The Mynns' Mystery Part 55

"Well, I'm in a nice state. But that Saul Harrington! He and the dog must be bad friends."

"Yes," said Gertrude, with her voice trembling and deep from agitation, "but you--you are hurt."

"Not in the least," he said, catching the hands extended to him in an imploring way. "No, not hurt. So full of happiness to hear you speak like that."

"Mr Harrington!" she faltered.

"Yes, George Harrington, indeed, indeed," he cried, with his voice sounding deep and emotional.

"Let us make haste back," she cried, hurriedly opened the door in the wall, trembling, troubled, pleased--she could not define her sensations; and it was with a sense of relief that she found Mrs Hampton coming toward them.

"Is that dreadful dog locked up safely?" she cried.

"Yes, quite safe; but I had a terrible fight with his lordship," said George Harrington, coming to his companion's help. "No fear of his getting well now."

"He must have gone mad."

"No; only towards Mr Saul Harrington, I'm afraid."

They hurried back to the drawing-room, to become conscious of a hoa.r.s.e, panting sound, and a low angry muttering from the couch, where the two old men were feebly struggling with Saul Harrington.

"Quick! Help here!" said the old lawyer.

George Harrington sprang to them, and pinned Saul down to the couch, from which he vainly struggled to rise.

"You had better go, ladies," cried the young man.

"Can I be of any use?" said Gertrude calmly. "Doctor Lawrence knows how I can help."

"Yes, help me," said the old man. "Can you hold him?"

"Oh, yes; I have him fast for the present."

Doctor Lawrence hurried to a table, took out his pocket-book, and wrote a prescription, tore out the pencilled leaf, and gave it to Gertrude.

"Send and get that made up for me," he said hastily.

Gertrude flew from the room, and the doctor hastened to help keep the patient within bounds.

"It was utter madness to leave his bed," he said.

"Perhaps he came in search of you."

"Impossible. He could not have known I was coming down here. Great heavens! what a state he is in."

For at that moment, as the sick man struggled in his delirium, he heaved himself till his body formed an arch, and it was all that the three men could do to keep him upon the couch.

"Like anyone suffering from a powerful dose of strychnia," muttered the doctor.

"What are you going to do, Lawrence?" whispered the lawyer. "Can't you give him some narcotic that will last till you get him back to his chambers?"

"What I have sent for," said the doctor, in a quiet, business-like way.

"Mrs Hampton, we want something to form a long broad band to hold him down to the couch, without doing any harm."

"Why not one of those long curtains?" said George Harrington, pointing to an alcove full of books.

"Yes, the very thing," cried the doctor, looking in the indicated direction.

George Harrington waited until a paroxysm was over, and the patient had for the moment ceased to struggle, before leaping upon a table and rapidly unhooking the piece of drapery, which was formed into a broad band, and tightly secured across the patient's chest before being fastened below the couch.

"Half an hour to wait before we can get the medicine, I'm afraid," said the doctor. "I want to get him composed, and then we might put him in a fly and drive up to his chambers."

"You'll never get him away to-night," said George Harrington bluntly.

"Rather hard on the ladies; but he is a relative, and it seems to me that you ought to keep him here."

"I'm afraid he is right, Hampton," said the doctor. "Good heavens! what a paroxysm."

There was a long struggle, during which the delirious man made desperate efforts to get free.

"Down, beast!" he literally growled; and in his terrible fit he seemed to be struggling with the dog. "Down, brute! I'll dash your brains out! Curse him! how strong he is?"

There was a few moments' cessation, and Mrs Hampton, who had been wringing her hands by the window, and trying hard to master her emotion, came up to say calmly:

"Can I do anything?"

"Yes. Go and see whom Gertrude has sent," cried the doctor impatiently.

"If that old woman has gone, it will be an hour before she is back."

Mrs Hampton hurried out, and the sound made by the closing door seemed to startle the sick man into action again.

"Ah, would you?" he growled. "Beast! Devil! What! Bite! Ah!"

He uttered a yell of pain, and clapped his hand upon his injured arm.

"Curse you! take that, and that. Now then! Yes, yelp and snarl.

You'll never bite again. Ah! It's like red-hot irons going into my flesh; but kill your mad dog, they say, and there's no harm done."

"That miserable dog's attack seems to have quite overset him," whispered the lawyer. "Good heavens! what a terrible position for us all."

George Harrington said nothing, but stood at the head of the couch, ready to seize and hold the sufferer the moment the next paroxysm occurred.

He had not long to wait, for with a howl that did not seem human, Saul Harrington made such a start that the couch cracked as if it was being wrenched apart.

"Ah, you here! Watching! But you can't speak--you can't tell tales.

If I'd known, I'd have silenced you. Lie down, brute! Do you hear--lie down! Hey, Bruno, then; good dog. Lie down, old man," he said, laughing softly, and talking in a low cajoling tone. "You know me, Bruno. Good dog, then. Lie down, old fellow. Friends, do you hear-- friends. Good dog, then."

He extended a hand toward the dog he imagined that he saw, smiling unpleasantly the while, and then once more he started and yelled horribly.

"Down, you beast! Curse you! Bitten me, have you. I'll have your life, if I die for it. Beast! Devil! Curse you! Strong, are you?