hiver, though the stove had retained some
heat and the sun was shining into the room brightly. He took his gold
watch from his pocket--a possession that had escaped drowning with
him--and ascertained that his pulse was beating more than a hundred times
a minute, which is too much for a healthy man. But he paid no attention
to his condition, got up, washed all over in cold water, dressed, and
prepared his breakfast, by no means feeling like an invalid. Nevertheless
he was aware he ought to be cautious, knowing that now, when the tension
and excitement had relaxed, his body might have to confess to its
consumption of capital and file a petition in bankruptcy. Sometimes,
without a warning to one's strength, the body overcomes the severest
hardships as if the thing were mere child's play; and all goes well so
long as the stimulated body is in motion. It works on its surplus energy,
and as soon as the will and the tension relax, it collapses.

XXVI

Shortly before ten o'clock Frederick was in his friend's consultation
room. The walk to Meriden on the brisk winter day had done him good.

"How did you sleep?" asked Schmidt. "You know, you superstitious people
maintain that what you dream the first night in a strange place will come
true."

"I hope not," said Frederick. "My first night was rather insignificant,
and things passed helter-skelter through my brain."

He said nothing of a dream he had had, in which he heard the ringing of
the electric bells on the _Roland_. Though he fought against the
impression, it obstinately transported him back to those horrid moments
of the shipwreck. Little by little this illusion of his hearing had
become Frederick's cross. Sometimes he feared it might be a species of
aura, which he, as a physician, knew not infrequently announces an attack
of severe illness.

The consultation rooms of the two physicians were separated by the
waiting-room, which they used in common. Mrs. Schmidt, whom Frederick had
met the day before, came over and, greeting him parenthetically, asked
her husband to help her with the examination of one of her patients, a
woman of about twenty-seven, who shortly before had married a workman
holding a good position in one of the Meriden factories. The woman
complained of an upset stomach. Mrs. Schmidt suspected cancer of the
stomach.

Both Schmidt and his wife asked Frederick to join them in the
examination. They found the patient smiling as she lay stretched o