Page:The achievements of Luther Trant - Balmer and MacHarg - 1910.djvu/236

208 child home with me, and under my mother's care she has been educated. The name Iris Pierce was given her by my mother."

"You say the Indians regarded her with veneration?" Trant exclaimed, with an oddly intent glance at the sculptured effigies of the monsterlike gods which stood on the cases all about. "Dr. Pierce, were you exact in saying a moment ago that your ward, since she has been in your care, has exhibited no peculiarities? Was the nurse, Ulame, mistaken in what I overheard her saying, that Miss Pierce has on her shoulder the mark," his voice steadied soberly, "of the devil's claw?"

"Has she the 'mark of the devil's claw'?" Pierce frowned with vexation. "You mean, has she an anæsthetic spot on her shoulder through which at times she feels no sensation? Yes, she has; but I scarcely thought you cared to hear about 'devil's claws.'

"Ulame also told me," Pierce continued, "that the existence of this spot denotes in the possessor, not only a susceptibility to 'controls' and 'spells,' but also occult powers of clairvoyance. She even suggested that my ward could, if she would, tell me who was in the room and burned my papers. Do you follow her beliefs so much farther?"

"I follow not the negress, but modern scientific psychologists, Dr. Pierce," Trant replied, bluntly, "in the belief, the knowledge, that the existence of the anæsthetic spot called the 'devil's claw' shows in its possessor a condition which, under peculiar