here were to the contrary,
this was an absolutely unfurnished house. As he reached the last stair
he looked keenly at the man who held the lamp--a middle-aged man,
loose-jointed and loosely dressed, with iron-gray hair and a scar upon
his cheek. He spoke with a slightly foreign accent, and, with a bow,
moved aside from the doorway in which he stood.

"You are welcome, sir; I thank you. Enter, if you please."

Doctor Brudenell did so, then started and stopped involuntarily. A sick
man, a man on the point of dying--were they mad enough to keep him in a
room such as this? A room? A sty, rather! The door was stone, with a
few sacks spread upon it; the windows were secured by crazy shutters,
the only table was formed by boards laid upon two old barrels, and the
two or three chairs were broken. The only other piece of furniture or
semblance of furniture was an old couch, the horse-hair covering
tattered, straggling pieces of the stuffing hanging down. Lying upon it
was the figure of a man, with some roughly-applied bandages about his
head and face.

Strange as it all was, the sight of this man, the cause of his being
there, restored to the Doctor his professional coolness and
self-possession. He was a medical man--this was his patient. He
advanced, and with rapid deft fingers removed the bandages, laying bare
a face so horribly disfigured that, practiced as he was, he felt his
own turn pale. He spoke quickly and aloud, knowing that the sick man
was insensible, and looking at the other two.

"What's this? What has happened to this man? He is burnt!"

"As you say, sir." The gray-haired man, still holding the lamp, bowed.

"Most horribly burnt--and with chemicals. Is it not so?"

"It is, sir."

"There has been an explosion. He was trying to do something with
them--probably combine them--he made a mistake in his method or
calculations, and they exploded," said the Doctor rapidly.

"Again you are right, sir." The two men exchanged swift glances of
mingled admiration and contempt--admiration of the Doctor's quickness
and lucidity, contempt of him for being there. He did not see them; he
was continuing his examination of the insensible man. The injuries to
the head and face were the worst, but the throat, chest, and arms were
also burned severely. Doctor Brudenell rose from the knee upon which he
had sunk down to pursue his examination.

"You should have told me what the case was," he said sternly, looking
at the young m