ons, both
morning and evening; whilst the rest of the day was devoted to such
much-needed recreation as they thought in their consciences might
legitimately be indulged in. Manners and Nicholls, after the manner of
seamen, usually devoted a great deal of time on this particular day to
the requirements of the toilette and the patching up of their clothes;
whilst the two married men devoted themselves entirely to their
families, taking their wives and the youngsters for tolerably long walks
when the weather permitted. Sometimes the two families took these
excursions in company, sometimes separately, according to their
inclinations at the moment; and, whether separately or together, Gaunt
usually carried his sketch-block and colours, whilst Henderson always
took his specimen box; the one being as enthusiastic an amateur artist
as the other was a botanist and chemist. When the weather was
unfavourable for these walks Gaunt was in the habit of routing out some
interesting book from his large stock and reading from it aloud; whilst
Henderson, in the privacy of a little laboratory he had managed to fit
up, prosecuted his researches into the nature of the various plants and
herbs he had collected in former rambles.

They were all thus engaged on the afternoon of an atrociously wet
Sunday, about a month after the mysterious disappearance of poor Captain
Blyth, when the rest of the party were suddenly startled by a loud cry
for help from Henderson, the call being instantly repeated twice or
thrice in a much weaker tone of voice.

Tossing aside his book and springing to his feet Gaunt at once rushed
off to the laboratory, with all the others close at his heels, and there
they discovered the unfortunate doctor in a most extraordinary state of
mind and body, and at the same time became conscious of a faint fragrant
odour pervading the atmosphere of the room. Pale as death, with all his
limbs hanging limp as if paralysed, the poor fellow was huddled up in a
chair upon which he had evidently hung himself when the seizure--or
whatever it was--first came upon him. His eyes were rolling wildly, his
teeth chattered as though he were suffering from an ague fit, and his
moustache and beard _were_ flecked with foam. But it was evident that
he still retained his reason, for the moment that he saw the little
crowd pouring into the room he cried out in a weak but piercing voice:

"Fly! fly for your lives, every one of you but Gaunt! _F