bor Man!"

The explanation was enough for Markham. Any explanation is enough for
any one in a dream. He went down the sidewalk fully satisfied with what
was said, and intent only upon his errand. He must find his love. Maybe
she had walked along to the next block. A group of bicyclists were
careering by as he crossed the street. One of them passed so close that
he ran over Markham's foot. Talk of sudden agony! It came then. The man
awoke. It was three o'clock in the morning, and his rheumatism had
developed suddenly into an agony. He said he would be practical. Surely,
medical science, if it could not do away with a disease all at once,
could alleviate extraordinary pain. Why should a man suffer needlessly?
He sent for the doctor, and there was another brush of words between
them. A degree of fun as well, for the doctor was not enduring anything,
and was making a study of the case, and Markham was, between the
ebullitions of agony, amused to an extent with his own strange physical
condition. It seemed like prestidigitation to him. Here is what the
doctor gave for his relief:

[Handwriting: illegible prescription]

The dose was taken as directed, and the man, suffering, set his teeth
and awaited results. They did not come. The dose was repeated,
duplicated and triplicated recklessly, but without result. The pain had
grown to such proportions that the nerves had become hysterical, and
would be stilled by no physician's potion. They were beyond all reason.
This is but a simple, brief account of a man and a woman and some
rheumatism. It has no plot, and is but the record of events. The
immediate sequence just at this stage of happenings was an analysis by
Markham of what it was he was enduring--that is, an attempt at analysis.
He was, necessarily, not at his best in a discriminating way. The
account may aid the doctors, though. Those of them who have not had
rheumatism must labor under disadvantages in a diagnosis.

There are certain great holes in great rocks by the sea into which the
water enters through submarine channels and creeps up and up, increasing
its bubbling and its seething, as the flood fills the natural well until
when the top is reached there is a boiling caldron. This is flood tide.
So it seemed to him, came the pain to Markham. There would be no
suffering, and then would come the faint perception that something
unpleasant was about to happen in a certain locality, it might be almost
anywhere, for the r