Part 18 (1/2)
”Thank you,... thank you.... n.o.ble man,... my saviour,... my bene ...
bene ... factor.... Trickling,... trickling.... Dripping, dripping....
Doctor!”
”Well?”
”Doctor!”
”Past hearing,” muttered the surgeon.
”Doctor!”
”And blind.”
Response was made by a firm grasp of the hand.
”Doctor!”
”And numb.”
”Doctor!”
The old man watched and waited.
”Dripping, ... dripping.”
The last drop had run. There was a sigh, and nothing more.
The surgeon laid down the hand.
”The first step,” he groaned, rising to his feet; then his whole frame dilated. ”The first step--the most difficult, yet the simplest. A providential delivery into my hands of that for which I have hungered for forty years. No withdrawal now! It is possible, because scientific; rational, but perilous. If I succeed--_if?_ I _shall_ succeed. I _will_ succeed.... And after success--what?... Yes; what? Publish the plan and the result? The gallows.... So long as _it_ shall exist, ... and _I_ exist, the gallows. That much.... But how account for its presence? Ah, that pinches hard! I must trust to the future.”
He tore himself from the revery and started.
”I wonder if _she_ heard or saw anything.”
With that reflection he cast a glance upon the form on the lounge, and then left the room, locked the door, locked also the door of the outer room, walked down two or three corridors, penetrated to a remote part of the house, and rapped at a door. It was opened by his wife. He, by this time, had regained complete mastery over himself.
”I thought I heard some one in the house just now,” he said, ”but I can find no one.”
”I heard nothing.”
He was greatly relieved.
”I did hear some one knock at the door less than an hour ago,” she resumed, ”and heard you speak, I think. Did he come in?”
”No.”
The woman glanced at his feet and seemed perplexed.
”I am almost certain,” she said, ”that I heard foot-falls in the house, and yet I see that you are wearing slippers.”