tell, I felt more than a
little anxious, and although I had persuaded Edgecumbe that when
morning came everything would be well, I dreaded his awakening.

As good fortune would have it, I found the doctor at home, who listened
with great eagerness and attention to my story.

'It is the strangest thing I have ever heard of,' he said, when I had
finished.

'Do you fear any grave results?' I asked.

'Luscombe,' he replied, 'I can speak to you freely. I will go with you
to see him, but the whole business is out of my depth. For the matter
of that, I doubt if any doctor in England could prophesy what will
happen to him. All the same, I see no reason why everything should not
be right.'

Without waking him, Dr. Merril took his temperature, felt his pulse,
listened to the beating of his heart.

'Everything is right, isn't it?' asked Lord Carbis anxiously.

'As far as I can tell, yes.'

'And there is nothing you can do more than has been done?'

'Nothing,' replied the doctor; 'one of the great lessons which my
profession has taught me is, as far as possible, to leave Nature to do
her own work.'

'And you think he will awake natural and normal to-morrow morning?'
whispered the older man.

'I see no reason why he should not,' he said. All the same, there was
an anxious look in his eyes as he went away.

CHAPTER XXXVI

EDGECUMBE'S RESOLUTION

In spite of my excitement, I slept heavily and late, and when I awoke I
found that it was past ten o'clock. Dressing hurriedly, I rushed to
Edgecumbe's bedroom and found him not only awake, but jubilant.

'It's all right, old man,' he said. 'I am a new man. Merril has
already been here. He advises me to be quiet for a day or two, but I
am going to get up.'

'And there are no ill effects? Your mind is quite clear?'

'Clear as a bell. There is just one black ugly spot; but it doesn't
affect things.'

'Black ugly spot?' I asked anxiously.

'Yes, I'll tell you about it presently. Not that it matters.'

Throughout the day I saw very little of him, as neither his father nor
mother would allow him out of their sight. It was pathetic the way
they followed him wherever he went. I saw, too, that they were
constantly watching him, as if looking for some sign of illness or
trouble. I imagine that their joy was so sudden, so wonderful, that
they could scarcely believe their own senses. It was evident, too,
that they gloried in his career since I had met him