but anyhow, the thing to do was to get back to bed
and to quiet, and to hope for the best.

"He forgot the hounds, the hunt, and everything else in his desperate
fears for his own reason. He sprang upon his mare, galloped her madly
over the downs, and only stopped when he found himself at a country
station. There he left his mare at the inn, and made back for home as
quickly as steam would take him. It was evening before he got there,
shivering with apprehension, and seeing those red eyes and savage teeth
at every turn. He went straight to bed and sent for Dr. Middleton.

"'I've got 'em, doctor,' said he. 'It came about exactly as you said--
strange creatures, optical delusions, and everything. All I ask you now
is to save my reason.' The doctor listened to his story, and was
shocked as he heard it.

"'It appears to be a very clear case,' said he. 'This must be a lesson
to you for life.'

"'Never a drop again if I only come safely through this,' cried Wat
Danbury.

"'Well, my dear boy, if you will stick to that it may prove a blessing
in disguise. But the difficulty in this case is to know where fact ends
and fancy begins. You see, it is not as if there was only one delusion.
There have been several. The dead dogs, for example, must have been one
as well as the creature in the bush.'

"'I saw it all as clearly as I see you.'

"'One of the characteristics of this form of delirium is that what you
see is even clearer than reality. I was wondering whether the whole run
was not a delusion also.'

"Wat Danbury pointed to his hunting boots still lying upon the floor,
necked with the splashings of two counties.

"'Hum! that looks very real, certainly. No doubt, in your weak state,
you over-exerted yourself and so brought this attack upon yourself.
Well, whatever the cause, our treatment is clear. You will take the
soothing mixture which I will send to you, and we shall put two leeches
upon your temples to-night to relieve any congestion of the brain.'

"So Wat Danbury spent the night in tossing about and reflecting what a
sensitive thing this machinery of ours is, and how very foolish it is to
play tricks with what is so easily put out of gear and so difficult to
mend. And so he repeated and repeated his oath that this first lesson
should be his last, and that from that time forward he would be a sober,
hard-working yeoman as his father had been before him. So he lay,
tossing and still repentant, wh