A sudden light broke upon the face of the younger man, the light of a heaven-sent inspiration.  He looked into his friend’s face, and told a direct lie.

“Odd,” he said, “I myself was just coming to see you.  I have something of great importance to test your confidence with.  But in your house, please,” as Stephen urged him towards his own door—­“in your house.  It’s only round the corner, and I—­I cannot go back there—­to my rooms—­till I have told you.

“I’m your patient—­for the moment,” he added stammeringly as soon as they were seated in the privacy of the hypnotist’s sanctum, “and I want—­er—­”

“My dear Laidlaw,” interrupted the other, in that soothing voice of command which had suggested to many a suffering soul that the cure for its pain lay in the powers of its own reawakened will, “I am always at your service, as you know.  You have only to tell me what I can do for you, and I will do it.”  He showed every desire to help him out.  His manner was indescribably tactful and direct.

Dr. Laidlaw looked up into his face.

“I surrender my will to you,” he said, already calmed by the other’s healing presence, “and I want you to treat me hypnotically—­and at once.  I want you to suggest to me”—­his voice became very tense—­“that I shall forget—­forget till I die—­everything that has occurred to me during the last two hours; till I die, mind,” he added, with solemn emphasis, “till I die.”

He floundered and stammered like a frightened boy.  Alexis Stephen looked at him fixedly without speaking.

“And further,” Laidlaw continued, “I want you to ask me no questions.  I wish to forget for ever something I have recently discovered—­something so terrible and yet so obvious that I can hardly understand why it is not patent to every mind in the world—­for I have had a moment of absolute clear vision—­of merciless clairvoyance.  But I want no one else in the whole world to know what it is—­least of all, old friend, yourself.”

He talked in utter confusion, and hardly knew what he was saying.  But the pain on his face and the anguish in his voice were an instant passport to the other’s heart.

“Nothing is easier,” replied Dr. Stephen, after a hesitation so slight that the other probably did not even notice it.  “Come into my other room where we shall not be disturbed.  I can heal you.  Your memory of the last two hours shall be wiped out as though it had never been.  You can trust me absolutely.”

“I know I can,” Laidlaw said simply, as he followed him in.

6

An hour later they passed back into the front room again.  The sun was already behind the houses opposite, and the shadows began to gather.

“I went off easily?” Laidlaw asked.

“You were a little obstinate at first.  But though you came in like a lion, you went out like a lamb.  I let you sleep a bit afterwards.”

Dr. Stephen kept his eyes rather steadily upon his friend’s face.