, and so was the younger
doctor's. "Look and see if any one is listening, for God's sake," Gordon
gasped, after one terrific outburst, and James looked, but Georgie K.
was keeping watch that nobody approached the door.

James never knew how long he was in that room with Gordon listening to
those frenzied ravings, and striving with him to keep the man from
injuring himself. The daylight waned, James lighted a lamp. Then a
mighty creaking was heard outside, and Georgie K., himself bearing a
great supper tray, knocked at the door. "It's me, and I brought you
something," he shouted, and then they heard his retreating footsteps.
Much delicacy was there in Georgie K., and much affection for Doctor
Gordon.

James brought in the tray, and now and then he and Gordon took advantage
of a slight lull to take a bite, but neither had any desire for food. It
was only the instinctive sense that they must keep up their strength in
order that nobody else should hear what they were hearing, that forced
them to eat and drink. Well into the evening the ravings stopped
suddenly, the man fell back upon his pillow, and lay still. James
thought at first that all was over, but presently stertorous breathing
began.

"Now get Georgie K. up," Gordon said hoarsely. "There is no further need
for us to be alone, and there will be directions to be given."

James went out and found Georgie K. sitting up in his bar-room.

"Doctor Gordon wants you," he said.

"How is he?" asked Georgie K., following James.

"Dying."

Georgie K. made an indescribable sound in his throat as the two men
ascended the stair.

The man was a long time dying. It seemed to James as if that awful
struggle of the soul for release from the body would never cease. He
knew, or thought he knew, that there was no suffering to the dying man,
but, after all, the sounds as of suffering seemed almost to prove it.
Gordon whispered for a while to Georgie K., as if the dying man might be
disturbed by audible speech. Then Georgie K. tiptoed out in his creaking
boots, and James knew that some arrangements were to be perfected for
the last services to the dead. Gordon stood over the bed, with his own
face as ghastly as that of its occupant. James dared not speak to him.

It was midnight when the dreadful breathing ceased, and there was
silence. Georgie K. had returned. The three living men looked at one
another with ghastly understanding of what had happened, then they
hastily arrange