Other people, too, noticed the doctor's strangely intent manner, as he
went hurriedly about among his patients every morning, and then returned
to his study to pore over sundry manuscript notes and refer to certain
books.
Mrs Milt had to almost insist upon his taking his meals, for on two
occasions his dinner had gone out untasted, and she had found him
sitting, with his head resting upon his hands, deep in thought.
He started upon being spoken to, and seemed once more himself; but as
soon as he was alone again, he relapsed into another fit of abstraction.
A few more days passed, and his task was telling upon him terribly; but
he persevered, for each night he felt that he was getting nearer to
success.
"I shall succeed," he said to himself, with a wild excitability of
manner that was startling; but he was alone when he said these words,
and no one heard them.
"Arn't it a very long experiment, doctor?" said Moredock, one night,
looking at the doctor seriously, and rubbing his cheek slowly.
"Yes. It is taking me longer than I thought, but I shall soon finish
now."
"Glad o' that," said the old man drily; "because a pitcher as goes too
often to the well, doctor, gets broke at last."
"What do you mean?"
"Naught, only we might be found out."
"Nonsense!" said the doctor uneasily. "Nobody is likely to be about
except any person should be ill, and I know exactly who is likely to
want the doctor by night."
"Ah, well, let's be careful, doctor, for it would be awkward for both if
we was to be found out."
"Pish! Who would find us out, man?"
"Well, say parson."
"Absurd! He is in bed, and sound asleep. There, take your glass; I
want to begin."
"Nay," said the old man, looking at the rich liqueur North poured out
for him, "I don't think I'll have no drop to-night."
"Nonsense, man!" said North, holding out the glass, at which the old man
gazed longingly. But he shook his head and thrust it away.
"Nay, doctor; I'm going to keep watch to-night."
"Keep watch, man?" said North, who seemed staggered at this
determination.
"Yes, doctor, I'm going to keep watch. I can't afford to have aught go
wrong, if you can. You get on with your work, and I'll be on the
look-out."
"Here?"
"Nay, nay. I'll hang about outside."
"Yes, do," said North, who seemed relieved; and he turned down the lamp
to let Moredock out.
"I shall give three taps on the door, doctor, when I come back,"
whispered the old man. "You go on just as if I was here; but when I
tap, you turn down the light again, and let me in. Don't s'pose I shall
see anybody, but I must take care."
"Yes, do," said North hurriedly; and, as the old man passed out, he
closed the door after him and made it fast.
"It would have been like checking my experiment now I am so near
success," he said to himself, as, now quite alone, he once more turned
up the shaded lamp, when the warm yellow glow shone out full upon the
recumbent figure, carefully draped with the great white sheet.
Horace North stood bending over the subject of his ghastly experiment,
the remains of Luke Candlish lying apparently unchanged, and as if decay
had been completely arrested.
There was a strange odour of chemicals in the place, and, as the doctor
removed the cloth, it was to uncover, just as they had been left on the
previous night, a powerful galvanic battery, syringes, and other
surgical paraphernalia.
For the next hour the doctor continued his labours, feeling more and
more assured that he should triumph; and, as he toiled on, he talked
rapidly to himself of the apparently complete arrest of decay, and the
perfectly calm manner in which his subject lay, as it were, placidly
waiting for the awakening which North felt, in his excitement,
absolutely sure would come.
"It is so near now that I have but to vitalise and obtain positive proof
that, when carried to its full extent, I have performed what is almost a
miracle, and proved that what I worked out in theory is possible in
practice."
He stood gazing down at the calm, cold face, with its closed eyes,
hesitating, not from the horror that had half paralysed him before, but
from dread lest, now he had gone so far that he could apply his final
test, he should be disappointed.
His head burned, his pulses throbbed heavily, and his hesitation
increased.
Rousing himself at last, he laid his hand upon the icy-cold forehead
before him, the contact sending a chill through his frame; but he did
not notice it.
"Why do I stop?" he said. "It only wants this. I am alone, and no
better opportunity could come. Oh, if I had but the aiding hand of that
old _savant_, how easy it would be!"
This brought back the scene in the theatre--the lecture, the applause;
and his heart beat more rapidly in anticipation of his grand triumph
when he could demonstrate this, the greatest surgical feat that had ever
been performed.
"And yet I hesitate," he exclaimed excitedly; "hesitate when I have but
to plunge boldly to succeed."
"And I will," he said firmly, after a pause.
The scene which followed was weird and horrible, had there been an
onlooker; to North it had all the fascination of an intense scientific
experiment. For he had arrived at the pitch when, according to his
theory, he had but to make the warm living blood pass from his own
veins, as in a case of transfusion, to prove that his studies bore the
fruit of success.
The preliminaries were all arranged, and, with a sigh of satisfaction,
North took a bright, keen lancet from its case, but only to let it fall
back, starting violently, for he was, as it were, snatched back from his
scientific dream by a faint rap upon the door of the great vault, and
this was followed directly after by two more.
North rapidly replaced the great sheet, and turned down the light before
going softly to the entry.
"Well?" he said harshly; "returned?"
"Hist!" whispered the old sexton. "Out here!"
He caught the doctor's hand and drew him out from the entry of the vault
to stand within the iron railings.
"Why have--"
"Hist!" whispered the old man again. "Come with me."
North hesitated again, but yielded to his companion and followed him
softly right round the church to the belfry door, which yielded to the
old man's touch.
"What does this mean?" said the doctor angrily. "Why have you brought
me here?"
"Come and see," whispered the old man so earnestly that North hesitated
no longer, but followed him wonderingly into the church, and along the
matting-covered aisle, to the old oak screen, where Moredock paused and
caught his arm.
"Some one watching?" whispered North, as they stood together in the
darkness; "in yonder?"
For the old man had indicated the vestry door with his outstretched
hand.
It seemed strange, for a minute before they had been beside the outer
door of the vestry, and now he had been brought in to stand by the inner
door in the chancel.
"You're wanted there," whispered Moredock--"yonder!"
"Watchers?"
"You're wanted there, doctor," whispered the old man. "Go in and see."
The silence was painful in the extreme, as North stood wondering there,
but the next moment, feeling attracted by he knew not what desire to see
who was within there face to face, he took a couple of steps forward to
the old oak door, when a faint whispering seemed to come from the other
side, followed by a low cough, which sent the blood surging to his
brain.
There was no hesitation now, for, half-mad with excitement and the
strange passion that seemed for the moment to stifle him, he seized the
great latch, which snapped loudly as he threw it up, and strode into the
little stone-walled room.
Volume 2, Chapter XII.