ly_! I say;
stay not a moment. My dear fellow," turning to Gaunt, "_drive_ them
out; _throw_ them out if they will not go otherwise! And throw open
that window at once; this atmosphere is _deadly_, I tell you."

This statement had the desired effect; the room was cleared promptly,
everybody beating a somewhat precipitate retreat but the engineer and
Mrs Henderson, the latter quietly but firmly refusing to be removed,
upon the double plea that it was no more dangerous for her than for
Gaunt, and that, whether or no, her proper place was beside her husband.
As for Gaunt, he acted with his usual decision, first dashing the
window wide-open, and next stooping to raise his friend and convey him
into a presumably more healthy atmosphere; and if any additional motive
beyond solicitude for the sufferer were needed to impel him to this step
he had it, first in the awful pallor which suddenly overspread Mrs
Henderson's features, and secondly in a curious sickly feeling of
lassitude and languor which he felt stealing over himself. But, to his
unspeakable surprise, no sooner did he approach Henderson than the
latter shrank away from him with a cry of fear, beseeching him in a weak
voice not to come near him. Gaunt, however, by no means saw matters in
this light; if the atmosphere were deadly, or even deleterious, as his
own increasingly unpleasant sensations made him perfectly ready to
believe, then the sooner they three were out of it the better. So,
disregarding the unfortunate doctor's protestations and entreaties, he
raised him in his arms and, notwithstanding the increasing sensation of
feebleness and numbness which oppressed him, staggered with his burden
into the outer air of the court-yard, closely followed of course by Mrs
Henderson. But it was a most trying business altogether, for no sooner
did Gaunt lay hands upon the sufferer, though he did it ever so gently,
than the poor fellow rent the air with his screams, crying out between
whiles that Gaunt was crushing him to death and that he was stripping
the flesh off his bones. It was a most extraordinary affair altogether,
for they could get no intelligible explanation from the patient even
after they had with infinite trouble and care--seemingly at the cost of
the acutest agony to Henderson--conveyed him to his own room and laid
him on his bed. He could do nothing but shiver and moan and cower down
among the coverings, and entreat that nobody--not even his wife or