Amazing Stories — page 14: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

ND soon after this the celebrated hypnotist who dressed in green and yellow had another client. The young man paced his consulting-room, pale and | disordered. “I want to forget,” he cried, “I must ———-forret. The hypnotist watched him with quiet eyes, studied hs face and clothes and bearing. “To forget any- ; thing—pleasure or pain—is to be, by so much—less. However, you know your own concern. My fee is high.” “Tf only I can forget—” “That's easy enough with you. You wish it. I’ve done much harder things. Quite recently. I hardly expected to do it; the thing was done against the will of the hypnotised person. A love affair too—like yours. A girl. So rest assured.” - The young man came and sat beside the hypnotist. ’ His manner was a forced calm. He looked into the hypnotist’s eyes. “I will tell you. Of course you will want to know what it is. There was a girl. Her name was Elizabeth Mwres. Well... .” He stopped. He had seen the instant surprise on the hypnotist’s face. In that instant he knew. He stood up. He seemed to dominate the seated figure by his side. He gripped the shoulder of green and gold. For a time he could not find words. “Give her me back!” he said at last. “Give her There was an interval of thought. “Unless I sponge,” said Denton, “your forehead will develop a tremendous bruise.” “You can go on sponging,” said the hypnotist sulkily, There was another pause. “We might be in the Stone Age,” said the hyp- notist. “Violence! Struggle!” “In the Stone Age no man dared to come between man and woman,” said Denton. The hypnotist thought again. “What are you going to do?” he asked. “While you were insensible I found the girl’s ad- dress on your tablets. I did not know it before; I telephoned. She will be here soon. Then—” “She will bring her chaperone.” “That is all right.” “But what—? I don’t see. What do you mean to do?” “I looked about for a weapon also, It is an as- tonishing thing how few weapons there are nowa- days. If you consider that in the Stone Age men owned scarcely anything but weapons. I hit at last upon this lamp, I have wrenched off the wires and things, and I hold it so.” He extended it over the hypnotist’s shoulders. “With that I can quite easily oA me back!” smash your skull. I zill—unless you do as I tell me “What do you mean?” gasped the hypnotist. you,” Fos “Give her me back.” “Violence is no remedy,” said the hypnotist quot- i “Give whom?” ing from the “Modern Man's Book of Moral = “Elizabeth Mwres—the girl—” Maxims.” oS ___ The hypnotist tried to free himself; he rose to his “It’s an undesirable disease,” said Denton. = feet. Denton’s grip tightened. Wel] 2” - ae Yr eri hypnotist, thrusting an ar “ : : = fret Sue SP NGHS Ween aerLe: as seen ical that chaperone “you are going to Ina moment the two men were locked in a clumsy hatred 3 git 4 Serere aaa =< ® ee brute with 3 wrestle. Neither had the slightest training—for thi eA Se errety eyes. elieve that’s how athleticism, except for exhibition and to afford op- tidy Blan ye at portunity for betting, had faded out of the earth— _Yes—that's how things stand. but Denton was not only the younger but the stronger And, pretending to do that, you will restore her: of the two. They swayed across the room, and then a OSS. or me, : the hypnotist had gone down under his antagonist. It's unprofessional.” They fell together... . “Look here! If I cannot have that girl I would Denton leaped to his feet, dismayed at his own rather die than not. I don’t propose to respect your fury; but the hypnotist lay still, and suddenly from a little white mark where his forehead had struck a stool shot a hurrying band of red. For a space Denton stood over him irresolute, trembling. little fancies. If anything goes wrong you shall not live five minutes. This is a rude makeshift of a weapon, and it may quite conceivably be painful to kill you, But I will. It is unusual, I know, nowa- A fear of the consequences entered his gently nur- days to do things like this—mainly because there is tured mind. He turned towards the door. “No,” so little in life that is worth being violent about.’’ he said aloud, and came back to the middle of the “The chaperone will see you directly she comes—” room. Overcoming the instinctive repugnance of “T shall stand in that recess. Behind you.” = one who had seen no act of violence in all his life The hypnotist thought. “You are a determined - _ before, he knelt down beside his antagonist and felt young man,” he said, “and only half civilized, I = his heart. Then he peered at the wound. He rose have tried to do my duty to my client, but in this =e 2 quietly and looked about him. He began to see affair you seem likely to get your own way...” more of the situation. When presently the hypnotist recovered his senses, his head ached severely, his back was against Den- __ ton’s knees and Denton was sponging his face. The hypnotist did not speak. But presently he in- ted by a gesture that in his opinion he had heen ged enough. “Let me get up,” he said, ” said Denton, - “You mean to deal straightly.” “4 “T’m not going to risk having my brains scattered in a petty affair like this.” Se “And afterwards ?” Pei 3 _ “There is nothing a hypnotist or doctor hate: much as a scandal. I at least am no savage. | annoyed. ... But in a day or so I shall SCG Senge One Coe 3 nk you. And now the ‘ : “ - scoundrel!” ee ales we d Denton, “and | a ed 7 avon ~ rr me 4 s v! = : " a — Soy armen en = AON on the ! =S_0C!