Sherlock Holmes In Montague Street Volume 2 by David Marcum Page B

Holmes, then at the paper again, let the volume slide from his lap, and gasped, “Why - why - it’s the will!”
    â€œAh, so I thought,” said Holmes, catching the book as it fell. “But don’t lose this place in the encyclopædia. Read the name of the article. What is it?”
    Mr. Crellan looked absent-mindedly at the title, holding the will before him all the time. Then, mechanically, he read aloud the word, “ Hypnotism .”
    â€œHypnotism it is,” Holmes answered. “A dangerous and terrible power in the hands of an unscrupulous man.”
    â€œBut - but how? I don’t understand it. This - this is the real will, I suppose?”
    â€œLook at it; you know best.”
    Mr. Crellan looked.
    â€œYes,” he said, “this certainly is the will. But where did it come from? It hasn’t been in this book all the time, has it?”
    â€œNo. Didn’t I tell you I put it there myself as a marker? But come, you’ll understand my explanation better if I first read you a few lines from this article. See here now:
    Although hypnotism has power for good when properly used by medical men, it is an exceedingly dangerous weapon in the hands of the unskillful or unscrupulous. Crimes have been committed by persons who have been hypnotized. Just as a person when hypnotized is rendered extremely impressionable, and therefore capable of receiving beneficial suggestions, so he is nearly as liable to receive suggestions for evil; and it is quite possible for an hypnotic subject, while under hypnotic influence, to be impressed with the belief that he is to commit some act after the influence is removed, and that act he is safe to commit, acting at the time as an automaton. Suggestions may be thus made of which the subject, in his subsequent uninfluenced moments, has no idea, but which he will proceed to carry out automatically at the time appointed. In the case of a complete state of hypnotism the subject has subsequently no recollection whatever of what has happened. Persons whose will or nerve power has been weakened by fear or other similar causes can be hypnotized without consent on their part.
    â€œThere now, what do you make of that?”
    â€œWhy, do you mean that Miss Garth has been hypnotized by - by - Cranley Mellis?”
    â€œI think that is the case; indeed, I am pretty sure of it. Notice, on the occasion of each of his last two visits, he was alone with Miss Garth for some little time. On the evening following each of those visits she does something which she afterwards knows nothing about - something connected with the disappearance of this will, the only thing standing between Mr. Mellis and the whole of his uncle’s property. Who could have been in a weaker nervous state than Miss Garth has been lately? Remember, too, on the visit of last Saturday, while Miss Garth says she only showed Mellis to the door, both you and the nurse speak of their being gone some little time. Miss Garth must have forgotten what took place then, when Mellis hypnotized her, and impressed on her the suggestion that she should take Mr. Holford’s will that night, long after he - Mellis - had gone, and when he could not be suspected of knowing anything of it. Further, that she should, at that time when her movements would be less likely to be observed, secrete that will in a place of hiding known only to himself.”
    â€œDear, dear, what a rascal! Do you really think he did that?”
    â€œNot only that, but I believe he came here yesterday morning while you were out to get the will from the recess. The recess, by the bye, I expect he discovered by accident on one of his visits (he has been here pretty often, I suppose, altogether), and kept the secret in case it might be useful. Yesterday, not finding the will there, he hypnotized Miss Garth once again, and conveyed the suggestion that, at midnight last night, she should take the will from wherever she had put it