lean
bed with a feeling of disgust. It was so different from the coarse
cotton sheets--bleached white as snow, and smelling sweet of the fresh,
pure air--that covered her own little bed. The room, too, was hot,
close, and stifling.

Still this was nothing to the fear she felt for Duncan, lying so ill and
wretched in this miserable attic, without mother, or granny, or any one
to see after him.

The candle burnt out, and they were left alone in the dark. There was no
chance of sleeping, for Duncan tossed and plunged about, trying to find
some cool resting-place for his fevered limbs. The moments dragged
slowly away--so slowly that poor Elsie thought the dreadful night would
never go.

About the middle of the night Duncan began to mutter rapidly to himself.
He spoke so quickly and incoherently that Elsie could not make out what
he was saying. She jumped out of bed, and felt about for the water,
thinking he was asking for it. He drank some eagerly, and then went on
chattering again.

Suddenly he raised himself up in the bed, and caught hold of Elsie,
clinging to her with a grasp that made her utter a cry of pain. "He's
killing me! he's got a knife! Mother, he's got me!" he shrieked out;
then with a dreadful cry he fell back on the bed, catching his breath in
great spasmodic sobs that shook the bed.

"It's all right, darling!" Elsie cried, her teeth chattering with fear,
so that she could hardly speak. "There's no one but me--Elsie."

Presently he went on talking to himself again.

Elsie put her head close to listen, but could only catch a word here and
there. "So cold--so tired--do let us go home, Elsie--can't walk--hurts
me, it hurts me!" he kept on repeating over and over again, his voice
rising almost to a scream of terror sometimes, then sinking into a moan
of pain.

Suddenly he jumped up again and screamed, "They are lions, Elsie! they
are not sheep. Lions and tigers and wolves! Run, Elsie, run, faster!
Come, come, come!" He caught hold of her, and bounded off the bed,
dragging her with him on to the bare hard boards, where he pulled and
tore at her with such a strength that Elsie could not free herself from
him for many minutes. When she did, he flew across the room, coming with
a terrible crash against the wall, and sinking in a heap on the floor.

Elsie groped her way after him to pick him up, but she could not move
him. He lay there like a weight of lead. She knocked furiously at the
wall.

Presently