Page:The Master of Mysteries (1912).djvu/105

 of their simian ancestors. They are often able to jump and run and climb and even chatter like apes while in this abnormal condition. Miss Fanshawe, as we had already observed, possesses many still active functions of her monkey ancestry, which in most men and women have become atrophied with disuse. Her appendix was large, like those of the apes. She bore traces of this also in the hair on her lip, in her ability to use her ears, in the development of the muscles of her toes. It was evident to me, at my first glance at her, that she was, if not abnormal, at least peculiar. In her waking state, of course, she is a highly refined and cultured lady. Under the influence of hysteria, or in this strange somnambulistic condition, she merely reverts to type. You know that newborn babies can hang from their hands, like monkeys, but soon lose that power. Miss Fanshawe loses her extraordinary agility in her waking moments, and regains it while asleep."

"But why the blue paint?" said Valeska. "If you knew the secret of the Fanshawe ghost, why didn't you tell her at first?"

"Would you have believed it possible?" he asked smiling.

Valeska confessed she would not.

"Neither would Miss Fanshawe. And besides, it would have been necessary to explain the origin of my suspicions. No woman would care to be told that she resembled an ape, and I don't intend to explain Metchnikoff's theory to her or to point out her vestigial organs which are not quite vestigial. No, I'll merely tell her she walks in her sleep, as is proved by the blue paint on her night-dress, and advise her either to lock