nd with an enthusiast there is hardly such a
thing as a scruple. It is this that gives me confidence in the woman's
story."

"You say she appeared to be frightened?"

"Doubly so--first, she feared that her husband would learn of her
betrayal of him; second, the discovery itself had terrified her."

"But her report of this discovery is very vague," argued the captain.
"He conceals everything from her. She is merely guessing."

"In part--yes; in other part--no. She heard the sounds distinctly,
though she did not see clearly. Horror closed her eyes. What she thinks
she saw is, I admit, preposterous; but she undoubtedly saw something
extremely frightful. There are many peculiar little circumstances. He
has eaten with her but few times during the last three years, and
nearly always carries his food to his private rooms. She says that he
either consumes an enormous quantity, throws much away, or is feeding
something that eats prodigiously. He explains this to her by saying
that he has animals with which he experiments. This is not true. Again,
he always keeps the door to these rooms carefully locked; and not only
that, but he has had the doors doubled and otherwise strengthened, and
has heavily barred a window that looks from one of the rooms upon a
dead wall a few feet distant."

"What does it mean?" asked the captain.

"A prison."

"For animals, perhaps."

"Certainly not."

"Why!"

"Because, in the first place, cages would have been better; in the
second place, the security that he has provided is infinitely greater
than that required for the confinement of ordinary animals."

"All this is easily explained: he has a violent lunatic under
treatment."

"I had thought of that, but such is not the fact."

"How do you know?"

"By reasoning thus: He has always refused to treat cases of lunacy; he
confines himself to surgery; the walls are not padded, for the woman
has heard sharp blows upon them; no human strength, however morbid,
could possibly require such resisting strength as has been provided; he
would not be likely to conceal a lunatic's confinement from the woman;
no lunatic could consume all the food that he provides; so extremely
violent mania as these precautions indicate could not continue three
years; if there is a lunatic in the case it is very probable that there
should have been communication with some one outside concerning the
patient, and there has been none; the woman has listened at the keyh