I stood up. I said bitterly:
"You were right, Ricori-her servants are better than yours."
He did not answer, looking down at Braile with pity-filled face.
I said: "If all your men fulfill their promises like McCann, that you are still alive I count as one of the major
miracles."
"As for McCann," he turned his gaze to me somberly, "he is both intelligent and loyal. I will not condemn
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 regret and grief and helpless rage. If I
had not let my cursed pride control me, if I had told them all that I could of my encounter with the
doll-maker, explained why there were details I was unable to tell, given myself over to Braile for a
cleansing counter-hypnotization-no, if I had but accepted Ricori's offer of protection, or Braile's to
watch over me while asleep-then this could not have happened.
I looked into the study and saw there Ricori's nurse. I could hear whispering outside the study
doors-servants, and others from the Annex who had been attracted by the noise of the falling chandelier.
I said to the nurse, quite 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, injuring Dr. Braile. Send them back 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 blood. Leave the chandelier as it is."
When she had gone I turned to Ricori's gunmen.
"What did you see when you shot?"
One answered: "They looked like monkeys to me."
The other said: "Or midgets."
I looked at Ricori, and read in his face what he had seen. I stripped the light blanket from the bed.
"Ricori," I said, "let your men lift Braile and wrap him in this. Then have them carry him into the small
room next to the study and place him on the cot."
He nodded to them, and they lifted Braile from the debris of shattered glass and bent metal. His face and
neck had been cut by the broken prisms and by some chance one of these wounds was close to the spot
where the dagger-pin of the doll had been thrust. It was deep, and had probably caused a second
severance of the carotid artery. I followed with Ricori into the small room. They placed the body on the
cot and Ricori ordered them to go back to the bedroom and watch while the nurses were there. He
closed 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 coroner's case, of course. I must notify 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 warning, the fixture dropped upon him. Splintered 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 right. Not McCann but I am to blame for this-the vanity of an old man-had I spoken
freely, fully-he would be alive…but I did not…I did not…I am his murderer."
He comforted me-gently as a woman…
"It was not your fault. You could not have done otherwise…being what you are…thinking as you have so
long thought. If in your unbelief, your entirely natural unbelief, the witch found her opportunity…still, it was
not your fault. But now she shall find no more opportunities. Her cup is full and overflowing…"
He put his hands on my shoulders.
"Do not notify the police for a time-not until we hear from McCann. It is now close 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 quietly. "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 weakness. I dropped into a chair. 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 voice 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, staring at us. His eyes fell upon the covered body upon the cot and his face grew grim:
"What's happened?"
Ricori answered: "The dolls killed Dr. Braile. You captured the girl too late, McCann. Why?"
"Killed Braile? The dolls! God!" McCann's voice was as though a hand had gripped his throat.
Ricori asked: "Where is the girl, McCann?"
He answered, dully: "Down in the car, gagged and tied."
Ricori asked: "When did you get her? And where?"
Looking at McCann, I suddenly felt a great pity and sympathy for him. It sprang from my own remorse
and shame. I said:
"Sit down, McCann. I am far more to blame for what has happened than you can possibly be."
Ricori said, coldly: "Leave me to be judge of that. McCann, did you place cars at each end of the street,
as Dr. Lowell instructed?"
"Yes."
"Then begin your story at that point."
McCann said: "She comes into the street. It's close 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 suitcases. She looks around an' trots where
we located 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 grab her too close to the doll-shop. I see Paul tail her. I shoot down
the street an' tail Paul.
"The coupe turn 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 hits the Ford
and wraps himself round one of the El's pillars. There's a mess. I'm a minute or two getting out the jam.
When I do, the coupe's outa sight.
"I hop down an' telephone Rod. 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 right here.
"I come up here. I figure maybe she's headed this way. I coast along by here an' then take a look in the
Park, I figure the doll-hag's been getting all the breaks an' now one's due me. I get it. I see the coupe
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 coupe away an' searches it. There ain't a thing in it but the two suitcases 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 coupe 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, staring at McCann with a curious intentness. But I
saw him clench his left hand, 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 intercepted him and stood with my back against the door. "Listen to me, Ricori. I have
something to say about this. Dr. Braile was as close to me as Peters to you. Whatever the guilt of
Madame Mandilip, this girl is helpless to do other than what she orders her. Her will is absolutely
controlled by the doll-maker. I strongly suspect that a good part of the time she is under complete
hypnotic control. I cannot forget that she tried to save Walters. I will not see her murdered."
Ricori said: "If you are right, all the more reason 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 reason. I want to question her. I may discover how
Madame Mandilip does these things-the mystery of the dolls-the ingredients of the salve-whether
there are others who share 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 trap in which the doll-maker caught me."
For a full minute Ricori considered me, gravely.
"Dr. Lowell," he said, "for the last time I yield my judgment to yours in this matter. 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. Nevertheless, I yield-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 following. No one was there. I placed on my desk a development
of the Luys mirror, a device used first at the Salpetriere in Paris to induce hypnotic sleep. It consists of
two parallel rows of small reflectors revolving in opposite directions. A ray of light plays upon them in
such a manner as to cause their surfaces alternately to gleam and darken. A most useful device, and one
to which I believed the girl, long sensitized to hypnotic suggestion, must speedily succumb. I placed a
comfortable chair at the proper angle, and subdued the lights so that they could not compete with the
hypnotic mirror.
I had hardly completed these arrangements when McCann and another of Ricori's henchmen brought in
the girl. They placed her in the easy chair, 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."