human
It's a strange tale, Senor, he commented when Herran had come to the end.
gpt
These things with a touch of mystery in them are always fascinating--until you stumble on the clew. Then it's very simple. I suppose you have no theory to explain our friend's disappearance?
human
None, Senor.
gpt
You have just told me, Mr. Leighton, he went on, addressing the latter,
human
I did.
gpt
Well, what do you make of it? Here's what you are looking for--a neat psychological problem right to your hand.
human
I don't see it,
gpt
That's always the way with you great scientists! But--it's simple, declared Raoul, a note of triumph in his voice;
human
I said that you probably know him better. I have not known him as long or as intimately as you have. But--again I fail to see what psychology has to do with it.
gpt
It has everything to do with it. David was not spirited away, as you seem to imagine. He disappeared of his own accord.
human
There is every reason to think the contrary,
gpt
Oh, of course I may be wrong in my theory. But, as there is no other evidence, I see only one solution. It's the clew we are after, you know--and the clew is right under your nose.
human
Perhaps you are on the wrong scent. Some investigators have a knack of being cocksure about everything. But--explain your meaning.
gpt
Very well. Let's talk as one psychologist to another, then. Meudon has a peculiar temperament. You probably know that. But you may not know that the dual personality is highly developed in him. Under strong, sudden excitement this personality becomes greatly exaggerated.
human
He was laboring under no particular excitement at the time of his disappearance,
gpt
What about the mission he was on? I have an idea that it was of absorbing importance to him. Remember, he was revisiting scenes connected with an episode that for some years he has been trying to forget but which he now wants to revive. And then, to cap the climax, suddenly he comes, slap bang, right into the midst of a rabble of peons who would be only too glad to kill him, or imprison him, or torture him--or anything else unpleasant. The same crowd tried to get me once, so I know what it all means.
human
All this is true; but the excitement was hardly enough to drown David's normal personality.
gpt
It all helps, though. It predisposes things. It is, as I look at it, the final stage setting, with all the characters in their places awaiting the entrance of the villain to finish up the tragedy. And in this case the villain entered just at the critical moment. Mr. Leighton, he asked abruptly,
human
I can't say that I have,
gpt
Well, alcoholic stimulus, with certain temperaments--you know what it does. It starts up an altogether abnormal psychology, doesn't it?
human
Very apt to.
gpt
Depends a little on the stage setting, doesn't it? But, even without that it has its odd effects. On rare occasions, for instance, I have known Meudon to take a single drink of liquor. The result has been similar to that brought on by hypnotism.
human
Well?
gpt
There's your clew! Raoul announced triumphantly.
human
You have heard General Herran's story. He tells us that just before they parted he and David drank several toasts together--and the toasts, I fancy, were stronger than mere wine.
gpt
You think, then----
human
Why, it's childishly simple! David was knocked over by a force, an influence, to which he is unaccustomed. He is not at all a drinking man, you understand. Quite the reverse. With him the effect of drink would not be in the least like ordinary intoxication. From two former experiences I know that it would be far subtler. It would produce what you would call a pseudo-hypnosis, a condition of abnormal psychology.
gpt
Well?
human
Don't you see what happened?
gpt
I have not had your experience with David,
human
It is not a question of mere personal experience, said Raoul irritably;
gpt
You are an enthusiast. Be more explicit. Don't wander off in your statements.
human
Very well. I'll put it in the lingo of science as nearly as I can. It appears to me, then, that David, by this little exchange of pistol shots, as you call them, with General Herran, brought into activity a portion of his brain that had not, for a number of years, intruded itself upon his conscious life. It had literally been sleeping all that time. On the last occasion when it was awake--when, in other words, he was under the sway of this subconscious ego--he was here, amid the very scenes in which he again finds himself. A moment ago you connected his first disappearance with the one which has just taken place on the road from Honda. Well, the General's 'pistol,' as he calls it, suddenly threw David back into the memory of that first subconscious experience.
gpt
The Ghost of the Forgotten found at last,
human
Exactly! That's a good way to put it.
gpt
Suppose your theory correct; what happened after David's subconscious memory was awakened?
human
As a psychologist, you are better able to answer that than I.
gpt
I am not interested in abstruse problems just now. I am here simply to find David.
human
Difficult, perhaps. I couldn't find him before. But at least I have given you the clew.
gpt
Your clew doesn't explain. I don't know what to do with it.
human
A restatement of my theory may clear things up. Through a combination of certain circumstances, exerting upon him a peculiar influence, David is living again in an environment and through a set of experiences that belong to him only when he is in what we call a condition of secondary personality. Discover that environment--the same, I believe, as the one in which he was lost three years ago--and you will discover David.