"Don't you do anything but eat?" Wardrop asked, without enthusiasm.

Burton eyed him reproachfully. "Is that what I get for doing without
lunch, in order to prove to you that you are not crazy?" He appealed to
me. "He says he's crazy--lost his think works. Now, I ask you, Knox,
when I go to the trouble to find out for him that he's got as many
convolutions as anybody, and that they've only got a little convolved,
is it fair, I ask you, for him to reproach me about my food?"

"I didn't know you knew each other," I put in, while Burton took another
sardine.

"He says we do," Wardrop said wearily; "says he used to knock me around
at college."

Burton winked at me solemnly.

"He doesn't remember me, but he will," he said. "It's his nerves that
are gone, and we'll have him restrung with new wires, like an old piano,
in a week."

Wardrop had that after-debauch suspicion of all men, but I think he
grasped at me as a dependability.

"He wants me to go to a doctor," he said. "I'm not sick; it's only--" He
was trying to light a cigarette, but the match dropped from his shaking
fingers.

"Better see one, Wardrop," I urged--and I felt mean enough about doing
it. "You need something to brace you up."

Burton gave him a very small drink, for he could scarcely stand, and we
went down in the elevator. My contempt for the victim between us was as
great as my contempt for myself. That Wardrop was in a bad position
there could be no doubt; there might be more men than Fleming who had
known about the money in the leather bag, and who thought he had taken
it and probably killed Fleming to hide the theft.

It seemed incredible that an innocent man would collapse as he had done,
and yet--at this minute I can name a dozen men who, under the club of
public disapproval, have fallen into paresis, insanity and the grave. We
are all indifferent to our fellow-men until they are against us.

Burton knew the specialist very well--in fact, there seemed to be few
people he did not know. And considering the way he had got hold of Miss
Letitia and Wardrop, it was not surprising. He had evidently arranged
with the doctor, for the waiting-room was empty and we were after
hours.

The doctor was a large man, his size emphasized by the clothes he wore,
very light in color, and unprofessional in cut. He was sandy-haired,
inclined to be bald, and with shrewd, light blue eyes behind his
glasses. Not particularly impressive, except as to size, on