"Yes," said I, "and the treatment till then must be the same. Who knows--" "Who knows?" she repeated. A blast of wind and water and the closing of the door seemed to deny an answer. I found myself on the steps again, looking into the staring eyes of my car, and, with a sharp jump of my thoughts, wondering how we were to accomplish the work we had come to do. I descended, however, and when I had reached the door of my limousine, I saw Estabrook's drawn face pressed close to the glass. It was the sight of him that gave me an idea; it was his first words that, for a moment, drove it from my mind. "Look! Look!" he said to me. "Look at her window!" I had merely noticed that a new, bright light shone there; now, in a quick glance over my shoulder, I saw a shadow on the curtain--the shadow of a figure standing with its arms extended above a head, thrown back as if in agony. "Is it your wife?" I asked in a hoarse whisper. He took my wrist in the grip of his cold hand. "My God, Doctor, I don't know," he said. "It looks--its motions, its attitudes, its posture!--it looks like the thing I saw outside the Judge's window!" CHAPTER II MARGARET Well, now,--his words made me shudder! I confess it with some reluctance. Of course a doctor comes in contact with enough real horrors. They become ordinary. It is those undefined, doubtful things which run fear through the veins like a drug. Nevertheless I caught myself in time to conceal my nervousness. "Here, here, Estabrook!" I said in a sharp, businesslike tone. "We didn't come to watch drawn curtains. The question is, did you bring your keys?" Without asking me questions, he handed them over. "Now, understand me," I said, for I could see that in truth he was in no condition to offer much assistance. "My advice is for you to take these keys and walk into your own house." "I can't do that," he said irritably. "I've told you I can't do it--and why I can't." "Then understand me further," I said when a shriek of wind had gone off down the avenue. "I have debated this question and decided that we must not disturb your wife. She has warned against that, and perhaps it is better to assume she is not insane and take her warning." "Yes, yes," he cried. "That is right." "I shall not parley with Margaret Murchie," I went on. "Move a little! I have something I want to reach under the seat. There!--I shall not ask her to come. She will have no choice. It will all be over before she has time to cry out. And you must be ready to help me carry her into this car." "The law--" he began. "Oh, I know that," said I. "But it is a choice of doing this, or nothing. Any other course either makes you break your confounded, nonsensical word of honor, or else raises a noise that will bring the reporters around like so many vultures. It is your affair, after all. Shall I stop here?"