"Don't know so much about that, doctor," said the young man, dryly, "but you ought." "Perhaps so," replied Leigh, "but I am what you would call crotchety, and I must treat him as I would a man who never did me harm. Come, your wine has strung you up. Let's get to work." "Must I? Hadn't you better put the beggar out of his misery? He isn't a bit of good in the world, and has done a lot of harm to everyone he knows." "Bad fracture," said Leigh, gravely, as he passed his hand round the insensible man's head, "but not complicated. He must have fallen with tremendous violence." "Of course he did," said Claud. "He had my weight on him, as well as his own. Can he hear what we say?" "No, and will not for some time to come. Now, take the scissors out of my pocket-book, and cut away all the hair round the back. There, cut close: don't be afraid." "Afraid! Not I," said Claud, with a laugh, "I'll take it all off, and make him look like a--what I hope he will be--a convict." He began snipping away industriously, talking flippantly the while, to keep down the feeling of faintness which still troubled him. "Fancy me coming to be old Garstang's barber! I say, doctor, you'd like to keep a lock of the beggar's hair, wouldn't you? I mean to have one." "Mind what you are doing," said Leigh, quietly; and as Claud went on cutting he prepared bandages with one hand and his teeth, from another of the fine damask napkins; and in spite of the pain he suffered, bandaged the injury, and at last sank exhausted in a chair, but rose directly to go across to the library. "How is she?" said Claud, anxiously, upon his return. "The effects are passing off, and in two or three hours I hope she will come to." "Then look here," said Claud, anxiously, "ought I to--I mean, ought you to send over to somebody and tell her how things are going on? She'll be horribly anxious." Leigh frowned slightly. "You mean my sister, of course," he said. "No; she is aware that I was called in to a case of emergency, but she does not know that it is here." "Doesn't she know? I say, though, I'm a bit puzzled how you came here." "This man fetched me." "Fetched you? How came he to do that?" "In ignorance of who I was, of course. But how came you here so opportunely?" "Oh, I've been watching and tracking for long enough, till I ran him to earth; and I've been trying for days to get at him. Got hold of that woman with the tied-up head at last--only this evening--and was going to bribe her, but she let out everything to me, and after telling me everything, said she'd let me in. So I went for you, and as you were out I was obliged to try and get Kate away at once. You know the rest I say, this is what you call a climax, isn't it?" Leigh sat gazing at him sternly, but Claud did not avoid his eyes, and went on. "Now look here; of course he got her for the sake of her money, and she can't stop here. But she must be taken away as soon as she can be moved."