"Yes, of course," said the doctor, and lifting the cover he proved that I had not been robbed by the surgeon's knife. "Got both arms, too, you see." "But I'm pretty badly hurt." "Well, the blow-up didn't do you any particular good, but you are coming along all right. All we've got to guard against now is a rise in temperature, and there'll be no danger of that if you keep quiet." "But the other members of the company. Tell me about them." "They're all right--the most of them. You shall have all the details in due time, but now you must keep quiet." They went out, closing the door softly, and I dozed off to sleep; and when I awoke I was thankful to find that the day was still broad. I was conscious that someone was in the room, and, slightly turning, I beheld an enormous negro, standing in the middle of the floor, looking at me. "You have had a good sleep, Sir," he said, "and I have waited for you to awake so that I could give you some refreshment." He spoke with a precision that was almost painful, as if he were translating a sentence from a dead language, and my look must have betrayed my astonishment, for his thick lips parted in a smile, broad, but sedate. He appeared to be pleased at my surprise, and, smiling again, he bowed and quitted the room, but soon returned with a tray which he placed on a chair near the bed. "Here is something which the physician has pronounced good for you to eat," he said, "but don't try to sit up. Here, let me get my arm under you, this way. Now we have it." "Take it away, I'm not hungry," I said, after finding the position too painful to endure. He eased me down, put the chair back and stood looking at me. "Won't you sit down?" "No, I thank you, Sir." "But it makes me tired to see you stand." "Then, Sir, I will sit down." He brought another chair, and, seating himself, he turned his searching eyes upon me. He was so enormous and he towered so, even after sitting down, that he inspired a feeling of creepy dread, his eyes so black and his smile so grave; and I was sure that in his presence the day could not long continue to be broad; indeed, I could see that the light at the window was slowly fading. "I asked them if I might come and nurse you," he said. "There were other stricken ones that I might have nursed, but I heard that you were an actor, and then I knew where my duty lay." "I am thankful for your partiality to my profession, at any rate," I replied. He smiled, and his great teeth gleamed in the fading light. "I was not influenced by the partiality of the flesh, but by the duty laid upon the spirit. Most anyone could nurse your body, but I begged the privilege of nursing your soul as well." "Ah, and you think an actor's soul is in especial need of nursing?"