Any thought of suffering in others--of poor women in childbirth, of rabbits caught in traps, of dogs poisoned, of children run over or accidentally wounded--these things, if he knew of them, produced an odd sort of sympathetic pain in himself. The strangest thing had been that the war, with all its horrors, had not driven him crazy as he might have expected from his earlier history. On so terrible a scale was it that his senses soon became numbed? He did the work that he was given to do, and heard of the rest like cries beyond the wall. Again and again he had tried to mingle, himself, in it; he had always been prevented. A dog run over by a motor car struck him more terribly than all the agonies of Ypres. But these things, what had they to do with his present case? He could not think at all. His brain literally reeled, as though it shook, tried to steady itself, could not, and then turned right over. His body was alive, standing up with all its nerves on tiptoe. How was he to endure these hours that were coming to him? "I must get out of this!" some one, not himself, cried. It seemed to him that he could hear the strange voice in the room. "I must get out of this. How dare they keep me if I demand to be let out? I am an American citizen. Let me out of this. Can't you hear? Bring me a light and let me out. I have had enough of this dark room. What do you mean by keeping me here? You think that you are stronger than I. Try it and see. Let me out, I say! Let me out!" He tottered to his feet and ran across the room, although he could not see his way, blundering against the opposite wall. He beat upon it with his hands. "Let me out, do you hear! Let me out!" He was not himself, Harkness. He could no longer repeat those earlier words. He was nobody, nothing, nothing at all. They could not hurt him then. Try as they might they could not hurt him, Harkness, when he was not Harkness. He laughed, stroking the wall gently with his hand as though it were his friend. "It's all right, do you see? You can't hurt me because you can't find me. I'm hiding, _I_ don't know where to find myself, so that it isn't likely you will find me. You can't hurt nothing, you know. You can't indeed." He laughed and laughed and laughed--gently enjoying his own joke. There was a sudden knocking at the door. "Come in!" he said in a whisper. "Come in!" His heart stood still with fear. The door opened, splashing into the darkness a shower of light like water flung from a bucket. In the centre of this the two Japanese were standing. "Master says please come. If you ready he ready." At sight of the Japanese a marvellous thing had happened. All his fear had on the instant left him, his beastly physical fear. It fell from him like an old suit of clothes, discarded. He was himself, clear-headed, cool, collected, and in some strange new way, happy. Harkness followed them. III