my two night nurses—I have a small 私的な hospital adjunct—by playing the part of a 銃器携帯者／殺しや as conceived by the 動議 pictures.
Dinner over, I 解任するd the butler and （機の）カム to the point. I told Ricori of my questionnaire, 発言／述べるing that by it I had 明らかにするd seven 事例／患者s 類似の to that of Peters.
"You can 解任する from your mind any idea that Peters' death was 予定 to his 関係 with you, 含むing the tiny globes of radiance in the 血 of Peters."
At that his 直面する grew white. He crossed himself.
"La strega!" he muttered. "The Witch! The Witch-解雇する／砲火／射撃!"
"Nonsense, man!" I said. "Forget your damned superstitions. I want help."
"You are scientifically ignorant! There are some things, Dr. Lowell-" he began, hotly; then controlled himself.
"What is it you want me to do?"
"First," I said, "let's go over these eight 事例／患者s, 分析する them. Braile, have you come to any 結論s?"
"Yes," Braile answered. "I think all eight were 殺人d!"
THAT Braile had 発言する／表明するd the thought lurking behind my own mind—and without a shred of 証拠 so far as I could see to support it— irritated me.
"You're a better man than I am, Sherlock Holmes," I said sarcastically. He 紅潮／摘発するd, but repeated stubbornly:
"They were 殺人d."
"La strega!" whispered Ricori. I glared at him.
"やめる （警官の）巡回区域，受持ち区域ing around the bush, Braile. What's your 証拠?"
"You were away from Peters almost two hours; I was with him 事実上 from start to finish. As I 熟考する／考慮するd him, I had the feeling that the whole trouble was in the mind—that it was not his 団体／死体, his 神経s, his brain, that 辞退するd to 機能（する）／行事, but his will. Not やめる that, either. Put it that his will had 中止するd to care about the 機能（する）／行事s of the 団体／死体—and was 中心d upon 殺人，大当り it!"
"What you're 輪郭（を描く）ing now is not 殺人 but 自殺. 井戸／弁護士席, it has been done. I've watched a few die because they had lost the will to live-"
"I don't mean that," he interrupted. "That's passive. This was active—"
"Good God, Braile!" I was honestly shocked. "Don't tell me you're 示唆するing all eight passed from the picture by willing themselves out of it —and one of them only an eleven-year- old child!"
"I didn't say that," he replied. "What I felt was that it was not まず第一に／本来 Peters' own will doing it, but another's will, which had gripped his, had 負傷させる itself around, threaded itself through his will. Another's will which he could not, or did not want to resist—at least toward the end."
"La maledetta strega!" muttered Ricori again.
I 抑制（する）d my irritation and sat considering; after all, I had a wholesome 尊敬（する）・点 for Braile. He was too good a man, too sound, for one to ride roughshod over any idea he might 発言する／表明する.
"Have you any idea as to how these 殺人s, if 殺人s they are, were carried out?" I asked politely.
"Not the slightest," said Braile.
"Let's consider the 殺人 theory. Ricori, you have had more experience in this line than we, so listen carefully and forget your witch," I said, 残酷に enough. "There are three 必須の factors to any 殺人— method, 適切な時期, 動機. Take them in order. First—the method.
"There are three ways a person can be killed by 毒（薬） or by 感染: through the nose—and this 含むs by gases—through the mouth and through the 肌. There are two or three other avenues. Hamlet's father, for example, was 毒（薬）d, we read, through the ears, although I've always had my 疑問s about that. I think, 追求するing the hypothesis of 殺人, we can 妨げる／法廷，弁護士業 out all approaches except mouth, nose, 肌—and, by the last, 入り口 to the 血 can be 遂行するd by absorption 同様に as by 侵入／浸透. Was there any 証拠 whatever on the 肌, in the membranes of the respiratory channels, in the throat, in the viscera, stomach, 血, 神経s, brain—of anything of the sort?"
"You know there wasn't," he answered.
"やめる so. Then except for the problematical lighted 血球, there is 絶対 no 証拠 of method. Therefore we have 絶対 nothing in 必須の number one upon which to base a theory of 殺人. Let's take number two—適切な時期.
"We have a （名声などを）汚すd lady, a 脅迫者，不正手段で暴利を得る者, a respectable spinster, a bricklayer, an eleven-year-old schoolgirl, a 銀行業者, an acrobat and a trapeze performer. There, I 服従させる／提出する, is about as incongruous a congregation as is possible. So far as we can tell, 非，不，無 of them except conceivably the circus men—and Peters and the Darnley woman—had anything in ありふれた. How could anyone, who had 適切な時期 to come in の近くに enough 接触する to Peters the 脅迫者，不正手段で暴利を得る者 to kill him, have equal 適切な時期 to come in 類似の の近くに 接触する with Ruth Bailey, the Social Registerite maiden lady? How could one who had 設立する a way to make 接触する with 銀行業者 Marshall come 平等に の近くに to acrobat Standish? And so on—you perceive the difficulty? To 治める whatever it was that 原因（となる）d the deaths—if they were 殺人 —could have been no casual 事柄. It 暗示するs a 確かな degree of intimacy. You agree?"
"Partly," he 譲歩するd.
"Had all lived in the same 近隣, we might assume that they might 普通は have come within 範囲 of the hypothetical 殺し屋. But they did not— "
"容赦 me, Dr. Lowell," Ricori interrupted, "but suppose they had some ありふれた 利益／興味 which brought them within that 範囲."
"What possible ありふれた 利益／興味 could so 相違する a group have had?"
"One ありふれた 利益／興味 is very plainly 示すd in these 報告（する）／憶測s and in what McCann has told us."
"What do you mean, Ricori?"
"Babies," he answered. "Or at least—children."
Braile nodded: "I noticed that."
"Consider the 報告（する）／憶測s," Ricori went on. "行方不明になる Bailey is 述べるd as charitable and 充てるd to children. Her charities, 推定では, took the form of helping them. Marshall, the 銀行業者, was 利益／興味d in child-福利事業. The bricklayer, the acrobat and the trapeze performer had children. Anita was a child. Peters and the Darnley woman were, to use McCann's 表現, 'daffy' over a baby."
"But," I 反対するd, "if they are 殺人s, they are the work of one 手渡す. It is beyond 範囲 of 可能性 that all of the eight were 利益／興味d in one baby, one child, or one group of children."
"Very true," said Braile. "But all could have been 利益／興味d in one especial, peculiar thing which they believed would be of 利益 to or would delight the child or children to whom each was 充てるd. And that peculiar article might be obtainable in only one place. If we could find that this is the fact, then certainly that place would 耐える 調査."
"It is," I said, "undeniably 価値（がある） looking into. Yet it seems to me that the ありふれた-利益／興味 idea 作品 two ways. The homes of those who died might have had something of ありふれた 利益／興味 to an individual. The 殺害者, for example, might be a 無線で通信する adjuster. Or a plumber. Or a collector. An electrician, and so and so on."
Braile shrugged a shoulder. Ricori did not answer; he sat 深い in thought, as though he had not heard me.
"Please listen, Ricori," I said. "We've gotten this far. Method of 殺人 —if it is 殺人—unknown. 適切な時期 for 殺人，大当り—find some person whose 商売／仕事, profession or what not was a 事柄 of 利益／興味 to each of the eight, and whom they visited or who visited them; said 商売／仕事 存在 関心d, かもしれない, in some way with babies or older children. Now for 動機. 復讐, 伸び（る）, love, hate, jealousy, self-保護? 非，不，無 of these seems to fit, for again we come to that 障壁 of dissimilar 駅／配置するs in life."
"How about the satisfaction of an appetite for death—wouldn't you call that a 動機?" asked Braile, oddly. Ricori half rose from his 議長，司会を務める, 星／主役にするd at him with a curious intentness; then sank 支援する, but I noticed he was now all 警報.
"I was about to discuss the 可能性 of a homicidal maniac," I said, somewhat testily.
"That's not 正確に／まさに what I mean. You remember Longfellow's lines:
I 発射 an arrow into the 空気／公表する.
It fell to
earth I know not where.
"I've never acquiesced in the idea that that was an 奮起させるd bit of 詩（を作る） meaning the sending of an argosy to some unknown port and getting it 支援する with a surprise 貨物 of ivory and peacocks, apes and precious 石／投石するs. There are some people who can't stand at a window high above a busy street, or on 最高の，を越す of a 超高層ビル, without wanting to throw something 負かす／撃墜する. They get a thrill in wondering who or what will be 攻撃する，衝突する. The feeling of 力／強力にする. It's a bit like 存在 God and unloosing the pestilence upon the just and the 不正な alike. Longfellow must have been one of those people. In his heart, he 手配中の，お尋ね者 to shoot a real arrow and then 検討する，考慮する over in his imagination whether it had dropped in somebody's 注目する，もくろむ, 攻撃する，衝突する a heart, or just 行方不明になるd someone and skewered a 逸脱する dog. Carry this on a little その上の. Give one of these people 力／強力にする and 適切な時期 to loose death at 無作為の, death whose 原因（となる） he is sure cannot be （悪事，秘密などを）発見するd. He sits in his obscurity, in safety, a god of death. With no special malice against anyone, perhaps—impersonal, just 狙撃 his arrows in the 空気／公表する, like Longfellow's archer, for the fun of it."
"And you wouldn't call such a person a homicidal maniac?" I asked, dryly.
"Not やむを得ず. 単に 解放する／自由な of inhibitions against 殺人，大当り. He might have no consciousness of 悪事を働くこと whatever. Everybody comes into this world under 宣告，判決 of death—time and method of 死刑執行 unknown. 井戸／弁護士席, this 殺し屋 might consider himself as natural as death itself. No one who believes that things on earth are run by an all-wise, all-powerful God thinks of Him as a homicidal maniac. Yet He looses wars, pestilences, 悲惨, 病気, floods, 地震s—on 信奉者s and unbelievers alike. If you believe things are in the 手渡すs of what is ばく然と 称する，呼ぶ／期間／用語d 運命／宿命— would you call 運命／宿命 a homicidal maniac?"
"Your hypothetical archer," I said, "looses a singularly unpleasant arrow, Braile. Also, the discussion is growing far too metaphysical for a simple scientist like me. Ricori, I can't lay this 事柄 before the police. They would listen politely and laugh heartily after I had gone. If I told all that is in my mind to the 医療の 当局, they would 嘆き悲しむ the decadence of a hitherto 栄誉（を受ける）d intellect. And I would rather not call in any 私立探偵事務所 to 追求する 調査s."
"What do you want me to do?" he asked.
"You have unusual 資源s," I answered. "I want you to 精査する every movement of Peters and Hortense Darnley for the past two months. I want you to do all that is possible in the same way with the others-"
I hesitated.
"I want you to find that one place to which, because of their love for children, each of these unfortunates was drawn. For though my 推論する／理由 tells me you and Braile have not the slightest real 証拠 upon which to base your 疑惑s, I grudgingly 収容する／認める to you that I have a feeling you may be 権利."
"You 進歩, Dr. Lowell," Ricori said, 正式に. "I 予報する that it will not be long before you will as grudgingly 収容する／認める the 可能性 of my witch."
"I am 十分に abased," I replied, "by my 現在の credulity not to 否定する even that."
Ricori laughed, and busied himself copying the 必須の （警察などへの）密告，告訴（状） from the 報告（する）／憶測s. Ten o'clock struck. McCann （機の）カム up to say that the car was waiting and we …を伴ってd Ricori to the door. The 銃器携帯者／殺しや had stepped out and was on the steps when a thought （機の）カム to me.
"Where do you begin, Ricori?"
"With Peters' sister."
"Does she know Peters is dead?"
"No," he answered, reluctantly. "She thinks him away. He is often away for long, and for 推論する／理由s which she understands he is not able to communicate with her 直接／まっすぐに. At such times I keep her 知らせるd. And the 推論する／理由 I have not told her of Peters' death is because she dearly loved him and would be in much 悲しみ—and in a month, perhaps, there is to be another baby."
"Does she know the Darnley woman is dead, I wonder?"
"I do not know. Probably. Although McCann evidently does not."
"井戸／弁護士席," I said, "I don't see how you're going to keep Peters' death from her now. But that's your 商売／仕事."
"正確に／まさに," he answered, and followed McCann to the car.
Braile and I had hardly gotten 支援する to my library when the telephone rang. Braile answered it. I heard him 悪口を言う／悪態, and saw that the 手渡す that held the transmitter was shaking. He said: "We will come at once."
He 始める，決める the transmitter 負かす／撃墜する slowly, then turned to me with twitching 直面する.
"Nurse Walters has it!"
I felt a 際立った shock. As I have written, Walters was a perfect nurse, and besides that a 完全に good and attractive young person. A pure Gaelic type—blue-黒人／ボイコット hair, blue 注目する，もくろむs with astonishingly long 攻撃するs, milk-white 肌—yes, singularly attractive. After a moment or two of silence I said:
"井戸／弁護士席, Braile, there goes all your 罰金-spun 推論する／理由ing. Also your 殺人 theory. From the Darnley woman to Peters to Walters. No 疑問 now that we're 取引，協定ing with some 感染性の 病気."
"Isn't there?" he asked, grimly. "I'm not 用意が出来ている to 収容する／認める it. I happen to know Walters spends most of her money on a little 無効の niece who lives with her—a child of eight. Ricori's thread of ありふれた 利益／興味 moves into her 事例／患者."
"にもかかわらず," I said as grimly, "I ーするつもりである to see that every 警戒 is taken against an 感染性の malady."
By the time we had put on our hats and coats, my car was waiting. The hospital was only two 封鎖するs away, but I did not wish to waste a moment. I ordered Nurse Walters 除去するd to an 孤立するd 区 used for 観察 of 怪しげな 病気s. 診察するing her, I 設立する the same flaccidity as I had 公式文書，認めるd in the 事例／患者 of Peters. But I 観察するd that, unlike him, her 注目する，もくろむs and 直面する showed little of terror. Horror there was, and a 広大な／多数の／重要な loathing. Nothing of panic. She gave me the same impression of seeing both within and without. As I 熟考する／考慮するd her I distinctly saw a flash of 承認 come into her 注目する，もくろむs, and with it 控訴，上告. I looked at Braile—he nodded; he, too, had seen it.
I went over her 団体／死体 インチ by インチ. It was unmarked except for a pinkish patch upon her 権利 instep. Closer examination made me think this had been some superficial 傷害, such as a chafing, or a light 燃やす or scald. If so, it had 完全に 傷をいやす／和解させるd; the 肌 was healthy.
In all other ways her 事例／患者 平行のd that of Peters—and the others. She had 崩壊（する）d, the nurse told me, without 警告 while getting dressed to go home. My 調査 was interrupted by an exclamation from Braile. I turned to the bed and saw that Walters' 手渡す was slowly 解除するing, trembling as though its raising was by some terrific 緊張する of will. The 索引 finger was half- pointing. I followed its direction to the 公表する／暴露するd patch upon the foot. And then I saw her 注目する，もくろむs, by that same tremendous 成果／努力, 焦点（を合わせる） there.
The 緊張する was too 広大な／多数の／重要な; the 手渡す dropped, the 注目する，もくろむs again were pools of horror. Yet 明確に she had tried to 伝える to us some message, something that had to do with that 傷をいやす／和解させるd 負傷させる.
I questioned the nurse as to whether Walters had said anything to anyone about any 傷害 to her foot. She replied that she had said nothing to her, nor had any of the other nurses spoken of it. Nurse Robbins, however, 株d the apartment with Harriet and Diana. I asked who Diana was, and she told me that was the 指名する of Walters' little niece. This was Robbins' night off, I 設立する, and gave 指示／教授／教育s to have her get in touch with me the moment she returned to the apartment.
By now Hoskins was taking his 見本s for the 血 実験（する）s. I asked him to concentrate upon the microscopic smears and to 通知する me すぐに if he discovered one of the luminous 血球s. Bartano, an 優れた 専門家 upon 熱帯の 病気s, happened to be in the hospital, 同様に as Somers, a brain specialist in whom I had strong 信用／信任. I called them in for 観察, 説 nothing of the previous 事例／患者s. While they were 診察するing Walters, Hoskins called up to say he had 孤立するd one of the 向こうずねing 血球s. I asked the pair to go to Hoskins and give me their opinion upon what he had to show them. In a little while they returned, somewhat annoyed and mystified. Hoskins, they said, had spoken of a "leucocyte 含む／封じ込めるing a phosphorescent 核." They had looked at the slide but had been unable to find it. Somers very 本気で advised me to 主張する upon Hoskins having his 注目する，もくろむs 診察するd. Bartano said caustically that he would have been やめる as surprised to have seen such a thing as he would have been to have 観察するd a miniature mermaid swimming around in an artery. By these 発言／述べるs, I realized afresh the 知恵 in my silence.
Nor did the 推定する／予想するd changes in 表現 occur. The horror and loathing 固執するd, and were commented upon by both Bartano and Somers as "unusual." They agreed that the 条件 must be 原因（となる）d by a brain lesion of some 肉親，親類d. They did not think there was any 証拠 either of microbic 感染 or of 麻薬s or 毒（薬）. Agreeing that it was a most 利益／興味ing 事例／患者, and asking me to let them know its 進歩 and 結果, they 出発／死d.
At the beginning of the fourth hour, there was a change of 表現, but not what I had been 推定する／予想するing. In Walters' 注目する，もくろむs, on her 直面する, was only loathing. Once I thought I saw a flicker of the devilish 予期 flash over her 直面する. If so, it was quickly mastered. About the middle of the fourth hour, we saw 承認 again return to her 注目する，もくろむs. Also, there was a perceptible 決起大会／結集させる of the slowing heart. I sensed an 激しい 集会 of nervous 軍隊.
And then her eyelids began to rise and 落ちる, slowly, as though by tremendous 成果／努力, in 手段d time and purposefully. Four times they raised and lowered; there was a pause; then nine times they 解除するd and fell; again the pause, then they の近くにd and opened once. Twice she did this -
"She's trying to signal," whispered Braile. "But what?"
Again the long-攻撃するd lids dropped and rose—four times... pause... nine times... pause... once...
"She's going," whispered Braile.
I knelt, stethoscope at ears... slower... slower （警官の）巡回区域，受持ち区域 the heart... and slower... and stopped.
"She's gone!" I said, and arose. We bent over her, waiting for that last hideous spasm, convulsion—whatever it might be.
It did not come. Stamped upon her dead 直面する was the loathing, and that only. Nothing of the devilish glee. Nor was there sound from her dead lips. Beneath my 手渡す I felt the flesh of her white arm begin to 強化する.
The unknown death had destroyed Nurse Walters—there was no 疑問 of that. Yet in some obscure, vague way I felt that it had not 征服する／打ち勝つd her.
Her 団体／死体, yes. But not her will!
I RETURNED home with Braile, profoundly depressed. It is difficult to 述べる the 影響 the sequence of events I am relating had upon my mind from beginning to end—and beyond the end. It was as though I walked almost 絶えず under the 影をつくる／尾行する of an 外国人 world, 神経s prickling as if under 監視 of invisible things not of our life... the subconsciousness 軍隊ing itself to the threshold of the conscious, 乱打するing at the door between and calling out to be on guard... every moment to be on guard. Strange phrases for an 正統派の man of 薬／医学? Let them stand.
Braile was pitiably shaken. So much so that I wondered whether there had been more than professional 利益／興味 between him and the dead girl. If there had been, he did not confide in me.
It was の近くに to four o'clock when we reached my house. I 主張するd that he remain with me. I called the hospital before retiring, but they had heard nothing of Nurse Robbins. I slept a few hours, very 不正に. すぐに after nine, Robbins called me on the telephone. She was half hysterical with grief. I bade her come to my office, and when she had done so Braile and I questioned her.
"About three weeks ago," she said, "Harriet brought home to Diana a very pretty doll. The child was enraptured. I asked Harriet where she had gotten it, and she said in a queer little 蓄える／店 way downtown.
"'職業,' she said—my 指名する is Jobina—'There's the queerest woman 負かす／撃墜する there. I'm sort of afraid of her, 職業.'
"I didn't 支払う／賃金 much attention. Besides, Harriet wasn't ever very communicative. I had the idea she was a bit sorry she had said what she had.
"Now I think of it though, Harriet 行為／法令／行動するd rather funny after that. She'd be gay and then she'd be—井戸／弁護士席, sort of thoughtful. About ten days ago she （機の）カム home with a 包帯 around her foot. The 権利 foot? Yes. She said she'd been having tea with the woman she'd gotten Diana's doll from. The teapot upset and the hot tea had 注ぐd 負かす／撃墜する on her foot. The woman had put some salve on it 権利 away, and now it didn't 傷つける a bit.
"'But I think I'll put something on it I know something about,' she told me. Then she slipped off her 在庫／株ing and began to （土地などの）細長い一片 the 包帯. I'd gone into the kitchen and she called to me to come and look at her foot.
"'It's queer,' she said. 'That was a bad scald, 職業. Yet it's 事実上 傷をいやす／和解させるd. And that salve hasn't been on more than an hour.'
"I looked at her foot. There was a big red patch on the instep. But it wasn't sore, and I told her the tea couldn't have been very hot.
"'But it was really scalded, 職業,' she said. 'I mean it was blistered.'
"She sat looking at the 包帯 and at her foot for やめる a while. The salve was bluish and had a queer 向こうずね to it. I never saw anything like it before. No, I couldn't （悪事，秘密などを）発見する any odor to it. Harriet reached 負かす／撃墜する and took the 包帯 and said:
"'職業, throw it in the 解雇する／砲火／射撃.'
"I threw the 包帯 in the 解雇する／砲火／射撃. I remember that it gave a queer sort of flicker. It didn't seem to 燃やす. It just flickered and then it wasn't there. Harriet watched it, and turned sort of white. Then she looked at her foot again.
"'職業,' she said. 'I never saw anything 傷をいやす／和解させる as quick as that. She, must be a witch.'
"'What on earth are you talking about, Harriet?' I asked her.
"'Oh, nothing,' she said. 'Only I wish I had the courage to 引き裂く that place on my foot wide open and rub in an antidote for snake-bite!'
"Then she laughed, and I thought she was fooling. But she painted it with iodine and 包帯d it with an antiseptic besides. The next morning she woke me up and said:
"'Look at that foot now. Yesterday a whole マリファナ of scalding tea 注ぐd over it. And now it isn't even tender. And the 肌 ought to be just smeared off. 職業, I wish to the Lord it was!'
"That's all, Dr. Lowell. She didn't say any more about it and neither did I. And she just seemed to forget all about it. Yes. I did ask her where the shop was and who the woman was, but she wouldn't tell me. I don't know why.
"And after that I never knew her so gay and carefree. Happy, careless... Oh, I don't know why she should have died... I don't... I don't!"
Braile asked:
"Do the numbers 491 mean anything to you, Robbins? Do you associate them with any 演説（する）／住所 Harriet knew?"
She thought, then shook her 長，率いる. I told her of the 手段d の近くにing and 開始 of Walters' 注目する，もくろむs.
"She was 明確に 試みる／企てるing to 伝える some message in which those numbers 人物／姿／数字d. Think again."
Suddenly she straightened, and began counting upon her fingers. She nodded.
"Could she have been trying to （一定の）期間 out something? If they were letters they would read d, i and a. They're the first three letters of Diana's 指名する."
"井戸／弁護士席, of course that seemed the simple explanation. She might have been trying to ask us to take care of the child." I 示唆するd this to Braile. He shook his 長，率いる.
"She knew I'd do that," he said. "No, it was something else."
A little after Robbins had gone, Ricori called up. I told him of Walters' death. He was 大いに moved. And after that （機の）カム the melancholy 商売／仕事 of the 検視. The results were 正確に the same as in that of Peters. There was nothing whatever to show why the girl had died.
At about four o'clock the next day Ricori again called me on the telephone.
"Will you be at home between six and nine, Dr. Lowell?" There was 抑えるd 切望 in his 発言する／表明する.
"Certainly, if it is important," I answered, after 協議するing my 任命 調書をとる／予約する. "Have you 設立する out anything, Ricori?"
He hesitated.
"I do not know. I think perhaps—yes."
"You mean," I did not even try to hide my own 切望. "You mean— the hypothetical place we discussed?"
"Perhaps. I will know later. I go now, to where it may be."
"Tell me this, Ricori—what do you 推定する／予想する to find?"
"Dolls!" he answered.
And as though to 避ける その上の questions he hung up before I could speak.
Dolls!
I sat thinking. Walters had bought a doll. And in that same unknown place where she had bought it, she had 支えるd the 傷害 which had so worried her—or rather, whose unorthodox 行為 had so worried her. Nor was there 疑問 in my mind, after 審理，公聴会 Robbins' story, that it was to that 傷害 she had せいにするd her seizure, and had tried to tell us so. We had not been mistaken in our 解釈／通訳 of that first desperate 成果／努力 of will I have 述べるd. She might, of course, have been in error. The scald or, rather, the salve had had nothing whatever to do with her 条件. Yet Walters had been 堅固に 利益／興味d in a child. Children were the ありふれた 利益／興味 of all who had died as she had. And certainly the one 広大な／多数の／重要な ありふれた 利益／興味 of children is dolls. What was it that Ricori had discovered?
I called Braile, but could not get him. I called up Robbins and told her to bring the doll to me すぐに, which she did.
The doll was a peculiarly beautiful thing. It had been 削減（する） from 支持を得ようと努めるd, then covered with gesso. It was curiously life-like. A baby doll, with an elfin little 直面する. Its dress was exquisitely embroidered, a folk-dress of some country I could not place. It was, I thought, almost a museum piece, and one whose price Nurse Walters could hardly have afforded. It bore no 示す by which either 製造者 or 販売人 could be identified. After I had 診察するd it minutely, I laid it away in a drawer. I waited impatiently to hear from Ricori.
At seven o'clock there was a 支えるd, peremptory （犯罪の）一味ing of the doorbell. 開始 my 熟考する／考慮する door, I heard McCann's 発言する／表明する in the hall, and called to him to come up. At first ちらりと見ること I knew something was very wrong. His tight-mouthed tanned 直面する was a sallow yellow, his 注目する，もくろむs held a dazed look. He spoke from stiff lips:
"Come 負かす／撃墜する to the car. I think the boss is dead."
"Dead!" I exclaimed, and was 負かす／撃墜する the stairs and out beside the car in a breath. The chauffeur was standing beside the door. He opened it, and I saw Ricori 密談する／（身体を）寄せ集めるd in a corner of the 後部 seat. I could feel no pulse, and when I raised the lids of his 注目する，もくろむs they 星／主役にするd at me sightlessly. Yet he was not 冷淡な.
"Bring him in," I ordered.
McCann and the chauffeur carried him into the house and placed him on the examination （米）棚上げする／（英）提議する in my office. I 明らかにするd his breast and 適用するd the stethoscope. I could （悪事，秘密などを）発見する no 調印する of the heart 機能（する）／行事ing. Nor was there, 明らかに, any respiration. I made a few other 早い 実験（する）s. To all 外見s, Ricori was やめる dead. And yet I was not 満足させるd. I did the things customary in doubtful 事例／患者s, but without result.
McCann and the chauffeur had been standing の近くに beside me. They read my 判決 in my 直面する. I saw a strange ちらりと見ること pass between them; and 明白に each of them had a touch of panic, the chauffeur more markedly than McCann. The latter asked in a level, monotonous 発言する／表明する:
"Could it have been 毒（薬）?"
"Yes, it could-" I stopped.
毒（薬）! And that mysterious errand about which he had telephoned me! And the 可能性 of 毒（薬） in the other 事例／患者s! But this death—and again I felt the 疑問—had not been like those others.
"McCann," I said, "when and where did you first notice anything wrong?"
He answered, still in that monotonous 発言する／表明する:
"About six 封鎖するs 負かす／撃墜する the street. The boss was sitting の近くに to me. All at once he says 'Jesu!' Like he's 脅すd. He 押すs his 手渡すs up to his chest. He gives a 肉親，親類d of groan an' 強化するs out. I says to him: 'What's the 事柄, boss, you got a 苦痛?' He don't answer me, an' then he sort of 落ちるs against me an' I see his 注目する，もくろむs is wide open. He looks dead to me. So I yelps to Paul to stop the car and we both look him over. Then we （警官の）巡回区域，受持ち区域 it here like hell."
I went to a 閣僚 and 注ぐd them stiff drinks of brandy. They needed it. I threw a sheet over Ricori.
"Sit 負かす／撃墜する," I said, "and you, McCann, tell me 正確に／まさに what occurred from the time you started out with Mr. Ricori to wherever it was he went. Don't skip a 選び出す／独身 詳細（に述べる）."
He said:
"About two o'clock the boss goes to Mollie's—that's Peters' sister —stays an hour, comes out, goes home and tells Paul to be 支援する at four-thirty. But he's doing a lot of 'phoning so we don't start till five. He tells Paul where he wants to go, a place over in a little street 負かす／撃墜する off 殴打／砲列 Park. He says to Paul not to go through the street, just park the car over by the 殴打／砲列. And he says to me, 'McCann, I'm going in this place myself. I don't want 'em to know I ain't by myself.' He says, 'I got 推論する／理由s. You hang around an' look in now an' then, but don't come in unless I call you.' I says, 'Boss, do you think it's wise?' An' he says, 'I know what I'm doing an' you do what I tell you.' So there ain't any argument to that.
"We get 負かす／撃墜する to this place an' Paul does like he's told, an' the boss walks up the street an' he stops at a little 共同の that's got a lot of dolls in the window. I looks in the place as I go past. There ain't much light but I see a lot of other dolls inside an' a thin gal at a 反対する. She looks white as a fish's belly to me, an' after the boss has stood at the window a minute or two he goes in, an' I go by slow to look at the gal again because she sure looks whiter than I ever saw a gal look who's on her two feet. The boss is talkin' to the gal who's showing him some dolls. The next time I go by there's a woman in the place. She's so big, I stand at the window a minute to look at her because I never seen anybody that looks like her. She's got a brown 直面する an' it looks sort of like a horse, an' a little mustache an' moles, an' she's as funny a looking 幅の広い as the fish-white gal. Big an' fat. But I get a peep at her 注目する，もくろむs—Geeze, what 注目する，もくろむs! Big an' 黒人／ボイコット an' 有望な, an' somehow I don't like them any more than the 残り／休憩（する） of her. The next time I go by, the boss is over in a corner with the big dame. He's got a wad of 法案s in his 手渡す and I see the gal watching sort of 脅すd like. The next time I do my （警官の）巡回区域，受持ち区域, I don't see either the boss or the woman.
"So I stand looking through the window because I don't like the boss out of my sight in this 共同の. An' the next thing I see is the boss coming out of a door at the 支援する of the shop. He's madder than hell an' carrying something an' the woman is behind him an' her 注目する，もくろむs spitting 解雇する／砲火／射撃. The boss is jabbering but I can't hear what he's 説, an' the dame is jabbering too an' making funny passes at him. Funny passes? Why, funny 動議s with her 手渡すs. But the boss 長，率いるs for the door an' when he gets to it I see him stick what he's carrying inside his overcoat an' button it up 一連の会議、交渉／完成する it.
"It's a doll. I see its 脚s dangling 負かす／撃墜する before he gets it under his coat. A big one, too, for it makes やめる a bulge-"
He paused, began mechanically to roll a cigarette, than ちらりと見ることd at the covered 団体／死体 and threw the cigarette away. He went on:
"I never see the boss so mad before. He's muttering to himself in Italian an' 説 something over an' over that sounds like 'strayga.' I see it ain't no time to talk so I just walk along with him. Once he says to me, more as if he's talking to himself than me, if you get what I mean—he says, 'The Bible says you shall not 苦しむ a witch to live.' Then he goes on muttering an' 持つ／拘留するing one arm 急速な／放蕩な over this doll inside his coat.
"We get to the car an' he tells Paul to （警官の）巡回区域，受持ち区域 it straight to you an' to hell with traffic—that's 権利, ain't it, Paul? Yes. When we get in the car he stops muttering an' just sits there 静かな, not 説 anything to me until I hear him say Jesu!' like I told you. And that's all, ain't it, Paul?"
The chauffeur did not answer. He sat 星／主役にするing at McCann with something of entreaty in his gaze. I distinctly saw McCann shake his 長，率いる. The chauffeur said, in a 堅固に 示すd Italian accent, hesitatingly:
"I do not see the shop, but everything else McCann say is truth."
I got up and walked over to Ricori's 団体／死体. I was about to 解除する the sheet when something caught my 注目する，もくろむ. A red 位置／汚点／見つけ出す about as big as a 薄暗い—a 血 stain. 持つ／拘留するing it in place with one finger, I carefully 解除するd the 辛勝する／優位 of the sheet. The 血 位置／汚点／見つけ出す was 直接／まっすぐに over Ricori's heart.
I took one of my strongest glasses and one of my finest 調査（する）s. Under the glass, I could see on Ricori's breast a minute 穴をあける, no larger than that made by a hypodermic needle. Carefully I 挿入するd the 調査（する）. It slipped easily in and in until it touched the 塀で囲む of the heart. I went no その上の.
Some needle-pointed, exceedingly 罰金 器具 had been thrust through Ricori's breast straight into his heart!
I looked at him, doubtfully; there was no 推論する／理由 why such a minute 穴をあける should 原因（となる） death. Unless, of course, the 武器 which had made it had been 毒（薬）d; or there had been some other violent shock which had 与える／捧げるd to that of the 負傷させる itself. But such shock or shocks might very 井戸／弁護士席 bring about in a person of Ricori's peculiar temperament some curious mental 条件, producing an almost perfect 偽造の of death. I had heard of such 事例／患者s.
