ad dropped, squatting
almost upon his heels, and, falling lower, had dragged the doctor over
to the left.

The doctor thrust his right hand, which was free, into his pocket, drew
forth some keys, and shook his head. The navvy gurgled in his sleep.
Silently I dived into my pocket, took out one sovereign, and held it up
between finger and thumb. Again the doctor shook his head. Money was not
what was lacking to his peace. His bag had fallen from the seat to the
ground. He looked towards it, and opened his mouth-O-shape. The catch
was not a difficult one, and when I had mastered it, the doctor's right
forefinger was sawing the air. With an immense caution, I extracted
from the bag such a knife as they use for cutting collops off legs.
The doctor frowned, and with his first and second fingers imitated the
action of scissors. Again I searched, and found a most diabolical pair
of cock-nosed shears, capable of vandyking the interiors of elephants.
The doctor then slowly lowered his left shoulder till the navvy's right
wrist was supported by the bench, pausing a moment as the spent volcano
rumbled anew. Lower and lower the doctor sank, kneeling now by the
navvy's side, till his head was on a level with, and just in front of,
the great hairy fist, and--there was no tension on the coat-collar. Then
light dawned on me.

Beginning a little to the right of the spinal column, I cut a huge
demilune out of his new spring overcoat, bringing it round as far
under his left side (which was the right side of the navvy) as I dared.
Passing thence swiftly to the back of the seat, and reaching between the
splines, I sawed through the silk-faced front on the left-hand side of
the coat till the two cuts joined.

Cautiously as the box-turtle of his native heath, the doctor drew away
sideways and to the right, with the air of a frustrated burglar coming
out from under a bed, and stood up free, one black diagonal shoulder
projecting through the grey of his ruined overcoat. I returned the
scissors to the bag, snapped the catch, and held all out to him as the
wheels of the fly rang hollow under the railway arch.

It came at a footpace past the wicket-gate of the station, and the
doctor stopped it with a whisper. It was going some five miles across
country to bring home from church some one,--I could not catch the
name,--because his own carriage-horses were lame. Its destination
happened to be the one place in all the world that the doctor was mos