ing his lips; and his slouched hat fell off, showing
his wet brow, with the tangled hair clinging to it in a matted mass.

"I thought--" he gasped. "Ah, doctor, it is you!"

"Yes, sir; sit down and let's see. You seem quite exhausted."

"Don't you know me, doctor?"

"Know you? Good heavens!" cried the doctor in astonishment. "Mark
Heath?"

"Mark Heath," said the visitor, sinking back with a groan.

"We thought you must be dead," said the doctor.

"You thought I must be dead," said the young man, passing his hand over
his brow, and speaking in a strange and laboured way. "Yes, and I
thought I must be dead--a dozen times over. I'm half dead now. What's
that?"

He almost yelled the last words as he started to his feet again, his
eyes wild, his right hand clinched, and his left thrust into the breast,
as if in search of a weapon.

"I heard nothing," said the doctor. "Sit down."

"Some one in the street trying to get in."

"No, no, no. Sit down, my dear boy. Come, come: what's the matter?"

"Are you sure you cannot hear any one?"

"Quite, and even if I could, no one could get in without I opened the
door."

"Hah!" ejaculated the young man, sinking down; "brandy! for God's sake,
brandy!"

The doctor looked at him, hesitated, and ended by laying his hand upon
his visitor's pulse, as he sat gazing strangely at the door.

If the doctor's soft touch had been that of white-hot iron the effect
could not have been greater, for with a smothered shriek the young man
sprang from his chair and stood at bay by the door.

"Why, Mark Heath, my good fellow, this will not do," said the doctor
blandly. "There, there, come and sit down. I was only feeling your
pulse."

A faint smile came over the young man's face, and he walked back to his
chair.

"I thought it was one of those fiends," he said, with a shudder.

The doctor coupled the admission with the mention of the brandy, but he
was not satisfied as to the symptoms, though, seeing his visitor's
exhaustion, he went to his closet and took out a spirit decanter, with
tumblers, poured a little into one glass, and was about to add water to
it from the little bright kettle singing on the hob, when the young man
snatched at the glass, and tossed off the brandy at a gulp; but even as
he was in the act of setting down the glass, he started and stared
wildly round towards the door.

"Hist!" he whispered.

"Pooh! there is nothing, my dear sir," said the doctor