No, にもかかわらず my 実験（する）s, I was not sure Ricori was dead. But I did not tell McCann that. Alive or dead, there was one 悪意のある fact that McCann must explain. I turned to the pair, who had been watching me closely.
"You say there were only the three of you in the car?"
Again I saw a ちらりと見ること pass between them.
"There was the doll," McCann answered, half-defiantly. I 小衝突d the answer aside, impatiently.
"I repeat: there were only the three of you in the car?"
"Three men, yes."
"Then," I said grimly, "you two have a lot to explain. Ricori was stabbed. I'll have to call the police."
McCann arose and walked over to the 団体／死体. He 選ぶd up the glass and peered through it at the tiny 穴をあける. He looked at the chauffeur. He said:
"I told you the doll done it, Paul!"
I SAID, incredulously, "McCann, you surely don't 推定する／予想する me to believe that?"
He did not answer, rolling another cigarette which this time he did not throw away. The chauffeur staggered over to Ricori's 団体／死体; he threw himself on his 膝s and began mingled 祈りs and implorations. McCann, curiously enough, was now 完全に himself. It was as though the 除去 of 不確定 as to the 原因（となる） of Ricori's death had 回復するd all his old 冷淡な 信用／信任. He lighted the cigarette; he said, almost cheerfully:
"I'm 目的（とする）ing to make you believe."
I walked over to the telephone. McCann jumped in 前線 of me and stood with his 支援する against the 器具.
"Wait a minute, Doc. If I'm the 肉親，親類d of a ネズミ that'll stick a knife in the heart of the man who 雇うd me to 保護する him—ain't it occurred to you the 位置／汚点／見つけ出す you're on ain't so healthy? What's to keep me an' Paul from giving you the 作品 an' making our 逃亡?"
率直に, that had not occurred to me. Now I realized in what a truly dangerous position I was placed. I looked at the chauffeur. He had risen from his 膝s and was standing, regarding McCann intently.
"I see you get it." McCann smiled, mirthlessly. He walked to the Italian. "Pass your 棒s, Paul."
Without a word the chauffeur dipped into his pockets and 手渡すd him a pair of (a)自動的な／(n)自動拳銃s. McCann laid them on my （米）棚上げする／（英）提議する. He reached under his left arm and placed another ピストル beside them; reached into his pocket and 追加するd a second.
"Sit there, Doc," he said, and 示すd my 議長，司会を務める at the （米）棚上げする／（英）提議する. "That's all our 大砲. Keep the guns 権利 under your 手渡すs. If we make any breaks, shoot. All I ask is you don't do any calling up till you've listened."
I sat 負かす／撃墜する, 製図／抽選 the (a)自動的な／(n)自動拳銃s to me, 診察するing them to see that they were 負担d. They were.
"Doc," McCann said, "there's three things I want you to consider. First, if I'd had anything to do with smearing the boss, would I be giving you a break like this? Second, I was sitting at his 権利 味方する. He had on a 厚い overcoat. How could I reach over an' run anything as thin as whatever killed him must have been all through his coat, an' through the doll, through his 着せる／賦与するs, an' through him without him putting up some 肉親，親類d of a fight. Hell, Ricori was a strong man. Paul would have seen us- "
"What difference would that have made," I interrupted, "if Paul were an 共犯者?"
"権利," he acquiesced, "that's so. Paul's as 深い in the mud as I am. Ain't that so, Paul?" He looked はっきりと at the chauffeur, who nodded. "All 権利, we'll leave that with a question 示す after it. Take the third point —if I'd killed the boss that way, an' Paul was in it with me, would we have took him to the one man who'd be 推定する／予想するd to know how he was killed? An' then when you'd 設立する out as 推定する／予想するd, 手渡す you an アリバイ like this? Christ, Doc, I ain't loco enough for that!"
His 直面する twitched.
"Why would I want to kill him? I'd a-gone through hell an' 支援する for him an' he knew it. So would've Paul."
I felt the 軍隊 of all this. 深い within me I was conscious of a stubborn 有罪の判決 that McCann was telling the truth—or at least the truth as he saw it. He had not stabbed Ricori. Yet to せいにする the 行為／法令／行動する, to a doll was too fantastic. And there had been only the three men in the car. McCann had been reading my thoughts with an uncanny precision.
"It might've been one of them mechanical dolls," he said. "Geared up to stick."
"McCann, go 負かす／撃墜する and bring it up to me," I said はっきりと—he had 発言する／表明するd a 合理的な／理性的な explanation.
"It ain't there," he said, and grinned at me again mirthlessly. "It out!"
"Preposterous-" I began. The chauffeur broke in:
"It's true. Something out. When I open the door. I think it cat, dog, maybe. I say, 'What the hell-' Then I see it. It run like hell. It stoop. It duck in 影をつくる／尾行する. I see it just as flash an' then no more. I say to McCann —'What the hell!' McCann, he's feeling around 底（に届く） of car. He say —'It's the doll. It done for the boss!' I say: 'Doll! What you mean doll?' He tell me. I know nothing of any doll before. I see the boss carry something in his coat, si. But I don't know what. But I see one goddam thing that don't look like cat, dog. It jump out of car, through my 脚s, si!"
I said ironically: "Is it your idea, McCann, that this mechanical doll was geared to run away 同様に as to を刺す?"
He 紅潮／摘発するd, but answered 静かに:
"I ain't 説 it was a mechanical doll. But anything else would be —井戸／弁護士席, pretty crazy, wouldn't it?"
"McCann," I asked 突然の, "what do you want me to do?"
"Doc, when I was 負かす／撃墜する Arizona way, there was a ranchero died. Died sudden. There was a feller looked as if he had a lot to do with it. The 保安官 said: 'Hombre, I don't think you done it—but I'm the 孤独な one on the 陪審／陪審員団. What say?' The hombre say, '保安官, give me two weeks, an' if I don't bring in the feller that done it, you hang me.' The 保安官 says, 'Fair enough. The 一時的な 判決 is 死んだ died by shock.' It was shock all 権利. 弾丸 shock. All 権利, before the two weeks was up, along comes this feller with the 殺害者 hog-tied to his saddle."
"I get your point, McCann. But this isn't Arizona."
"I know it ain't. But couldn't you certify it was heart 病気? 一時的に? An' give me a week? Then if I don't come through, shoot the 作品. I won't run away. It's this way, Doc. If you tell the bulls, you might just 同様に 選ぶ up one of them guns an' shoot me an' Paul dead 権利 now. If we tell the bulls about the doll, they'll laugh themselves sick an' fry us at Sing Sing. If we don't, we fry anyway. If by a 奇蹟 the bulls 減少（する） us —there's them in the boss's （人が）群がる that'll soon 治療（薬） that. I'm telling you, Doc, you'll be 殺人，大当り two innocent men. An' worse, you'll never find out who did kill the boss, because they'll never look any その上の than us. Why should they?"
A cloud of 疑惑 gathered around my 有罪の判決 of the pair's innocence. The 提案, naive as it seemed, was subtle. If I assented, the 銃器携帯者／殺しや and the chauffeur would have a whole week to get away, if that was the 計画（する）. If McCann did not come 支援する, and I told the truth of the 事柄, I would be an 従犯者 after the fact—in 影響, co-殺害者. If I pretended that my 疑惑s had only just been 誘発するd, I stood, at the best, 罪人／有罪を宣告するd of ignorance. If they were 逮捕（する）d, and recited the 協定, again I could be 告発（する），告訴（する）／料金d as an 従犯者. It occurred to me that McCann's 降伏する of the ピストルs was extraordinarily clever. I could not say that my assent had been constrained by 脅しs. Also, it might have been only a cunningly conceived gesture to enlist my 信用／信任, 弱める my 抵抗 to his 控訴，上告. How did I know that the pair did not have still other 武器s, ready to use if I 辞退するd?
努力する／競うing to find a way out of the 罠（にかける）, I walked over to Ricori. I took the 警戒 of dropping the (a)自動的な／(n)自動拳銃s into my pockets as I went. I bent over Ricori. His flesh was 冷淡な, but not with the peculiar 冷気／寒がらせる of death. I 診察するd him once more, minutely. And now I could （悪事，秘密などを）発見する the faintest of pulsation in the heart a 泡 began to form at the corner of his lips —Ricori lived!
I continued to bend over him, thinking faster than ever I had before. Ricori lived, yes. But it did not 解除する my 危険，危なくする. Rather it 増加するd it. For if McCann had stabbed him, if the pair had been in collusion, and learned that they had been 不成功の, would they not finish what they had thought ended? With Ricori alive, Ricori able to speak and to 告発する／非難する them—a death more 確かな than the 過程s of 法律 直面するd them. Death at Ricori's 命令（する） at the 手渡すs of his henchmen. And in finishing Ricori they would at the same time be compelled to kill me.
Still bending, I slipped a 手渡す into my pocket, clenched an (a)自動的な／(n)自動拳銃, and then whirled upon them with the gun leveled.
"手渡すs up! Both of you!" I said.
Amazement flashed over McCann's 直面する, びっくり仰天 over the chauffeur's. But their 手渡すs went up.
I said, "There's no need of that clever little 協定, McCann. Ricori is not dead. When he's able to talk he'll tell what happened to him."
I was not 用意が出来ている for the 影響 of this 告示. If McCann was not sincere, he was an 驚くべき／特命の／臨時の actor. His lanky 団体／死体 強化するd, I had seldom seen such glad 救済 as was stamped upon his 直面する. 涙／ほころびs rolled 負かす／撃墜する his tanned cheeks. The chauffeur dropped to his 膝s, sobbing and praying. My 疑惑s were swept away. I did not believe this could be 事実上の／代理. In some 手段 I was ashamed of myself.
"You can 減少（する） your 手渡すs, McCann," I said, and slipped the (a)自動的な／(n)自動拳銃 支援する in my pocket.
He said, hoarsely: "Will he live?"
I answered: "I think he has every chance. If there's no 感染, I'm sure of it."
"Thank God!" whispered McCann, and over and over, "Thank God!"
And just then Braile entered, and stood 星／主役にするing in amazement at us.
"Ricori has been stabbed. I'll explain the whole 事柄 later," I told him. "Small 穴をあける over the heart and probably 侵入するing it. He's 苦しむing おもに from shock. He's coming out of it. Get him up to the 別館 and take care of him until I come."
簡潔に I reviewed what I had done and 示唆するd the 即座の その上の 治療. And when Ricori had been 除去するd, I turned to the gunmen.
"McCann," I said, "I'm not going to explain. Not now. But here are your ピストルs, and Paul's. I'm giving you your chance."
He took the (a)自動的な／(n)自動拳銃s, looking at me with a curious gleam in his 注目する，もくろむs.
"I ain't 説 I wouldn't like to know what touched you off, Doc," he said. "But whatever you do is all 権利 by me—if only you can bring the boss around."
"Undoubtedly there are some who will have to be 通知するd of his 条件," I replied. "I'll leave that all to you. All I know is that he was on his way to me. He had a heart attack in the car. You brought him to me. I am now 扱う／治療するing him—for heart attack. If he should die, McCann —井戸／弁護士席, that will be another 事柄."
"I'll do the 通知するing," he answered. "There's only a couple that you'll have to see. Then I'm going 負かす／撃墜する to that doll 共同の an' get the truth outa that hag."
His 注目する，もくろむs were slits, his mouth a slit, too.
"No," I said, 堅固に. "Not yet. Put a watch on the place. If the woman goes out, discover where she goes. Watch the girl as closely. If it appears as though either of them or both of them are moving away—running off —let them. But follow them. I don't want them （性的に）いたずらするd or even alarmed until Ricori can tell what happened there."
"All 権利," he said, but reluctantly.
"Your doll story," I reminded him, sardonically, "would not be so 納得させるing to the police as to my somewhat credulous mind. Take no chance of them 存在 注入するd into the 事柄. As long as Ricori is alive, there is no need of them 存在 so 注入するd."
I took him aside.
"Can you 信用 the chauffeur to do no talking?"
"Paul's all 権利," he said.
"井戸／弁護士席, for both your sakes, he would better be," I 警告するd.
They took their 出発. I went up to Ricori's room. His heart was stronger, his respiration weak but encouraging. His 気温, although still 危険に subnormal, had 改善するd. If, as I had told McCann, there was no 感染, and if there had been no 毒（薬） nor 麻薬 upon the 武器 with which he had been stabbed, Ricori should live.
Later that night two 完全に polite gentlemen called upon me, heard my explanation of Ricori's 条件, asked if they might see him, did see him, and 出発／死d. They 保証するd me that "勝利，勝つ or lose" I need have no 恐れる about my 料金s, nor have any hesitancy in bringing in the most expensive 顧問s. In 交流, I 保証するd them that I believed Ricori had an excellent chance to 回復する. They asked me to 許す no one to see him except themselves, and McCann. They thought it might save me trouble to have a couple of men whom they would send to me, to sit at the door of the room—outside, of course, in the hall. I answered that I would be delighted.
In an exceedingly short time two 静かに watchful men were on guard at Ricori's door, just as they had been over Peters'.
In my dreams that night dolls danced around me, 追求するd me, 脅すd me. My sleep was not pleasant.
MORNING brought a 示すd 改良 in Ricori's 条件. The 深い 昏睡 was 不変の, but his 気温 was nearly normal; respiration and heart 活動／戦闘 やめる 満足な. Braile and I divided 義務s so that one of us could be 絶えず within call of the nurses. The guards were relieved after breakfast by two others. One of my 静かな 訪問者s of the night before made his 外見, looked at Ricori and received with unfeigned gratification my 安心させるing 報告（する）／憶測s.
After I had gone to bed the obvious idea had occurred to me that Ricori might have made some memorandum 関心ing his 追求（する），探索（する）; I had felt 不本意 about going through his pockets, however. Now seemed to be the 適切な時期 to ascertain whether he had or had not. I 示唆するd to my 訪問者 that he might wish to 診察する any papers Ricori had been carrying, 追加するing that we had been 利益／興味d together in a 確かな 事柄, that he had been on his way to discuss this with me when he had undergone his seizure; and that he might have carried some 公式文書，認めるs of 利益／興味 to me. My 訪問者 agreed; I sent for Ricori's overcoat and 控訴 and we went through them. There were a few papers, but nothing relating to our 調査.
In the breast pocket of his overcoat, however, was a curious 反対する —a piece of thin cord about eight インチs long in which had been tied nine knots, spaced at 不規律な intervals. They were curious knots too, not やめる like any I could recollect having 観察するd. I 熟考する／考慮するd the cord with an unaccountable but 際立った feeling of uneasiness. I ちらりと見ることd at my 訪問者 and saw a puzzled look in his 注目する，もくろむs. And then I remembered Ricori's superstition, and 反映するd that the knotted cord was probably a talisman or charm of some sort. I put it 支援する in the pocket.
When again alone, I took it out and 診察するd it more minutely. The cord was of human hair, tightly braided—the hair a peculiarly pale ash and unquestionably a woman's. Each knot, I now saw, was tied 異なって. Their structure was コンビナート／複合体. The difference between them, and their 不規律な spacing, gave a vague impression of forming a word or 宣告，判決. And, 熟考する／考慮するing the knots, I had the same sensation of standing before a blank door, vitally important for me to open, that I had felt while watching Peters die. Obeying some obscure impulse, I did not return the cord to the pocket but threw it into the drawer with the doll which Nurse Robbins had brought me.
すぐに after three, McCann telephoned me. I was more than glad to hear from him. In the 幅の広い light of day his story of the occurrence in Ricori's car had become incredibly fantastic, all my 疑問s returning.
I had even begun again to review my unenviable position if he disappeared. Some of this must have shown in the 真心 of my 迎える／歓迎するing, for he laughed.
"Thought I'd 棒 off the 範囲, did you, Doc? You couldn't 運動 me away. Wait till you see what I got."
I を待つd his arrival with impatience. When he appeared he had with him a sturdy, red-直面するd man who carried a large paper 着せる／賦与するing-捕らえる、獲得する. I 認めるd him as a policeman I had 遭遇（する）d now and then on the 運動, although I had never before seen him out of uniform. I bade the two be seated, and the officer sat on the 辛勝する／優位 of a 議長，司会を務める, 持つ／拘留するing the 着せる／賦与するs-捕らえる、獲得する gingerly across his 膝s. I looked at McCann inquiringly.
"Shevlin," he waved his 手渡す at the officer, "said he knew you, Doc. But I'd have brought him along, anyway."
"If I didn't know Dr. Lowell, it's not me that'd be here, McCann me lad," said Shevlin, glumly. "But it's brains the Doc has got in his 長，率いる, an' not a 冷淡な boiled potato like that damned lootenant."
"井戸／弁護士席," said McCann, maliciously, "the Doc'll 定める／命ずる for you anyway, Tim."
"'Tis no prescribin' I want, I tell you," Shevlin bellowed, "I seen it wit' me own 注目する，もくろむs, I'm tellin' you! An' if Dr. Lowell tells me I was drunk or crazy I'll tell him t'hell wit' him, like I told the lootenant. An' I'm tellin' you, too, McCann."
I listened to this with growing amazement.
"Now, Tim, now, Tim," soothed McCann, "I believe you. You don't know how much I want to believe you—or why, either."
He gave me a quick ちらりと見ること, and I gathered that whatever the 推論する／理由 he had brought the policeman to see me, he had not spoken to him of Ricori.
"You see, Doc, when I told you about that doll getting up an' jumping out of the car you thought I was loco. All 権利, I says to me, maybe it didn't get far. Maybe it was one of them 改善するd mechanical dolls, but even if it was it has to run 負かす／撃墜する いつか. So I goes 追跡（する）ing for somebody else that might have seen it. An' this morning I runs into Shevlin here. An' he tells me. Go on, Tim, give the Doc what you gave me."
Shevlin blinked, 転換d the 捕らえる、獲得する 慎重に and began. He had the dogged 空気／公表する of repeating a story that he had told over and over. And to 冷淡な audiences; for as he went on he would look at me defiantly, or raise his 発言する／表明する belligerently.
"It was one o'clock this mornin'. I am on me （警官の）巡回区域，受持ち区域 when I hear somebody yellin' desperate like. 'Help!' he yells. '殺人! Take it away!' he yells. I go runnin', an' there standin' on a （法廷の）裁判 is a guy in his soup-an'-nuts an' high hat jammed over his ears, an' a-hittin' this way an' that wit' his 茎, an' a-dancin' up an' 負かす／撃墜する an' it's him that's doin' the yellin'.
"I reach over an' tap him on the 向こうずねs wit' me night-club, an' he looks 負かす／撃墜する an' then flops 権利 in me 武器. I get a whiff of his breath an' I think I see what's the 事柄 wit' him all 権利. I get him on his feet, an' I says: 'Come on now, the pink'll soon run off the elephants,' I says. It's this 禁止 hooch that makes it look so 厚い,' I says. 'Tell me where you live an' I'll put you in a taxi, or do you want t'go to a hospital?' I says.
"He stands there a-holdin' unto me an' a-shakin', an' he says: 'D'ye think I'm drunk?' An' I begins t'tell him. 'An' how-' when I looks at him, an' he ain't drunk. He might've been drunk, but he ain't drunk now. An' all t'once he flops 負かす／撃墜する on the （法廷の）裁判 an' pulls up his pants an' 負かす／撃墜する his socks, an' I sees 血 runnin' from a dozen little 穴を開けるs, an' he says, 'Maybe you'll be tellin' me it's pink elephants done that?'
"I looks at 'em an' feels 'em, an' it's 血 all 権利, as if somebody's been jabbin' a hat-pin in him-"
Involuntarily I 星／主役にするd at McCann. He did not 会合，会う my 注目する，もくろむs. Imperturbably he was rolling a cigarette.
"An' I says: 'What the hell done it?' An' he says 'The doll done it!'"
A little shiver ran 負かす／撃墜する my 支援する, and I looked again at the 銃器携帯者／殺しや. This time he gave me a 警告 ちらりと見ること. Shevlin glared up at me.
"'The doll done it!' he tells me," Shevlin shouted. "He tells me the doll done it!"
McCann chuckled and Shevlin turned his glare from me to him. I said あわてて:
"I understand, Officer. He told you it was the doll made the 負傷させるs. An astonishing 主張, certainly."
"Y'don't believe it, y'mean?" 需要・要求するd Shevlin, furiously.
"I believe he told you that, yes," I answered. "But go on."
"All 権利, would y'be sayin' I was drunk too, t'believe it? Fer it's what that potato-brained lootenant did."
"No, no," I 保証するd him あわてて. Shevlin settled 支援する, and went on:
"I asks the drunk, 'What's her 指名する?' 'What's whose 指名する?' says he. 'The doll's,' I says. 'I'll bet you she was a blonde doll,' I says, 'an' wants her picture in the tabloids. The brunettes don't use hatpins,' I says. 'They're all fer the knife.'
"'Officer,' he says, solemn, 'it was a doll. A little man doll. An' when I say doll I mean a doll. I was walkin along,' he says, 'gettin' the 空気／公表する. I won't 否定する I'd had some drinks,' he says, 'but nothin' I couldn't carry. I'm swishin' along wit' me 茎, when I 減少（する）s it by that bush there,' he says, pointin'. 'I reach 負かす／撃墜する to 選ぶ it up,' he says, 'an' there I see a doll. It's a big doll an' it's all 密談する／（身体を）寄せ集めるd up crouchin', as if somebody dropped it that way. I reaches over t' 選ぶ it up. As I touch it, the doll jumps as if I 攻撃する，衝突する a spring. It jumps 権利 over me 長，率いる,' he says. 'I'm surprised,' he says, 'an' かなり startled, an' I'm crouchin' there lookin' where the doll was when I feel a hell of a 苦痛 in the calf of me 脚,' he says, 'like I been stabbed. I jump up, an' there's this doll wit' a big pin in its 手渡す just ready t' jab me again.'
"'Maybe,' says I to the drunk, 'maybe 'twas a midget you seen?' 'Midget hell!' says he, 'it was a doll! An' it was jabbin' me wit' a hat-pin. It was about two feet high,' he says, 'wit' blue 注目する，もくろむs. It was grinnin' at me in a way that made me 血 run 冷淡な. An' while I stood there 麻ひさせるd, it jabbed me again. I jumped on the （法廷の）裁判,' he says, 'an' it danced around an' around, an' it jumped up an' jabbed me. An' it jumped 負かす／撃墜する an' up again an' jabbed me. I thought it meant to kill me, an' I yelled like hell,' says the drunk. 'An' who wouldn't?' he asks me. 'An' then you come,' he says, 'an' the doll ducked into the bushes there. Fer God's sake, officer, come wit' me till I can get a taxi an' go home,' he says, 'fer I make no bones tellin' you I'm 脅すd 権利 負かす／撃墜する to me gizzard!' says he.
"So I take the drunk by the arm," went on Shevlin, "thinkin', poor lad, what this bootleg booze'll make you see, but still puzzled about how he got them 穴を開けるs in his 脚s. We come out to the 運動. The drunk is still a-shakin' an' I'm a-waitin' to あられ／賞賛する a taxi, when all of a sudden he lets out a squeal. 'There it goes! Look, there it goes!'
"I follow his finger, an' sure enough I see somethin' scuttlin' over the sidewalk an' out on the 運動. The light's 非，不，無 too good, an' I think it's a cat or maybe a dog. Then I see there's a little クーデター drawn up opposite at the 抑制（する）. The cat or dog, whatever it is, seems to be makin' fer it. The drunk's still yellin' an' I'm tryin' to see what it is, when 負かす／撃墜する the 運動 hell-fer-leather comes a big car. It 攻撃する，衝突するs this thing kersmack an' never stops. He's out of sight before I can raise me whistle. I think I see the thing wriggle an' I think, still thinkin' it's a cat or dog, 'I'll put you out of your 悲惨,' an' I run over to it wit' me gun. As I do so the クーデター that's been waitin' shoots off hell-fer-leather too. I get over to what the other car 攻撃する，衝突する, an' I look at it— "
He slipped the 捕らえる、獲得する off his 膝s, 始める，決める it 負かす／撃墜する beside him and untied the 最高の，を越す.
"An' this is what it was."
Out of the 捕らえる、獲得する he drew a doll, or what remained of it. The automobile had gone across its middle, 鎮圧するing it. One 脚 was 行方不明の; the other hung by a thread. Its 着せる／賦与するing was torn and begrimed with the dirt of the roadway. It was a doll—but uncannily did it give the impression of a mutilated pygmy. Its neck hung limply over its breast.
McCann stepped over and 解除するd the doll's 長，率いる, I 星／主役にするd, and 星／主役にするd... with a prickling of the scalp... with a slowing of the heart-（警官の）巡回区域，受持ち区域...
For the 直面する that looked up at me, blue 注目する，もくろむs glaring, was the 直面する of Peters!
And on it, like the thinnest of 隠すs, was the 影をつくる／尾行する of that demonic exultance I had watched spread over the 直面する of Peters after death had stilled the pulse of his heart!
SHEVLIN watched me as I 星／主役にするd at the doll. He was 満足させるd by its 影響 upon me.
"A hell of a lookin' thing, ain't it?" he asked. "The doctor sees it, McCann. I told you he had brains!" He jounced the doll 負かす／撃墜する upon his 膝, and sat there like a red-直面するd ventriloquist with a peculiarly malevolent 模造の—certainly it would not have surprised me to have heard the diabolic laughter 問題／発行する from its faintly grinning mouth.
"Now, I'll tell you, Dr. Lowell," Shevlin went on. "I stands there lookin' at this doll, an' I 選ぶs it up. 'There's more in this than 会合，会うs the 注目する，もくろむ, Tim Shevlin,' I says to myself. An' I looks to see what's become of the drunk. He's standin' where I left him, an' I walk over to him an' he says: 'Was it a doll like I told you? Hah! I told you it was a doll! Hah! That's him!' he says, gettin' a peek at what I'm carryin'. So I says to him, 'Young fellow, me lad, there's somethin' wrong here. You're goin' to the 駅／配置する wit' me an' tell the lootenant what you told me an' show him your 脚s an' all,' I says. An' the drunk says, 'Fair enough, but keep that thing on the other 味方する of me.' So we go to the 駅／配置する.
"The lootenant's there an' the sergeant an' a coupla flatties. I marches up an' sticks the doll on the 最高の，を越す of the desk in 前線 of the lootenant.
"'What's this?' he says, grinnin'. 'Another kidnapin'?'
"Show him your 脚s," I tells the drunk. 'Not unless they're better than the Follies,' grins this potato-brained ape. But the drunk's rolled up his pants an' 負かす／撃墜する his socks an' shows 'em.
"'What t'hell done that?' says the lootenant, standin' up.
"'The doll,' says the drunk. The lootenant looks at him, and sits 支援する blinkin'. An' I tells him about answerin' the drunk's yells, an' what he tells me, an' what I see. The sergeant laughs an' the flatties laugh but the lootenant gets red in the 直面する an' says, 'Are you tryin' to kid me, Shevlin?' An' I says, 'I'm tellin' you what he tells me an' what I seen, an' there's the doll.' An' he says, 'This bootleg is 猛烈な／残忍な but I never knew it was catchin'.' An' he crooks his finger at me an' says, 'Come up here, I want t' smell your breath.' An' then I knows it's all up, because t' tell the truth the drunk had a flask an' I'd took one wit' him. Only one an' the only one I'd had. But there it was on me breath. An' the lootenant says, 'I thought so. Get 負かす／撃墜する."
"An' then he starts bellerin' an' hollerin' at the drunk, 'You wit' your soup-an'-nuts an' your silk hat, you せねばならない be a credit to your city an' what t' hell you think you can do, corrupt a good officer an' kid me? You done the first but you ain't doin' the second,' he yelps. 'Put him in the cooler,' he yelps. 'An' throw his damned doll in wit' him t' keep him company!' An' at that the drunk lets out a screech an' 減少（する）s t' the 床に打ち倒す. He' out good an' plenty. An' the lootenant says, 'The poor damned fool by God he believes his own 嘘（をつく）! Bring him around an' let him go.' An' he says t' me, 'If you weren't such a good man, Tim, I'd have you up for this. Take your degen'ret doll an' go home,' he says, 'I'll send a 救済 t' your （警官の）巡回区域，受持ち区域. An' take t- morrow off an' sober up,' says he. An' I says t' him, 'All 権利, but I seen what I seen. An' t' hell wit' you all," I says t' the flatties. An' everybody's laughin' fit t' 分裂（する）. An' I says t' the lootenant, 'If you break me for it or not, t' hell wit' you too.' But they keep on laughin', so I take the doll an' walk out."
He paused.
"I take the doll home," he 再開するd. "I tell it all t' Maggie, me wife. An' what does she tell me? 'T' think you've been off the hard stuff or 近づく off so long,' she says, 'an' now look at you!' she says, 'wit' this talk of stabbin' dolls, an' insultin' the lootenant, an' maybe gettin' sent t' Staten Island,' she says. 'An' Jenny just gettin' in high school! Go t' bed,' she says, 'an' sleep it off, an' throw the doll in the garbage,' she says. But by now I am gettin' good an' mad, an' I do not throw it in the garbage but I take it with me. An' a while ago I 会合，会う McCann, an' somehow he knows somethin', I tell him an' he brings me here. An' just fer what, I don't know."
"Do you want me to speak to the 中尉／大尉／警部補?" I asked.
"What could you say?" he replied, reasonably enough. "If you tell him the drunk was 権利, an' that I'm 権利 an' I did see the doll run, what'll he think? He'll think you're as crazy as I must be. An' if you explain maybe I was a little off me nut just for the minute, it's to the hospital they'll be sendin' me. No, Doctor. I'm much 強いるd, but all I can do is say nothin' more an' be dignified an' maybe 手渡す out a shiner or two if they get too rough. It's 感謝する I am fer the kindly way you've listened. It makes me feel better."
Shevlin got to his feet, sighing ひどく.
"An' what do you think? I mean about what the drunk said he seen, an' what I seen?" he asked somewhat nervously.
"I cannot speak for the inebriate," I answered 慎重に. "As for yourself—井戸／弁護士席, it might be that the doll had been lying out there in the street, and that a cat or dog ran across just as the automobile went by. Dog or cat escaped, but the 活動／戦闘 directed your attention to the doll and you thought-"
He interrupted me with a wave of his 手渡す.
"All 権利. All 権利. 'Tis enough. I'll just leave the doll wit' you to 支払う／賃金 for the diagnosis, sir."
With かなりの dignity and perceptibly 高くする，増すd color Shevlin stalked from the room. McCann was shaking with silent laughter. I 選ぶd up the doll and laid it on my （米）棚上げする／（英）提議する. I looked at the subtly malignant little 直面する and I did not feel much like laughing.
For some obscure 推論する／理由 I took the Walters doll out of the drawer and placed it beside the other, took out the strangely knotted cord and 始める，決める it between them. McCann was standing at my 味方する, watching. I heard him give a low whistle.
"Where did you get that, Doc?" he pointed to the cord. I told him. He whistled again.
"The boss never knew he had it, that's sure," he said. "Wonder who slipped it over on him? The hag, of course. But how?"
"What are you talking about?" I asked.
"Why, the witch's ladder," he pointed again to the cord. "That's what they call it 負かす／撃墜する Mexico way. It's bad 薬／医学. The witch slips it to you and then she has 力／強力にする over you." He bent over the cord... "Yep, it's the witch's ladder—the nine knots an' woman's hair... an' in the boss's pocket!"
He stood 星／主役にするing at the cord. I noticed he made no 試みる／企てる to 選ぶ it up.
"Take it up and look at it closer, McCann," I said.
"Not me!" He stepped 支援する. "I'm telling you it's bad 薬／医学, Doc."
I had been 刻々と growing more and more irritated against the 霧 of superstition 集会 ever heavier around me, and now I lost my patience.
"See here, McCann," I said, hotly, "are you, to use Shevlin's 表現, trying to kid me? Every time I see you I am brought 直面する to 直面する with some fresh 乱暴／暴力を加える against 信用性. First it is your doll in the car. Then Shevlin. And now your witch's ladder. What's your idea?"
He looked at me with 狭くするd 注目する，もくろむs, a faint 紅潮／摘発する reddening the high check-bones.
"The only idea I got," he drawled more slowly than usual, "is to see the boss on his feet. An' to get whoever got him. As for Shevlin—you don't think he was 偽のing, do you?"
"I do not," I answered. "But I am reminded that you were beside Ricori in the car when he was stabbed. And I cannot help wondering how it was that you discovered Shevlin so quickly today."
"Meaning by that?" he asked.
"Meaning," I answered, "that your drunken man has disappeared. Meaning that it would be 完全に possible for him to have been your confederate. Meaning that the episode which so impressed the worthy Shevlin could very 井戸／弁護士席 have been 単に a clever bit of 事実上の／代理, and the doll in the street and the opportunely スピード違反 automobile a carefully planned 作戦行動 to bring about the exact result it had 遂行するd. After all, I have only your word and the chauffeur's word that the doll was not 負かす／撃墜する in the car the whole time you were here last night. Meaning that-"
I stopped, realizing that, essentially, I was only venting upon him the bad temper 誘発するd by my perplexity.
"I'll finish for you," he said. "Meaning that I'm the one behind the whole thing."
His 直面する was white, and his muscles 緊張した.
"It's a good thing for you that I like you, Doc," he continued. "It's a better thing for you that I know you're on the level with the boss. Best of all, maybe that you're the only one who can help him, if he can be helped. That's all."
"McCann," I said, "I'm sorry, 深く，強烈に sorry. Not for what I said, but for having to say it. After all, the 疑問 is there. And it is a reasonable 疑問. You must 収容する／認める that. Better to spread it before you than keep it hidden."
