ink you are!"

Terence Gordon's breezy voice boomed in Lessing's ear. Terence's big
hands laid hold of him, turned him round on his chair, and pressed him
back against its rails. His good-humoured face puckered with concern
as he met the blank stare in the man's eyes, and he continued to pour
forth a stream of slangy reassurements, the while Lessing slowly
regained his composure. He could not have told whether it was ten
seconds or ten hours during which he had sat waiting for death, but so
utterly had he lost touch with the things of earth that it was only by
degrees that he could realise that he was still alive and unharmed,
and that this singularly earthly young man was seated by his side,
ragging him for his mysterious exhibition of funk.

"Got 'em again--eh, what?" said Terence severely. "Tell you what, you
gave me a touch myself, when you leaped upon me like that. Steady,
old man. Steady! What's it all about?"

"Terence," said Lessing thickly, "go back to the house. Look after
your sister. I--I am going away. I can't stay. I'm bringing danger
upon her, upon you all--I can't explain. I--I've been warned--"

"Strikes me," said Terence slowly. "Strikes me, if there's any taking
care of Delia to be done, it's your business to do it. Hardly playing
the game is it, to run away just at this point?"

"For Heaven's sake, don't torture me," cried Lessing wildly. "How can
you judge? You don't understand. You don't understand--"

"Strikes me very forcibly, my dear fella," said Terence once more,
"that it's _you_ that don't understand!" He thrust his arm round the
corner of the summer-house, and produced the small black bag, which he
was wont to carry on his expeditions to hospital. He placed the bag
on the table, and seated himself before it with an air of intense
enjoyment. "Just keep your eye on your uncle, my lad, and we'll see
if he can help you to understand!"

And then, calmly, complacently, in the full light of day, that medical
student produced from that bag--first, a wig of black hair powdered
with grey; secondly, a beard; thirdly, a pair of tufted eyebrows;
fourthly a curious arrangement of wire clips connecting four large
teeth; and fifthly, a bottle containing a brown fluid or dye.

Calmly, composedly, in the full light of day, did that medical student
don one after the other: the wig, beard, eyebrows, and teeth, and