"Hunted! Yes; like some miserable hare by the hounds. They are on my scent now. Night and day, doctor, night and day, till they have nearly driven me mad." "Mad? Nonsense! Your brain is as sound as mine." "Yes, now; but they will drive me mad. Night and day, I tell you--night and day, I have not dared to sleep," continued the young man wildly; "no, I have not dared to sleep, for fear that I should not wake again." "Indeed, Heath! And who hunted you?" "Fiends--demons in human form. I have been so that I could not sleep for fear of them. They have always been on my track--on the road through the desert, across the mountains, at the port, on shipboard; they appeared again here in England, at the docks, at the hotel, in the streets; hunted, I tell you, till I have seemed to be hunted to death." "Be calm, my dear boy, be calm. Come, you must have sleep." "Sleep? Yes, if I could only sleep; but no, I could not--I could not-- only drink, doctor, drink; and it has never made me drunk, only keep me up--help me to escape from the devils." "Ah, you have drunk a good deal, then?" "Yes; brandy--brandy. It has been my only friend and support, doctor. I dared not go to an hotel; I was afraid to trust a bank; I had no friend to whom I could go; and I swore I would trust myself till I could get here safe in England." "Where you are safe now." "No, not yet, for they are tracking me. I got to Liverpool yesterday, and tried to throw them off; but they followed me to the hotel, and I dared trust no one there. They might have said I was mad, and claimed me; said I was a thief--a dozen things to get me into their hands." "Be calm, Heath, be calm." "Calm? How can a hunted man be calm with the jaws--the wet, hungry jaws--of the hounds on his heels--while he feels that in a moment they may spring upon him and rend him? Oh, doctor, doctor, you never were a hunted man." "No, no," said the doctor blandly; "but we must master ourselves when we feel that excitement leading us astray." "Ay, and I have mastered myself till I can do no more," cried the young man wildly; "I escaped from Liverpool." "Escaped?" "Yes, and managed to get to the train, as I thought, unseen; but at the first stopping station I saw the demons pass my carriage and look in. They had changed their dress, and disguised themselves, but I knew them at once, and that my attempts were vain. It was growing dark when we reached London, and when they took the tickets I waited till the train went on again, and then leaped for my life." "You leaped from the train?" "Yes. I wonder I did not when it was at full speed, faraway in the country." "Hah!" ejaculated the doctor.