"What might be my 動機?"
"Ricori has powerful enemies. He also has powerful friends. How convenient to his enemies if he could be wiped out without 疑惑, and a 内科医 of highest repute and unquestionable 正直さ be inveigled into giving the death a clean 法案 of health. It is my professional pride, not personal egotism, that I am that 肉親，親類d of a 内科医, McCann."
He nodded. His 直面する 軟化するd and I saw the dangerous tenseness relax.
"I've no argument, Doc. Not on that or nothing else you've said. But I'm thanking you for your high opinion of my brains. It'd certainly take a pretty clever man to work all this out this-a-way. Sort of like one of them 風刺漫画s that shows seventy- five gimcracks 始める，決める up to 減少（する） a brick on a man's 長，率いる at 正確に／まさに twenty minutes, sixteen seconds after two in the afternoon. Yeah, I must be clever!"
I winced at this 幅の広い sarcasm, but did not answer. McCann took up the Peters doll and began to 診察する it. I went to the 'phone to ask Ricori's 条件. I was 停止（させる）d by an exclamation from the 銃器携帯者／殺しや. He beckoned me, and 手渡すing me the doll, pointed to the collar of its coat. I felt about it. My fingers touched what seemed to be the 一連の会議、交渉／完成する 長，率いる of a large pin. I pulled out as though from a dagger sheath a slender piece of metal nine インチs long. It was thinner than an 普通の／平均（する） hat-pin, rigid and needle- pointed.
即時に I knew that I was looking upon the 器具 that had pierced Ricori's heart!
"Another 乱暴／暴力を加える!" McCann drawled. "Maybe I put it there, Doc!"
"You could have, McCann."
He laughed. I 熟考する／考慮するd the queer blade—for blade it surely was. It appeared to be of finest steel, although I was not sure it was that metal. Its rigidity was like 非，不，無 I knew. The little knob at the 長，率いる was half an インチ in 直径 and いっそう少なく like a pinhead than the haft of a poniard. Under the magnifying glass it showed small grooves upon it... as though to make sure the 支配する of a 手渡す... a doll's 手渡す a doll's dagger! There were stains upon it.
I shook my 長，率いる impatiently, and put the thing aside, 決定するing to 実験（する） those stains later. They were bloodstains, I knew that, but I must make sure. And yet, if they were, it would not be 確かな proof of the incredible —that a doll's 手渡す had used this deadly thing.
I 選ぶd up the Peters doll and began to 熟考する／考慮する it minutely. I could not 決定する of what it was made. It was not of 支持を得ようと努めるd, like the other doll. More than anything else, the 構成要素 似ているd a fusion of gum and wax. I knew of no such composition. I stripped it of the 着せる／賦与するing. The undamaged part of the doll was anatomically perfect. The hair was human hair, carefully 工場／植物d in the scalp. The 注目する，もくろむs were blue 水晶s of some 肉親，親類d. The 着せる／賦与するing showed the same 驚くべき／特命の／臨時の 技術 in the making as the 着せる／賦与するs of Diana's doll.
I saw now that the dangling 脚 was not held by a thread. It was held by a wire. Evidently the doll had been molded upon a wire でっちあげる，人を罪に陥れる-work. I walked over to my 器具 閣僚, and selected a surgical saw and knives.
"Wait a minute, Doc." McCann had been に引き続いて my movements. "You going to 削減（する） this thing apart?"
I nodded. He reached into his pocket, pulled out a 激しい 追跡（する）ing knife. Before I could stop him, he had brought its blade 負かす／撃墜する like an ax across the neck of the Peters doll. It 削減（する） through it cleanly. He took the 長，率いる and 新たな展開d it. A wire snapped. He dropped the 長，率いる on the （米）棚上げする／（英）提議する, and 投げ上げる／ボディチェックするd the 団体／死体 to me. The 長，率いる rolled. It （機の）カム to 残り／休憩（する） against the cord he had called the witch's ladder.
The 長，率いる seemed to 新たな展開 and to look up at us. I thought for an instant the 注目する，もくろむs ゆらめくd redly, the features to contort, the malignancy 強める —as I had seen it 強める upon Peters' living 直面する... I caught myself up, 怒って a trick of the light, of course.
I turned to McCann and swore.
"Why did you do that?"
"You're 価値（がある） more to the boss than I am," he said, cryptically.
I did not answer. I 削減（する） open the decapitated 団体／死体 of the doll. As I had 嫌疑者，容疑者／疑うd, it had been built upon a wire 枠組み. As I 削減（する） away the encasing 構成要素, I 設立する this 枠組み was a 選び出す／独身 wire, or a 選び出す／独身 metal 立ち往生させる, and that as cunningly as the doll's 団体／死体 had been 形態／調整d, just as cunningly had this wire been 新たな展開d into an 輪郭（を描く） of the human 骸骨／概要!
Not, of course, with minute fidelity, but still with amazing 正確... there were no 共同のs nor articulations... the 実体 of which the doll was made was astonishingly pliant... the little 手渡すs 柔軟な... it was more like dissecting some living mannikin than a doll... And it was rather dreadful...
I ちらりと見ることd toward the 厳しいd 長，率いる.
McCann was bending over it, 星／主役にするing 負かす／撃墜する into its 注目する，もくろむs, his own not more than a few インチs away from the glinting blue 水晶s. His 手渡すs clutched the （米）棚上げする／（英）提議する 辛勝する／優位 and I saw that they were 緊張するd and 緊張した as though he were making a violent 成果／努力 to 押し進める himself away. When he had 投げ上げる／ボディチェックするd the 長，率いる upon the （米）棚上げする／（英）提議する it had come to 残り／休憩（する） against the knotted cord—but now that cord was 新たな展開d around the doll's 厳しいd neck and around its forehead as though it were a small serpent!
And distinctly I saw that McCann's 直面する was moving closer... slowly closer... to that tiny one... as though it were 存在 drawn to it... and that in the little 直面する a living evil was concentrated and that McCann's 直面する was a mask of horror.
"McCann!" I cried, and thrust an arm under his chin, jerking 支援する his 長，率いる. And as I did this I could have sworn the doll's 注目する，もくろむs turned to me, and that its lips writhed.
McCann staggered 支援する. He 星／主役にするd at me for a moment, and then leaped to the （米）棚上げする／（英）提議する. He 選ぶd up the doll's 長，率いる, dashed it to the 床に打ち倒す and brought his heel 負かす／撃墜する upon it again and again, like one stamping out the life of a venomous spider. Before he 中止するd, the 長，率いる was a shapeless blotch, all 外見 of humanity or anything else 鎮圧するd out of it—but within it the two blue 水晶s that had been its 注目する，もくろむs still glinted, and the knotted cord of the witch's ladder still 負傷させる through it.
"God! It was... was 製図／抽選 me 負かす／撃墜する to it..."
McCann lighted a cigarette with shaking 手渡す, 投げ上げる／ボディチェックするd the match away. The match fell upon what had been the doll's 長，率いる.
There followed, 同時に, a brilliant flash, a disconcerting sobbing sound and a wave of 激しい heat. Where the 鎮圧するd 長，率いる had been there was now only an irregularly charred 位置／汚点／見つけ出す upon the polished 支持を得ようと努めるd. Within it lay the blue 水晶s that had been the 注目する，もくろむs of the doll—lusterless and blackened. The knotted cord had 消えるd.
And the 団体／死体 of the doll had disappeared. Upon the （米）棚上げする／（英）提議する was a nauseous puddle of 黒人／ボイコット waxy liquid out of which 解除するd the ribs of the wire 骸骨／概要!
The 別館 'phone rang; mechanically I answered it.
"Yes," I said. "What is it?"
"Mr. Ricori, sir. He's out of the 昏睡. He's awake!"
I turned to McCann.
"Ricori's come through!"
He gripped my shoulders—then drew a step away, a touch of awe on his 直面する.
"Yeah?" whispered McCann. "Yeah—he （機の）カム through when the knots 燃やすd! It 解放する／自由なd him! It's you an' me that's got to watch our step now!"
I TOOK McCann up with me to Ricori's 病人の枕元. 対決 with his 長，指導者 would be the 最高の 実験（する）, I felt, 解決するing one way or another all my 疑問s as to his 誠実. For I realized, almost すぐに, that bizarre as had been the occurrences I have just narrated, each and all of them could have been a part of the (a)手の込んだ／(v)詳述する hocus-pocus with which I had 試験的に 告発（する），告訴（する）／料金d the 銃器携帯者／殺しや. The cutting off of the doll's 長，率いる could have been a 劇の gesture designed to impress my imagination. It was he who had called my attention to the 悪意のある 評判 of the knotted cord. It was McCann who had 設立する the pin. His fascination by the 厳しいd 長，率いる might have been assumed. And the 投げ上げる／ボディチェックするing of the match a calculated 活動／戦闘 designed to destroy 証拠. I did not feel that I could 信用 my own peculiar reactions as valid.
And yet it was difficult to credit McCann with 存在 so consummate an actor, so subtle a plotter. Ah, but he could be に引き続いて the 指示／教授／教育s of another mind 有能な of such subtleties. I 手配中の，お尋ね者 to 信用 McCann. I hoped that he would pass the 実験（する）. Very 真面目に I hoped it.
The 実験（する） was 任命するd to 失敗. Ricori was fully conscious, wide awake, his mind probably as 警報 and sane as ever. But the lines of communication were still 負かす／撃墜する. His mind had been 解放する／自由なd, but not his 団体／死体. The paralysis 固執するd, forbidding any muscular movements except the 深い-seated unconscious reflexes 必須の to the continuance of life. He could not speak. His 注目する，もくろむs looked up at me, 有望な and intelligent, but from an expressionless 直面する... looked up at McCann with the same unchanging 星／主役にする.
McCann whispered: "Can he hear?"
"I think so, but he has no way of telling us."
The 銃器携帯者／殺しや knelt beside the bed and took Ricori's 手渡すs in his. He said, 明確に: "Everything's all 権利, boss. We're all on the 職業."
Not the utterance nor the 行為 of a 有罪の man—but then I had told him Ricori could not answer. I said to Ricori:
"You're coming through splendidly. You've had a 厳しい shock, and I know the 原因（となる）. I'd rather you were this way for a day or so than able to move about. I have a perfectly good 医療の 推論する／理由 for this. Don't worry, don't fret, try not to think of anything unpleasant. Let your mind relax. I'm going to give you a 穏やかな hypo. Don't fight it. Let yourself sleep."
I gave him the hypodermic, and watched with satisfaction its quick 影響. It 納得させるd me that he had heard.
I returned to my 熟考する／考慮する with McCann. I was doing some hard thinking. There was no knowing how long Ricori would remain in the 支配する of the paralysis. He might awaken in an hour fully 回復するd, or it might 持つ／拘留する him for days. In the 合間 there were three things I felt it necessary to ascertain. The first that a 徹底的な watch was 存在 kept upon the place where Ricori had gotten the doll; second, that everything possible be 設立する out about the two women McCann had 述べるd; third, what it was that had made Ricori go there. I had 決定するd to take the 銃器携帯者／殺しや's story of the happenings at the 蓄える／店 at their 直面する value—for the moment at least. At the same time, I did not want to 収容する／認める him into my 信用／信任 any more than was necessary.
"McCann," I began, "have you arranged to keep the doll 蓄える／店 under constant 監視, as we agreed last night?"
"You bet. A flea couldn't hop in or out without 存在 spotted."
"Any 報告（する）／憶測s?"
"The boys （犯罪の）一味d the 共同の の近くに to midnight. The 前線's all dark. There's a building in the 支援する an' a space between it an' the 後部 of the 共同の. There's a window with a 激しい shutter, but a line of light shows under it. About two o'clock this fish-white gal comes slipping up the street and gets in. The boys at the 支援する hear a hell of a squalling, an' then the light goes out. This morning the gal opens the shop. After a while the hag shows up, too. They're covered, all 権利."
"What have you 設立する out about them?"
"The hag calls herself Madame Mandilip. The gal's her niece. Or so she says. They 棒 in about eight months since. Nobody knows where from. 支払う／賃金 their 法案s 正規の／正選手. Seem to have plenty of money. Niece does all the marketing. The old woman never goes out. Keep to themselves like a pair of clams. Have 厳密に nothing to do with the neighbors. The hag has a bunch of special 顧客s—rich-looking people many of them. Does two 肉親，親類d of 貿易（する）, it looks—正規の／正選手 dolls, an' what goes with 'em, an' special dolls which they say the old woman's a wonder at. Neighbors ain't a bit fond of 'em. Some of 'em think she's 扱うing 麻薬. That's all yet."
Special dolls? Rich people?
Rich people like the spinster Bailey, the 銀行業者 Marshall?
正規の／正選手 dolls—for people like the acrobat, the bricklayer? But these might have been "special" too, in ways McCann could not know.
"There's the 蓄える／店," he continued. "支援する of it two or three rooms. Upstairs a big room like a storeroom. They rent the whole place. The hag an' the wench, they live in the rooms behind the 蓄える／店."
"Good work!" I 拍手喝采する, and hesitated—"McCann, did the doll remind you of somebody?"
He 熟考する／考慮するd me with 狭くするd 注目する，もくろむs.
"You tell me," he said at last, dryly.
"井戸／弁護士席—I thought it 似ているd Peters."
"Thought it 似ているd!" he 爆発するd. "似ているd—hell! It was the lick-an'-spit of Peters!"
"Yet you said nothing to me of that. Why?" I asked, suspiciously.
"井戸／弁護士席 I'm damned-" he began, then caught himself. "I knowed you seen it. I thought you kept 静かな account of Shevlin, an' followed your lead. Afterwards you were so busy putting me through the jumps there wasn't a chance."
"Whoever made that doll must have known Peters やめる 井戸／弁護士席." I passed over this dig. "Peters must have sat for the doll as one sits for an artist or a sculptor. Why did he do it? When did he do it? Why did anyone 願望（する） to make a doll like him?"
"Let me work on the hag for an hour an' I'll tell you," he answered, grimly.
"No," I shook my 長，率いる. "Nothing of that sort until Ricori can talk. But maybe we can get some light in another way. Ricori had a 目的 in going to that 蓄える／店. I know what it was. But I do not know what directed his attention to the 蓄える／店. I have 推論する／理由 to believe it was （警察などへの）密告，告訴（状） he 伸び（る）d from Peters' sister. Do you know her 井戸／弁護士席 enough to visit her and to draw from her what it was she told Ricori yesterday? Casually—tactfully— without telling her of Ricori's illness?"
He said, bluntly: "Not without you give me more of a lead—Mollie's no fool."
"Very 井戸／弁護士席. I am not aware whether Ricori told you, but the Darnley woman is dead. We think there is a 関係 between her death and Peters' death. We think that it has something to do with the love of both of them for Mollie's baby. The Darnley woman died 正確に as Peters did-"
He whispered—"You mean with the same—trimmings?"
"Yes. We had 推論する／理由 to think that both might have 選ぶd up the— the 病気—in the same place. Ricori thought that perhaps Mollie might know something which would identify that place. A place where both of them might have gone, not やむを得ず at the same time, and have been exposed to—the 感染. Maybe even a 審議する／熟考する 感染 by some ill-性質の／したい気がして person. やめる evidently what Ricori learned from Mollie sent him to the Mandilips. There is one ぎこちない thing, however—unless Ricori told her yesterday, she does not know her brother is dead."
"That's 権利," he nodded. "He gave orders about that."
"If he did not tell her, you must not."
"You're 持つ／拘留するing 支援する やめる a lot, ain't you, Doc?" He drew himself up to go.
"Yes," I said, 率直に. "But I've told you enough."
"Yeah? 井戸／弁護士席, maybe." He regarded me, somberly. "Anyway, I'll soon know if the boss broke the news to Mollie. If he did, it opens up the talk natural. If he didn't—井戸／弁護士席, I'll call you up after I've talked to her. Hasta luego."
With this half-mocking adieu he took his 出発. I went over to the remains of the doll upon the （米）棚上げする／（英）提議する. The nauseous puddle had 常習的な. In hardening it had 概略で assumed the 面 of a flattened human 団体／死体. It had a peculiarly unpleasant 外見, with the miniature ribs and the snapped wire of the spine glinting above it. I was 打ち勝つing my 不本意 to collect the mess for 分析 when Braile （機の）カム in. I was so 十分な of Ricori's awakening, and of what had occurred, that it was some time before I noticed his pallor and gravity. I stopped short in the recital of my 疑問s regarding McCann to ask him what was the 事柄.
"I woke up this morning thinking of Harriet," he said. "I knew the 4-9-1 code, if it was a code, could not have meant Diana. Suddenly it struck me that it might mean Diary. The idea kept haunting me. When I had a chance I took Robbins and went to the apartment. We searched, and 設立する Harriet's diary. Here it is."
He 手渡すd me a little red-bound 調書をとる／予約する. He said: "I've gone through it."
I opened the 調書をとる／予約する. I 始める，決める 負かす／撃墜する the parts of it pertinent to the 事柄 under review.
Nov. 3. Had a queer sort of experience today. Dropped 負かす／撃墜する to 殴打／砲列 Park to look at the new fishes in the 水槽. Had an hour or so afterwards and went poking around some of the old streets, looking for something to take home to Diana. 設立する the oddest little shop. Quaint and old looking with some of the loveliest dolls and dolls' 着せる／賦与するs in the window I've ever seen. I stood looking at them and peeping into the shop through the window. There was a girl in the shop. Her 支援する was turned to me. She turned suddenly and looked at me. She gave me the queerest 肉親，親類d of shock. Her 直面する was white, without any color whatever and her 注目する，もくろむs were wide and sort of 星／主役にするing and 脅すd. She had a lot of hair, all ashen blonde and piled up on her 長，率いる. She was the strangest looking girl I think I've ever seen. She 星／主役にするd at me for a 十分な minute and I at her. Then she shook her 長，率いる violently and made 動議s with her 手渡すs for me to go away. I was so astonished I could hardly believe my 注目する，もくろむs. I was about to go in and ask her what on earth was the 事柄 with her when I looked at my watch and 設立する I had just time to get 支援する to the hospital. I looked into the shop again and saw a door at the 支援する beginning slowly to open. The girl made one last and it seemed almost despairing gesture. There was something about it that suddenly made me want to run. But I didn't. I did walk away though. I've puzzled about the thing all day. Also, besides 存在 curious I'm a bit angry. The dolls and 着せる／賦与するs are beautiful. What's wrong with me as a 顧客? I'm going to find out.
Nov. 5. I went 支援する to the doll shop this afternoon. The mystery 深くするs. Only I don't think it's much of a mystery. I think the poor thing is a bit crazy. I didn't stop to look in the window but went 権利 in the door. The white girl was at a little 反対する at the 支援する. When she saw me her 注目する，もくろむs looked more 脅すd than ever and I could see her tremble. I went up to her and she whispered, "Oh, why did you come 支援する? I told you to go away!" I laughed, I couldn't help it, and I said: "You're the queerest shopkeeper I ever met. Don't you want people to buy your things?" She said low and very quickly: "It's too late! You can't go now! But don't touch anything. Don't touch anything she gives you. Don't touch anything she points out to you." And then in the most everyday way she said やめる 明確に: "Is there anything I can show you? We have everything for dolls." The 移行 was so abrupt that it was startling. Then I saw that a door had opened in the 支援する of the shop, the same door I had seen 開始 before, and that a woman was standing in it looking at me.
I gaped at her I don't know how long. She was so truly 驚くべき／特命の／臨時の. She must be almost six feet and 激しい, with enormous breasts. Not fat. Powerful. She has a long 直面する and her 肌 is brown. She has a 際立った mustache and a mop of アイロンをかける- gray hair.
It was her 注目する，もくろむs that held me spellbound. They are 簡単に enormous— 黒人／ボイコット and so 十分な of life! She must have a tremendous vitality. Or maybe it is the contrast with the white girl who seems to be drained of life. No, I'm sure she has a most unusual vitality. I had the queerest thrill when she was looking at me. I thought, nonsensically—"What big 注目する，もくろむs you have, grandma!"
"The better to see you with, my dear!"
"What big teeth you have, grandma!"
"The better to eat you with, my dear!" (I'm not so sure though that it was all nonsense.) And she really has big teeth, strong and yellow. I said, やめる stupidly: "How do you do?" She smiled and touched me with her 手渡す and I felt another queer thrill. Her 手渡すs are the most beautiful I ever saw. So beautiful, they are uncanny. Long with 次第に減少するing fingers and so white. Like the 手渡すs El Greco or Botticelli put on their women. I suppose that is what gave me the 半端物 shock. They don't seem to belong to her 巨大な coarse 団体／死体 at all. But neither do the 注目する，もくろむs. The 手渡すs and the 注目する，もくろむs go together. Yes, that's it.
She smiled and said: "You love beautiful things." Her 発言する／表明する belongs to 手渡すs and 注目する，もくろむs. A 深い rich glowing contralto. I could feel it go through me like an 組織／臓器 chord. I nodded. She said: "Then you shall see them, my dear. Come." She paid no attention to the girl. She turned to the door and I followed her. As I went through the door I looked 支援する at the girl. She appeared more 脅すd than ever and distinctly I saw her lips form the word— "Remember."
The room she led me into was—井戸／弁護士席, I can't 述べる it. It was like her 注目する，もくろむs and 手渡すs and 発言する／表明する. When I went into it I had the strange feeling that I was no longer in New York. Nor in America. Nor anywhere on earth, for that 事柄. I had the feeling that the only real place that 存在するd was the room. It was 脅すing. The room was larger than it seemed possible it could be, 裁判官ing from the size of the 蓄える／店. Perhaps it was the light that made it seem so. A soft mellow, dusky light. It is exquisitely パネル盤d, even the 天井. On one 味方する there is nothing but these beautiful old dark panelings with carvings in very low 救済 covering them. There is a fireplace and a 解雇する／砲火／射撃 was 燃やすing in it. It was 異常に warm but the warmth was not oppressive. There was a faint fragrant odor, probably from the 燃やすing 支持を得ようと努めるd. The furniture is old and exquisite too, but unfamiliar. There are some tapestries, 明確に 古代の. It is curious, but I find it difficult to 解任する 明確に just what is in that room. All that is （疑いを）晴らす is its unfamiliar beauty. I do remember 明確に an 巨大な （米）棚上げする／（英）提議する, and I 解任する thinking of it as a "baronial board." And I remember intensely the 一連の会議、交渉／完成する mirror, and I don't like to think of that.
I 設立する myself telling her all about myself and about Diana, and how she loved beautiful things. She listened, and said in that 深い, 甘い 発言する／表明する, "She shall have one beautiful thing, my dear." She went to a 閣僚 and （機の）カム to me with the loveliest doll I have ever seen. It made me gasp when I thought how Di would love it. A little baby doll, and so life- like and exquisite.
"Would she like that?" she asked.
I said: "But I could never afford such a treasure. I'm poor."
And she laughed, and said: "But I am not poor. This shall be yours when I have finished dressing it."
It was rude, but I could not help 説: "You must be very, very rich to have all these lovely things. I wonder why you keep a doll 蓄える／店."
And she laughed again and said, "Just to 会合，会う nice people like you, my dear."
It was then I had the peculiar experience, with the mirror. It was 一連の会議、交渉／完成する and I had looked and looked at it because it was like, I thought, the half of an 巨大な globule of clearest water. Its でっちあげる，人を罪に陥れる was brown 支持を得ようと努めるd elaborately carved, and now and then the reflection of the carvings seemed to dance in the mirror like vegetation on the 辛勝する／優位 of a woodland pool when a 微風 ruffles it. I had been wanting to look into it, and all at once the 願望（する） became irresistible. I walked to the mirror. I could see the whole room 反映するd in it. Just as though I were looking not at its image or my own image but into another 類似の room with a 類似の me peering out. And then there was a wavering and the reflection of the room became misty, although the reflection of myself was perfectly （疑いを）晴らす. Then I could see only myself, and I seemed to be getting smaller and smaller until I was no bigger than a large doll. I brought my 直面する closer and the little 直面する thrust itself 今後. I shook my 長，率いる and smiled, and it did the same. It was my reflection—but so small! And suddenly I felt 脅すd and shut my 注目する，もくろむs tight. And when I looked in the mirror again everything was as it had been before.
I looked at my watch and was appalled at the time I had spent. I arose to go, still with the panicky feeling at my heart. She said: "Visit me again tomorrow, my dear. I will have the doll ready for you." I thanked her and said I would. She went with me to the door of the shop. The girl did not look at me as I passed through.
Her 指名する is Madame Mandilip. I am not going to her tomorrow nor ever again. She fascinates me but she makes me afraid. I don't like the way I felt before the 一連の会議、交渉／完成する mirror. And when I first looked into it and saw the whole room 反映するd, why didn't I see her image in it? I did not! And although the room was lighted, I can't remember seeing any windows or lamps. And that girl! And yet—Di would love the doll so!
Nov. 7. Queer how difficult it is to keep to my 決意／決議 not to return to Madame Mandilip. It makes me so restless! Last night I had a terrifying dream. I thought I was 支援する in that room. I could see it distinctly. And suddenly I realized I was looking out into it. And that I was inside the mirror. I knew I was little. Like a doll. I was 脅すd and I （警官の）巡回区域，受持ち区域 against it, and ぱたぱたするd against it like a moth against a 窓ガラス. Then I saw two beautiful long white 手渡すs stretching out to me. They opened the mirror and caught me and I struggled and fought and tried to get away. I woke with my heart （警官の）巡回区域，受持ち区域ing so hard it nigh smothered me. Di says I was crying out: "No! No! I won't! No, I won't!" over and over. She threw a pillow at me and I suppose that's what awakened me.
Today I left the hospital at four, ーするつもりであるing to go 権利 home. I don't know what I could have been thinking about, but whatever it was I must have been mighty preoccupied. I woke up to find myself in the Subway 駅／配置する just getting on a Bowling Green train. That would have taken me to the 殴打／砲列. I suppose absentmindedly I had 始める，決める out for Madame Mandilip's. It gave me such a start that I almost ran out of the 駅／配置する and up to the street. I think I'm 事実上の／代理 very stupidly. I always have prided myself on my ありふれた sense. I think I must 協議する Dr. Braile and see whether I'm becoming neurotic. There's no earthly 推論する／理由 why I shouldn't go to see Madame Mandilip. She is most 利益／興味ing and certainly showed she liked me. It was so gracious of her to 申し込む／申し出 me that lovely doll. She must think me ungrateful and rude. And it would please Di so.
When I think of how I've been feeling about the mirror it makes me feel as childish as Alice in Wonderland or Through the Looking Glass, rather. Mirrors or any other 反映するing surfaces make you see queer things いつかs. Probably the heat and the fragrance had a lot to do with it. I really don't know that Madame Mandilip wasn't 反映するd. I was too 意図 upon looking at myself. It's too absurd to run away and hide like a child from a witch. Yet that's 正確に what I'm doing. If it weren't for that girl—but she certainly is a neurotic! I want to go, and I just don't see why I'm behaving so.
Nov. 10. 井戸／弁護士席, I'm glad I didn't 固執する in that ridiculous idea. Madame Mandilip is wonderful. Of course, there are some queer things I don't understand, but that's because she is so different from any one I've ever met and because when I get inside her room life becomes so different. When I leave, it's like going out of some enchanted 城 into the prosiest 肉親，親類d of world. Yesterday afternoon I 決定するd I'd go to see her straight from the hospital. The moment I made up my mind I felt as though a cloud had 解除するd from it. Gayer and happier than I've been for a week. When I went in the 蓄える／店 the white girl—her 指名する is Laschna—星／主役にするd at me as though she was going to cry. She said, in the oddest choked 発言する／表明する, "Remember that I tried to save you!"
It seemed so funny that I laughed and laughed. Then Madame Mandilip opened the door, and when I looked at her 注目する，もくろむs and heard her 発言する／表明する I knew why I was so light- hearted—it was like coming home after the most awful 包囲 of home-sickness. The lovely room welcomed me. It really did. It's the only way I can 述べる it. I have the queer feeling that the room is as alive as Madame Mandilip. That it is a part of her—or rather, a part of the part of her that are her 注目する，もくろむs and 手渡すs and 発言する／表明する. She didn't ask me why I had stayed away. She brought out the doll. It is more wonderful than ever. She has still some work to do on it. We sat and talked, and then she said: "I'd like to make a doll of you, my dear." Those were her exact words, and for just an instant I had a 脅すd feeling because I remembered my dream and saw myself ぱたぱたするing inside the mirror and trying to get out. And then I realized it was just her way of speaking, and that she meant she would like to make a doll that looked like me. So I laughed and said, "Of course you can make a doll of me, Madame Mandilip." I wonder what 国籍 she is.
She laughed with me, her big 注目する，もくろむs bigger than ever and very 有望な. She brought out some wax and began to model my 長，率いる. Those beautiful long fingers worked 速く as though each of them was a little artist in itself. I watched them, fascinated. I began to get sleepy, and sleepier and sleepier. She said, "My dear, I do wish you'd take off your 着せる／賦与するs and let me model your whole 団体／死体. Don't be shocked. I'm just an old woman."
I didn't mind at all, and I said sleepily, "Why, of course you can."
And I stood on a little stool and watched the wax taking 形態／調整 under those white fingers until it had become a small and most perfect copy of me. I knew it was perfect, although I was so sleepy I could hardly see it. I was so sleepy Madame Mandilip had to help me dress, and then I must have gone sound asleep, because I woke up with やめる a start to find her patting my 手渡すs and 説, "I'm sorry I tired you, child. Stay if you wish. But if you must go, it is growing late."
I looked at my watch and I was still so sleepy I could hardly see it, but I knew it was dreadfully late. Then Madame Mandilip 圧力（をかける）d her 手渡すs over my 注目する，もくろむs and suddenly I was wide awake. She said, "Come tomorrow and take the doll." I said, "I must 支払う／賃金 you what I can afford." She said, "You've paid me in 十分な, my dear, by letting me make a doll of you." Then we both laughed and I hurried out. The white girl was busy with someone, but I called "au 'voir" to her. Probably she didn't hear me, for she didn't answer.
Nov. 11. I have the doll and Diana is crazy about it! How glad I am I didn't 降伏する to that silly morbid feeling. Di has never had anything that has given her such happiness. She adores it! Sat again for Madame Mandilip this afternoon for the finishing touches on my own doll. She is a genius. Truly a genius! I wonder more than ever why she is content to run a little shop. She surely could take her place の中で the greatest of artists. The doll literally is me. She asked if she could 削減（する） some of my hair for its 長，率いる and of course I let her. She tells me this doll is not the real doll she is going to make of me. That will be much larger. This is just the model from which she will work. I told her I thought this was perfect but she said the other would be of いっそう少なく perishable 構成要素. Maybe she will give me this one after she is finished with it. I was so anxious to take the baby doll home to Di that I didn't stay long. I smiled and spoke to Laschna as I went out, and she nodded to me although not very cordially. I wonder if she can be jealous.
Nov. 13. This is the first time I have felt like 令状ing since that dreadful 事例／患者 of Mr. Peters on the morning of the 10th. I had just finished 令状ing about Di's doll when the hospital called to say they 手配中の，お尋ね者 me on 義務 that night. Of course, I said I would come. Oh, but I wish I hadn't. I'll never forget that dreadful death. Never! I don't want to 令状 or think about it.
When I （機の）カム home that morning I could not sleep, and I 投げ上げる／ボディチェックするd and 投げ上げる／ボディチェックするd trying to get his 直面する out of my mind. I thought I had schooled myself too 井戸／弁護士席 to be 影響する／感情d by any 患者. But there was something—Then I thought that if there was anyone who could help me to forget, it would be Madame Mandilip. So about two o'clock I went 負かす／撃墜する to see her. Madame was in the 蓄える／店 with Laschna and seemed surprised to see me so 早期に. And not so pleased as usual, or so I thought but perhaps it was my nervousness.
The moment I entered the lovely room I began to feel better. Madame had been doing something with wire on the （米）棚上げする／（英）提議する but I couldn't see what because she made me sit in a big comfortable 議長，司会を務める, 説, "You look tired, child. Sit here and 残り／休憩（する） until I'm finished and here's an old picture 調書をとる／予約する that will keep you 利益／興味d."
She gave me a queer old 調書をとる／予約する, long and 狭くする and it must have been very old because it was on vellum or something and the pictures and their colorings were like some of those 調書をとる／予約するs that have come 負かす／撃墜する from the Middle Ages, the 肉親，親類d the old 修道士s used to paint. They were all scenes in forests or gardens and the flowers and trees were the queerest! There were no people or anything in them but you had the strangest feeling that if you had just a little better 注目する，もくろむs you could see people or something behind them. I mean it was as though they were hiding behind the trees and flowers or の中で them and looking out at you.
I don't know how long I 熟考する／考慮するd the pictures, trying and trying to see those hidden folk, but at last Madame called me. I went to the （米）棚上げする／（英）提議する with the 調書をとる／予約する still in my 手渡す. She said, "That's for the doll I am making of you. Take it up and see how cleverly it is done."
And she pointed to something made of wire on the （米）棚上げする／（英）提議する. I reached out to 選ぶ it up and then suddenly I saw that it was a 骸骨／概要. It was little, like a child's 骸骨／概要 and all at once the 直面する of Mr. Peters flashed in my mind and I 叫び声をあげるd in a moment of perfectly crazy panic and threw out my 手渡すs. The 調書をとる／予約する flew out of my 手渡す and dropped on the little wire 骸骨／概要 and there was a sharp twang and the 骸骨／概要 seemed to jump.
