"It was utter madness to leave his bed," he said. "Perhaps he came in search of you." "Impossible. He could not have known I was coming down here. Great heavens! what a state he is in." For at that moment, as the sick man struggled in his delirium, he heaved himself till his body formed an arch, and it was all that the three men could do to keep him upon the couch. "Like anyone suffering from a powerful dose of strychnia," muttered the doctor. "What are you going to do, Lawrence?" whispered the lawyer. "Can't you give him some narcotic that will last till you get him back to his chambers?" "What I have sent for," said the doctor, in a quiet, business-like way. "Mrs Hampton, we want something to form a long broad band to hold him down to the couch, without doing any harm." "Why not one of those long curtains?" said George Harrington, pointing to an alcove full of books. "Yes, the very thing," cried the doctor, looking in the indicated direction. George Harrington waited until a paroxysm was over, and the patient had for the moment ceased to struggle, before leaping upon a table and rapidly unhooking the piece of drapery, which was formed into a broad band, and tightly secured across the patient's chest before being fastened below the couch. "Half an hour to wait before we can get the medicine, I'm afraid," said the doctor. "I want to get him composed, and then we might put him in a fly and drive up to his chambers." "You'll never get him away to-night," said George Harrington bluntly. "Rather hard on the ladies; but he is a relative, and it seems to me that you ought to keep him here." "I'm afraid he is right, Hampton," said the doctor. "Good heavens! what a paroxysm." There was a long struggle, during which the delirious man made desperate efforts to get free. "Down, beast!" he literally growled; and in his terrible fit he seemed to be struggling with the dog. "Down, brute! I'll dash your brains out! Curse him! how strong he is?" There was a few moments' cessation, and Mrs Hampton, who had been wringing her hands by the window, and trying hard to master her emotion, came up to say calmly: "Can I do anything?" "Yes. Go and see whom Gertrude has sent," cried the doctor impatiently. "If that old woman has gone, it will be an hour before she is back." Mrs Hampton hurried out, and the sound made by the closing door seemed to startle the sick man into action again. "Ah, would you?" he growled. "Beast! Devil! What! Bite! Ah!" He uttered a yell of pain, and clapped his hand upon his injured arm. "Curse you! take that, and that. Now then! Yes, yelp and snarl. You'll never bite again. Ah! It's like red-hot irons going into my flesh; but kill your mad dog, they say, and there's no harm done." "That miserable dog's attack seems to have quite overset him," whispered the lawyer. "Good heavens! what a terrible position for us all."