going to
sleep. What I really came to say was that Hudson will go with you
to-morrow if you will be good enough to put up with him. He won't give
you any trouble. I would let him go with me next week if his wits would
stand the strain of travelling in my company, but I don't think they
will. I don't want to turn him into a gibbering maniac if I can help it."

"What have you been doing to him?" said Capper.

Nap smiled, faintly contemptous. "My dear doctor, I never do anything to
anybody. If people choose to credit me with possessing unholy powers,
you will allow that I am scarcely to be blamed if the temptation to trade
now and then upon their fertile imaginations proves too much for me."

"I allow nothing," Capper said, "that is not strictly normal and
wholesome."

"Then that places me on the black list at once," remarked Nap.
"Good-night!"

"Stay a moment!" ordered Capper. "Let me look at you. If you will
promise to behave like an ordinary human being for once, I'll give you
that draught."

"I'll promise anything you like," said Nap, a shade of weariness in his
voice. "I'm going up to town to-morrow, and I never sleep there so I
reckon this is my last chance for some time to come."

"Are you trying to kill yourself?" asked Capper abruptly.

But Nap only threw up his head and laughed. "If that were my object I'd
take a shorter cut than this. No, I guess I shan't die this way, Doctor.
You seem to forget the fact that I'm as tough as leather, with the
vitality of a serpent."

"The toughest of us won't go for ever," observed Capper. "You get to bed.
I'll come to you directly."

When he joined him again, a few minutes later, Nap was lying on his back
with arms flung wide, staring inscrutably at the ceiling. His mind seemed
to be far away, but Capper's hand upon his pulse brought it back. He
turned his head with the flicker of a smile.

"What's that for?"

"I happen to take an interest in you, my son," said Capper.

"Very good of you. But why?"

Capper was watching him keenly. "Because I have a notion that you
are wanted."

Nap stirred restlessly, and was silent.

"How long are you going to be away?" Capper asked.

"I don't know."

"For long?"

Nap's hand jerked impatiently from the doctor's hold. "Possibly
for ever."

Capper's long fingers began to crack. He looked speculative. "Say, Nap,"
he said suddenly, "we may not be exactly sympathetic, you and I, but I
guess we've pulled together long en