The Argosy, August 1905 — page 140: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

When the doctor departed he sat down beside the sick man and listened again and yet again to the familiar phrases. By and by he seized a pencil and paper and began to jot them down. Crowding seemed to go through the same formula of words, ending with that terrified cry about “a floating hell,’ and then began all over again. q Part of it he muttered too low for Tarr ; to catch the words; but it was not f) always the same phrases that were miss- ing. By writing down all he said the sec- retary saw a chance of finally obtaining a pretty connected expression of what was on the sick man’s mind. In some book he had read, a secret had been discovered in this manner. The words Crowding uttered, he was sure, were the same each time, and they were not many. When the poor fellow’s mind had given way his trouble had expressed itself in these thoughts; and now that he was delirious, these same thoughts recurred to his weakened mind again and again, finding expression over and over in the same phraseology. Each time the poor fellow reached the climax of his reflections his agony became more intense. After one of these paroxysms, when he began to speak agai, Tarr, with his ear held L close to enable him to distinguish the Bis faintest sounds, wrote down the words as he heard them: : “The red diamond! * * * I inust stop it—I must stop it! * * * These inno- cent people—God help them! * * * Set for one hundred hours! * * * One hun- dred hours and then—hell! * * *” The last of the words were too in- distinct that time for him to get, but _ the sick man writhed on his couch and beat his hands feebly in despair. Then he began again, and the first words Tarr ~. distinguished were different: “T must open * * * Qnly one hundred hours. What a wretch These innocent people—God help them! _ * * * Happy, untroubled, secure. * * * fe «ait haepassed. * * * Hell !—+a float- vy, nce more the muttering began: td THE ARGOSY. ment is too great. * * * They little know —unconscious of peril! * * * It was set for one hundred “to And on and on the poor fellow bab- bled his misery, while Tarr, the sweat standing on his brow, jotted down the broken phrases, until he, like Crowding himself, had learned them by heart. And what did he make of them? After the sick man had worried himself into exhaustion, Tarr set himself the task of dove-tailing the words together into their logical sequence. - “The red diamond! Lt must open I must stop it! I must stop it! Only one hundred hours. What a wreteh Tam. My punishment is too great. These innocent people— God help them! They little know— unconscious of peril. Happy, un- troubled, secure. It was set for one hundred hours. Half has passed. One hundred hours and then—hell! <A float- ing hell!” Tarr read this, striving to understand the mystery to which the words referred. _ He knew he had not gathered every word of Crowding’s delirious mutter- ings. He had been unable to learn what it was the man felt that he must “Open.” And the reference to the “ innocent people” who were “unconscious of peril” was quite as blind. Crowding had done, or thought he had done, some dreadful thing which had imperiled 6thers. Had it been something which had occurred before Tarr met him in New York? “ Perhaps the story he gave me about losmg his job and being half-starved and penniless because of the shutting down of the mill was not entirely true. He may have done something—broken | the law in some way —and run away from his home. “ But surely there is some foundation for his agony. There must be some fire where there is so much smoke.” The reference to the one hundred hours puzzled Tarr quite as much as anything else. What had Crowding “set for one hundred hours *? ‘And what did he mean by “a floating hell ” Surely that last must craft. ee “< pe gee _ 4 z } comicbooks.com | |