Part 41 (1/2)

But this was not to be all I recollected the handcuffs in his state-room, which he preferred to use on sailors instead of the ancient and clumsy shi+p irons So, e left him, he lay handcuffed hand and foot For the first tiht as I caht had been lifted off my shoulders I felt, also, that Maud and I had drawn ether And I wondered if she, too, felt it, as alked along the deck side by side to where the stalled fore in the shears

CHAPTER xxxVII

At once weour old state-rooalley The imprisonment of Wolf Larsen had happened most opportunely, for what one and drizzling stormy weather had set in We were very comfortable, and the inadequate shears, with the foreave a business-like air to the schooner and a promise of departure

And now that we had Wolf Larsen in irons, how little did we need it! Like his first attack, his second had been accompanied by serious disable to give hins of consciousness, and she had spoken to hi on his left side at the time, and in evident pain With a restlesshis left ear froainst which it had been pressed At once he heard and answered her, and at once she caainst his left ear, I asked hi the pillow and, repeating the question he answered proht ear?” I asked

”Yes,” he answered in a low, strong voice, ”and worse than that My whole right side is affected It seeain?” I derily

He shook his head, his stern est, twisted smile It was indeed a twisted smile, for it was on the left side only, the facialnot at all

”That was the last play of the Wolf,” he said ”I aain Oh, only on the other side,” he added, as though divining the suspicious glance I flung at his left leg, the knee of which had just then drawn up, and elevated the blankets

”It's unfortunate,” he continued ”I'd liked to have done for you first, Huht I had that much left in me”

”But why?” I asked; partly in horror, partly out of curiosity

Again his stern mouth framed the twisted s and doing, to be the biggest bit of the ferment to the end, to eat you But to die this way”

He shrugged his shoulders, or atte them, rather, for the left shoulder aloneisted

”But how can you account for it?” I asked ”Where is the seat of your trouble?”

”The brain,” he said at once ”It was those cursed headaches brought it on”

”Sympto for it I was never sick inwithof that nature,-a thing that devours and destroys It's attackingthem up, bit by bit, cell by cell-froested

”So it would seem; and the curse of it is that Ithat the lines are going down, breaking bit by bit co are leaving me, at this rate I shall soon cease to speak; yet all the time I shall be here, alive, active, and powerless”

”When you say you are here, I'd suggest the likelihood of the soul,” I said

”Bosh!+” was his retort ”It siher psychical centres are untouched I can reo I ahter, then turned his left ear to the pillow as a sign that he wished no further conversation

Maud and I went about our work oppressed by the fearful fate which had overtaken him,-how fearful ere yet fully to realize There was the awfulness of retribution about it Our thoughts were deep and solemn, and we spoke to each other scarcely above whispers

”You ht, as we stood in consultation over hi to watch out for is bed sores”

He smiled his twisted smile, and Maud, her eyes ith horror, was compelled to turn away her head