I 回復するd myself すぐに and I saw that the end of the wire had come loose and had 削減（する） the binding of the 調書をとる／予約する and was still stuck in it. For a moment Madame was dreadfully angry. She caught my arm and squeezed it so it 傷つける and her 注目する，もくろむs were furious and she said in the strangest 発言する／表明する, "Why did you do that? Answer me. Why?"
And she 現実に shook me. I don't 非難する her now, although then she really did 脅す me, because she must have thought I did it deliberately. Then she saw how I was trembling and her 注目する，もくろむs and 発言する／表明する became gentle and she said, "Something is troubling you, my dear. Tell me and perhaps I can help you."
She made me 嘘（をつく） 負かす／撃墜する upon a divan and sat beside me and 一打／打撃d my hair and forehead and though I never discuss our 事例／患者s to others I 設立する myself 注ぐing out the whole story of the Peters 事例／患者. She asked who was the man who had brought him to the hospital and I said Dr. Lowell called him Ricori and I supposed he was the 悪名高い ギャング（個々）. Her 手渡すs made me feel 静かな and nice and sleepy and I told her about Dr. Lowell and how 広大な／多数の／重要な a doctor he is and how terribly I am in love in secret with Dr. B. I'm sorry I told her about the 事例／患者. Never have I done such a thing. But I was so shaken and once I had begun I seemed to have to tell her everything.
Everything in my mind was so distorted that once when I had 解除するd my 長，率いる to look at her I 現実に thought she was gloating. That shows how little I was like myself! After I had finished she told me to 嘘（をつく） there and sleep and she would waken me when I wished. So I said I must go at four. I went 権利 to sleep and woke up feeling 残り／休憩（する）d and 罰金.
When I went out the little 骸骨／概要 and 調書をとる／予約する were still on the （米）棚上げする／（英）提議する, and I said I was so sorry about the 調書をとる／予約する. She said, "Better the 調書をとる／予約する than your 手渡す, my dear. The wire might have snapped loose while you were 扱うing it and given you a 汚い 削減（する）." She wants me to bring 負かす／撃墜する my nurse's dress so she can make a little one like it for the new doll.
Nov. 14. I wish I'd never gone to Madame Mandilip's. I wouldn't have had my foot scalded. But that's not the real 推論する／理由 I'm sorry. I couldn't put it in words if I tried. But I do wish I hadn't.
I took the nurse's 衣装 負かす／撃墜する to her this afternoon. She made a little model of it very quickly. She was gay and sang me some of the most haunting little songs. I couldn't understand the words. She laughed when I asked her what the language was and said, "The language of the people who peeped at you from the pictures of the 調書をとる／予約する, my dear."
That was a strange thing to say. How did she know I thought there were people hidden in the pictures? I do wish I'd never gone there. She brewed some tea and 注ぐd cups for us. And then just as she was 手渡すing me 地雷 her 肘 struck the teapot and overturned it and the scalding tea 注ぐd 権利 負かす／撃墜する over my 権利 foot. It 苦痛d atrociously. She took off the shoe and stripped off the 在庫／株ing and spread salve of some sort over the scald. She said it would take out the 苦痛 and 傷をいやす／和解させる it すぐに. It did stop the 苦痛, and when I （機の）カム home I could hardly believe my 注目する，もくろむs. 職業 wouldn't believe it had really been scalded.
Madame Mandilip was terribly 苦しめるd about it. At least she seemed to be. I wonder why she didn't go to the door with me as usual. She didn't. She stayed in the room. The white girl, Laschna, was の近くに to the door when I went out into the 蓄える／店. She looked at the 包帯 on my foot and I told her it had been scalded but Madame had dressed it. She didn't even say she was sorry. As I went out I looked at her and said a bit 怒って, "Goodbye." Her 注目する，もくろむs filled with 涙／ほころびs and she looked at me in the strangest way and shook her 長，率いる and said "Au 'voir!" I looked at her again as I shut the door and the 涙／ほころびs were rolling 負かす／撃墜する her cheeks. I wonder—why? (I wish I had never gone to Madame Mandilip!!!)
Nov. 15. Foot all 傷をいやす／和解させるd. I 港／避難所't the slightest 願望（する） to return to Madame Mandilip's. I shall never go there again. I wish I could destroy that doll she gave me for Di. But it would break the child's heart.
Nov. 20. Still no 願望（する） to see her. I find I'm forgetting all about her. The only time I think of her is when I see Di's doll. I'm glad! So glad I want to dance and sing. I'll never see her again.
But dear God how I wish I never had seen her! And still I don't know why.
This was the last 言及／関連 to Madame Mandilip in Nurse
Walters' diary. She died on the morning of November 25.
Braile had been watching me closely. I met his 尋問 gaze, and tried to 隠す the perturbation which the diary had 誘発するd. I said:
"I never knew Walters had so imaginative a mind."
He 紅潮／摘発するd and asked 怒って: "You think she was fictionizing?"
"Not fictionizing, 正確に／まさに. 観察するing a 一連の ordinary occurrences through the glamour of an active imagination would be a better way of putting it."
He said, incredulously, "You don't realize that what she has written is an authentic, even though unconscious, description of an amazing piece of hypnotism?"
"The 可能性 did occur to me," I answered tartly. "But I find no actual 証拠 to support it. I do perceive, however, that Walters was not so 井戸／弁護士席 balanced as I had supposed her. I do find 証拠 that she was surprisingly emotional; that in at least one of her visits to this Madame Mandilip she was plainly overwrought and in an extreme 明言する／公表する of nervous 不安定. I 言及する to her most indiscreet discussion of the Peters 事例／患者, after she had been 警告するd by me, you will remember, to say nothing of it to anyone どれでも."
"I remember it so 井戸／弁護士席," he said, "that when I （機の）カム to that part of the diary I had no その上の 疑問 of the hypnotism. にもかかわらず, go on."
"In considering two possible 原因（となる）s for any 活動／戦闘, it is 望ましい to 受託する the more reasonable," I said, dryly. "Consider the actual facts, Braile. Walters lays 強調する／ストレス upon the 半端物 行為／行う and 警告s of the girl. She 収容する／認めるs the girl is a neurotic. 井戸／弁護士席, the 行為／行う she 述べるs is 正確に／まさに what we would 推定する／予想する from a neurotic. Walters is attracted by the dolls and goes in to price them, as anyone would. She is 事実上の／代理 under no compulsion. She 会合，会うs a woman whose physical 特徴 刺激する her imagination —and 誘発する her emotionalism. She confides in her. This woman, evidently also of the emotional type, likes her and makes her a 現在の of a doll. The woman is an artist; she sees in Walters a 望ましい model. She asks her to 提起する／ポーズをとる—still no compulsion and a natural request—and Walters does 提起する／ポーズをとる for her. The woman has her technique, like all artists, and part of it is to make 骸骨／概要s for the 枠組み of her dolls. A natural and intelligent 手続き. The sight of the 骸骨／概要 示唆するs death to Walters, and the suggestion of death brings up the image of Peters which has been powerfully impressed upon her imagination. She becomes momentarily hysterical —again 証拠 of her overwrought 条件. She takes tea with the doll-製造者 and is accidentally scalded. 自然に this 誘発するs the solicitude of her hostess and she dresses the scald with some unguent in whose efficacy she believes. And that is all. Where in this 完全に commonplace sequence of events is there 証拠 that Walters was hypnotized? Finally, assuming that she was hypnotized, what 証拠 is there of 動機?"
"She herself gave it," he said, "'to make a doll of you, my dear!'"
I had almost 納得させるd myself by my argument, and this 発言／述べる exasperated me.
"I suppose," I said, "you want me to believe that once 誘惑するd into the shop, Walters was impelled by occult arts to return until this Madame Mandilip's devilish 目的 was 遂行するd. That the compassionate shop-girl tried to save her from what the old melodramas called a 運命／宿命 worse than death—although not 正確に the 運命／宿命 they meant. That the doll she was to be given for her niece was the bait on the hook of a sorceress. That it was necessary she be 負傷させるd so the witch's salve could be 適用するd. That it was the salve which carried the unknown death. That the first 罠（にかける） failing, the 事故 of the tea-kettle was contrived and was successful. And that now Walters' soul is ぱたぱたするing inside the witch's mirror, just as she had dreamed. And all this, my dear Braile, is the most outrageous superstition!"
"Ah!" he said obliquely. "So those 可能性s did occur to you after all? Your mind is not so fossilized as a few moments ago I supposed."
I became still more exasperated.
"It is your theory that from the moment Walters entered the 蓄える／店, every occurrence she has narrated was designed to give this Madame Mandilip 所有／入手 of her soul, a design that was consummated by Walters' death?"
He hesitated, and then said: "In essence—yes."
"A soul!" I mused, sardonically. "But I have never seen a soul. I know of no one whose 証拠 I would credit who has seen a soul. What is a soul —if it 存在するs? It is ponderable? 構成要素? If your theory is 訂正する it must be. How could one 伸び（る） 所有／入手 of something which is both imponderable and nonmaterial? How would one know one had it if it could not be seen nor 重さを計るd, felt nor 手段d, nor heard? If not 構成要素, how could it be constrained, directed, 限定するd? As you 示唆する has been done with Walters' soul by this doll-製造者. If 構成要素, then where does it reside in the 団体／死体? Within the brain? I have operated upon hundreds and never yet have I opened any secret 議会 住宅 this mysterious occupant. Little 独房s, far more 複雑にするd in their workings than any 機械／機構 ever 工夫するd, changing their possessor's mentality, moods, 推論する／理由, emotion, personality —によれば whether the little 独房s are 機能（する）／行事ing 井戸／弁護士席 or ill. These I have 設立する, Braile—but never a soul. 外科医s have 完全に 調査するd the balance of the 団体／死体. They, too, have 設立する no secret 寺 within it. Show me a soul, Braile, and I'll believe in Madame Mandilip."
He 熟考する／考慮するd me in silence for a little, then nodded.
"Now I understand. It's 攻撃する，衝突する you pretty hard, too, hasn't it? You're doing a little （警官の）巡回区域，受持ち区域ing of your own against the mirror, aren't you? 井戸／弁護士席, I've had a struggle to thrust aside what I've been taught is reality and to 収容する／認める there may be something else just as real. This 事柄, Lowell, is extra-医療の, outside the science we know. Until we 収容する／認める that, we'll get nowhere. There are still two points I'd like to （問題を）取り上げる. Peters and the Darnley woman died the same 肉親，親類d of death. Ricori finds that they both had 取引 with a Madame Mandilip—or so we can assume. He visits her and 辛うじて escapes death. Harriet visits her, and dies as Darnley and Peters did. Reasonably, therefore, doesn't all this point to Madame Mandilip as a possible source of the evil that overtook all four?"
"Certainly," I answered.
"Then it must follow that there could have been real 原因（となる） for the 恐れる and forebodings of Harriet. That there could 存在する a 原因（となる） other than emotionalism and too much imagination—even though Harriet were unaware of these circumstances."
Too late I realized the 窮地 into which my admission had put me, but I could answer only in the affirmative.
"The second point is her loss of all 願望（する） to return to the doll-製造者 after the teapot 出来事/事件. Did that strike you as curious?"
"No. If she were emotionally 安定性のない, the shock would automatically 始める，決める itself up as an inhibition, a subconscious 障壁. Unless they are masochists, such types do not like to return to the scene of an unpleasant experience."
"Did you notice her 発言／述べる that after the scalding, the woman did not …を伴って her to the door of the 蓄える／店? And that it was the first time she had neglected to do so?"
"Not 特に. Why?"
"This. If the 使用／適用 of the salve 構成するd the final 行為／法令／行動する, and thereafter death became 必然的な, it might be 高度に embarrassing to Madame Mandilip to have her 犠牲者 going in and out of her shop during the time it took the 毒（薬） to kill. The seizure might even take place there, and lead to dangerous questions. The clever thing, therefore, would be to 原因（となる） the unsuspecting sacrifice to lose all 利益／興味 in her; indeed, feel a repulsion against her, or even perhaps forget her. This could be easily 遂行するd by 地位，任命する-hypnotic suggestion. And Madame Mandilip had every 適切な時期 for it. Would this not explain Harriet's distaste as 論理（学）上 as imagination— or emotionalism?"
"Yes," I 認める.
"And so," he said, "we have the woman's 失敗 to go to the door with Harriet that day explained. Her 陰謀（を企てる） has 後継するd. It is all over. And she has 工場／植物d her suggestion. No need now for any その上の 接触する with Harriet. She lets her go, unaccompanied. 重要な symbolism of finality!"
He sat thinking.
"No need to 会合，会う Harriet again," he half-whispered, "till after death!"
I said, startled: "What do you mean by that?"
"Never mind," he answered.
He crossed to the charred 位置／汚点／見つけ出す upon the 床に打ち倒す and 選ぶd up the heat-爆破d 水晶s. They were about twice the size of olive 炭坑，オーケストラ席s and 明らかに of some 合成物. He walked to the （米）棚上げする／（英）提議する and looked 負かす／撃墜する upon the grotesque 人物／姿／数字 with its 骸骨／概要 ribs.
"Suppose the heat melted it?" he asked, and reached over to 解除する the 骸骨／概要. It held 急速な／放蕩な, and he gave it a sharp 強く引っ張る. There was a shrill twanging sound, and he dropped it with a startled 誓い. The thing fell to the 床に打ち倒す. It writhed, the 選び出す／独身 wire of which it was made uncoiling.
Uncoiling, it glided over the 床に打ち倒す like a serpent and （機の）カム to 残り／休憩（する）, quivering.
We looked from it to the （米）棚上げする／（英）提議する.
The 実体 that had 似ているd a sprawling, flattened, headless 団体／死体 was gone. In its place was a film of 罰金 gray dust which 渦巻くd and eddied for a moment in some unfelt 草案—and then, too, was gone.
"She knows how to get rid of the 証拠!"
Braile laughed—but there was no mirth in his laughter. I said nothing. It was the same thought I had held of McCann when the doll's 長，率いる had 消えるd. But McCann could not be 嫌疑者，容疑者／疑うd of this. 避けるing any その上の discussion of the 事柄, we went to the 別館 to see Ricori.
There were two new guards on watch at his door. They arose politely and spoke to us pleasantly. We entered softly. Ricori had slipped out of the 麻薬 into a natural sleep. He was breathing easily, 平和的に, in 深い and 傷をいやす／和解させるing slumber.
His room was a 静かな one at the 後部, overlooking a little enclosed garden. Both my houses are old-fashioned, dating 支援する to a more 平和的な New York; sturdy vines of Virginia creepers climb up them both at 前線 and 支援する. I 警告を与えるd the nurse to 持続する 最大の 静かな, arranging her light so that it would cast only the slightest gleam upon Ricori. Going out, I 類似して 警告を与えるd the guards, telling them that their 長，指導者's 迅速な 回復 might depend upon silence.
It was now after six. I asked Braile to stay for dinner, and afterward to 減少（する） in on my 患者s at the hospital and to call me up if he thought it worthwhile. I 手配中の，お尋ね者 to stay at home and を待つ Ricori's awakening, should it occur.
We had almost finished dinner when the telephone rang. Braile answered.
"McCann," he said. I went to the 器具.
"Hello, McCann. This is Dr. Lowell."
"How's the boss?"
"Better, I'm 推定する／予想するing him to awaken any moment and to be able to talk," I answered, and listened intently to catch whatever reaction he might betray to this news.
"That's 広大な／多数の／重要な, Doc!" I could （悪事，秘密などを）発見する nothing but deepest satisfaction in his トンs. "Listen, Doc, I seen Mollie an' I got some news. Dropped 一連の会議、交渉／完成する on her 権利 after I left you. 設立する Gilmore—that's her husband— home, an' that gave me a break. Said I'd come in to ask her how she'd like a little ride. She was tickled an' we left Gil home with the kid-"
"Does she know of Peters' death?" I interrupted.
"Nope. An' I didn't tell her. Now listen. I told you Horty—What? Why Missus Darnley, Jim Wilson's gal. Yeah. Let me talk, will you? I told you Horty was nuts on Mollie's kid. 早期に last month Horty comes in with a swell doll for the kid. Also she's nursing a sore 手渡す she says she gets at the same place she got the doll. The woman she gets the doll from gave it to her, she tells Mollie—What? No, gave her the doll, not the 手渡す. Say, Doc, ain't I speaking （疑いを）晴らす? Yeah, she gets her 手渡す 傷つける where she got the doll. That's what I said. The woman 直す／買収する，八百長をするs it up for her. She gives her the doll for nothing, Horty tells Mollie, because she thought Horty was so pretty an' for 提起する／ポーズをとるing for her. Yeah, 提起する／ポーズをとるing for her, making a statue of her or something. That makes a 攻撃する，衝突する with Horty because she don't hate herself an' she thinks this doll woman a lallapaloozer. Yeah, a lallapaloozer, a corker! Yeah.
"About a week later Tom—that's Peters—shows up while Horty's there an' sees the doll. Tom's a mite jealous of Horty with the kid an' asks her where she got it. She tells him a Madame Mandilip, an' where, an' Tom he says as this is a gal-doll she needs company, so he'll go an' get a boy-doll. About a week after this Tom turns up with a boy-doll the lick-an'-分裂（する） of Horty's. Mollie asks him if he 支払う／賃金s as much for it as Horty. They ain't told him about Horty not 支払う／賃金ing nothing for it or 提起する／ポーズをとるing. Mollie says Tom looks sort of sheepish but all he says is, 井戸／弁護士席, he ain't gone broke on it. She's going to kid him by asking if the doll woman thinks he's so pretty she wants him to 提起する／ポーズをとる, but the kid 始める，決めるs up a whoop about the boy-doll an' she forgets it. Tom don't show up again till about the first of this month. He's got a 包帯 on his 手渡す an' Mollie, kidding, asks him if he got it where he got the doll. He looks surprised an' says 'yes, but how the hell did you know that?' Yeah-yeah, that's what she says he told her. What's that? Did the Mandilip woman 包帯 it for him? How the hell— I don't know. I guess so, maybe. Mollie didn't say an' I didn't ask. Listen, Doc, I told you Mollie's no 模造の. What I'm telling you took me two hours to get. Talking '一区切り／（ボクシングなどの）試合 this, talking '一区切り／（ボクシングなどの）試合 that an' coming 支援する casual like to what I'm trying to find out. I'm afraid to ask too many questions. What? Oh, that's all 権利, Doc. No 罪／違反. Yeah, I think it pretty funny myself. But like I'm telling you I'm afraid to go too far. Mollie's too wise.
"井戸／弁護士席, when Ricori comes up yesterday he uses the same 策略 as me, I guess. Anyway, he admires the dolls an' asks her where she gets 'em an' how much they cost an' so on. Remember, I told you I stay out in the car while he's there. It's after that he goes home an' does the telephoning an' then （警官の）巡回区域，受持ち区域s it to the Mandilip hag. Yeah, that's all. Does it mean anything? Yeah? All 権利 then."
He was silent for a moment or two, but I had not heard the click of the receiver. I asked:
"Are you there, McCann?"
"Yeah. I was just thinking." His 発言する／表明する held a wistful 公式文書，認める. "I'd sure like to be with you when the boss comes to. But I'd best go 負かす／撃墜する an' see how the 手渡すs are getting along with them two Mandilip cows. Maybe I'll call you up if it ain't too late. G'by."
I walked slowly 支援する to Braile, trying to 保安官 my disjointed thoughts. I repeated McCann's end of the conversation to him 正確に／まさに. He did not interrupt me. When I had finished he said 静かに:
"Hortense Darnley goes to the Mandilip woman, is given a doll, is asked to 提起する／ポーズをとる, is 負傷させるd there, is 扱う／治療するd there. And dies. Peters goes to the Mandilip woman, gets a doll, is 負傷させるd there, is 推定では 扱う／治療するd there. And dies like Hortense. You see a doll for which, 明らかに, he has 提起する／ポーズをとるd. Harriet goes through the same 決まりきった仕事. And dies like Hortense and Peters. Now what?"
Suddenly I felt rather old and tired. It is not 正確に 刺激するing to see 崩壊するing what one has long believed to be a 公正に／かなり 井戸／弁護士席 ordered world of 認めるd 原因（となる） and 影響. I said wearily:
"I don't know."
He arose, and patted my shoulder.
"Get some sleep. The nurse will call you if Ricori wakes. We'll get to the 底（に届く） of this thing."
"Even if we 落ちる to it," I said, and smiled.
"Even if we have to 落ちる to it," he repeated, and did not smile.
After Braile had gone I sat for long, thinking. Then, 決定するd to 解任する my thoughts, I tried to read. I was too restless, and soon gave it up. Like the room in which Ricori lay, my 熟考する／考慮する is at the 後部, looking 負かす／撃墜する upon the little garden. I walked to the window and 星／主役にするd out, unseeingly. More vivid than ever was that feeling of standing before a blank door which it was vitally important to open. I turned 支援する into the 熟考する／考慮する and was surprised to find it was の近くに to ten o'clock. I dimmed my light and lay 負かす／撃墜する upon the comfortable couch. Almost すぐに I fell asleep.
I awoke from that sleep with a start, as though someone had spoken in my ear. I sat up, listening. There was utter silence around me. And suddenly I was aware that it was a strange silence, unfamiliar and oppressive. A 厚い, dead silence that filled the 熟考する／考慮する and through which no sound from outside could 侵入する. I jumped to my feet and turned on the lights, 十分な. The silence 退却／保養地d, seemed to 注ぐ out of the room like something 有形の. But slowly. Now I could hear the ticking of my clock—ticking out 突然の, as though a silencing cover had been 素早い行動d from it. I shook my 長，率いる impatiently, and walked to the window. I leaned out to breathe the 冷静な／正味の night 空気／公表する. I leaned out still more, so that I could see the window of Ricori's room, 残り／休憩（する）ing my 手渡す on the trunk of the vine. I felt a （軽い）地震 along it as though someone were gently shaking it—or as though some small animal were climbing it -
The window of Ricori's room broke into a square of light. Behind me I heard the shrilling of the 別館 alarm bell which meant the 緊急の need of haste. I raced out of the 熟考する／考慮する, and up the stairs and over.
As I ran into the 回廊（地帯） I saw that the guards were not at the door. The door was open. I stood 在庫／株-still on its threshold, incredulous -
One guard crouched beside the window, (a)自動的な／(n)自動拳銃 in 手渡す. The other knelt beside a 団体／死体 on the 床に打ち倒す, his ピストル pointed toward me. At her （米）棚上げする／（英）提議する sat the nurse, 長，率いる bent upon her breast—unconscious or asleep. The bed was empty. The 団体／死体 on the 床に打ち倒す was Ricori!
The guard lowered his gun. I dropped at Ricori's 味方する. He was lying 直面する 負かす／撃墜する, stretched out a few feet from the bed. I turned him over. His 直面する had the pallor of death, but his heart was （警官の）巡回区域，受持ち区域ing.
"Help me 解除する him to the bed," I said to the guard. "Then shut that door."
He did so, silently. The man at the window asked from the 味方する of his mouth, never relaxing his watch outward:
"Boss dead?"
"Not やめる," I answered, then swore as I seldom do—"What the hell 肉親，親類d of guards are you?"
The man who had shut the door gave a mirthless chuckle.
"There's more'n you goin' to ask that, Doc."
I gave a ちらりと見ること at the nurse. She still sat 密談する／（身体を）寄せ集めるd in the limp 態度 of unconsciousness or 深い sleep. I stripped Ricori of his pajamas and went over his 団体／死体. There was no 示す upon him. I sent for adrenalin, gave him an 注射 and went over to the nurse, and shook her. She did not awaken. I raised her eyelids. The pupils of her 注目する，もくろむs were 契約d. I flashed a light in them, without 返答. Her pulse and respiration were slow, but not 危険に so. I let her be for a moment and turned to the guards.
"What happened?"
They looked at each other uneasily. The guard at the window waved his 手渡す as though bidding the other do the talking. This guard said:
"We're sitting out there. All at once the house gets damned still. I says to Jack there, 'Sounds like they put a silencer on the 捨てる.' He says, 'Yeah.' We sit listening. Then all at once we hear a 強くたたく inside here. Like somebody 落ちるing out of bed. We 衝突，墜落 the door. There's the boss like you seen him on the 床に打ち倒す. There's the nurse asleep like you see her. We glim the alarm and pull it. Then we wait for somebody to come. That's all, ain't it, Jack?"
"Yeah," answered the guard at the window, tonelessly. "Yeah, I guess that's all."
I looked at him, suspiciously.
"You guess that's all? What do you mean—you guess?"
Again they looked at each other.
"Better come clean, 法案," said the guard at the window.
"Hell, he won't believe it," said the other.
"And nobody else. Anyway, tell him."
The guard 法案 said:
"When we 衝突，墜落 the door we seen something like a couple of cats fighting there beside the window. The boss is lying on the 床に打ち倒す. We had our guns out but was afraid to shoot for what you told us. Then we heard a funny noise outside like somebody blowing a flute. The two things broke loose and jumped up on the window sill, and out. We jumped to the window. And we didn't see nothing."
"You saw the things at the window. What did they look like then?" I asked.
"You tell him, Jack."
"Dolls!"
A shiver went 負かす／撃墜する my 支援する. It was the answer I had 推定する／予想するd—and dreaded. Out the window! I 解任するd the （軽い）地震 of the vine when I gripped it! The guard who had の近くにd the door looked at me, and I saw his jaw 減少（する）.
"Jesus, Jack!" he gasped. "He believes it!"
I 軍隊d myself to speak.
"What 肉親，親類d of dolls?"
The guard at the window answered, more confidently.
"One we couldn't see 井戸／弁護士席. The other looked like one of your nurses if she'd shrunk to about two feet!"
One of my nurses... Walters... I felt a wave of 証拠不十分 and sank 負かす／撃墜する on the 辛勝する／優位 of Ricori's bed.
Something white on the 床に打ち倒す at the 長，率いる of it caught my 注目する，もくろむ. I 星／主役にするd at it stupidly, then leaned and 選ぶd it up.
It was a nurse's cap, a little copy of those my nurses wear. It was about large enough to fit the 長，率いる of a two foot doll...
There was something else where it had been. I 選ぶd that up.
It was a knotted cord of hair pale ashen hair with nine curious knots spaced at 不規律な intervals along it...
The guard 指名するd 法案 stood looking 負かす／撃墜する at me anxiously. He asked:
"Want me to call any of your people, Doc?"
"Try to get 持つ／拘留する of McCann," I bade him; then spoke to the other guard: "の近くに the windows and fasten them and pull 負かす／撃墜する the curtains. Then lock the door."
法案 began to telephone. Stuffing the cap and knotted cord in my pocket, I walked over to the nurse. She was 速く 回復するing and in a minute or two I had her awake. At first her 注目する，もくろむs dwelt on me, puzzled; took in the lighted room and the two men, and the puzzlement changed to alarm. She sprang to her feet.
"I didn't see you come in! Did I 落ちる asleep... what's happened?... " Her 手渡す went to her throat.
"I'm hoping you can tell us," I said, gently.
She 星／主役にするd at me uncomprehendingly. She said, confusedly:
"I don't know... it became terribly still... I... thought I saw something moving at the window... then there was a queer fragrance and then I looked up to see you bending over me."
I asked: "Can you remember anything of what you saw at the window? The least 詳細（に述べる）—the least impression. Please try."
She answered, hesitantly: "There was something white... I thought someone... something... was watching me... then （機の）カム the fragrance, like flowers... that's all."
法案 hung up the telephone: "All 権利, Doc. They're after McCann. Now what?"
"行方不明になる Butler," I turned to the nurse. "I'm going to relieve you for the balance of the night. Go to bed. And I want you to sleep. I 定める／命ずる-" I told her what.
"You're not angry—you don't think I've been careless- "
"No, to both." I smiled and patted her shoulder. "The 事例／患者 has taken an 予期しない turn, that's all. Now don't ask any more questions."
I walked with her to the door, opened it.
"Do 正確に／まさに as I say."
I の近くにd and locked the door behind her.
I sat beside Ricori. The shock that he had experienced—whatever it might have been—should either cure or kill, I thought grimly. As I watched him, a （軽い）地震 went through his 団体／死体. Slowly an arm began to 解除する, 握りこぶし clenched. His lips moved. He spoke, in Italian and so 速く that I could get no word. His arm fell 支援する. I stood up from the bed. The paralysis had gone. He could move and speak. But would he be able to do so when consciousness assumed sway? I left this for the next few hours to decide I could do nothing else.
"Now listen to me carefully," I said to the two guards. "No 事柄 how strange what I am going to say will seem, you must obey me in every 詳細（に述べる）! Ricori's life depends upon your doing so. I want one of you to sit の近くに beside me at the （米）棚上げする／（英）提議する here. I want the other to sit beside Ricori, at the 長，率いる or the bed and between him and me. If I am asleep and he should awaken, 誘発する me. If you see any change in his 条件, すぐに awaken me. Is that （疑いを）晴らす?"
They said: "Okay."
"Very 井戸／弁護士席. Now here is the most important thing of all. You must watch me even more closely. Whichever of you sits beside me must not take his 注目する，もくろむs off me. If I should go to your 長，指導者 it would be to do one of three things only —listen to his heart and breathing—解除する his eyelids— take his 気温. I mean, of course, if he should be as he now is. If I seem to awaken and 試みる／企てる to do anything other than these three—stop me. If I resist, make me helpless—tie me up and gag me—no, don't gag me—listen to me and remember what I say. Then telephone to Dr. Braile—here is his number."
I wrote, and passed it to them.
"Don't 損失 me any more than you can help," I said, and laughed.
They 星／主役にするd at each other, plainly disconcerted. "If you say so, Doc-" began the guard 法案, doubtfully.
"I do say so. Do not hesitate. If you should be wrong, I'll not 持つ／拘留する it against you."
"The Doc knows what he's about, 法案," said the guard Jack.
"Okay then," said 法案.
I turned out all the lights except that beside the nurse's （米）棚上げする／（英）提議する. I stretched myself in her 議長，司会を務める and adjusted the lamp so my 直面する could be plainly seen. That little white cap I had 選ぶd from the 床に打ち倒す had shaken me —damnably! I drew it out and placed it in a drawer. The guard Jack took his 駅／配置する beside Ricori. 法案 drew up a 議長，司会を務める, and sat 直面するing me. I thrust my 手渡す into my pocket and clutched the knotted cord, の近くにd my 注目する，もくろむs, emptied my mind of all thought, and relaxed. In abandoning, at least 一時的に, my conception of a sane universe I had 決定するd to give that of Madame Mandilip's every chance to operate.
Faintly, I heard a clock strike one. I slept.
Somewhere a 広大な 勝利，勝つd was roaring. It circled and swept 負かす／撃墜する upon me. It bore me away. I knew that I had no 団体／死体, that indeed I had no form. Yet I was. A formless sentience whirling in that 広大な 勝利，勝つd. It carried me into infinite distance. Bodiless, intangible as I knew myself to be, yet it 注ぐd into me an unearthly vitality. I roared with the 勝利，勝つd in unhuman jubilance. The 広大な 勝利，勝つd circled and raced me 支援する from immeasurable space...
I seemed to awaken, that pulse of strange jubilance still 殺到するing through me... Ah! There was what I must destroy... there on the bed... must kill so that this pulse of jubilance would not 中止する... must kill so that the 広大な 勝利，勝つd would sweep me up again and away and 料金d me with its life... but careful... careful... there—there in the throat just under the ear... there is where I must 急落（する），激減（する） it... then off with the 勝利，勝つd again... there where the pulse （警官の）巡回区域，受持ち区域s... what is 持つ／拘留するing me 支援する?... 警告を与える... 警告を与える, "I am going to take his 気温"... that's it, careful, "I am going to take his 気温."... Now—one quick spring, then into his throat where the pulse （警官の）巡回区域，受持ち区域s... "Not with that you don't!"... Who said that?... still 持つ／拘留するing me... 激怒（する）, 消費するing and ruthless blackness and the sound of a 広大な 勝利，勝つd roaring away and away...
I heard a 発言する／表明する: "非難する him again, 法案, but not so hard. He's coming around." I felt a stinging blow on my 直面する. The dancing もやs （疑いを）晴らすd from before my 注目する，もくろむs. I was standing halfway between the nurse's （米）棚上げする／（英）提議する and Ricori's bed. The guard Jack held my 武器 pinioned to my 味方するs. The guard 法案's 手渡す was still raised. There was something clenched tightly in my own 手渡す. I looked 負かす／撃墜する. It was a strong scalpel, かみそり-辛勝する／優位d!
I dropped the scalpel. I said, 静かに: "It's all 権利 now, you can 解放（する） me."
The guard 法案 said nothing. His comrade did not loose his 支配する. I 新たな展開d my 長，率いる and I saw that both their 直面するs were sallow white. I said:
"It was what I had 推定する／予想するd. It was why I 教えるd you. It is over. You can keep your guns on me if you like."
The guard who held me 解放する／自由なd my 武器. I touched my cheek gingerly. I said mildly:
"You must have 攻撃する，衝突する me rather hard, 法案."
He said: "If you could a seen your 直面する, Doc, you'd wonder I didn't 粉砕する it."
I nodded, 明確に sensible now of the demonic 質 of that 激怒（する）, I asked:
"What did I do?"
The guard 法案 said: "You wake up and 始める，決める there for a minute 星／主役にするing at the 長，指導者. Then you take something out of that drawer and get up. You say you're going to take his 気温. You're half to him before we see what you got. I shout, 'Not with that you don't!' Jack 得る，とらえるs you. Then you went crazy. And I had to 激突する you. That's all."
