“Who is Karatoff, anyhow?” asked Kennedy.  “What is known about him?”

“Dr. Galen Karatoff—­a Russian, I believe,” returned Gaines.  “He claims to be able to treat disease by hypnotism-suggestion, he calls it, though it is really something more than that.  As nearly as I can make out it must almost amount to thought transference, telepathy, or some such thing.  Oh, he has a large following; in fact, some very well-known people in the smart set are going to him.  Why,” he added, facing us, “Edith—­my wife—­has become interested in his hypnotic clinics, as he calls them.  I tell her it is more than half sham, but she won’t believe it.”

Gaines paused and it was evident that he hesitated over asking something.

“When is the demonstration?” inquired Kennedy, with unconcealed interest.

The professor looked at his watch.  “I’m going over there now; in fact, I’m just a bit late—­only, I happened to think of you and it occurred to me that perhaps if you could add something to my report it might carry weight.  Would you like to come with me?  Really, I should think that it might interest you.”

So far Kennedy had said little besides asking a question or two.  I knew the symptoms.  Gaines need not have hesitated or urged him.  It was just the thing that appealed to him.

“How did Mrs. Gaines become interested in the thing?” queried Craig, a moment later, outside, as we climbed into the car with the professor.

“Through an acquaintance who introduced her to Karatoff and the rest.  Carita Belleville, the dancer, you know?”

Kennedy glanced at me and I nodded that I had heard of her.  It was only a few nights before that I had seen Carita at one of the midnight revues, doing a dance which was described as the “hypnotic whirl,” a wild abandon of grace and motion.  Carita Belleville had burst like a meteor on the sky of the “Great White Way,” blazing a gorgeous trail among the fixed stars of that gay firmament.  She had even been “taken up” by society, or at least a certain coterie of it, had become much sought after to do exhibition dancing at social affairs, and now was well known in the amusement notes of the newspapers and at the fashionable restaurants.  She had hosts of admirers and I had no doubt that Mrs. Gaines might well have fallen under the spell of her popularity.

“What is Miss Belleville’s interest in Karatoff?” pursued Craig, keenly.

Gaines shrugged his shoulders.  “Notoriety, perhaps,” he replied.  “It is a peculiar group that Karatoff has gathered about him, they tell me.”

There was something unsatisfactory about the answer and I imagined that Gaines meant purposely to leave it so as not to prejudice the case.  Somehow, I felt that there must be something risque in the doings of Karatoff and his “patients.”  At any rate, it was only natural with anything that Carita Belleville was likely to be concerned with.

There was little time for further questions, for our destination was not far down the Drive from the university, and the car pulled up before one of the new handsome and ornate “studio apartments” up-town.