. But I did it all
because I had to. A sanitarium wouldn't do me or anyone else any good,
and it would be a heavy expense. I have taken the responsibility for
another pure, innocent woman, and I must support her. The war and the
depression swept away my father's fortune, and my present business has
dwindled away till I am making only the barest living. I have applied
for the agency for a big Berlin insurance company, and if I can get it,
along with my other business, I shall be fairly comfortable. But I
understand there is some talk of their sending in a representative from
outside. If they do that, if they take the bread out of my mouth like
that, it won't be good for the outsider!"

He was drunk, and his drunkenness was working him into an ugly mood. He
was dangerous, and physical courage was never my strong point.

"What is the name of the Berlin company?" I asked timidly.

He named the firm I myself worked for. Then he fumbled for his bottle,
and with stern and painful attention set about the difficult and
delicate task of filling his glass again. I muttered something about
being back in a moment, and made for the door. He was too busy to pay
any attention to me.

When I had the door safely shut behind me, I sprinted through the rain
to my hotel as if the devil himself were after me....

* * * * *

It was a long time before I got over waking up in the middle of the
night with the feeling that an icy, iron-muscled hand was clutching at
my throat. I don't have the experience often any more, but I have never
seen the city of my birth since that awful night. I got out on the
midnight train, and my company obligingly gave me territory on the other
side of Germany.

Some time ago I happened to see a notice in the paper to the effect that
a certain patient named G. Banaotovich had died suddenly in the
Staatliche Nervenheilanstalt in Nuremberg. But I have met the name
rather frequently of late, and I think it is a fairly common one. I
didn't investigate.

* * * * *

[Footnote 1: Adapted by Roy Temple House from the German.]

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