I nodded again. I took out of my pocket the knotcord of woman's pale hair, held it over a dish and touched a match to it. It began to 燃やす, writhing like a tiny snake as it did so, the コンビナート／複合体 knots untying as the 炎上 touched them. I dropped the last インチ of it upon the plate and watched it turn to ash.
"I think there'll be no more trouble tonight," I said. "But keep up your watch just as before."
I dropped 支援する into the 議長，司会を務める and の近くにd my 注目する，もくろむs...
井戸／弁護士席, Braile had not shown me a soul, but—I believed in Madame Mandilip.
The balance of the night I slept soundly and dreamlessly. I awakened at my usual hour of seven. The guards were 警報. I asked if anything had been heard from McCann, and they answered no. I wondered a little at that, but they did not seem to think it out of the ordinary. Their 救済s were soon 予定, and I 警告を与えるd them to speak to no one but McCann about the occurrences of the night, reminding them that no one would be likely to believe them if they did. They 保証するd me, 真面目に, that they would be silent. I told them that I 手配中の，お尋ね者 the guards to remain within the room thereafter, as long as they were necessary.
診察するing Ricori, I 設立する him sleeping 深く，強烈に and 自然に. In all ways his 条件 was most 満足な. I 結論するd that the second shock, as いつかs happens, had, 中和する／阻止するd the ぐずぐず残る 影響s of the 初期の one. When he awakened, he would be able to speak and move. I gave this 安心させるing news to the guards. I could see that they were bursting with questions. I gave them no 激励 to ask them.
At eight, my day nurse for Ricori appeared, plainly much surprised to have 設立する Butler sleeping and to find me taking her place. I made no explanation, 簡単に telling her that the guards would now be 駅／配置するd within the room instead of outside the door.
At eight-thirty, Braile dropped in on me for breakfast, and to 報告（する）／憶測. I let him finish before I apprised him of what had happened. I said nothing, however, of the nurse's little cap, nor of my own experience.
I assumed this reticence for 井戸／弁護士席-considered 推論する／理由s. One, Braile would 受託する in its entirety the appalling deduction from the cap's presence. I 堅固に 嫌疑者，容疑者／疑うd that he had been in love with Walters, and that I would be unable to 抑制する him from visiting the doll-製造者. Usually hard-長，率いるd, he was in this 事柄 far too suggestible. It would be dangerous for him, and his 観察s would be worthless to me. Second, if he knew of my own experience, he would without 疑問 辞退する to let me out of his sight. Third, either of these contingencies would 敗北・負かす my own 目的, which was to interview Madame Mandilip 完全に alone—with the exception of McCann to keep watch outside the shop.
What would come of that 会合 I could not 予測（する）. But, 明白に, it was the only way to 保持する my self-尊敬（する）・点. To 収容する／認める that what had occurred was witchcraft, sorcery, supernatural—was to 降伏する to superstition. Nothing can be supernatural. If anything 存在するs, it must 存在する in obedience to natural 法律s. 構成要素 団体／死体s must obey 構成要素 法律s. We may not know those 法律s—but they 存在する にもかかわらず. If Madame Mandilip 所有するd knowledge of an unknown science, it behooved me as an exemplar of known science, to find out what I could about the other. 特に as I had recently 答える／応じるd so 完全に to it. That I had been able to outguess her in her technique—if it had been that, and not a self-induced illusion —gave me a pleasant feeling of 信用／信任. At any 率, 会合，会う her I must.
It happened to be one of my days for 協議, so I could not get away until after two. I asked Braile to take 告発（する），告訴（する）／料金 of 事柄s after that, for a few hours.
の近くに to ten the nurse telephoned that Ricori was awake, that he was able to speak and had been asking for me.
He smiled at me as I entered the room. As I leaned over and took his wrist he said:
"I think you have saved more than my life, Dr. Lowell! Ricori thanks you. He will never forget!"
A bit florid, but 完全に in character. It showed that his mind was 機能（する）／行事ing 普通は. I was relieved.
"We'll have you up in a jiffy." I patted his 手渡す.
He whispered: "Have there been any more deaths?"
I had been wondering whether he had 保持するd any recollection of the 事件／事情／状勢 of the night. I answered:
"No. But you have lost much strength since McCann brought you here. I don't want you to do much talking today." I 追加するd, casually: "No, nothing has happened. Oh, yes—you fell out of bed this morning. Do you remember?"
He ちらりと見ることd at the guards and then 支援する at me. He said:
"I am weak. Very weak. You must make me strong quickly."
"We'll have you sitting up in two days, Ricori."
"In いっそう少なく than two days I must be up and out. There is a thing I must do. It cannot wait."
I did not want him to become excited. I abandoned any 意向 of asking what had happened in the car. I said, incisively:
"That will depend 完全に upon you. You must not excite yourself. You must do as I tell you. I am going to leave you now, to give orders for your 栄養. Also, I want your guards to remain in this room."
He said: "And still you tell me—nothing has happened."
"I don't ーするつもりである to have anything happen." I leaned over him and whispered: "McCann has guards around the Mandilip woman. She cannot run away."
He said: "But her servitors are more efficient than 地雷, Dr. Lowell!"
I looked at him はっきりと. His 注目する，もくろむs were inscrutable. I went 支援する to my office, 深い in thought. What did Ricori know?
At eleven o'clock McCann called me on the telephone. I was so glad to hear from him that I was angry.
"Where on earth have you been-" I began.
"Listen, Doc. I'm at Mollie's—Peters' sister," he interrupted. "Come here quick."
The peremptory 需要・要求する 追加するd to my irritation. "Not now," I answered. "These are my office hours. I will not be 解放する／自由な until two."
"Can't you break away? Something's happened. I don't know what to do!" There was desperation in his 発言する／表明する.
"What has happened?" I asked.
"I can't tell you over-" His 発言する／表明する 安定したd, grew gentle; I heard him say, "Be 静かな, Mollie. It can't do no good!" Then to me—"井戸／弁護士席, come as soon as you can, Doc. I'll wait. Take the 演説（する）／住所." Then when he had given it to me, I heard him again speaking to another—"やめる it, Mollie! I ain't going to leave you."
He hung up, 突然の. I went 支援する to my 議長，司会を務める, troubled. He had not asked me about Ricori. That in itself was disquieting. Mollie? Peters' sister, of course! Was it that she had learned of her brother's death, and 苦しむd 崩壊（する）? I 解任するd that Ricori had said she was soon to be a mother. No, I felt that McCann's panic had been 予定 to something more than that. I became more and more uneasy. I looked over my 任命s. There were no important ones. Coming to sudden 決意, I told my 長官 to call up and 延期する them. I ordered my car, and 始める，決める out for the 演説（する）／住所 McCann had given me.
McCann met me at the door of the apartment. His 直面する was drawn and his 注目する，もくろむs haunted. He drew me within without a word, and led me through the hall. I passed an open door and glimpsed a woman with a sobbing child in her 武器. He took me into a bedroom and pointed to the bed.
There was a man lying on it, covers pulled up to his chin. I went over to him, looked 負かす／撃墜する upon him, touched him. The man was dead. He had been dead for hours. McCann said:
"Mollie's husband. Look him over like you done the boss."
I had a curiously unpleasant sense of 存在 turned on a potter's wheel by some inexorable 手渡す—from Peters, to Walters, to Ricori, to the 団体／死体 before me. Would the wheel stop there?
I stripped the dead man. I took from my 捕らえる、獲得する a magnifying glass and 調査（する）s. I went over the 団体／死体 インチ by インチ, beginning at the 地域 of the heart. Nothing there nothing anywhere... I turned the 団体／死体 over...
At once, at the base of the skull, I saw a minute 穴をあける.
I took a 罰金 調査（する） and 挿入するd it. The 調査（する）—and again I had that feeling of infinite repetition—slipped into the 穴をあける. I manipulated it, gently.
Something like a long thin needle had been thrust into that 決定的な 位置／汚点／見つけ出す just where the spinal cord connects with the brain. By 事故, or perhaps because the needle had been 新たな展開d savagely to 涙／ほころび the 神経 paths, there had been paralysis of respiration and almost instant death.
I withdrew the 調査（する） and turned to McCann.
"This man has been 殺人d," I said. "Killed by the same 肉親，親類d of 武器 with which Ricori was attacked. But whoever did it made a better 職業. He'll never come to life again as Ricori did."
"Yeah?" said McCann, 静かに. "An' me an' Paul was the only ones with Ricori when it happened. An' the only ones here with this man, Doc, was his wife an' baby! Now what're you going to do about that? Say those two put him on the 位置／汚点／見つけ出す—like you thought we done the boss?"
I said: "What do you know about this, McCann? And how did you come to be here so—opportunely?"
He answered, 根気よく: "I wasn't here when he was killed—if that's what you're getting at. If you want to know the time, it was two o'clock. Mollie got me on the 'phone about an hour ago an' I come straight up."
"She had better luck than I had," I said, dryly. "Ricori's people have been trying to get 持つ／拘留する of you since one o'clock last night."
"I know. But I didn't know it till just before Mollie called me. I was on my way to see you. An' if you want to know what I was doing all night, I'll tell you. I was out on the boss's 商売／仕事, an' yours. For one thing trying to find out where that hell-cat niece keeps her クーデター. I 設立する out— too late."
"But the men who were supposed to be watching-"
"Listen, Doc, won't you talk to Mollie now?" he interrupted me, "I'm afraid for her. It's only what I told her about you an' that you was coming that's kept her up."
"Take me to her," I said, 突然の.
We went into the room where I had seen the woman and the sobbing child. The woman was not more than twenty-seven or - eight, I 裁判官d, and in ordinary circumstances would have been 異常に attractive. Now her 直面する was drawn and 無血の, in her 注目する，もくろむs horror, and a 恐れる on the very borderline of madness. She 星／主役にするd at me, vacantly; she kept rubbing her lips with the tips of her forefingers, 星／主役にするing at me with those 注目する，もくろむs out of which looked a mind emptied of everything but 恐れる and grief. The child, a girl of no more than four, kept up her incessant sobbing. McCann shook the woman by the shoulder.
"Snap out of it, Mollie," he said, 概略で, but pityingly, too. "Here's the Doc."
The woman became aware of me, 突然の. She looked at me 刻々と for slow moments, then asked, いっそう少なく like one 尋問 than one 放棄するing a last thin thread of hope:
"He is dead?"
She read the answer in my 直面する. She cried:
"Oh, Johnnie—Johnnie Boy! Dead!"
She took the child up in her 武器. She said to it, almost tranquilly: "Johnnie Boy has gone away, darling. Daddy has had to go away. Don't cry, darling, we'll soon see him!"
I wished she would break 負かす／撃墜する, weep; but that 深い 恐れる which never left her 注目する，もくろむs was too strong; it 封鎖するd all normal 出口s of 悲しみ. Not much longer, I realized, could her mind stand up under that 緊張.
"McCann," I whispered, "say something, do something to her that will 誘発する her. Make her violently angry, or make her cry. I don't care which."
He nodded. He snatched the child from her 武器 and thrust it behind him. He leaned, his 直面する の近くに to the woman's. He said, 残酷に:
"Come clean, Mollie! Why did you kill John?"
For a moment the woman stood, uncomprehending. Then a （軽い）地震 shook her. The 恐れる 消えるd from her 注目する，もくろむs and fury took its place. She threw herself upon McCann, 握りこぶしs （警官の）巡回区域，受持ち区域ing at his 直面する. He caught her, pinioned her 武器. The child 叫び声をあげるd.
The woman's 団体／死体 relaxed, her 武器 fell to her 味方するs. She crumpled to the 床に打ち倒す, her 長，率いる bent over her 膝s. And 涙／ほころびs （機の）カム. McCann would have 解除するd, 慰安d her. I stopped him.
"Let her cry. It's the best thing for her."
And after a little while she looked up at McCann and said, shakily:
"You didn't mean that, Dan?"
He said: "No, I know you didn't do it, Mollie. But now you've got to talk to the Doc. There's a lot to be done."
She asked, 普通は enough now: "Do you want to question me, Doctor? Or shall I just go on and tell you what happened?"
McCann said: "Tell him the way you told me. Begin with the doll."
I said: "That's 権利. You tell me your story. If I've any questions, I'll ask them when you are done."
She began:
"Yesterday afternoon Dan, here, （機の）カム and took me out for a ride. Usually John does not... did not get home until about six. But yesterday he was worried about me and （機の）カム home 早期に, around three. He likes... he liked... Dan, and 勧めるd me to go. It was a little after six when I returned.
"'A 現在の （機の）カム for the kid while you were out, Mollie,' he said. 'It's another doll. I'll bet Tom sent it.' Tom is my brother.
"There was a big box on the （米）棚上げする／（英）提議する, and I 解除するd the lid. In it was the most life-like doll imaginable. A perfect thing. A little girl-doll. Not a baby-doll, but a doll like a child about ten or twelve years old. Dressed like a schoolgirl, with her 調書をとる／予約するs strapped, and over her shoulder— only about a foot high, but perfect. The sweetest 直面する—a 直面する like a little angel. John said: 'It was 演説（する）／住所d to you, Mollie, but I thought it was flowers and opened it. Looks as though it could talk, doesn't it? I'll bet it's what they call a portrait-doll. Some kid 提起する／ポーズをとるd for that, all 権利.' At that, I was sure Tom had sent it, because he had given little Mollie one doll before, and a friend of 地雷 who's... whose dead... gave her one from the same place, and she told me the woman who made the dolls had gotten her to 提起する／ポーズをとる for one. So putting this together, I knew Tom had gone and gotten little Mollie another. But I asked John: 'Wasn't there a 公式文書，認める or a card or anything in it?' He said, 'No—oh, yes, there was one funny thing. Where is it? I must have stuck it in my pocket.'
"He 追跡（する）d around in his pockets and brought out a cord. It had knots in it, and it looked as if it was made of hair. I said, 'Wonder what Tom's idea was in that?' John put it 支援する in his pocket, and I thought nothing more about it.
"Little Mollie was asleep. We put the doll beside her where she could see it when she woke up. When she did, she was in raptures over it. We had dinner, and Mollie played with the doll. After we put her to bed I 手配中の，お尋ね者 to take it away from her, but she cried so we let her go to sleep with it. We played cards until eleven, and then made ready for bed.
"Mollie is apt to be restless, and she still sleeps in a low crib so she can't 落ちる out. The crib is in our bedroom, in the corner beside one of the two windows. Between the two windows is my dressing （米）棚上げする／（英）提議する, and our bed is 始める，決める with its 長，率いる against the 塀で囲む opposite the windows. We both stopped and looked at Mollie, as we always do... did. She was sound asleep with the doll clasped in one arm, its 長，率いる on her shoulder.
"John said: 'Lord, Mollie—that doll looks as alive as the baby! You wouldn't be surprised to see it get up and walk. Whoever 提起する／ポーズをとるd for it was some 甘い kid.'
"And that was true. It had the sweetest, gentlest little 直面する... and oh, Dr. Lowell... that's what helps make it so dreadful... so utterly dreadful... "
I saw the 恐れる begin to creep 支援する into her 注目する，もくろむs.
McCann said: "Buck up, Mollie!"
"I tried to take the doll. It was so lovely I was afraid the baby might roll on it or 損失 it some way," she went on again 静かに, "but she held it 急速な／放蕩な, and I did not want to awaken her. So I let it be. While we were undressing, John took the knotted cord out of his pocket.
"'That's a funny looking bunch of knots,' he said. 'When you hear from Tom ask him what it's for.' He 投げ上げる／ボディチェックするd the cord on the little （米）棚上げする／（英）提議する at his 味方する of the bed. It wasn't long before he was asleep. And then I went asleep too.
"And then I woke up... or thought I did... for if I was awake or dreaming I don't know. I must have been a dream—and yet... Oh, God, John is dead... I heard him die..."
Again, for a little time, the 涙／ほころびs flowed. Then:
"If I was awake, it must have been the stillness that awakened me. And yet —it is what makes me feel I must have been dreaming. There couldn't be such silence... except in a dream. We are on the second 床に打ち倒す, and always there is some sound from the street. There wasn't the least sound now... it was as though... as though the whole world had suddenly been stricken dumb. I thought I sat up, listening... listening thirstily for the tiniest of noises. I could not even hear John breathing. I was 脅すd, for there was something dreadful in that stillness. Something living! Something wicked! I tried to lean over to John, tried to touch him, to awaken him.
"I could not move! I could not 動かす a finger! I tried to speak, to cry out. I could not!
"The window curtains were partly drawn. A faint light showed beneath and around them from the street. Suddenly this was blotted out. The room was dark —utterly dark.
"And then the green glow began -
"At first it was the dimmest gleam. It did not come from outside. It was in the room itself. It would flicker and 薄暗い, flicker and 薄暗い. But always after each dimming it was brighter. It was green like the light of the firefly. Or like looking at moonlight through （疑いを）晴らす green water. At last the green glow became 安定した. It was like light, and still it wasn't light. It wasn't brilliant. It was just glowing. And it was everywhere—under the dressing （米）棚上げする／（英）提議する, under the 議長，司会を務めるs... I mean it cast no 影をつくる／尾行するs. I could see everything in the bedroom. I could see the baby asleep in her crib, the doll's 長，率いる on her shoulder...
"The doll moved!
"It turned its 長，率いる, and seemed to listen to the baby's breathing. It put its little 手渡すs upon the baby's arm. The arm dropped away from it.
"The doll sat up!
"And now I was sure that I must be dreaming the strange silence the strange green glow... and this...
"The doll clambered over the 味方する of the crib, and dropped to the 床に打ち倒す. It （機の）カム skipping over the 床に打ち倒す toward the bed like a child, swinging its school 調書をとる／予約するs by their ひもで縛る. It turned its 長，率いる from 味方する to 味方する as it （機の）カム, looking around the room like a curious child. It caught sight of the dressing （米）棚上げする／（英）提議する, and stopped, looking up at the mirror. It climbed up the 議長，司会を務める in 前線 of the dressing （米）棚上げする／（英）提議する. It jumped from the 議長，司会を務める seat to the （米）棚上げする／（英）提議する, 投げ上げる／ボディチェックするd its 調書をとる／予約するs aside and began to admire itself in the mirror.
"It preened itself. It turned and looked at itself, first over this shoulder and then over that. I thought: 'What a queer fantastic dream!' It thrust its 直面する の近くに to the mirror and 配列し直すd and patted its hair. I thought: 'What a vain little doll!' And then I thought: 'I'm dreaming all this because John said the doll was so life-like he wouldn't be surprised to see it walk.' And then I thought: 'But I can't be dreaming, or I wouldn't be trying to account for what I'm dreaming!' And then it all seemed so absurd that I laughed. I knew I had made no sound. I knew I couldn't... that the laugh was inside me. But it was as though the doll had heard me. It turned and looked straight at me -
"My heart seemed to die within me. I've had nightmares, Dr. Lowell— but never in the worst of them did I feel as I did when the doll's 注目する，もくろむs met 地雷...
"They were the 注目する，もくろむs of a devil! They shone red. I mean they were— were—luminous... like some animal's 注目する，もくろむs in the dark. But it was the —the—hellishness in them that made me feel as though a 手渡す had gripped my heart! Those 注目する，もくろむs from hell in that 直面する like one of God's own angels...
"I don't know how long it stood there, glaring at me. But at last it swung itself 負かす／撃墜する and sat on the 辛勝する／優位 of the dressing （米）棚上げする／（英）提議する, 脚s swinging like a child's and still with its 注目する，もくろむs on 地雷. Then slowly, deliberately, it 解除するd its little arm and reached behind its neck. Just as slowly it brought its arm 支援する. In its 手渡す was a long pin... like a dagger...
"It dropped from the dressing （米）棚上げする／（英）提議する to the 床に打ち倒す. It skipped toward me and was hidden by the 底（に届く） of the bed. An instant and it had clambered up the bed and stood, still looking at me with those red 注目する，もくろむs, at John's feet.
"I tried to cry out, tried to move, tried to 誘発する John. I prayed— 'Oh, God, wake him up! Dear God—wake him!'
"The doll looked away from me. It stood there, looking at John. It began to creep along his 団体／死体, up toward his 長，率いる. I tried to move my 手渡す, to follow it. I could not. The doll passed out of my sight...
"I heard a dreadful, sobbing groan. I felt John shudder, then stretch and 新たな展開... I heard him sigh...
"深い 深い 負かす／撃墜する... I knew John was dying... and I could do nothing... in the silence in the green glow...
"I heard something like the 公式文書，認める of a flute, from the street, beyond the windows. There was a tiny scurrying. I saw the doll skip across the 床に打ち倒す and spring up to the windowsill. It knelt there for a moment, looking out into the street. It held something in its 手渡す. And then I saw that what it held was the knotted cord John had thrown on his （米）棚上げする／（英）提議する.
"I heard the flute 公式文書，認める again... the doll swung itself out of the window... I had a glimpse of its red 注目する，もくろむs... I saw its little 手渡すs clutching the sill... and it was gone...
"The green glow... blinked and... went out. The light from the street returned around the curtains. The silence seemed... seemed... to be sucked away.
"And then something like a wave of 不明瞭 swept over me. I went 負かす／撃墜する under it. Before it swept over me I heard the clock strike two.
"When I awakened again... or （機の）カム out of my faint... or, if it was just a dream, when I awakened... I turned to John. He lay there... so still! I touched him... he was 冷淡な... so 冷淡な! I knew he was dead!
"Dr. Lowell... tell me what was dream and what was real? I know that no doll could have killed John!
"Did he reach out to me when he was dying, and did the dream come from that? Or did I... dreaming... kill him?"
There was an agony in her 注目する，もくろむs that forbade the truth, so I lied to her.
"I can 慰安 you as to that, at least. Your husband died of 完全に natural 原因（となる）s—from a 血 clot in the brain. My examination 満足させるd me 完全に as to that. You had nothing to do with it. As for the doll—you had an 異常に vivid dream, that is all."
She looked at me as one who would give her soul to believe. She said:
"But I heard him die!"
"It is やめる possible-" I 急落（する），激減（する）d into a somewhat technical explanation which I knew she would not やめる understand, but would, perhaps, be therefore 納得させるing—"You may have been half-awake—on what we 称する，呼ぶ／期間／用語 the borderline of waking consciousness. In all probability the entire dream was 示唆するd by what you heard. Your subconsciousness tried to explain the sounds, and conceived the whole fantastic 演劇 you have recited to me. What seemed, in your dream, to （問題を）取り上げる many minutes 現実に passed through your mind in a 分裂（する） second—the subconsciousness makes its own time. It is a ありふれた experience. A door 激突するs, or there is some other abrupt and violent sound. It awakens the sleeper. When he is fully awake he has recollection of some singularly vivid dream which ended with a loud noise. In reality, his dream began with the noise. The dream may have seemed to him to have taken hours. It was, in fact, almost instantaneous, taking place in the 簡潔な／要約する moment between noise and awakening."
She drew a 深い breath; her 注目する，もくろむs lost some of their agony. I 圧力（をかける）d my advantage.
"And there is another thing you must remember—your 条件. It makes many women peculiarly 支配する to 現実主義の dreams, usually of an unpleasant character. いつかs even to hallucinations."
She whispered: "That is true. When little Mollie was coming I had the most dreadful dreams-"
She hesitated; I saw 疑問 again cloud her 直面する.
"But the doll—the doll is gone!" she said.
I 悪口を言う／悪態d to myself at that, caught unawares and with no ready answer. But McCann had one. He said, easily:
"Sure it's gone, Mollie. I dropped it 負かす／撃墜する the chute into the waste. After what you told me I thought you'd better not see it any more."
She asked, はっきりと:
"Where did you find it? I looked for it."
"Guess you weren't in 形態／調整 to do much looking," he answered. "I 設立する it 負かす／撃墜する at the foot of the kid's crib, all messed up in the covers. It was 破産した／（警察が）手入れするd. Looked like the kid had been dancing on it in her sleep."
She said hesitantly: "It might have slipped 負かす／撃墜する. I don't think I looked there-"
I said, 厳しく, so she might not 嫌疑者，容疑者／疑う collusion between McCann and myself:
"You ought not to have done that, McCann. If you had shown the doll to her, Mrs. Gilmore would have known at once that she had been dreaming and she would have been spared much 苦痛."
"井戸／弁護士席, I ain't a doctor." His 発言する／表明する was sullen. "I done what I thought best."
"Go 負かす／撃墜する and see if you can find it," I ordered, tartly. He ちらりと見ることd at me はっきりと. I nodded—and hoped he understood. In a few minutes he returned.
"They cleaned out the waste only fifteen minutes ago," he 報告（する）／憶測d, lugubriously. "The doll went with it. I 設立する this, though."
He held up a little ひもで縛る from which dangled a half-dozen miniature 調書をとる／予約するs. He asked:
"Was them what you dreamed the doll dropped on the dressing （米）棚上げする／（英）提議する, Mollie?"
She 星／主役にするd, and shrank away.
"Yes," she whispered. "Please put it away, Dan. I don't want to see it."
He looked at me, triumphantly.
"I guess maybe I was 権利 at that when I threw the doll away, Doc."
I said: "At any 率, now that Mrs. Gilmore is 満足させるd it was all a dream, there's no 害（を与える） done."
"And now," I took her 冷淡な 手渡すs in 地雷. "I'm going to 定める／命ずる for you. I don't want you to stay in this place a moment longer than you can help. I want you to pack a 捕らえる、獲得する with whatever you and little Mollie may need for a week or so, and leave at once. I am thinking of your 条件—and a little life that is on its way. I will …に出席する to all the necessary 形式順守s. You can 教える McCann as to the other 詳細（に述べる）s. But I want you to go. Will you do this?"
To my 救済, she assented readily. There was a somewhat harrowing moment when she and the child bade 別れの（言葉，会） to the 団体／死体. But before many minutes she was on her way with McCann to relations. The child had 手配中の，お尋ね者 to take "the boy and girl dolls." I had 辞退するd to 許す this, even at the 危険 of again 誘発するing the mother's 疑惑s. I 手配中の，お尋ね者 nothing of Madame Mandilip to …を伴って them to their 避難. McCann supported me, and the dolls were left behind.
I called an undertaker whom I knew. I made a last examination of the 団体／死体. The minute 穴をあける would not be noticed, I was sure. There was no danger of an 検視, since my certification of the 原因（となる） of death would not be questioned. When the undertaker arrived I explained the absence of the wife —切迫した maternity and 出発 at my order. I 始める，決める 負かす／撃墜する the 原因（となる） of death as thrombosis—rather grimly as I 解任するd the 類似の diagnosis of the 銀行業者's 内科医, and what I had thought of it.
After the 団体／死体 had been taken away, and as I sat waiting for McCann to return, I tried to orient myself to this phantasmagoria through which, it seemed to me, I had been moving for endless time. I tried to divest my mind of all prejudice, all preconceived ideas of what could and could not be. I began by 譲歩するing that this Madame Mandilip might 所有する some 知恵 of which modern science is ignorant. I 辞退するd to call it witchcraft or sorcery. The words mean nothing, since they have been 適用するd through the ages to 完全に natural phenomena whose 原因（となる）s were not understood by the laity. Not so long ago, for example, the lighting of a match was "witchcraft" to many savage tribes.
No, Madame Mandilip was no "witch," as Ricori thought her. She was mistress of some unknown science—that was all.
And 存在 a science, it must be 治める／統治するd by 直す／買収する，八百長をするd 法律s—unknown though those 法律s might be to me. If the doll- 製造者's activities 反抗するd 原因（となる） and 影響, as I conceived them, still they must 適合する to 法律s of 原因（となる） and 影響 of their own. There was nothing supernatural about them—it was only that, like the savages, I did not know what made the match 燃やす. Something of these 法律s, something of the woman's technique—using the word as signifying the 詳細（に述べる）s, collectively considered, of mechanical 業績／成果 in any art—I thought I perceived. The knotted cord, "the witch's ladder," 明らかに was an 必須の in the 活気／アニメーション of the dolls. One had been slipped into Ricori's pocket before the first attack upon him. I had 設立する another beside his bed after the 乱すing occurrences of the night. I had gone to sleep 持つ／拘留するing one of the cords—and had tried to 殺人 my 患者! A third cord had …を伴ってd the doll that had killed John Gilmore.
明確に, then, the cord was a part of the 決まり文句／製法 for the direction of 支配（する）／統制する of the dolls.
Against this was the fact that the intoxicated stroller could not have been carrying one of the "ladders" when attacked by the Peters doll.
It might be, however, that the cord had only to do with the 初期の activity of the puppets; that once 活動させる／戦時編成するd, their 活動／戦闘 might continue for an 不明確な／無期限の period.
There was 証拠 of a 直す／買収する，八百長をするd 決まり文句／製法 in the making of the dolls. First, it seemed, the 見込みのある 犠牲者's 解放する／自由な 同意 to serve as model must be 得るd; second, a 負傷させる which gave the 適切な時期 to 適用する the salve which 原因（となる）d the unknown death; third, the doll must be a faithful replica of the 犠牲者. That the 機関 of death was the same in each 事例／患者 was proven by the 類似の symptoms.
But did those deaths 現実に have anything to do with the motility of the dolls? Were they 現実に a necessary part of the 操作／手術?
The doll-製造者 might believe so; indeed, undoubtedly did believe so.
I did not.
That the doll which had stabbed Ricori had been made in the 外見 of Peters; that the "nurse doll" which the guards had seen 均衡を保った on my window-ledge might have been the one for which Walters had 提起する／ポーズをとるd; that the doll which had thrust the pin into Gilmore's brain was, perhaps, the replica of little Anita, the eleven-year-old schoolgirl—all this I 認める.
But that anything of Peters, anything of Walters, anything of Anita had animated these dolls... that dying, something of their vitality, their minds, their "souls" had been drawn from them, had been transmuted into an essence of evil, and 拘留するd in these wire-骸骨／概要d puppets... against this all my 推論する／理由 反乱d. I could not 軍隊 my mind to 受託する even the 可能性.
My 分析 was interrupted by the return of McCann.
He said, laconically: "井戸／弁護士席, we put it over."
I asked. "McCann—you weren't by any chance telling the truth when you said you 設立する the doll?"
"No, Doc. The doll was gone all 権利."
"But where did you get the little 調書をとる／予約するs?"
"Just where Mollie said the doll 投げ上げる／ボディチェックするd 'em—on her dressing （米）棚上げする／（英）提議する. I snaked 'em after she'd told me her story. She hadn't noticed 'em. I had a hunch. It was a good one, wasn't it?"
"You had me wondering," I replied. "I don't know what we could have said if she had asked for the knotted cord."
"The cord didn't seem to make much of a dent on her-" He hesitated. "But I think it means a hell of a lot, Doc. I think if I hadn't took her out, and John hadn't happened home, and Mollie had opened the box instead of him —I think it's Mollie he'd have 設立する lying dead beside him."
"You mean-"
"I mean the dolls go for whichever gets the cords," he said somberly.
井戸／弁護士席, it was much the same thought I had in my own mind.
I asked: "But why should anybody want to kill Mollie?"
"Maybe somebody thinks she knows too much. And that brings me to what I've been wanting to tell you. The Mandilip hag knows she's 存在 watched!"
"井戸／弁護士席, her 選挙立会人s are better than ours." I echoed Ricori; and I told McCann then of the second attack in the night; and why I had sought him.
"An' that," he said when I had ended, "証明するs the Mandilip hag knows who's who behind the watch on her. She tried to wipe out both the boss and Mollie. She's の上に us, Doc."
"The dolls are …を伴ってd," I said. "The musical 公式文書，認める is a 召喚するs. They do not disappear into thin 空気／公表する. They answer the 公式文書，認める and make their way... somehow to whoever sounds the 公式文書，認める. The dolls must be taken from the shop. Therefore one of the two women must take them. How did they 避ける your 選挙立会人s?"
"I don't know." The lean 直面する was worried. "The fish-white gal does it. Let me tell you what I 設立する out, Doc. After I left you last night I go 負かす／撃墜する to see what the boys have to say. I hear plenty. They say about four o'clock the gal goes in the 支援する an' the old woman takes a 議長，司会を務める in the 蓄える／店. They don't think nothing of that. But about seven who do they see walking 負かす／撃墜する the street and into the doll 共同の but the gal. They give the boys in the 支援する hell. But they ain't seen her go, an' they pass the buck to the boys in 前線.
"Then about eleven o'clock one of the 救済 lads comes in with worse news. He says he's 負かす／撃墜する at the foot of Broadway when a クーデター turns the corner an' 運動ing it is the gal. He can't be mistaken because he's seen her in the doll 共同の. She goes up Broadway at a clip. He sees there ain't nobody 追跡するing her, an' he looks around for a taxi. Course there's nothing in sight —not even a parked car he can 解除する. So he comes 負かす／撃墜する to the ギャング（団） to ask what the hell they mean by it. An' again nobody's seen the gal go."
"I take a couple of the boys an' we start out to 徹底的に捜す the 近隣 to find out where she stables the クーデター. We don't have no luck at all until about four o'clock when one of the tails—one of the lads who's been looking—会合，会うs up with me. He says that about three he sees the gal —at least he thinks it's the gal—walking along the street around the corner from the 共同の. She's got a coupla big スーツケースs but they don't seem to trouble her 非，不，無. She's walking quick. But away from the doll 共同の. He 緩和するs over to get a better look, when all of a sudden she ain't there. He 匂いをかぐs around the place he's seen her. There ain't hide nor hair of her. It's pretty dark, an' he tries the doors an' the areaways, but the doors are locked an' there ain't nobody in the areaways. So he gives it up an' 追跡（する）s me.
