"Wait a little longer," said the doctor.
The woman in her hiding-place hardly dared to breathe.
"What?" asked Lord Harry. "You mean that the man, after all--"
"Wait a little longer," the doctor repeated quietly.
"Tell me"--Lord Harry bent over the sick man eagerly--"you think----"
"Look here," the doctor said. "Which of us two has had a medical education--you, or I?"
"You, of course."
"Yes; I, of course. Then I tell you, as a medical man, that appearances are sometimes deceptive. This man, for instance--he looks better; he thinks he is recovering; he feels stronger. You observe that he is fatter in the face. His nurse, f.a.n.n.y Mere, went away with the knowledge that he was much better, and the conviction that he was about to leave the house as much recovered as such a patient with such a disorder can expect."
"Well?"
"Well, my lord, allow me to confide in you. Medical men mostly keep their knowledge in such matters to themselves. We know and recognise symptoms which to you are invisible. By these symptoms--by those symptoms," he repeated slowly and looking hard at the other man, "I know that this man--no longer Oxbye, my patient, but--another--is in a highly dangerous condition. I have noted the symptoms in my book"--he tapped his pocket--"for future use."
"And when--when----" Lord Harry was frightfully pale. His lips moved, but he could not finish the sentence. The Thing he had agreed to was terribly near, and it looked uglier than he had expected.
"Oh! when?" the doctor replied carelessly. "Perhaps to-day--perhaps in a week. Here, you see, Science is sometimes baffled. I cannot say."
Lord Harry breathed deeply. "If the man is in so serious a condition,"
he said, "is it safe or prudent for us to be alone in the house without a servant and without a nurse?"
"I was not born yesterday, my lord, I a.s.sure you," said the doctor in his jocular way. "They have found me a nurse. She will come to-day. My patient"s life is, humanly speaking"--Lord Harry shuddered--"perfectly safe until her arrival."
"Well--but she is a stranger. She must know whom she is nursing."
"Certainly. She will be told--I have already told her--that she is going to nurse Lord Harry Norland, a young Irish gentleman. She is a stranger. That is the most valuable quality she possesses. She is a complete stranger. As for you, what are you? Anything you please. An English gentleman staying with me under the melancholy circ.u.mstances of his lordship"s illness. What more natural? The English doctor is staying with his patient, and the English friend is staying with the doctor. When the insurance officer makes inquiries, as he is very likely to do, the nurse will be invaluable for the evidence she will give."
He rose, pulled up the blinds noiselessly, and opened the windows.
Neither the fresh air nor the light awoke the sleeping man.
Vimpany looked at his watch. "Time for the medicine," he said. "Wake him up while I get it ready."
"Would you not--at least---suffer him to have his sleep out?" asked Lord Harry, again turning pale.
"Wake him up. Shake him by the shoulder. Do as I tell you," said the doctor, roughly. "He will go to sleep again. It is one of the finer qualities of my medicine that it sends people to sleep. It is a most soothing medicine. It causes a deep--a profound sleep. Wake him up, I say." he went to the cupboard in which the medicines were kept. Lord Harry with some difficulty roused the sick man, who awoke dull and heavy, asking why he was disturbed.
"Time for your medicine, my good fellow," said the doctor. "Take it, and you shall not be disturbed again--I promise you that."
The door of the cupboard prevented the spy from seeing what the doctor was doing; but he took longer than usual in filling the gla.s.s. Lord Harry seemed to observe this, for he left the Dane and looked over the doctor"s shoulder. "What are you doing?" he asked in a whisper.
"Better not inquire, my lord," said the doctor. "What do you know about the mysteries of medicine?"
"Why must I not inquire?"
Vimpany turned, closing the cupboard behind him. In his hand was a gla.s.s full of the stuff he was about to administer.
"If you look in the gla.s.s," he said, "you will understand why."
Lord Harry obeyed. He saw a face ghastly in pallor: he shrank back and fell into a chair, saying no more.
"Now, my good friend," said the doctor, "drink this and you"ll be better--ever so much better, ever so much better. Why--that is brave----" he looked at him strangely, "How do you like the medicine?"
Oxbye shook his head as a man who has taken something nauseous. "I don"t like it at all," he said. "It doesn"t taste like the other physic."
"No I have been changing it--improving it."
The Dane shook his head again. "There"s a pain in my throat," he said; "it stings--it burns!"
"Patience--patience. It will pa.s.s away directly, and you will lie down again and fall asleep comfortably."
Oxbye sank back upon the sofa. His eyes closed. Then he opened them again, looking about him strangely, as one who is suffering some new experience. Again he shook his head, again he closed his eyes, and he opened them no more. He was asleep.
The doctor stood at his head watching gravely. Lord Harry, in his chair, leaned forward, also watching, but with white face and trembling hands.
As they watched, the man"s head rolled a little to the side, turning his face more towards the room. Then a curious and terrifying thing happened. His mouth began slowly to fall open.
"Is he--is he--is he fainting?" Lord Harry whispered.
"No; he is asleep. Did you never see a man sleep with his mouth wide open?"
They were silent for a s.p.a.ce.
The doctor broke the silence.
"There"s a good light this morning," he said carelessly. "I think I will try a photograph. Stop! Let me tie up his mouth with a handkerchief--so." The patient was not disturbed by the operation, though the doctor tied up the handkerchief with vigour enough to awaken a sound sleeper. "Now--we"ll see if he looks like a post-mortem portrait."
He went into the next room, and returned with his camera. In a few minutes he had taken the picture, and was holding the gla.s.s negative against the dark sleeve of his coat, so as to make it visible. "We shall see how it looks," he said, "when it is printed. At present I don"t think it is good enough as an imitation of you to be sent to the insurance offices. n.o.body, I am afraid, who knew you, would ever take this for a post-mortem portrait of Lord Harry. Well, we shall see.
Perhaps by-and-by--to-morrow--we may be able to take a better photograph. Eh?" Lord Harry followed his movements, watching him closely, but said nothing. His face remained pale and his fingers still trembled. There was now no doubt at all in his mind, not only as to Vimpany"s intentions, but as to the crime itself. He dared not speak or move.
A ring at the door pealed through the house. Lord Harry started in his chair with a cry of terror.
"That," said the doctor, quietly, "is the nurse--the new nurse---the stranger." He took off the handkerchief from Oxbye"s face, looked about the room as if careful that everything should be in its right place, and went out to admit the woman. Lord Harry sprang to his feet and pa.s.sed his hand over the sick man"s face.
"Is it done?" he whispered. "Can the man be poisoned? Is he already dead?--already? Before my eyes?"
He laid his finger on the sick man"s pulse. But the doctor"s step and voice stopped him. Then the nurse came in, following Vimpany. She was an elderly, quiet-looking French woman.
Lord Harry remained standing at the side of the sofa, hoping to see the man revive.
"Now," said Vimpany, cheerfully, "here is your patient, nurse. He is asleep now. Let him have his sleep out--he has taken his medicine and will want nothing more yet awhile. If you want anything let me know. We shall be in the next room or in the garden--somewhere about the house.
Come, my friend." He drew away Lord Harry gently by the arm, and they left the room.
Behind the curtain f.a.n.n.y Mere began to wonder how she was to get off unseen.