"I have numbered them. Let me see--oh, yes. First, the burly man walks
with a slight limp in the right leg. Second, of the two men with him,
all I could note was that one spoke with a decided French accent and
had a hollow cough, tuberculous, I think; the other, who scarcely
uttered a word, was short and stocky, and of enormous strength. He
fairly lifted me into and out of the car when I was blindfolded at the
entrance of the place they called a sanitarium. Third, the car had a
peculiar horn; I have never heard one like it before. Its blast was
sharp and wailing, not like a siren, but more like the howl of a
wounded animal. I would know it again, anywhere. Fourth, there is a
railroad bridge very near the house to which I was taken--I distinctly
heard two trains thunder over the trestles while I was attending my
patient. Fifth, I should judge the place to be more of a retreat for
alcoholics or the insane, than for those suffering from accident, or
any form of physical injury. A patient in some remote part of the
house was undoubtedly a maniac or in the throes of an attack of
delirium tremens. I heard his cries at intervals as I worked, until
he quieted down finally.
"Sixth, the bedroom where my patient is lying is on the second floor,
the windows facing south and east; there was a moon last night, and
one of the curtains was partly raised. His door is just at the head of
the stairs on your right as you go up, and the stairs are on a
straight line with the front door--therefore the house faces south.
Seventh, when we returned to my home, and were in my office, the burly
man had to pull the glove off his right hand to get the wallet from
his pocket in order to pay me my fee, and I saw that two fingers were
missing--they had both been amputated at the middle joint. Also, when
they were leaving, I heard the man who spoke with an accent address
him as 'Mac.'"
"Mac! It's three-fingered Mac Alarney, by the Lord!" Blaine started
from his chair. "Why did I not think of him before! Doctor, you have
rendered to me and to my client an invaluable service, which shall not
be forgotten. Mac Alarney is a retired prize-fighter, in close touch
with all the political crooks and grafters in the city. He runs a sort
of retreat for alcoholics up near Green Valley, and bears a generally
shady reputation. Are you game to go back with me to-night for another
call on your patient? You will be well guarded and in no possible
danger, now or for the future. I give you my word for that. I may need
you to verify some facts."
The doctor hesitated visibly.
"I am not afraid," he replied, at last, "but I scarcely feel that it
is conformable with the ethics of my calling. I was called in, in my
professional capacity--"
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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