



Produced by Suzanne Shell and the Online Distributed
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                           A MODERN WIZARD

                                  BY

                         RODRIGUES OTTOLENGUI
    AUTHOR OF "AN ARTIST IN CRIME," "A CONFLICT OF EVIDENCE," ETC.


                         G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS
            NEW YORK                            LONDON
    27 WEST TWENTY-THIRD STREET        24 BEDFORD STREET, STRAND
                       The Knickerbocker Press
                                 1894


                           COPYRIGHT, 1894
                                  BY
                         G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS
                 Entered at Stationers' Hall, London


                  Electrotyped, Printed and Bound by
                  The Knickerbocker Press, New York
                         G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS




                                  TO

                        HON. GEORGE P. ANDREWS

                   JUSTICE OF THE SUPREME COURT OF
                        THE STATE OF NEW YORK

           WHO IS RECOGNIZED, NOT ONLY AS AN EMINENT JURIST
                    BUT AS A TYPE OF HUMAN JUSTICE
                         AND LEGAL INTEGRITY

                 THIS WORK IS RESPECTFULLY DEDICATED




CONTENTS.


BOOK FIRST.

  CHAPTER                                     PAGE
     I.--LAWYER AND CLIENT                       1
    II.--JACK BARNES INVESTIGATES               17
   III.--A WIZARD'S TRICK                       32
    IV.--DR. MEDJORA SURRENDERS                 53
     V.--FOR THE PROSECUTION                    70
    VI.--DAMAGING TESTIMONY                     84
   VII.--THE PROSECUTION RESTS                 101
  VIII.--FOR THE DEFENCE                       120
    IX.--THE DEFENCE CLOSES                    137
     X.--MR. BLISS MAKES HIS SPEECH            149
    XI.--TERMINATION OF THE GREAT CASE         165

BOOK SECOND.

     I.--ONE NIGHT                             183
    II.--A FRIEND IN NEED                      205
   III.--SELLING A NEW ENGLAND FARM            225
    IV.--AN OMINOUS WELCOME                    239
     V.--A FACE FROM THE PAST                  257
    VI.--AGNES DUDLEY                          272
   VII.--A WIZARD'S TEACHING                   288
  VIII.--THE FAITHFUL DOG                      311
    IX.--A WIZARD'S KNOWLEDGE                  330
     X.--THE BETROTHAL                         347
    XI.--THE GENESIS OF LOVE                   362
   XII.--THE MARQUIS OF LOSSY                  375
  XIII.--THE DISCOVERY                         392
   XIV.--SANATOXINE                            407




A MODERN WIZARD.

BOOK FIRST.




CHAPTER I.

LAWYER AND CLIENT.


Early one morning, in the spring of eighteen hundred and
seventy-three, two young lawyers were seated in their private office.
The firm name, painted in gilt letters upon the glass of the door, was
DUDLEY & BLISS. Mortimer Dudley was the senior member, though not over
thirty years old. Robert Bliss was two years younger.

Mr. Dudley was sorting some papers and deftly tying them into bundles
with red tape. Why lawyers will persist in using tape of a sanguine
color is an unsolvable mystery to me, unless it may be that they are
loath to disturb the many old adages in which the significant couplet
of words appears. However that may be, Mr. Dudley paused in his
occupation, attracted by an exclamation from his partner, who had been
reading a morning paper.

"What is it, Robert?" asked Mr. Dudley.

"Oh! Only another sensational murder case, destined, I imagine, to add
more lustre to the name of some lawyer who doesn't need it. Mortimer,
I wonder when our turn will come. Here we have been in these rooms for
three months, and not a criminal case has come to us yet."

"Don't be impatient, Robert. We must not give up hope. Look at Munson.
He was in the same class with us at college, and we all considered him
a dunce. By accident he was engaged to defend that fellow who was
accused of poisoning his landlady. Munson actually studied chemistry
in order to defend the case. His cross-examination of the
prosecution's experts made him famous. Who knows! We may get an
opportunity like that some day."

"Some day! Yes, some day! I believe there is a song that begins that
way. I always detested it. I do not like that word'some day.' It's so
beastly indefinite. I prefer 'to-day' or even 'to-morrow.' But let me
read to you the account of this case. It is about that young woman who
died so mysteriously, up in the boarding-house on West Twenty-sixth
Street."

"I don't know anything about it, Robert. I haven't read the papers for