"I look over the place. It's about a third 負かす／撃墜する the 封鎖する around the corner from the doll 共同の. The doll 共同の is eight numbers from the corner. They're mostly shops an' I guess 貯蔵 up above. Not many people living there. The houses all old ones. Still, I don't see how the gal can get to the doll 共同の. I think maybe the tail's mistaken. He's seen somebody else, or just thinks he's seen somebody. But we scout の近くに around, an' after a while we see a place that looks like it might stable a car. It don't take us long to open the doors. An' sure enough, there's a クーデター with its engine still hot. It ain't been in long. Also it's the same 肉親，親類d of クーデター the lad who's seen the gal says she was 運動ing.
"I lock the place up again, an' go 支援する to the boys. I watch with 'em the 残り／休憩（する） of the night. Not a light in the doll 共同の. But nigh eight o'clock, the gal shows up inside the shop and opens up!"
"Still," I said at this point, "you have no real 証拠 she had been out. The girl your man thought he saw might not have been she at all."
He looked at me pityingly.
"She got out in the afternoon without 'em seeing her, didn't she? What's to keep her from doing the same thing at night? The lad saw her 運動ing a クーデター, didn't he? An' we find a クーデター like it の近くに where the wench dropped out of sight."
I sat thinking. There was no 推論する／理由 to disbelieve McCann. And there was a 悪意のある coincidence in the hours the girl had been seen. I said, half-aloud:
"The time she was out in the afternoon 同時に起こる／一致するs with the time the doll was left at the Gilmores'. The time she was out at night 同時に起こる／一致するs with the time of the attack upon Ricori, and the death of John Gilmore."
"You 攻撃する，衝突する it plumb in the 注目する，もくろむ!" said McCann. "She goes an' leaves the doll at Mollie's, an' comes 支援する. She goes an' 始める，決めるs the dolls on the boss. She waits for 'em to pop out. Then she goes an' collects the one she's left at Mollie's. Then she （警官の）巡回区域，受持ち区域s it 支援する home. They're in the スーツケースs she's carrying."
I could not 持つ／拘留する 支援する the irritation of helpless mystification that swept me.
"And I suppose you think she got out of the house by riding a broomstick up the chimney," I said, sarcastically.
"No," he answered, 本気で. "No, I don't, Doc. But them houses are old, and I think maybe there's a ネズミ 穴を開ける of a passage or something she gets through. Anyway, the 手渡すs are watching the street an' the クーデター stable now, an' she can't pull that again."
He 追加するd, morosely:
"At that, I ain't 説 she couldn't bridle a broomstick if she had to."
I said, 突然の: "McCann, I'm going 負かす／撃墜する to talk to this Madame Mandilip. I want you to come with me."
He said: "I'll be 権利 beside you, Doc. With my fingers on my guns."
I said: "No, I'm going to see her alone. But I want you to keep の近くに watch outside."
He did not like that; argued; at last reluctantly assented.
I called up my office. I talked to Braile and learned that Ricori was 回復するing with astonishing rapidity. I asked Braile to look after things the balance of the day, inventing a 協議 to account for the request. I had myself switched to Ricori's room. I had the nurse tell him that McCann was with me, that we were making an 調査 along a 確かな line, the results of which I would 知らせる him on my return, and that, unless Ricori 反対するd, I 手配中の，お尋ね者 McCann to stay with me the balance of the afternoon.
Ricori sent 支援する word that McCann should follow my orders as though they were his own. He 手配中の，お尋ね者 to speak to me, but that I did not want. Pleading 緊急の haste, I rang off.
I ate an excellent and hearty lunch. I felt that it would help me 持つ／拘留する tighter to the realities—or what I thought were the realities— when I met this 明らかな mistress of illusions. McCann was oddly silent and preoccupied.
The clock was striking three when I 始める，決める off to 会合，会う Madame Mandilip.
I stood at the window of the doll-製造者's shop, mastering a stubborn revulsion against entering. I knew McCann was on guard. I knew that Ricori's men were watching from the houses opposite, that others moved の中で the passersby. にもかかわらず the roaring clatter of the elevated trains, the bustle of traffic along the 殴打／砲列, the outwardly normal life of the street, the doll-製造者's shop was a beleaguered 要塞. I stood, shivering on its threshold, as though at the door of an unknown world.
There were only a few dolls 陳列する，発揮するd in the window, but they were unusual enough to catch the 注目する，もくろむs of a child or a grown-up. Not so beautiful as that which had been given Walters, nor those two I had seen at the Gilmores', but admirable 誘惑するs, にもかかわらず. The light inside the shop was subdued. I could see a slender girl moving at a 反対する. The niece of Madame Mandilip, no 疑問. Certainly the size of the shop did not 約束 any such noble 議会 behind it as Walters had painted in her diary. Still, the houses were old, and the 支援する might 延長する beyond the 限界s of the shop itself.
突然の and impatiently I 中止するd to temporize.
I opened the door and walked in.
The girl turned as I entered. She watched me as I （機の）カム toward the 反対する. She did not speak. I 熟考する／考慮するd her, 速く. An hysterical type, 明白に; one of the most perfect I had ever seen. I took 公式文書，認める of the 目だつ pale blue 注目する，もくろむs with their vague gaze and distended pupils; the long and slender neck and わずかに 一連の会議、交渉／完成するd features; the pallor and the long thin fingers. Her 手渡すs were clasped, and I could see that these were 異常に 柔軟な —thus carrying out to the last 手早く書き留める the Laignel- Lavastine syndrome of the hysteric. In another time and other circumstances she would have been a priestess, 発言する／表明するing oracles, or a saint.
恐れる was her handmaiden. There could be no 疑問 of that. And yet I was sure it was not of me she was 脅すd. Rather was it some 深い and 外国人 恐れる which lay coiled at the roots of her 存在, sapping her vitality— a spiritual 恐れる. I looked at her hair. It was a silvery ash... the color... the color of the hair that formed the knotted cords!
As she saw me 星／主役にするing at her hair, the vagueness in her pale 注目する，もくろむs 減らすd, was 取って代わるd by alertness. For the first time she seemed to be aware of me. I said, with the 最大の casualness:
"I was attracted by the dolls in your window. I have a little granddaughter who would like one I think."
"The dolls are for sale. If there is one you fancy, you may buy it. At its price."
Her 発言する／表明する was low-pitched, almost whispering, indifferent. But I thought the intentness in her 注目する，もくろむs sharpened.
"I suppose," I answered, feigning something of irritation, "that is what any chance 顧客 may do. But it happens that this child is a favorite of 地雷 and for her I want the best. Would it be too much trouble to show me what other, and perhaps better, dolls you may have?"
Her 注目する，もくろむs wavered for a moment. I had the thought that she was listening to some sound I could not hear. 突然の her manner lost its 無関心／冷淡, became gracious. And at that exact moment I felt other 注目する，もくろむs upon me, 熟考する／考慮するing me, searching me. So strong was the impression that, involuntarily, I turned and peered about the shop. There was no one except the girl and me. A door was at the 反対する's end, but it was lightly の近くにd. I 発射 a ちらりと見ること at the window to see whether McCann was 星／主役にするing in. No one was there.
Then, like the clicking of a camera shutter, the unseen gaze was gone. I turned 支援する to the girl. She had spread a half-dozen boxes on the 反対する and was 開始 them. She looked up at me, candidly, almost sweetly. She said:
"Why, of course you may see all that we have. I am sorry if you thought me indifferent to your 願望（する）s. My aunt, who makes the dolls, loves children. She would not willingly 許す one who also loves them to go from here disappointed."
It was a curious little speech, oddly stilted, enunciated half as though she were reciting from 口述. Yet it was not that which 誘発するd my 利益／興味 so much as the subtle change that had taken place in the girl herself. Her 発言する／表明する was no longer languid. It held a 決定的な vibrancy. Nor was she the lifeless, listless person she had been. She was animated, even a touch of vivaciousness about her; color had crept into her 直面する and all vagueness gone from her 注目する，もくろむs; in them was a sparkle, faintly mocking, more than faintly malicious.
I 診察するd the dolls.
"They are lovely," I said at last. "But are these the best you have? 率直に, this is rather an especial occasion—my granddaughter's seventh birthday. The price doesn't really 事柄 as long, of course, as it is in 推論する／理由-"
I heard her sigh. I looked at her. The pale 注目する，もくろむs held their olden 恐れる-touched 星／主役にする, all sparkling mockery gone. The color had fled her 直面する. And again, 突然の, I felt the unseen gaze upon me, more powerfully than before. And again I felt it shuttered off.
The door beside the 反対する opened.
用意が出来ている though I had been for the 驚くべき／特命の／臨時の by Walters' description of the doll-製造者, her 外見 gave me a 際立った shock. Her 高さ, her massiveness, were amplified by the proximity of the dolls and the slender 人物／姿／数字 of the girl. It was a giantess who regarded me from the doorway —a giantess whose 激しい 直面する with its 幅の広い, high cheek bones, mustached upper lip and 厚い mouth produced a suggestion of masculinity grotesquely in contrast with the 巨大な bosom.
I looked into her 注目する，もくろむs and forgot all grotesqueness of 直面する and 人物／姿／数字. The 注目する，もくろむs were enormous, a luminous 黒人／ボイコット, （疑いを）晴らす, disconcertingly alive. As though they were twin spirits of life, and 独立した・無所属 of the 団体／死体. And from them 注ぐd a flood of vitality that sent along my 神経s a warm tingle in which there was nothing 悪意のある—or was not then.
With difficulty I 軍隊d my own 注目する，もくろむs from hers. I looked for her 手渡すs. She was 列d all in 黒人／ボイコット, and her 手渡すs were hidden in the 倍のs of her ample dress. My gaze went 支援する to her 注目する，もくろむs, and within them was a sparkle of the mocking contempt I had seen in those of the girl. She spoke, and I knew that the 決定的な vibrancy I had heard in the girl's 発言する／表明する had been an echo of those sonorously 甘い, 深い トンs.
"What my niece has shown does not please you?"
I gathered my wits. I said: "They are all beautiful, Madame— Madame-"
"Mandilip," she said, serenely. "Madame Mandilip. You do not know the 指名する, eh?"
"It is my ill fortune," I answered, ambiguously. "I have a grandchild —a little girl. I want something peculiarly 罰金 for her seventh birthday. All that I have been shown are beautiful—but I was wondering whether there was not something-"
"Something—peculiarly-" her 発言する／表明する ぐずぐず残るd on the word - "more beautiful. 井戸／弁護士席, perhaps there is. But when I 好意 顧客s peculiarly-" I now was sure she 強調するd the word -"I must know with whom I am 取引，協定ing. You think me a strange shopkeeper, do you not?"
She laughed, and I marveled at the freshness, the youthfulness, the curious tingling sweetness of that laughter.
It was by a 際立った 成果／努力 that I brought myself 支援する to reality, put myself again on guard. I drew a card from my 事例／患者. I did not wish her to 認める me, as she would have had I given her my own card. Nor did I 願望（する） to direct her attention to anyone she could 害（を与える）. I had, therefore, 用意が出来ている myself by carrying the card of a doctor friend long dead. She ちらりと見ることd at it.
"Ah," she said. "You are a professional—a 内科医. 井戸／弁護士席, now that we know each other, come with me and I will show you of my best."
She led me through the door and into a wide, 薄暗い 回廊（地帯）. She touched my arm and again I felt that strange, 決定的な tingling. She paused at another door, and 直面するd me.
"It is here," she said, "that I keep my best. My—peculiarly best!"
Once more she laughed, then flung the door open.
I crossed the threshold and paused, looking about the room with swift disquietude. For here was no spacious 議会 of enchantment such as Walters had 述べるd. True enough, it was somewhat larger than one would have 推定する／予想するd. But where were the exquisite old panelings, the 古代の tapestries, that 魔法 mirror which was like a 広大な／多数の／重要な "half-globe of purest water," and all those other things that had made it seem to her a 楽園?
The light （機の）カム through the half-drawn curtains of a window 開始 upon a small, enclosed and barren yard. The 塀で囲むs and 天井 were of plain, stained 支持を得ようと努めるd. One end was 完全に taken up by small, built-in 閣僚s with 木造の doors. There was a mirror on the 塀で囲む, and it was 一連の会議、交渉／完成する—but there any similarity to Walters' description ended.
There was a fireplace, the 肉親，親類d one can find in any ordinary old New York house. On the 塀で囲むs were a few prints. The 広大な／多数の／重要な （米）棚上げする／（英）提議する, the "baronial board," was an 完全に commonplace one, littered with dolls' 着せる／賦与するing in さまざまな 行う／開催する／段階s of 完成.
My disquietude grew. If Walters had been romancing about this room, then what else in her diary was 発明—or, at least, as I had surmised when I had read it, the 製品 of a too active imagination?
Yet—she had not been romancing about the doll-製造者's 注目する，もくろむs, nor her 発言する／表明する; and she had not 誇張するd the doll-製造者's 外見 nor the peculiarities of the niece. The woman spoke, 解任するing me to myself, breaking my thoughts.
"My room 利益／興味s you?"
She spoke softly, and with, I thought, a 確かな secret amusement.
I said: "Any room where any true artist creates is of 利益／興味. And you are a true artist, Madame Mandilip."
"Now, how do you know that?" she mused.
It had been a slip. I said, quickly:
"I am a lover of art. I have seen a few of your dolls. It does not take a gallery of his pictures to make one realize that Raphael, for example, was a master. One picture is enough."
She smiled, in the friendliest fashion. She の近くにd the door behind me, and pointed to a 議長，司会を務める beside the （米）棚上げする／（英）提議する.
"You will not mind waiting a few minutes before I show you my dolls? There is a dress I must finish. It is 約束d, and soon the little one to whom I have 約束d it will come. It will not take me long."
"Why, no," I answered, and dropped into the 議長，司会を務める.
She said, softly: "It is 静かな here. And you seem 疲れた／うんざりした. You have been working hard, eh? And you are 疲れた／うんざりした."
I sank 支援する into the 議長，司会を務める. Suddenly I realized how 疲れた／うんざりした I really was. For a moment my guard relaxed and I の近くにd my 注目する，もくろむs. I opened them to find that the doll-製造者 had taken her seat at the （米）棚上げする／（英）提議する.
And now I saw her 手渡すs. They were long and delicate and white and I knew that they were the most beautiful I had ever beheld. Just as her 注目する，もくろむs seemed to have life of their own, so did those 手渡すs seem living things, having a 存在 独立した・無所属 of the 団体／死体 to which they belonged. She 残り／休憩（する）d them on the （米）棚上げする／（英）提議する. She spoke again, caressingly.
"It is 井戸／弁護士席 to come now and then to a 静かな place. To a place where peace is. One grows so 疲れた／うんざりした—so 疲れた／うんざりした. So tired—so very tired."
She 選ぶd a little dress from the （米）棚上げする／（英）提議する and began to sew. Long white fingers plied the needle while the other 手渡す turned and moved the small 衣料品. How wonderful was the 動議 of those long white 手渡すs... like a rhythm... like a song... restful!
She said, in low 甘い トンs:
"Ah, yes—here nothing of the outer world comes. All is peace —and 残り／休憩（する）—残り／休憩（する）-"
I drew my 注目する，もくろむs reluctantly from the slow dance of those 手渡すs, the weaving of those long and delicate fingers which moved so rhythmically. So restfully. The doll-製造者's 注目する，もくろむs were on me, soft and gentle... 十分な of that peace of which she had been telling.
It would do no 害（を与える） to relax a little, 伸び（る） strength for the struggle which must come. And I was tired. I had not realized how tired! My gaze went 支援する to her 手渡すs. Strange 手渡すs—no more belonging to that 抱擁する 団体／死体 than did the 注目する，もくろむs and 発言する／表明する.
Perhaps they did not! Perhaps that 甚だしい／１２ダース 団体／死体 was but a cloak, a covering, of the real 団体／死体 to which 注目する，もくろむs and 手渡すs and 発言する／表明する belonged. I thought over that, watching the slow rhythms of the 手渡すs. What could the 団体／死体 be like to which they belonged? As beautiful as 手渡すs and 注目する，もくろむs and 発言する／表明する?
She was humming some strange 空気／公表する. It was a slumberous, なぎing melody. It crept along my tired 神経s, into my 疲れた／うんざりした mind—distilling sleep... sleep. As the 手渡すs were weaving sleep. As the 注目する，もくろむs were 注ぐing sleep upon me -
Sleep!
Something within me was 激怒（する）ing, furiously. Bidding me rouse myself! Shake off this lethargy! By the 涙／ほころびing 成果／努力 that brought me gasping to the surface of consciousness, I knew that I must have passed far along the path of that strange sleep. And for an instant, on the threshold of 完全にする awakening, I saw the room as Walters had seen it.
広大な, filled with mellow light, the 古代の tapestries, the panelings, the carved 審査するs behind which hidden 形態／調整s lurked laughing—laughing at me. Upon the 塀で囲む the mirror—and it was like a 広大な／多数の／重要な half-globe of purest water within which the images of the carvings 一連の会議、交渉／完成する its でっちあげる，人を罪に陥れる swayed like the reflections of verdure 一連の会議、交渉／完成する a （疑いを）晴らす woodland pool!
The 巨大な 議会 seemed to waver—and it was gone.
I stood beside an overturned 議長，司会を務める in that room to which the doll-製造者 had led me. And the doll-製造者 was beside me, の近くに. She was regarding me with a curious puzzlement and, I thought, a 影をつくる／尾行する of chagrin. It flashed upon me that she was like one who had been 突然に interrupted -
Interrupted! When had she left her 議長，司会を務める? How long had I slept? What had she done to me while I had been sleeping? What had that terrific 成果／努力 of will by which I had broken from her web 妨げるd her from 完全にするing?
I tried to speak—and could not. I stood tongue-tied, furious, humiliated. I realized that I had been 罠にかける like the veriest tyro— I who should have been all 警報, 怪しげな of every move. 罠にかける by 発言する／表明する and 注目する，もくろむs and weaving 手渡すs by the 繰り返し言うd suggestion that I was 疲れた／うんざりした so 疲れた／うんざりした... that here was peace... and sleep... sleep... What had she done to me while I slept? Why could I not move? It was as though all my energy had been dissipated in that one tremendous thrust out of her web of sleep! I stood motionless, silent, spent. Not a muscle moved at 命令（する） of my will. The enfeebled 手渡すs of my will reached out to them—and fell.
The doll-製造者 laughed. She walked to the 閣僚s on the far 塀で囲む. My 注目する，もくろむs followed her, helplessly. There was no slightest 緩和するing of the paralysis that gripped me. She 圧力（をかける）d a spring, and the door of a 閣僚 slipped 負かす／撃墜する.
Within the 閣僚 was a child-doll. A little girl, 甘い- 直面するd and smiling. I looked at it and felt a numbness at my heart. In its small, clasped 手渡すs was one of the dagger-pins, and I knew that this was the doll which had stirred in the 武器 of the Gilmore baby... had climbed from the baby's crib... had danced to the bed and thrust...
"This is one of my peculiarly best!" The doll-製造者's 注目する，もくろむs were on me and filled with cruel mockery. "A good doll! A bit careless at times, perhaps. Forgetting to bring 支援する her school- 調書をとる／予約するs when she goes visiting. But so obedient! Would you like her for your granddaughter?"
Again she laughed—youthful, tingling, evil laughter. And suddenly I knew Ricori had been 権利 and that this woman must be killed. I 召喚するd all my will to leap upon her. I could not move a finger.
The long white 手渡すs groped over the next 閣僚 and touched its hidden spring. The numbness at my heart became the 圧力 of a 手渡す of ice. 星／主役にするing out at me from that 閣僚 was Walters! And she was crucified!
So perfect, so—alive was the doll that it was like seeing the girl herself through a 減らすing glass. I could not think of it as a doll, but as the girl. She was dressed in her nurse's uniform. She had no cap, and her 黒人／ボイコット hair hung disheveled about her 直面する. Her 武器 were outstretched, and through each palm a small nail had been thrust, pinning the 手渡すs to the 支援する of the 閣僚. The feet were 明らかにする, 残り／休憩（する）ing one on the other, and through the insteps had been thrust another nail. 完全にするing the dreadful, the blasphemous, suggestion, above her 長，率いる was a small 掲示. I read it:
"The Burnt 殉教者."
The doll-製造者 murmured in a 発言する／表明する like honey 獲得するd from flowers in hell:
"This doll has not behaved 井戸／弁護士席. She has been disobedient. I punish my dolls when they do not behave 井戸／弁護士席. But I see that you are 苦しめるd. 井戸／弁護士席, she has been punished enough—for the moment."
The long white 手渡すs crept into the 閣僚, drew out the nails from 手渡すs and feet. She 始める，決める the doll upright, leaning against the 支援する. She turned to me.
"You would like her for your granddaughter, perhaps? 式のs! She is not for sale. She has lessons to learn before she goes again from me."
Her 発言する／表明する changed, lost its diabolic sweetness, became 告発（する），告訴（する）／料金d with menace.
"Now listen to me—Dr. Lowell! What—you did not think I knew you? I knew you from the first. You too need a lesson!" Her 注目する，もくろむs 炎d upon me. "You shall have your lesson—you fool! You who pretend to 傷をいやす／和解させる the mind—and know nothing, nothing I say, of what the mind is. You, who conceive the mind as but a part of a machine of flesh and 血, 神経 and bone and know nothing of what it houses. You—who 収容する／認める 存在 of nothing unless you can 手段 it in your 実験（する）-tubes or see it under your microscope. You—who define life as a 化学製品 ferment, and consciousness as the 製品 of 独房s. You fool! Yet you and this savage, Ricori, have dared to try to 妨害する me, to 干渉する with me, to hem me 一連の会議、交渉／完成する with 秘かに調査するs! Dared to 脅す me—me—possessor of the 古代の 知恵 beside which your science is as crackling of thorns under an empty マリファナ! You fools! I know who are the dwellers in the mind—and the 力／強力にするs that manifest themselves through it—and those who dwell beyond it! They come at my call. And you think to 炭坑，オーケストラ席 your paltry knowledge against 地雷? You fool! Have you understood me? Speak!"
She pointed a finger at me. I felt my throat relax, knew I could speak once more.
"You hell 捕らえる、獲得する!" I croaked. "You damned murderess! You'll go to the 電気椅子 before I'm through with you!"
She （機の）カム toward me, laughing.
"You would give me to the 法律? But who would believe you? 非，不，無! The ignorance that your science has fostered is my 保護物，者. The 不明瞭 of your unbelief is my impregnable 要塞. Go play with your machines, fool! Play with your machines! But meddle with me no more!"
Her 発言する／表明する grew 静かな, deadly.
"Now this I tell you. If you would live, if you would have live those who are dear to you—take your 秘かに調査するs away. Ricori you cannot save. He is 地雷. But you—think never of me again. 調査する no more into my 事件／事情／状勢s. I do not 恐れる your 秘かに調査するs—but they 感情を害する／違反する me. Take them away. At once. If by nightfall they are still on watch-"
She caught me by the shoulder with a 支配する that bruised. She 押し進めるd me toward the door.
"Go!"
I fought to 召集（する） my will, to raise my 武器. Could I have done so I would have struck her 負かす／撃墜する as I would a ravening beast. I could not move them. Like an automaton I walked across the room to the door. The doll-製造者 opened it.
There was an 半端物 rustling noise from the 閣僚s. Stiffly, I turned my 長，率いる.
The doll of Walters had fallen 今後. It lay half over the 辛勝する／優位. Its 武器 swung, as though imploring me to take it away. I could see in its palms the 示すs of the crucifying nails. Its 注目する，もくろむs were 直す／買収する，八百長をするd on 地雷 -
"Go!" said the doll-製造者. "And remember!"
With the same stiff 動議 I walked through the 回廊（地帯） and into the shop. The girl watched me, with vague, 恐れる-filled 注目する，もくろむs. As though a 手渡す were behind me, 圧力（をかける）ing me inexorably on, I passed through the shop and out of its door into the street.
I seemed to hear, did hear, the mocking evil-甘い laughter of the doll-製造者!
The moment I was out in the street, volition, 力／強力にする of movement, returned to me. In an abrupt 急ぐ of 激怒（する）, I turned to re-enter the shop. A foot from it, I was brought up as against an invisible 塀で囲む. I could not 前進する a step, could not even raise my 手渡すs to touch the door. It was as though at that point my will 辞退するd to 機能（する）／行事, or rather that my 脚s and 武器 辞退するd to obey my will. I realized what it was—地位，任命する- hypnotic suggestion of an 驚くべき／特命の／臨時の 肉親，親類d, part of the same phenomena which had held me motionless before the doll-製造者, and had sent me like a robot out of her lair. I saw McCann coming toward me, and for an instant had the mad idea of ordering him to enter and end Madame Mandilip with a 弾丸. ありふれた sense 速く told me that we could give no 合理的な／理性的な 推論する／理由 for such 殺人，大当り, and that we would probably expiate it within the same apparatus of 死刑執行 with which I had 脅すd her.
McCann said: "I was getting worried, Doc. Just about to break in on you."
I said: "Come on, McCann. I want to get home as quickly as possible."
He looked at my 直面する, and whistled.
"You look like you been through a 戦う／戦い, Doc."
I answered: "I have. And the 栄誉（を受ける）s are all with Madame Mandilip— so far."
"You （機の）カム out 静かな enough. Not like the boss, with the hag spitting hell in your 直面する. What happened?"
"I'll tell you later. Just let me be 静かな for a while. I want to think."
What I 現実に 手配中の，お尋ね者 was to get 支援する my self-所有／入手. My mind seemed half-blind, groping for the 有形の. It was as if it had been enmeshed in cobwebs of a peculiarly unpleasant character, and although I had torn loose, fragments of the web were still 粘着するing to it. We got into the car and rolled on for some minutes in silence. Then McCann's curiosity got the better of him.
"Anyway," he asked, "what did you think of her?"
By this time I had come to a 決意. Never had I felt anything to approach the loathing, the 冷淡な 憎悪, the implacable 勧める to kill, which this woman had 誘発するd in me. It was not that my pride had 苦しむd, although that was sore enough. No, it was the 有罪の判決 that in the room behind the doll-shop dwelt blackest evil. Evil as 残忍な and 外国人 as though the doll-製造者 had in truth come straight from that hell in which Ricori believed. There could be no 妥協 with that evil. Nor with the woman in whom it was 中心d.
I said: "McCann, in all the world there is nothing so evil as that woman. Do not let the girl slip through your fingers again. Do you think she knew last night that she had been seen?"
"I don't know. I don't think so."
"増加する the guards in 前線 and 支援する of the place at once. Do it 率直に, so that the women cannot help noticing it. They will think, unless the girl is aware that she was 観察するd, that we are still in ignorance of the other 出口. They will think we believe she managed to slip out unseen either at 前線 or 支援する. Have a car in 準備完了 at each end of the street where she keeps the クーデター. Be careful not to 誘発する their 疑惑s. If the girl appears, follow her-" I hesitated.
McCann asked: "And then what?"
"I want her taken—誘拐するd, kidnapped—whatever you choose to call it. It must be done with the 最大の quietness. I leave that to you. You know how such things are done better than I. Do it quickly and do it 静かに. But not too 近づく the doll- shop—as far away from it as you can. Gag the girl, tie her up if necessary. But get her. Then search the car 完全に. Bring the girl to me at my house—with whatever you find. Do you understand?"
He said: "If she shows, we'll get her. You going to put her through the third degree?"
"That—and something more. I want to see what the doll- 製造者 will do. It may goad her into some 活動／戦闘 which will enable us to lay 手渡すs on her legitimately. Bring her within reach of the 法律. She may or may not have other and invisible servants, but my 意向 is to 奪う her of the 明白な one. It may make the others 明白な. At the least, it will 手足を不自由にする／（物事を）損なう her."
He looked at me, curiously; "She musta 攻撃する，衝突する you pretty hard, Doc."
"She did," I answered curtly. He hesitated.
"You going to tell the boss about this?" he asked at last.
"I may or I may not—tonight. It depends upon his 条件. Why?"
"井戸／弁護士席, if we're going to pull off anything like a kidnapping, I think he せねばならない know."
I said, はっきりと: "McCann, I told you Ricori's message was that you were to obey orders from me as though they were from him. I have given you your orders. I 受託する all the 責任／義務."
"Okay," he answered, but I could see that his 疑問 still ぐずぐず残るd.
Now, assuming Ricori had 十分に 回復するd, there was no real 推論する／理由 why I should not tell him what had happened during my 遭遇（する） with Madame Mandilip. It was different with Braile. More than 嫌疑者，容疑者／疑うing, as I did, the attachment between him and Walters, I could not tell him of the crucified doll—and even now I thought of it not as a doll crucified, but as Walters crucified. If I told him, I knew 井戸／弁護士席 that there would be no 持つ／拘留するing him 支援する from instant attack upon the doll-製造者. I did not want that.
But I was aware of a most stubborn 不本意 to tell Ricori the 詳細（に述べる）s of my visit. The same held good for Braile in other 事柄s besides the Walters doll. And why did I feel the same way about McCann? I 始める，決める it 負かす／撃墜する to 負傷させるd vanity.
We stopped in 前線 of my house. It was then の近くに to six. Before getting out of the car I repeated my 指示／教授／教育s. McCann nodded.
"Okay, Doc. If she comes out, we get her."
I went into the house, and 設立する a 公式文書，認める from Braile 説 that he would not be in to see me until after dinner. I was glad of that. I dreaded the ordeal of his questions. I learned that Ricori was asleep, and that he had been 回復するing strength with astonishing rapidity. I 教えるd the nurse to tell him, should he awaken, that I would visit him after I had dined. I lay 負かす／撃墜する, 努力するing to snatch a little sleep before eating.
I could not sleep—絶えず the 直面する of the doll-製造者 （機の）カム before me whenever I began to relax into a doze, throwing me into 激しい wakefulness.
At seven I arose and ate a 十分な and excellent dinner, deliberately drinking at least twice the 量 of ワイン I ordinarily 許す myself, finishing with strong coffee. When I arose from the （米）棚上げする／（英）提議する I felt distinctly better, mentally 警報 and master of myself once more—or so I believed. I had decided to apprise Ricori of my 指示／教授／教育s to McCann 関心ing the 誘拐 of the girl. I realized that this was 確かな to bring 負かす／撃墜する upon me a minute catechism 関心ing my visit to the doll- shop, but I had 明確に表すd the story I ーするつもりであるd to tell -
It was with a 際立った shock that I realized that this story was all that I could tell! Realized that I could not communicate to the others the 部分s I had 削除するd, even if I 願望（する）d. And that this was by 命令（する） of the doll-製造者—地位，任命する-hypnotic suggestion which was a part of those other inhibitions she had laid upon my will; those same inhibitions which had held me 権力のない before her, had marched me out of her shop like a robot and thrust me 支援する from her door, when I would have re- entered!
During that 簡潔な／要約する tranced sleep she had said to me: "This and this you must not tell. This and this you may."
I could not speak of the child-doll with the angelic 直面する and the dagger-pin which had pricked the 泡 of Gilmore's life. I could not speak of the Walters doll and its crucifixion. I could not speak of the doll-製造者's tacit admission that she had been 責任がある the deaths that had first led us to her.
However, this 現実化 made me feel even better. Here at last was something 理解できる—the tangibility for which I had been groping; something that had in it nothing of sorcery—nor of dark 力／強力にする; something 完全に in the realm of my own science. I had done the same thing to 患者s, many times, bringing their minds 支援する to normality by these same 地位，任命する- hypnotic suggestions.
Also, there was a way by which I could wash my own mind clean of the doll-製造者's suggestions, if I chose. Should I do this? Stubbornly, I decided I would not. It would be an admission that I was afraid of Madame Mandilip. I hated her, yes—but I did not 恐れる her. Knowing now her technique, it would be folly not to 観察する its results with myself as the 研究室／実験室 実験. I told myself that I had run the gamut of those suggestions —that whatever else it had been her 意向 to implant within my mind had been held 支援する by my 予期しない awakening -
Ah, but the doll-製造者 had spoken truth when she called me fool!
When Braile appeared, I was able to 会合，会う him calmly. Hardly had I 迎える／歓迎するd him when Ricori's nurse called up to say her 患者 was wide-awake and anxious to see me.
I said to Braile: "This is fortunate. Come along. It will save me from telling the same story twice over."
He asked: "What story?"
"My interview with Madame Mandilip."
He said, incredulously: "You've seen her!"
"I spent the afternoon with her. She is most 利益／興味ing. Come and hear about it."
I led the way 速く to the 別館, deaf to his questions. Ricori was sitting up. I made a 簡潔な／要約する examination. Although still somewhat weak, he could be 発射する／解雇するd as a 患者. I congratulated him on what was truly a remarkable 回復. I whispered to him:
"I've seen your witch and talked to her. I have much to tell you. 企て，努力，提案 your guards take their 駅／配置するs outside the door. I will 解任する the nurse for a time."
When guards and nurse were gone, I 開始する，打ち上げるd into an account of the day's happenings, beginning with my 召喚するs to the Gilmore apartment by McCann. Ricori listened, 直面する grim, as I repeated Mollie's story. He said:
"Her brother and now her husband! Poor, poor Mollie! But she shall be avenged! Si!—大いに so! Yes!"
I gave my grossly incomplete 見解／翻訳／版 of my 遭遇（する） with Madame Mandilip. I told Ricori what I had bidden McCann to do. I said:
"And so tonight, at least, we can sleep in peace. For if the girl comes out with the dolls, McCann gets her. If she does not, then nothing can happen. I am やめる 確かな that without her the doll-製造者 cannot strike. I hope you 認可する, Ricori."
He 熟考する／考慮するd me for a moment, intently.
"I do 認可する, Dr. Lowell. Most 大いに do I 認可する. You have done as I would have done. But—I do not think you have told us all that happened between you and the witch."
"Nor do I," said Braile.
I arose.
"At any 率, I've told you the 必須のs. And I'm dead tired. I'm going to take a bath and go to bed. It's now nine- thirty. If the girl does come out it won't be before eleven, probably later. I'm going to sleep until McCann fetches her. If he doesn't, I'm going to sleep all night. That's final. Save your questions for the morning."
Ricori's searching gaze had never left me. He said:
"Why not sleep here? Would it not be safer for you?"
I succumbed to a wave of 激しい irritation. My pride had been 傷つける enough by my 行為 with the doll-製造者 and the manner she had outwitted me. And the suggestion that I hide from her behind the guns of his men opened the 負傷させる afresh.
"I am no child," I answered 怒って. "I am やめる able to take care of myself. I do not have to live behind a 審査する of gunmen- "
I stopped, sorry that I had said that. But Ricori betrayed no 怒り／怒る. He nodded, and dropped 支援する on his pillows.
"You have told me what I 手配中の，お尋ね者 to know. You fared very 不正に with the witch, Dr. Lowell. And you have not told us all the 必須のs."
I said: "I am sorry, Ricori!"
"Don't be." For the first time he smiled. "I understand, perfectly. I also am somewhat of a psychologist. But I say this to you—it 事柄s little whether McCann does or does not bring the girl to us tonight. Tomorrow the witch dies—and the girl with her."
I made no answer. I 解任するd the nurse, and re-駅／配置するd the guards within the room. Whatever 信用／信任 I might feel, I was taking no chances with Ricori's safety. I had not told him of the doll-製造者's direct 脅し against him, but I had not forgotten it.
Braile …を伴ってd me to my 熟考する／考慮する. He said, apologetically:
"I know you must be damned tired, Lowell, and I don't want to pester you. But will you let me stay in your room with you while you are sleeping?"
I said with the same stubborn irritability:
"For God's sake, Braile, didn't you hear what I told Ricori? I'm much 強いるd and all of that, but it 適用するs to you as 井戸／弁護士席."
He said 静かに: "I am going to stay 権利 here in the 熟考する／考慮する, wide-awake, until McCann comes or 夜明け comes. If I hear any sounds in your room, I'm coming in. Whenever I want to take a look at you to see whether you are all 権利, I'm coming in. Don't lock your door, because if you do I'll break it 負かす／撃墜する. Is that all やめる （疑いを）晴らす?"
I grew angrier still. He said:
"I mean it."
I said: "All 権利. Do as you damned please."
I went into my bedroom, slamming the door behind me. But I did not lock it.
I was tired, there was no 疑問 about that. Even an hour's sleep would be something. I decided not to bother with the bath, and began to undress. I was 除去するing my shirt when I noticed a tiny pin upon its left 味方する over my heart. I opened the shirt and looked at the under 味方する. Fastened there was one of the knotted cords!
I took a step toward the door, mouth open to call Braile. Then I stopped short. I would not show it to Braile. That would mean endless 尋問. And I 手配中の，お尋ね者 to sleep.
God! But I 手配中の，お尋ね者 to sleep!
Better to 燃やす the cord. I searched for a match to touch 解雇する／砲火／射撃 to it —I heard Braile's step at the door and thrust it あわてて in my trousers' pocket.
"What do you want?" I called.
"Just want to see you get into bed all 権利."
He opened the door a trifle. What he 手配中の，お尋ね者 to discover, of course, was whether I had locked it. I said nothing, and went on undressing.
My bedroom is a large, high-天井d room on the second 床に打ち倒す of my home. It is at the 支援する of the house, 隣接するing my 熟考する／考慮する. There are two windows which look out on the little garden. They are でっちあげる，人を罪に陥れるd by the creeper. The room has a chandelier, a 大規模な, old-fashioned thing covered with prisms— lusters I think they are called, long pendants of 削減（する）-glass in six circles from which rise the candle-支えるもの／所有者s. It is a small replica of one of the lovely 植民地の chandeliers in Independence Hall at Philadelphia, and when I bought the house I would not 許す it to be taken 負かす／撃墜する, nor even be wired for electric bulbs. My bed is at the end of the room, and when I turn upon my left 味方する I can see the windows 輪郭（を描く）d by faint reflections. The same reflections are caught by the prisms so that the chandelier becomes a nebulously 微光ing tiny cloud. It is restful, sleep-inducing. There is an 古代の pear tree in the garden, the last 生存者 of an orchard which in spring, in New York's halcyon days, 解除するd to the sun its flowered 武器. The chandelier is just beyond the foot of the bed. The switch which 支配（する）／統制するs my lights is at the 長，率いる of my bed. At the 味方する of the room is an old fireplace, its 味方するs of carved marble and with a wide mantel at the 最高の，を越す. To visualize fully what follows, it is necessary to keep this 協定 in mind.
By the time I had undressed, Braile, evidently 保証するd of my docility, had の近くにd the door and gone 支援する into the 熟考する／考慮する. I took the knotted cord, the witch's ladder, and threw it contemptuously on the （米）棚上げする／（英）提議する. I suppose there was something of bravado in the 活動／戦闘; perhaps, if I had not felt so sure of McCann, I would have 追求するd my 初めの 意向 of 燃やすing it. I mixed myself a sedative, turned off the lights and lay 負かす／撃墜する to sleep. The sedative took quick 影響.
I sank 深い and deeper into a sea of sleep—deeper... and deeper...
I awoke.
I looked around me... how had I come to this strange place? I was standing within a shallow circular 炭坑，オーケストラ席, grass lined. The 縁 of the 炭坑，オーケストラ席 （機の）カム only to my 膝s. The 炭坑，オーケストラ席 was in the 中心 of a circular, level meadow, perhaps a ４半期/4分の1 of a mile in 直径. This, too, was covered with grass; strange grass, purple- flowered. Around the grassy circle drooped unfamiliar trees... trees 規模d with emeralds green and scarlet... trees with pendulous 支店s covered with fernlike leaves and threaded with slender vines that were like serpents. The trees circled the meadow, watchful, 警報... watching me... waiting for me to move...
No, it was not the trees that were watching! There were things hidden の中で the trees, lurking... malignant things... evil things... and it was they who were watching me, waiting for me to move!
But how had I gotten here? I looked 負かす／撃墜する at my 脚s, stretched my 武器... I was 覆う？ in the blue pajamas in which I had gone to bed... gone to my bed in my New York house... in my house in New York... how had I come here? I did not seem to be dreaming...
Now I saw that three paths led out of the shallow 炭坑，オーケストラ席. They passed over the 辛勝する／優位, and stretched, each in a different direction, toward the 支持を得ようと努めるd. And suddenly I knew that I must take one of these paths, and that it was vitally important that I 選ぶ the 権利 one... that only one could be 横断するd 安全に... that the other two would lead me into the 力／強力にする of those lurking things.
The 炭坑，オーケストラ席 began to 契約. I felt its 底（に届く） 解除するing beneath my feet. The 炭坑，オーケストラ席 was thrusting me out! I leaped upon the path at my 権利, and began to walk slowly along it. Then involuntarily I began to run, faster and faster along it, toward the 支持を得ようと努めるd. As I drew nearer I saw that the path pierced the 支持を得ようと努めるd straight as an arrow flight, and that it was about three feet wide and 国境d closely by the trees, and that it 消えるd in the 薄暗い green distance. Faster and faster I ran. Now I had entered the 支持を得ようと努めるd, and the unseen things were 集会 の中で the trees that 国境d the path, thronging the 国境s, 急ぐing silently from all the 支持を得ようと努めるd. What those things were, what they would do to me if they caught me I did not know... I only knew that nothing that I could imagine of agony could equal what I would experience if they did catch me.
On and on I raced through the 支持を得ようと努めるd, each step a nightmare. I felt 手渡すs stretching out to clutch me... heard shrill whisperings... Sweating, trembling, I broke out of the 支持を得ようと努めるd and raced over a 広大な plain that stretched, treeless, to the distant horizon. The plain was trackless, pathless, and covered with brown and withered grass. It was like, it （機の）カム to me, the 爆破d ヒース／荒れ地 of Macbeth's three witches. No 事柄... it was better than the haunted 支持を得ようと努めるd. I paused and looked 支援する at the trees. I felt from them the gaze of myriads of the evil 注目する，もくろむs.
I turned my 支援する, and began to walk over the withered plain. I looked up at the sky. The sky was misty green. High up in it two cloudy orbs began to glow... 黒人／ボイコット suns... no, they were not suns... they were 注目する，もくろむs... The 注目する，もくろむs of the doll-製造者! They 星／主役にするd 負かす／撃墜する at me from the misty green sky... Over the horizon of that strange world two gigantic 手渡すs began to 解除する... began to creep toward me... to catch me and hurl me 支援する into the 支持を得ようと努めるd... white 手渡すs with long fingers... and each of the long white fingers a living thing. The 手渡すs of the doll-製造者!
Closer （機の）カム the 注目する，もくろむs, and closer writhed the 手渡すs. From the sky （機の）カム peal upon peal of laughter... The laughter of the doll- 製造者!
That laughter still （犯罪の）一味ing in my ears, I awakened—or seemed to awaken. I was in my room sitting bolt upright in my bed. I was dripping with sweat, and my heart was pumping with a pulse that shook my 団体／死体. I could see the chandelier 微光ing in the light from the windows like a small nebulous cloud. I could see the windows faintly 輪郭（を描く）d. It was very still...
There was a movement at one of the windows. I would get up from the bed and see what it was—I could not move!
A faint greenish glow began within the room. At first it was like the flickering phosphorescence one sees upon a decaying スピードを出す／記録につける. It waxed and 病弱なd, waxed and 病弱なd, but grew ever stronger. My room became plain. The chandelier gleamed like a decaying emerald -
There was a little 直面する at the window! A doll's 直面する! My heart leaped, then curdled with despair. I thought: "McCann has failed! It is the end!"
The doll looked at me, grinning. Its 直面する was smooth shaven, that of a man about forty. The nose was long, the mouth wide and thin-lipped. The 注目する，もくろむs were の近くに-始める，決める under bushy brows. They glittered, red as rubies.
The doll crept over the sill. It slid, 長，率いる-first, into the room. It stood for a moment on its 長，率いる, 脚s waving. It somersaulted twice. It （機の）カム to its feet, one little 手渡す at its lips, red 注目する，もくろむs upon 地雷—waiting. As though 推定する／予想するing 賞賛! It was dressed in the tights and jacket of a circus acrobat. It 屈服するd to me. Then with a 繁栄する, it pointed to the window.
Another little 直面する was peering there. It was 厳格な，質素な, 冷淡な, the 直面する of a man of sixty. It had small 味方する whiskers. It 星／主役にするd at me with the 表現 I supposed a 銀行業者 might wear when someone he hates 適用するs to him for a 貸付金—I 設立する the thought oddly amusing. Then 突然の I 中止するd to feel amused.
A 銀行業者-doll! An acrobat-doll!
The dolls of two of those who had 苦しむd the unknown death!
The 銀行業者-doll stepped with dignity 負かす／撃墜する from the window. It was in 十分な evening dress, swallowtails, stiff shirt—all perfect. It turned and with the same dignity raised a 手渡す to the windowsill. Another doll stood there—the doll of a woman about the same age as the 銀行業者-doll, and garbed like it in 訂正する evening dress.
The spinster!
Mincingly, the spinster-doll took the proffered 手渡す. She jumped lightly to the 床に打ち倒す.
Through the window （機の）カム a fourth doll, all in spangled tights from neck to feet. It took a 飛行機で行くing leap, 上陸 beside the acrobat-doll. It looked up at me with grinning 直面する, then 屈服するd.
The four dolls began to march toward me, the acrobats 主要な, and behind them with slow and stately step, the spinster-doll and 銀行業者-doll arm-in-arm.
Grotesque, fantastic, these they were—but not humorous, God —no! Or if there were anything of humor about them, it was that at which only devils laugh.
I thought, 猛烈に: "Braile is just on the other 味方する of the door! If I could only make some sound!"
The four dolls 停止（させる）d and seemed to 協議する. The acrobats pirouetted, and reached to their 支援するs. They drew from the hidden sheaths their dagger-pins. In the 手渡すs of 銀行業者-doll and spinster-doll appeared 類似の 武器s. They 現在のd the points toward me, like swords.
The four 再開するd their march to my bed...
The red 注目する，もくろむs of the second acrobat-doll—the trapeze performer, I knew him now to be—had 残り／休憩（する）d on the chandelier. He paused, 熟考する／考慮するing it. He pointed to it, thrust the dagger-pin 支援する into its sheath, and bent his 膝s, 手渡すs cupped in 前線 of them. The first doll nodded, then stood, plainly 手段ing the 高さ of the chandelier from the 床に打ち倒す and considering the best approach to it. The second doll pointed to the mantel, and the pair of them 群れているd up its 味方するs to the 幅の広い ledge. The 年輩の pair watched them, seemingly much 利益／興味d. They did not sheath their dagger-pins.
The acrobat-doll bent, and the trapeze-doll put a little foot in its cupped 手渡すs. The first doll straightened, and the second flew across the gap between mantel and chandelier, caught one of the prismed circles, and swung. すぐに the other doll leaped outward, caught the chandelier and swung beside its spangled mate.
I saw the 激しい old fixture tremble and sway. 負かす／撃墜する upon the 床に打ち倒す （機の）カム 衝突，墜落ing a dozen of the prisms. In the dead stillness, it was like an 爆発.
I heard Braile running to the door. He threw it open. He stood on the threshold. I could see him plainly in the green glow, but I knew that he could not see—that to him the room was in 不明瞭. He cried:
"Lowell! Are you all 権利? Turn on the lights!"
I tried to call out. To 警告する him. Useless! He groped 今後, around the foot of the bed, to the switch. I think that then he saw the dolls. He stopped short, 直接／まっすぐに beneath the chandelier, looking up.
And as he did so the doll above him swung by one 手渡す, drew its dagger-pin from its sheath and dropped upon Braile's shoulders, stabbing viciously at his throat!
Braile shrieked—once. The shriek changed into a dreadful 泡ing sigh...
And then I saw the chandelier sway and lurch. It broke from its 古代の fastenings. It fell with a 衝突，墜落 that shook the house, 負かす／撃墜する upon Braile and the doll-devil ripping at his throat.
突然の the green glow disappeared. There was a scurrying in the room like the running of 広大な／多数の／重要な ネズミs.
The paralysis dropped from me. I threw my 手渡す 一連の会議、交渉／完成する to the switch and turned on the lights; leaped from the bed.
Little 人物／姿／数字s were 緊急発進するing up and out of the window. There were four muffled 報告（する）／憶測s like popguns. I saw Ricori at the door, on each 味方する of him a guard with silenced (a)自動的な／(n)自動拳銃, 狙撃 at the window.
I bent over Braile. He was やめる dead. The 落ちるing chandelier had dropped upon his 長，率いる, 鎮圧するing the skull. But Braile had been dying before the chandelier had fallen... his throat ripped... the carotid artery 厳しいd.
The doll that had 殺人d him was gone!
I stood up. I said 激しく:
"You were 権利, Ricori—her servants are better than yours."
He did not answer, looking 負かす／撃墜する at Braile with pity-filled 直面する.
I said: "If all your men 実行する their 約束s like McCann, that you are still alive I count as one of the major 奇蹟s."
"As for McCann," he turned his gaze to me somberly, "he is both intelligent and loyal. I will not 非難する him unheard. And I say to you, Dr. Lowell, that if you had shown more frankness to me this night—Dr. Braile would not be dead."
I winced at that—there was too much truth in it. I was racked by 悔いる and grief and helpless 激怒（する）. If I had not let my 悪口を言う／悪態d pride 支配（する）／統制する me, if I had told them all that I could of my 遭遇（する） with the doll-製造者, explained why there were 詳細（に述べる）s I was unable to tell, given myself over to Braile for a 洗浄するing 反対する-hypnotization—no, if I had but 受託するd Ricori's 申し込む／申し出 of 保護, or Braile's to watch over me while asleep—then this could not have happened.
I looked into the 熟考する／考慮する and saw there Ricori's nurse. I could hear whispering outside the 熟考する／考慮する doors—servants, and others from the 別館 who had been attracted by the noise of the 落ちるing chandelier. I said to the nurse, やめる calmly:
"The chandelier fell while Dr. Braile was standing at the foot of my bed talking to me. It has killed him. But do not tell the others that. Only say that the chandelier fell, 負傷させるing Dr. Braile. Send them 支援する to their beds —say that we are taking Dr. Braile to the hospital. Then return with Porter and clean up what you can of the 血. Leave the chandelier as it is."
When she had gone I turned to Ricori's gunmen.
"What did you see when you 発射?"
One answered: "They looked like monkeys to me."
The other said: "Or midgets."
I looked at Ricori, and read in his 直面する what he had seen. I stripped the light 一面に覆う／毛布 from the bed.
"Ricori," I said, "let your men 解除する Braile and 包む him in this. Then have them carry him into the small room next to the 熟考する／考慮する and place him on the cot."
He nodded to them, and they 解除するd Braile from the 破片 of 粉々にするd glass and bent metal. His 直面する and neck had been 削減（する） by the broken prisms and by some chance one of these 負傷させるs was の近くに to the 位置／汚点／見つけ出す where the dagger-pin of the doll had been thrust. It was 深い, and had probably 原因（となる）d a second severance of the carotid artery. I followed with Ricori into the small room. They placed the 団体／死体 on the cot and Ricori ordered them to go 支援する to the bedroom and watch while the nurses were there. He の近くにd the door of the small room behind them, then turned to me.
"What are you going to do, Dr. Lowell?"
What I felt like doing was weeping, but I answered: "It is a 検死官's 事例／患者, of course. I must 通知する the police at once."
"What are you going to tell them?"
"What did you see at the window, Ricori?"
"I saw the dolls!"
"And I. Can I tell the police what did kill Braile before the chandelier fell? You know I cannot. No, I shall tell them that we were talking when, without 警告, the fixture dropped upon him. 後援d glass from the pendants pierced his throat. What else can I say? And they will believe that readily enough when they would not believe the truth-"
I hesitated, then my reserve broke; for the first time in many years, I wept.
"Ricori—you were 権利. Not McCann but I am to 非難する for this —the vanity of an old man—had I spoken 自由に, fully— he would be alive... but I did not... I did not... I am his 殺害者."
He 慰安d me—gently as a woman...
"It was not your fault. You could not have done さもなければ... 存在 what you are... thinking as you have so long thought. If in your unbelief, your 完全に natural unbelief, the witch 設立する her 適切な時期... still, it was not your fault. But now she shall find no more 適切な時期s. Her cup is 十分な and 洪水ing..."
He put his 手渡すs on my shoulders.
"Do not 通知する the police for a time—not until we hear from McCann. It is now の近くに to twelve and he will telephone even if he does not come. I will go to my room and dress. For when I have heard from McCann I must leave you."
"What do you mean to do, Ricori?"
"Kill the witch," he answered 静かに. "Kill her and the girl. Before the day comes. I have waited too long. I will wait no longer. She shall kill no more."
I felt a wave of 証拠不十分. I dropped into a 議長，司会を務める. My sight dimmed. Ricori gave me water, and I drank thirstily. Through the roaring in my ears I heard a knocking at the door and the 発言する／表明する of one of Ricori's men:
"McCann is here."
Ricori said: "Tell him to come in."
The door opened. McCann strode into the room.
"I got her-"
He stopped short, 星／主役にするing at us. His 注目する，もくろむs fell upon the covered 団体／死体 upon the cot and his 直面する grew grim:
"What's happened?"
Ricori answered: "The dolls killed Dr. Braile. You 逮捕（する）d the girl too late, McCann. Why?"
"Killed Braile? The dolls! God!" McCann's 発言する／表明する was as though a 手渡す had gripped his throat.
Ricori asked: "Where is the girl, McCann?"
He answered, dully: "負かす／撃墜する in the car, gagged and tied."
Ricori asked: "When did you get her? And where?"
Looking at McCann, I suddenly felt a 広大な／多数の／重要な pity and sympathy for him. It sprang from my own 悔恨 and shame. I said:
"Sit 負かす／撃墜する, McCann. I am far more to 非難する for what has happened than you can かもしれない be."
Ricori said, coldly: "Leave me to be 裁判官 of that. McCann, did you place cars at each end of the street, as Dr. Lowell 教えるd?"
"Yes."
"Then begin your story at that point."
McCann said: "She comes into the street. It's の近くに to eleven. I'm at the east end an' Paul at the west. I say to Tony: 'We got the wench pocketed!' She carries two スーツケースs. She looks around an' trots where we 位置を示すd her car. She opens the door. When she comes out she rides west where Paul is. I've told Paul what the Doc tells me, not to 得る，とらえる her too の近くに to the doll-shop. I see Paul tail her. I shoot 負かす／撃墜する the street an' tail Paul.
"The クーデター turns into West Broadway. There she gets the break, a Staten Island boat is just in an' the street's lousy with a herd of cars. A Ford shoots over to the left, trying to pass another. Paul 攻撃する，衝突するs the Ford and 包むs himself 一連の会議、交渉／完成する one of the El's 中心存在s. There's a mess. I'm a minute or two getting out the jam. When I do, the クーデター's outa sight.
"I hop 負かす／撃墜する an' telephone 棒. I tell him to get the wench when she shows up, even if they have to rope her off the steps of the doll-shop. An' when they get her, bring her 権利 here.
"I come up here. I 人物／姿／数字 maybe she's 長，率いるd this way. I coast along by here an' then take a look in the Park, I 人物／姿／数字 the doll-hag's been getting all the breaks an' now one's 予定 me. I get it. I see the クーデター parked under some trees. We get the gal. She don't put up no fight at all. But we gag her an' put her in the car. Tony rolls the クーデター away an' searches it. There ain't a thing in it but the two スーツケースs an' they're empty. We bring the gal here."
I asked: "How long between when you caught the girl and your arrival?"
"Ten-fifteen minutes, maybe. Tony nigh took the クーデター to pieces. An' that took time."
I looked at Ricori. McCann must have come upon the girl just about the moment Braile had died. He nodded:
"She was waiting for the dolls, of course."
McCann asked: "What do you want me to do with her?"
He looked at Ricori, not at me. Ricori said nothing, 星／主役にするing at McCann with a curious intentness. But I saw him clench his left 手渡す, then open it, fingers wide. McCann said:
"Okay, boss."
He started toward the door. It did not take unusual acumen to know that he had been given orders, nor could their significance be mistaken.
"Stop!" I 迎撃するd him and stood with my 支援する against the door. "Listen to me, Ricori. I have something to say about this. Dr. Braile was as の近くに to me as Peters to you. Whatever the 犯罪 of Madame Mandilip, this girl is helpless to do other than what she orders her. Her will is 絶対 controlled by the doll-製造者. I 堅固に 嫌疑者，容疑者／疑う that a good part of the time she is under 完全にする hypnotic 支配（する）／統制する. I cannot forget that she tried to save Walters. I will not see her 殺人d."
Ricori said: "If you are 権利, all the more 推論する／理由 she should be destroyed quickly. Then the witch cannot make use of her before she herself is destroyed."
"I will not have it, Ricori. And there is another 推論する／理由. I want to question her. I may discover how Madame Mandilip does these things— the mystery of the dolls—the 成分s of the salve—whether there are others who 株 her knowledge. All this and more, the girl may know. And if she does know, I can make her tell."
McCann said, cynically: "Yeah?"
Ricori asked: "How?"
I answered grimly: "By using the same 罠（にかける） in which the doll- 製造者 caught me."
For a 十分な minute Ricori considered me, 厳粛に.
"Dr. Lowell," he said, "for the last time I 産する／生じる my judgment to yours in this 事柄. I think you are wrong. I know that I was wrong when I did not kill the witch that day I met her. I believe that every moment this girl is permitted to remain alive is a moment laden with danger for us all. にもかかわらず, I 産する／生じる—for this last time."
"McCann," I said, "bring the girl into my office. Wait until I get rid of anyone who may be downstairs."
I went downstairs, McCann and Ricori に引き続いて. No one was there. I placed on my desk a 開発 of the Luys mirror, a 装置 used first at the S稷petri鑽e in Paris to induce hypnotic sleep. It consists of two 平行の 列／漕ぐ／騒動s of small reflectors 回転するing in opposite directions. A ray of light plays upon them in such a manner as to 原因（となる） their surfaces alternately to gleam and darken. A most useful 装置, and one to which I believed the girl, long sensitized to hypnotic suggestion, must speedily succumb. I placed a comfortable 議長，司会を務める at the proper angle, and subdued the lights so that they could not compete with the hypnotic mirror.
I had hardly 完全にするd these 手はず／準備 when McCann and another of Ricori's henchmen brought in the girl. They placed her in the 平易な 議長，司会を務める, and I took from her lips the cloth with which she had been silenced.
Ricori said: "Tony, go out to the car. McCann, you stay here."
The girl made no 抵抗 whatever. She seemed 完全に 孤立した into herself, looking up at me with the same vague 星／主役にする I had 公式文書，認めるd on my visit to the doll-shop. I took her 手渡すs. She let them 残り／休憩（する） passively in 地雷. They were very 冷淡な. I said to her, gently, reassuringly:
"My child, no one is going to 傷つける you. 残り／休憩（する） and relax. 沈む 支援する in the 議長，司会を務める. I only want to help you. Sleep if you wish. Sleep."
She did not seem to hear, still regarding me with that vague gaze. I 解放（する）d her 手渡すs. I took my own 議長，司会を務める, 直面するing her, and 始める，決める the little mirrors 回転するing. Her 注目する，もくろむs turned to them at once, 残り／休憩（する）d upon them, fascinated. I watched her 団体／死体 relax; she sank 支援する in her 議長，司会を務める. Her eyelids began to droop.
"Sleep," I said softly. "Here 非，不，無 can 害（を与える） you. While you sleep 非，不，無 can 害（を与える） you. Sleep... sleep..."
Her 注目する，もくろむs の近くにd; she sighed.
I said: "You are asleep. You will not awaken until I 企て，努力，提案 you. You cannot awaken until I 企て，努力，提案 you."
She repeated in a murmuring, childish 発言する／表明する: "I am asleep; I cannot awaken until you 企て，努力，提案 me."
I stopped the whirling mirrors. I said to her: "There are some questions I am going to ask you. You will listen, and you will answer me truthfully. You cannot answer them except truthfully. You know that."
She echoed, still in that faint childish 発言する／表明する: "I must answer you truthfully. I know that."
I could not 差し控える from darting a ちらりと見ること of 勝利 at Ricori and McCann. Ricori was crossing himself, 星／主役にするing at me with wide 注目する，もくろむs in which were both 疑問 and awe. I knew he was thinking that I, too, knew witchcraft. McCann sat chewing nervously. And 星／主役にするing at the girl.
I began my questions, choosing at first those least likely to 乱す. I asked:
"Are you truly Madame Mandilip's niece?"
"No."
"Who are you, then?"
"I do not know."
"When did you join her, and why?"
"Twenty years ago. I was in a creche, a foundling 亡命 at Vienna. She took me from it. She taught me to call her my aunt. But she is not."
"Where have you lived since then?"
"In Berlin, in Paris, then London, Prague, Warsaw."
"Did Madame Mandilip make her dolls in each of these places?"
She did not answer; she shuddered; her eyelids began to tremble.
"Sleep! Remember, you cannot awaken until I 企て，努力，提案 you! Sleep! Answer me."
She whispered: "Yes."
"And they killed in each city?"
"Yes."
"Sleep. Be at 緩和する. Nothing is going to 害（を与える） you-" Her disquietude had again become 示すd, and I veered for a moment from the 支配する of the dolls. "Where was Madame Mandilip born?"
"I do not know."
"How old is she?"
"I do not know. I have asked her, and she has laughed and said that time is nothing to her. I was five years old when she took me. She looked then just as she does now."
"Has she any 共犯者s—I mean are there others who make the dolls?"
"One. She taught him. He was her lover in Prague."
"Her lover!" I exclaimed, incredulously—the image of the 巨大な 甚だしい／１２ダース 団体／死体, the 広大な／多数の／重要な breasts, the 激しい horse-like 直面する of the doll-製造者 rising before my 注目する，もくろむs. She said:
"I know what you are thinking. But she has another 団体／死体. She wears it when she pleases. It is a beautiful 団体／死体. It belongs to her 注目する，もくろむs, her 手渡すs, her 発言する／表明する. When she wears that 団体／死体 she is beautiful. She is terrifyingly beautiful. I have seen her wear it many times."
Another 団体／死体! An illusion, of course... like the enchanted room Walters had 述べるd... and which I had glimpsed when breaking from the hypnotic web in which she had enmeshed me... a picture drawn by the doll-製造者's mind in the mind of the girl. I 解任するd that, and drove to the heart of the 事柄.
"She kills by two methods, does she not—by the salve and by the dolls?"
"Yes, by the unguent and the dolls."
"How many has she killed by the unguent in New York?"
She answered, 間接に: "She has made fourteen dolls since we （機の）カム here."
So there were other 事例／患者s that had not been 報告（する）／憶測d to me! I asked:
"'And how many have the dolls killed?"
"Twenty."
I heard Ricori 悪口を言う／悪態, and 発射 him a 警告 look. He was leaning 今後, white and 緊張した; McCann had stopped his chewing.
"How does she make the dolls?"
"I do not know."
"Do you know how she 準備するs the unguent?"
"No. She does that 内密に."
"What is it that 活動させる／戦時編成するs the dolls?"
"You mean makes them—alive?"
"Yes."
"Something from the dead!"
Again I heard Ricori 悪口を言う／悪態ing softly. I said: "If you do not know how the dolls are made, you must know what is necessary to make them alive. What is it?"
She did not answer.
"You must answer me. You must obey me. Speak!"
She said: "Your question is not （疑いを）晴らす. I have told you that something of the dead makes them alive. What else is it you would know?"
"Begin from where one who 提起する／ポーズをとるs for a doll first 会合，会うs Madame Mandilip to the last step when the doll—as you put it—becomes alive."
She spoke, dreamily:
"She has said one must come to her of his own will. He must 同意 of his own volition, without coercion, to let her make the doll. That he does not know to what he is 同意ing 事柄s nothing. She must begin the first model すぐに. Before she 完全にするs the second—the doll that is to live —she must find 適切な時期 to 適用する the unguent. She has said of this unguent that it 解放するs one of those who dwell within the mind, and that this one must come to her and enter the doll. She has said that this one is not the 単独の tenant of the mind, but with the others she has no 関心. Nor does she select all of those who come before her. How she knows those with whom she can 取引，協定, or what there is about them which makes her select them, I do not know. She makes the second doll. At the instant of its 完成 he who has 提起する／ポーズをとるd for it begins to die. When he is dead—the doll lives. It obeys her—as they all obey her..."
She paused, then said, musingly "All except one-"
"And that one?"
"She who was your nurse. She will not obey. My aunt torments her, punishes her... still she cannot 支配（する）／統制する her. I brought the little nurse here last night with another doll to kill the man my—aunt—悪口を言う／悪態d. The nurse （機の）カム, but she fought the other doll and saved the man. It is something my aunt cannot understand... it perplexes her... and it gives me... hope!"
Her 発言する／表明する 追跡するd away. Then suddenly, with energy, she said:
"You must make haste. I should be 支援する with the dolls. Soon she will be searching for me. I must go... or she will come for me... and then... if she finds me here... she will kill me..."
I said: "You brought the dolls to kill me?"
"Of course."
"Where are the dolls now?"
She answered: "They were coming 支援する to me. Your men caught me before they could reach me. They will go... home. The dolls travel quickly when they must. It is more difficult without me that is all... but they will return to her."
"Why do the dolls kill?"
"To... please... her."
I said: "The knotted cord, what part does it play?"
She answered: "I do not know—but she says-" Then suddenly, 猛烈に, like a 脅すd child, she whispered: "She is searching for me! Her 注目する，もくろむs are looking for me... her 手渡すs are groping—she sees me! Hide me! Oh, hide me from her quick..."
I said: "Sleep more 深く，強烈に! Go 負かす／撃墜する—負かす／撃墜する 深い—deeper still into sleep. Now she cannot find you! Now you are hidden from her!"
She whispered: "I am 深い in sleep. She has lost me. I am hidden. But she is hovering over me she is still searching..."
Ricori and McCann had left their 議長，司会を務めるs and were beside me.
Ricori asked:
"You believe the witch is after her?"
"No," I answered. "But this is not an 予期しない 開発. The girl has been under the woman's 支配（する）／統制する so long, and so 完全に, that the reaction is natural. It may be the result of suggestion, or it may be the 推論する／理由ing of her own subconsciousness... she has been breaking 命令（する）s... she has been 脅すd with 罰 if she should-"
The girl 叫び声をあげるd, agonized:
"She sees me! She has 設立する me! Her 手渡すs are reaching out to me!"
"Sleep! Sleep deeper still! She cannot 傷つける you. Again she has lost you!"
The girl did not answer, but a faint moaning was audible, 深い in her throat.
McCann swore, huskily: "Christ! Can't you help her?"
Ricori, 注目する，もくろむs unnaturally 有望な in a chalky 直面する, said: "Let her die! It will save us trouble!"
I said to the girl, 厳しく:
"Listen to me and obey. I am going to count five. When I come to five —awaken! Awaken at once! You will come up from sleep so 速く that she cannot catch you! Obey!"
I counted, slowly, since to have awakened her at once would, in all 見込み, have brought her to the death which her distorted mind told her was 脅すd by the doll-製造者.
"One—two—three-"
An appalling 叫び声をあげる （機の）カム from the girl. And then -
"She's caught me! Her 手渡すs are around my heart... Uh-h- h..."
Her 団体／死体 bent; a spasm ran through her. Her 団体／死体 relaxed and sank limply in the 議長，司会を務める. Her 注目する，もくろむs opened, 星／主役にするd blankly; her jaw dropped.
I ripped open her bodice, 始める，決める my stethoscope to her heart. It was still.
And then from the dead throat 問題／発行するd a 発言する／表明する 組織／臓器-トンd, 甘い, laden with menace and contempt...
"You fools!"
The 発言する／表明する of Madame Mandilip!
Curiously enough, Ricori was the least 影響する／感情d of the three of us. My own flesh had crept. McCann, although he had never heard the doll-製造者's 発言する／表明する, was 大いに shaken. And it was Ricori who broke the silence.
"You are sure the girl is dead?"
"There is no possible 疑問 of it, Ricori."
He nodded to McCann: "Carry her 負かす／撃墜する to the car."
I asked: "What are you going to do?"
He answered: "Kill the witch." He 引用するd with satiric unctuousness: "In death they shall not be divided." He said, passionately: "As in hell they shall 燃やす together forever!"
He looked at me, はっきりと.
"You do not 認可する of this, Dr. Lowell?"
"Ricori, I don't know—I honestly do not know. Today I would have killed her with my own 手渡すs but now the 激怒（する） is spent. What you have 脅すd is against all my instincts, all my habits of thought, all my 有罪の判決s of how 司法（官） should be 治めるd. It seems to me— 殺人!"
He said: "You heard the girl. Twenty in this city alone killed by the dolls. And fourteen dolls. Fourteen who died as Peters did!"
"But, Ricori, no 法廷，裁判所 could consider 主張s under hypnosis as 証拠. It may be true, it may not be. The girl was 異常な. What she told might be only her imaginings—without supporting 証拠, no 法廷，裁判所 on earth could 受託する it as a basis for 活動／戦闘."
He said: "No—no earthly 法廷，裁判所-" He gripped my shoulders. He asked: "Do you believe it was truth?"
I could not answer, for 深い within me I felt it was truth. He said:
"正確に, Dr. Lowell! You have answered me. You know, as I know, that the girl did speak the truth. You know, as I know, that our 法律 cannot punish the witch. That is why I must kill her. In doing that, I, Ricori, am no 殺害者. No, I am God's executioner!"
He waited for me to speak. Again I could not answer.
"McCann"—he pointed to the girl—"do as I told you. Then return."
And when McCann had gone out with the frail 団体／死体 in his 武器, Ricori said:
"Dr. Lowell—you must go with me to 証言，証人／目撃する this 死刑執行."
I recoiled at that. I said:
"Ricori, I can't. I am utterly 疲れた／うんざりした—in 団体／死体 and mind. I have gone through too much today. I am broken with grief-"
"You must go," he interrupted, "if we have to carry you, gagged as the girl was, and bound. I will tell you why. You are at war with yourself. Alone, it is possible your 科学の 疑問s might 征服する／打ち勝つ, that you would 試みる／企てる to 停止（させる） me before I have done what I 断言する by Christ, His 宗教上の Mother, and the Saints, I shall do. You might 産する／生じる to weariness and place the whole 事柄 before the police. I will not take that 危険. I have affection for you, Dr. Lowell, 深い affection. But I tell you that if my own mother tried to stop me in this I would sweep her aside as ruthlessly as I shall you."
I said: "I will go with you."
"Then tell the nurse to bring me my 着せる／賦与するing. Until all is over, we remain together. I am taking no more chances."
I took up the telephone and gave the necessary order. McCann returned, and Ricori said to him:
"When I am 着せる／賦与するd, we go to the doll-shop. Who is in the car with Tony?"
"Larson and Cartello."
"Good. It may be that the witch knows we are coming. It may be that she has listened through the girl's dead ears as she spoke from her dead throat. No 事柄. We shall assume that she did not. Are there 妨げる／法廷，弁護士業s on the door?"
McCann said: "Boss, I ain't been in the shop. I don't know. There's a glass パネル盤. If there's 妨げる／法廷，弁護士業s we can work 'em. Tony'll get the 道具s while you put on your 着せる／賦与するs."
"Dr. Lowell," Ricori turned on me. "Will you give me your word that you will not change your mind about going with me? Nor 試みる／企てる to 干渉する in what I am going to do?"
"I give you my word, Ricori."
"McCann, you need not come 支援する. Wait for us in the car."
Ricori was soon dressed. As I walked with him out of my house, a clock struck one. I remembered that this strange adventure had begun, weeks ago, at that very hour...
I 棒 in the 支援する of the car with Ricori, the dead girl between us. On the middle seats were Larson and Cartello, the former a stolid Swede, the latter a wiry little Italian. The man 指名するd Tony drove, McCann beside him. We swung 負かす／撃墜する the avenue and in about half an hour were on lower Broadway. As we drew 近づく the street of the doll-製造者, we went いっそう少なく quickly. The sky was 曇った, a 冷淡な 勝利，勝つd blowing off the bay. I shivered, but not with 冷淡な.
We （機の）カム to the corner of the doll-製造者's street.
For several 封鎖するs we had met no one, seen no one. It was as though we were passing through a city of the dead. 平等に 砂漠d was the street of the doll-製造者.
Ricori said to Tony:
"Draw up opposite the doll-shop. We'll get out. Then go 負かす／撃墜する to the corner. Wait for us there."
My heart was （警官の）巡回区域，受持ち区域ing uncomfortably. There was a 質 of blackness in the night that seemed to swallow up the glow from the street lamps. There was no light in the doll-製造者's shop, and in the old-fashioned doorway, 始める，決める level with the street, the 影をつくる／尾行するs clustered. The 勝利，勝つd whined, and I could hear the （警官の）巡回区域，受持ち区域ing of waves on the 殴打／砲列 塀で囲む. I wondered whether I would be able to go through that doorway, or whether the inhibition the doll- 製造者 had put upon me still held me.
McCann slipped out of the car, carrying the girl's 団体／死体. He propped her, sitting in the doorway's 影をつくる／尾行するs. Ricori and I, Larson and Cartello, followed. The car rolled off. And again I felt the sense of nightmare unreality which had clung to me so often since I had first 始める，決める my feet on this strange path to the doll-製造者...
The little Italian was smearing the glass of the door with some gummy 構成要素. In the 中心 of it he 直す／買収する，八百長をするd a small vacuum cup of rubber. He took a 道具 from his pocket and drew with it a foot-wide circle on the glass. The point of the 道具 削減（する） into the glass as though it had been wax. 持つ／拘留するing the vacuum cup in one 手渡す, he tapped the glass lightly with a rubber-tipped 大打撃を与える. The circle of glass （機の）カム away in his 手渡す. All had been done without the least sound. He reached through the 穴を開ける, and fumbled about noiselessly for a few moments. There was a faint click. The door swung open.
McCann 選ぶd up the dead girl. We went, silent as phantoms, into the doll-shop. The little Italian 始める，決める the circle of glass 支援する in its place. I could see dimly the door that opened into the 回廊（地帯） 主要な to that evil room at the 後部. The little Italian tried the knob. The door was locked. He worked for a few seconds, and the door swung open. Ricori 主要な, McCann behind him with the girl, we passed like 影をつくる／尾行するs through the 回廊（地帯） and paused at the その上の door.
The door swung open before the little Italian could touch it.
We heard the 発言する／表明する of the doll-製造者!
"Enter, gentlemen. It was thoughtful of you to bring me 支援する my dear niece! I would have met you at my outer door—but I am an old, old woman and timid!"
McCann whispered: "One 味方する, boss!"
He 転換d the 団体／死体 of the girl to his left arm, and 持つ／拘留するing her like a 保護物，者, ピストル drawn, began to 辛勝する／優位 by Ricori. Ricori thrust him away. His own (a)自動的な／(n)自動拳銃 leveled, he stepped over the threshold. I followed McCann, the two gunmen at my 支援する.
I took a swift ちらりと見ること around the room. The doll-製造者 sat at her （米）棚上げする／（英）提議する, sewing. She was serene, 明らかに untroubled. Her long white fingers danced to the rhythm of her stitches. She did not look up at us. There were coals 燃やすing in the fireplace. The room was very warm, and there was a strong aromatic odor, unfamiliar to me. I looked toward the 閣僚s of the dolls.
Every 閣僚 was open. Dolls stood within them, 列／漕ぐ／騒動 upon 列／漕ぐ／騒動, 星／主役にするing 負かす／撃墜する at us with 注目する，もくろむs green and blue, gray and 黒人／ボイコット, lifelike as though they were midgets on 展示 in some grotesque peepshow. There must have been hundreds of them. Some were dressed as we in America dress; some as the Germans do; some as the Spanish, the French, the English; others were in 衣装s I did not 認める. A ballerina, and a blacksmith with his 大打撃を与える raised... a French chevalier, and a German student, broadsword in 手渡す, livid scars upon his 直面する... an Apache with knife in 手渡す, 麻薬-madness on his yellow 直面する and next to him a vicious-mouthed woman of the streets and next to her a (v)策を弄する／(n)騎手...
The 略奪する of the doll-製造者 from a dozen lands!
The dolls seemed to be 均衡を保った to leap. To flow 負かす／撃墜する upon us. 圧倒する us.
I 安定したd my thoughts. I 軍隊d myself to 会合，会う that 殴打／砲列 of living dolls' 注目する，もくろむs as though they were but lifeless dolls. There was an empty 閣僚... another and another... five 閣僚s without dolls. The four dolls I had watched march upon me in the paralysis of the green glow were not there nor was Walters.
I wrenched my gaze away from the tiers of the watching dolls. I looked again at the doll-製造者, still placidly sewing... as though she were alone... as though she were unaware of us... as though Ricori's ピストル were not pointed at her heart... sewing... singing softly...
The Walters doll was on the （米）棚上げする／（英）提議する before her!
It lay 傾向がある on its 支援する. Its tiny 手渡すs were fettered at the wrists with 新たな展開d cords of the ashen hair. They were bound 一連の会議、交渉／完成する and 一連の会議、交渉／完成する, and the fettered 手渡すs clutched the hilt of a dagger-pin!
Long in the telling, but 簡潔な／要約する in the seeing—a few seconds in time as we 手段 it.
The doll-製造者's absorption in her sewing, her utter 無関心／冷淡 to us, the silence, made a 審査する between us and her, an ever-thickening though invisible 障壁. The pungent aromatic fragrance grew stronger.
McCann dropped the 団体／死体 of the girl on the 床に打ち倒す.
He tried to speak—once, twice; at the third 試みる／企てる he 後継するd. He said to Ricori hoarsely, in strangled 発言する／表明する:
"Kill her... or I will-" Ricori did not move. He stood rigid, (a)自動的な／(n)自動拳銃 pointed at the doll-製造者's heart, 注目する，もくろむs 直す／買収する，八百長をするd on her dancing 手渡すs. He did not seem to hear McCann, or if he heard, he did not 注意する. The doll-製造者's song went on... it was like the hum of bees... it was a 甘い droning... it 獲得するd sleep as the bees 獲得する honey... sleep...
Ricori 転換d his 支配する upon his gun. He sprang 今後. He swung the butt of the ピストル 負かす／撃墜する upon a wrist of the doll- 製造者.
The 手渡す dropped, the fingers of that 手渡す writhed... hideously the long white fingers writhed and 新たな展開d... like serpents whose 支援するs have been broken...
Ricori raised the gun for a second blow. Before it could 落ちる the doll-製造者 had leaped to her feet, overturning her 議長，司会を務める. A whispering ran over the 閣僚s like a thin 隠す of sound. The dolls seemed to bend, to lean 今後...
The doll-製造者's 注目する，もくろむs were on us now. They seemed to take in each and all of us at once. And they were like 炎上ing 黒人／ボイコット suns in which danced tiny crimson 炎上s.
Her will swept out and 圧倒するd us. It was like a wave, 有形の. I felt it strike me as though it were a 構成要素 thing. A numbness began to creep through me. I saw the 手渡す of Ricori that clutched the ピストル twitch and whiten. I knew that same numbness was gripping him as it gripped McCann and the others...
Once more the doll-製造者 had 罠にかける us!
I whispered: "Don't look at her, Ricori... don't look in her 注目する，もくろむs..."
With a 涙／ほころびing 成果／努力 I ひったくるd my own away from those 炎上ing 黒人／ボイコット ones. They fell upon the Walters doll. Stiffly, I reached to take it up— why, I did not know. The doll-製造者 was quicker than I. She snatched up the doll with her uninjured 手渡す, and held it to her breast. She cried, in a 発言する／表明する whose vibrant sweetness ran through every 神経, augmenting the creeping lethargy:
"You will not look at me? You will not look at me! Fools—you can do nothing else!"
Then began that strange, that utterly strange episode that was the beginning of the end.
The aromatic fragrance seemed to pulse, to throb, grow stronger. Something like a sparkling もや whirled out of nothingness and covered the doll-製造者, 隠すing the horse-like 直面する, the ponderous 団体／死体. Only her 注目する，もくろむs shone through that もや...
The もや （疑いを）晴らすd away. Before us stood a woman of breath- taking beauty —tall and slender and exquisite. Naked, her hair, 黒人／ボイコット and silken 罰金, half-着せる／賦与するd her to her 膝s. Through it the pale golden flesh gleamed. Only the 注目する，もくろむs, the 手渡すs, the doll still clasped to one of the 一連の会議、交渉／完成する, high breasts told who she was.
Ricori's (a)自動的な／(n)自動拳銃 dropped from his 手渡す. I heard the 武器s of the others 落ちる to the 床に打ち倒す. I knew they stood rigid as I, stunned by that incredible 変形, and helpless in the 支配する of the 力／強力にする streaming from the doll-製造者.
She pointed to Ricori and laughed: "You would kill me—me! 選ぶ up your 武器, Ricori—and try!"
Ricori's 団体／死体 bent slowly, slowly... I could see him only 間接に, for my 注目する，もくろむs could not leave the woman's... and I knew that his could not... that, fastened to them, his 注目する，もくろむs were turning 上向き, 上向き as he bent. I sensed rather than saw that his groping 手渡す had touched his ピストル—that he was trying to 解除する it. I heard him groan. The doll-製造者 laughed again.
"Enough, Ricori—you cannot!"
Ricori's 団体／死体 straightened with a snap, as though a 手渡す had clutched his chin and thrust him up...
There was a rustling behind me, the patter of little feet, the scurrying of small 団体／死体s past me.
At the feet of the woman were four mannikins... the four who had marched upon me in the green glow... 銀行業者-doll, spinster- doll, the acrobat, the trapeze performer.
They stood, the four of them, 範囲d in 前線 of her, glaring at us. In the 手渡す of each was a dagger-pin, points thrust at us like tiny swords. And once more the laughter of the woman filled the room. She spoke, caressingly:
"No, no, my little ones. I do not need you!"
She pointed to me.
"You know this 団体／死体 of 地雷 is but illusion, do you not? Speak."
"Yes."
"And these at my feet—and all my little ones—are but illusions?"
I said: "I do not know that."
"You know too much—and you know too little. Therefore you must die, my too wise and too foolish doctor-" The 広大な／多数の／重要な 注目する，もくろむs dwelt upon me with mocking pity, the lovely 直面する became maliciously pitiful. "And Ricori too must die—because he knows too much. And you others—you too must die. But not at the 手渡すs of my little people. Not here. No! At your home, my good doctor. You shall go there silently—speaking neither の中で yourselves nor to any others on your way. And when there you will turn upon yourselves... each 殺すing the other... rending yourselves like wolves... like— "
She staggered 支援する a step, reeling.
I saw—or thought I saw—the doll of Walters writhe. Then swift as a striking snake it raised its bound 手渡すs and thrust the dagger-pin through the doll-製造者's throat... 新たな展開d it savagely... and thrust and thrust again... stabbing the golden throat of the woman 正確に where that other doll had stabbed Braile!
And as Braile had 叫び声をあげるd—so now 叫び声をあげるd the doll- 製造者... dreadfully, agonizedly...
She tore the doll from her breast. She 投げつけるd it from her. The doll hurtled toward the fireplace, rolled, and touched the glowing coals.
There was a flash of brilliant 炎上, a wave of that same 激しい heat I had felt when the match of McCann had struck the Peters doll. And 即時に, at the touch of that heat, the dolls at the woman's feet 消えるd. From them arose 速く a 中心存在 of that same brilliant 炎上. It coiled and wrapped itself around the doll-製造者, from feet to 長，率いる.
I saw the 形態／調整 of beauty melt away. In its place was the horse-like 直面する, the 巨大な 団体／死体 of Madame Mandilip... 注目する，もくろむs seared and blind... the long white 手渡すs clutching at her torn throat, and no longer white but crimson with her 血.
Thus for an instant she stood, then 倒れるd to the 床に打ち倒す.
And at that instant of her 落ちる, the （一定の）期間 that held us broke.
Ricori leaned toward the 密談する／（身体を）寄せ集めるd hulk that had been the doll- 製造者. He spat upon it. He shouted, exultantly:
"燃やす witch 燃やす!"
He 押し進めるd me to the door, pointing toward the tiers of the watching dolls that strangely now seemed lifeless! Only dolls!
解雇する／砲火／射撃 was leaping to them from draperies and curtains. The 解雇する／砲火／射撃 was leaping at them as though it were some vengeful spirit of 洗浄するing 炎上!
We 急ぐd through the door, the 回廊（地帯）, out into the shop. Through the 回廊（地帯） and into the shop the 炎上s 注ぐd after us. We ran into the street.
Ricori cried: "Quick! To the car!"
Suddenly the street was red with the light of the 炎上s. I heard windows 開始, and shouts of 警告 and alarm.
We swung into the waiting car, and it leaped away.
"They have made effigies 類似の with my image, 類似の to my form, who have taken away my breath, pulled out my hair, torn my 衣料品s, 妨げるd my feet from moving by means of dust; with an ointment of harmful herbs they rubbed me; to my death they have led me—O God of 解雇する／砲火／射撃 destroy them!"—Egyptian 祈り
Three weeks had passed since the death of the doll-製造者. Ricori and I sat at dinner in my home. A silence had fallen between us. I had broken it with the curious invocation that begins this, the 結論するing 一時期／支部 of my narrative, scarcely aware that I had spoken aloud. But Ricori looked up, はっきりと.
"You 引用する someone? Whom?"
I answered: "A tablet of clay, inscribed by some Chaldean in the days of Assur-nizir-pal, three thousand years ago."
He said: "And in those few words he has told all our story!"
"Even so, Ricori. It is all there—the dolls—the unguent —the 拷問—death—and the 洗浄するing 炎上."
He mused: "It is strange, that. Three thousand years ago—and even then they knew the evil and its 治療（薬）... 'effigies 類似の to my form... who have taken away my breath... an ointment of harmful herbs... to my death they have led me... O God of 解雇する／砲火／射撃-destroy them!' It is all our story, Dr. Lowell."
I said: "The death-dolls are far, far older than Ur of the Chaldees. Older than history. I have followed their 追跡する 負かす／撃墜する the ages since the night Braile was killed. And it is a long, long 追跡する, Ricori. They have been 設立する buried 深い in the hearths of the Cro-Magnons, hearths whose 解雇する／砲火／射撃s died twenty thousand years ago. And they have been 設立する under still colder hearths of still more 古代の peoples. Dolls of flint, dolls of 石／投石する, dolls carved from the mammoth's tusks, from the bones of the 洞穴 耐える, from the saber-toothed tiger's fangs. They had the dark 知恵 even then, Ricori."
He nodded: "Once I had a man about me whom I liked 井戸／弁護士席. A Transylvanian. One day I asked him why he had come to America. He told me a strange tale. He said that there had been a girl in his village whose mother, so it was whispered, knew things no Christian should know. He put it thus, 慎重に, crossing himself. The girl was comely, 望ましい—yet he could not love her. She, it seemed, loved him—or perhaps it was his 無関心／冷淡 that drew her. One afternoon, coming home from the 追跡（する）, he passed her hut. She called to him. He was thirsty, and drank the ワイン she 申し込む／申し出d him. It was good ワイン. It made him gay—but it did not make him love her.
"にもかかわらず, he went with her into the hut, and drank more ワイン. Laughing, he let her 削減（する） hair from his 長，率いる, pare his finger-nails, take 減少（する）s of 血 from his wrist, and spittle from his mouth. Laughing, he left her, and went home, and slept. When he awakened, it was 早期に evening, and all that he remembered was that he had drunk ワイン with the girl, but that was all.
"Something told him to go to church. He went to church. And as he knelt, praying, suddenly he did remember more—remembered that the girl had taken his hair, his nail parings, his spittle and his 血. And he felt a 広大な／多数の／重要な necessity to go to this girl and to see what she was doing with his hair, his nail parings, his spittle, his 血. It was as though he said, the Saint before whom he knelt was 命令（する）ing him to do this.
"So he stole to the hut of the girl, slipping through the 支持を得ようと努めるd, creeping up to her window. He looked in. She sat at the hearth, kneading dough as though for bread. He was ashamed that he had crept so with such thoughts —but then he saw that into the dough she was dropping the hair she had 削減（する） from him, the nail parings, the 血, the spittle. She was kneading them within the dough. Then, as he watched, he saw her take the dough and model it into the 形態／調整 of a little man. And she ぱらぱら雨d water upon its 長，率いる, baptizing it in his 指名する with strange words he could not understand.
"He was 脅すd, this man. But also he was 大いに enraged. Also he had courage. He watched until she had finished. He saw her 包む the doll in her apron, and come to the door. She went out of the door, and away. He followed her—he had been a woodsman and knew how to go softly, and she did not know he was に引き続いて her. She （機の）カム to a 十字路／岐路. There was a new moon 向こうずねing, and some 祈り she made to this new moon. Then she dug a 穴を開ける, and placed the doll of dough in that 穴を開ける. And then she defiled it. After this she said:
"'Zaru (it was this man's 指名する)! Zaru! Zaru! I love you. When this image is rotted away you must run after me as the dog after the bitch. You are 地雷, Zaru, soul and 団体／死体. As the image rots, you become 地雷. When the image is rotted, you are all 地雷. Forever and forever and forever!'
"She covered the image with earth. He leaped upon her, and strangled her. He would have dug up the image, but he heard 発言する／表明するs and was more afraid and ran. He did not go 支援する to the village. He made his way to America.
"He told me that when he was out a day on that 旅行, he felt 手渡すs clutching at his loins—dragging him to the rail, to the sea. 支援する to the village, to the girl. By that, he knew he had not killed her. He fought the 手渡すs. Night after night he fought them. He dared not sleep, for when he slept he dreamed he was there at the cross-roads, the girl beside him— and three times he awakened just in time to check himself from throwing himself into the sea.
"Then the strength of the 手渡すs began to 弱める. And at last, but not for many months, he felt them no more. But still he went, always afraid, until word （機の）カム to him from the village. He had been 権利—he had not killed her. But later someone else did. That girl had what you have 指名するd the dark 知恵. Si! Perhaps it turned against her at the end—as in the end it turned against the witch we knew."
I said: "It is curious that you should say that, Ricori... strange that you should speak of the dark 知恵 turning against the one who 命令（する）s it... but of that I will speak later. Love and hate and 力／強力にする—three lusts—always these seem to have been the three 脚s of the tripod on which 燃やすs the dark 炎上; the supports of the 行う／開催する／段階 from which the death-dolls leap...
"Do you know who is the first 記録，記録的な／記録するd 製造者 of Dolls? No? 井戸／弁護士席, he was a God, Ricori. His 指名する was Khnum. He was a God long and long before Yawveh of the Jews, who was also a 製造者 of dolls, you will 解任する, 形態／調整ing two of them in the Garden of Eden; animating them; but giving them only two inalienable 権利s—first, the 権利 to 苦しむ; second, the 権利 to die. Khnum was a far more 慈悲の God. He did not 否定する the 権利 to die—but he did not think the dolls should 苦しむ; he liked to see them enjoy themselves in their 簡潔な／要約する breathing space. Khnum was so old that he had 支配するd in Egypt ages before the Pyramids or the Sphinx were thought of. He had a brother God whose 指名する was Kepher, and who had the 長，率いる of a Beetle. It was Kepher who sent a thought rippling like a little 勝利，勝つd over the surface of 大混乱. That, thought fertilized 大混乱, and from it the world was born...
"Only a ripple over the surface, Ricori! If it had pierced the 肌 of 大混乱... or thrust even deeper... into its heart... what might not mankind now be? にもかかわらず, rippling, the thought 達成するd the superficiality that is man. The work of Khnum thereafter was to reach into the wombs of women and 形態／調整 the 団体／死体 of the child who lay within. They called him the Potter-God. He it was who, at the 命令（する） of Amen, greatest of the younger Gods, 形態／調整d the 団体／死体 of the 広大な／多数の／重要な Queen Hat-shep-sut whom Amen begot, lying beside her mother in the likeness of the Pharaoh, her husband. At least, so wrote the priests of her day.
"But a thousand years before this there was a Prince whom Osiris and Isis loved 大いに—for his beauty, his courage and his strength. Nowhere on earth, they thought, was there a woman fit for him. So they called Khnum, the Potter-God, to make one. He （機の）カム, with long 手渡すs like those of... Madame Mandilip... like hers, each finger alive. He 形態／調整d the clay into a woman so beautiful that even the Goddess Isis felt a touch of envy. They were 厳しく practical Gods, those of old Egypt, so they threw the Prince into a sleep, placed the woman beside him, and compared—the word in the 古代の papyrus is 'fitted'—them. 式のs! She was not harmonious. She was too small. So Khnum made another doll. But this was too large. And not until six were 形態／調整d and destroyed was true harmony 達成するd, the Gods 満足させるd, the fortunate Prince given his perfect wife—who had been a doll.
"Ages after, in the time of Rameses III, it happened that there was a man who sought for and who 設立する this secret of Khnum, the Potter-God. He had spent his whole life in 捜し出すing it. He was old and bent and withered; but the 願望（する） for women was still strong within him. All that he knew to do with that secret of Khnum was to 満足させる that 願望（する）. But he felt the necessity of a model. Who were the fairest of women whom he could use as models? The wives of the Pharaoh, of course. So this man made 確かな dolls in the 形態／調整 and 外見 of those who …を伴ってd the Pharaoh when he visited his wives. Also, he made a doll in the likeness of the Pharaoh himself; and into this he entered, animating it. His dolls then carried him into the 王室の harem, past the guards, who believed even as did the wives of Pharaoh, that he was the true Pharaoh. And entertained him accordingly.
"But, as he was leaving, the true Pharaoh entered. That must have been やめる a 状況／情勢, Ricori—suddenly, miraculously, in his harem, the Pharaoh 二塁打d! But Khnum, seeing what had happened, reached 負かす／撃墜する from Heaven and touched the dolls, 身を引くing their life. And they dropped to the 床に打ち倒す, and were seen to be only dolls.
"While where one Pharaoh had stood lay another doll and crouched beside it a shivering and wrinkled old man!
"You can find the story, and a 公正に／かなり 詳細（に述べる）d account of the 裁判，公判 that followed, in a papyrus of the time; now, I think, in the Turin Museum. Also a 目録 of the 拷問s the magician underwent before he was 燃やすd. Now, there is no manner of 疑問 that there were such 告訴，告発s, nor that there was such a 裁判，公判; the papyrus is authentic. But what, 現実に, was at the 支援する of it? Something happened—but what was it? Is the story only another 記録，記録的な／記録する of superstition—or does it 取引，協定 with the fruit of the dark 知恵?"
Ricori said: "You, yourself, watched that dark 知恵 fruit. Are you still unconvinced of its reality?"
I did not answer; I continued: "The knotted cord—the Witch's Ladder. That, too, is most 古代の. The oldest 文書 of Frankish 法律制定, the Salic 法律, 減ずるd to written form about fifteen hundred years ago, 供給するd the severest 刑罰，罰則s for those who tied what it 指名するd the Witch's Knot-"
"La scala della strega," he said. "井戸／弁護士席, do we know that 悪口を言う／悪態d thing in my land—and to our 黒人／ボイコット 悲しみ!"
I took startled 公式文書，認める of his pallid 直面する, his twitching fingers; I said, あわてて: "But of course, Ricori, you realize that all I have been 引用するing is legend? Folklore. With no proven basis of 科学の fact."
He thrust his 議長，司会を務める 支援する, violently, arose, 星／主役にするd at me, incredulously. He spoke, with 成果／努力: "You still 持つ／拘留する that the devil-work we 証言，証人／目撃するd can be explained ーに関して／ーの点でs of the science you know?"
I stirred, uncomfortably: "I did not say that, Ricori. I do say that Madame Mandilip was as 驚くべき／特命の／臨時の a hypnotist as she was a murderess —a mistress of illusion-"
He interrupted me, 手渡すs clenching the （米）棚上げする／（英）提議する's 辛勝する／優位: "You think her dolls were illusions?"
I answered, obliquely: "You know how real was that illusion of a beautiful 団体／死体. Yet we saw it 解散させる in the true reality of the 炎上s. It had seemed as veritable as the dolls, Ricori-"
Again he interrupted me: "The を刺す in my heart... the doll that killed Gilmore... the doll that 殺人d Braile... the blessed doll that slew the witch! You call them illusions?"
I answered, a little sullenly, the old incredulity suddenly strong within me: "It is 完全に possible that, obeying a 地位，任命する- hypnotic 命令（する） of the doll-製造者, you, yourself, thrust the dagger-pin into your own heart! It is possible that obeying a 類似の 命令（する）, given when and where and how I do not know, Peters' sister, herself, killed her husband. The chandelier fell on Braile when I was, admittedly, under the 影響（力） of those same 地位，任命する-hypnotic 影響（力）s—and it is possible that it was a sliver of glass that 削減（する） his carotid. As for the doll- 製造者's own death, 明らかに at the 手渡すs of the Walters doll, 井戸／弁護士席, it is also possible that the 異常な mind of Madame Mandilip was, at times, the 犠牲者 of the same illusions she induced in the minds of others. The doll-製造者 was a mad genius, 治める／統治するd by a morbid compulsion to surround herself with the effigies of those she had killed by the unguent. Marguerite de Valois, Queen of Navarre, carried 絶えず with her the embalmed hearts of a dozen or more lovers who had died for her. She had not 殺害された those men—but she knew she had been the 原因（となる） of their deaths as surely as though she had strangled them with her own 手渡すs. The psychological 原則 伴う／関わるd in Queen Marguerite's collection of hearts and Madame Mandilip's collection of dolls is one and the same."
He had not sat 負かす／撃墜する; still in that 緊張するd 発言する／表明する he repeated: "I asked you if you called the 殺人，大当り of the witch an illusion."
I said: "You make it very uncomfortable for me, Ricori—星／主役にするing at me like that... and I am answering your question. I repeat it is possible that in her own mind she was at times the 犠牲者 of the same illusions she induced in the minds of others. That at times she, herself, thought the dolls were alive. That in this strange mind was conceived a 憎悪 for the doll of Walters. And, at the last, under the irritation of our attack, this belief 反応するd upon her. That thought was in my mind when, a while ago, I said it was curious that you should speak of the dark 知恵 turning against those who 所有するd it. She tormented the doll; she 推定する／予想するd the doll to avenge itself if it had the 適切な時期. So strong was this belief, or 期待, that when the 都合のよい moment arrived, she dramatized it. Her thought became 活動／戦闘! The doll-製造者, like you, may 井戸／弁護士席 have 急落（する），激減（する）d the dagger-pin into her own throat— "
"You fool!"
The words （機の）カム from Ricori's mouth—and yet it was so like Madame Mandilip speaking in her haunted room and speaking through the dead lips of Laschna that I dropped 支援する into my 議長，司会を務める, shuddering.
Ricori was leaning over the （米）棚上げする／（英）提議する. His 黒人／ボイコット 注目する，もくろむs were blank, expressionless. I cried out, はっきりと, a panic shaking me: "Ricori— wake— "
The dreadful blankness in his 注目する，もくろむs flicked away; their gaze sharpened, was 意図 upon me. He said, again in his own 発言する／表明する:
"I am awake, I am so awake—that I will listen to you no more! Instead—listen, you to me, Dr. Lowell. I say to you—to hell with your science! I tell you this—that beyond the curtain of the 構成要素 at which your 見通し 停止（させる）s, there are 軍隊s and energies that hate us, yet which God in his inscrutable 知恵 許すs to be. I tell you that these 力／強力にするs can reach through the 隠す of 事柄 and become manifest in creatures like the doll-製造者. It is so! Witches and sorcerers 手渡す in 手渡す with evil! It is so! And there are 力／強力にするs friendly to us which make themselves manifest in their chosen ones.
"I say to you—Madame Mandilip was an accursed witch! An 器具 of the evil 力／強力にするs! Whore of Satan! She 燃やすd as a witch should 燃やす in hell —forever! I say to you that the little nurse was an 器具 of the good 力／強力にするs. And she is happy today in 楽園—as she shall be forever!"
He was silent, trembling with his own fervor. He touched my shoulder:
"Tell me, Dr. Lowell—tell me as truthfully as though you stood before the seat of God, believing in Him as I believe—do those 科学の explanations of yours truly 満足させる you?"
I answered, very 静かに:
"No, Ricori."
Nor do they.
Argosy 週刊誌, October 22, 1932
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