I did not take the car at the corner. I was sure that Jupp was somewhere
around, and I had a new mission for him of more importance than any he
could find here now. I was just looking about for him when I heard cries
and screams at my back, and, turning, saw several persons all running
one way. As that way was the one by which I had just come, I commenced
running too, and in another moment was one of a crowd collected before
the doctor's door. I mean the great front door which, to my
astonishment, I had already seen was wide open. The sight which there
met my eyes almost paralyzed me.
Stretched on the pavement, spotted with blood, lay the two figures I had
seen within the last five minutes beaming with life and energy. The old
man was dead, the child dying, one little hand outstretched as if in
search of the sympathetic touch which had made the last few hours
perhaps the sweetest of his life. How had it happened? Was it suicide on
the doctor's part or just pure accident? Either way it was horrible,
but--I looked about me; there was a man ready to give explanations. He
had seen it all. The doctor had been racing with the child in the long
hall. He had opened the door, probably for air. A sudden dash of the
child had brought him to the verge, the doctor had plunged to save him,
and losing his balance toppled headlong to the street, carrying the
child with him.
It was all the work of an instant.
One moment two vigorous figures--the next, a mass of crushed humanity!
A sight to stagger a man's soul! But the thought which came with it
staggered me still more.
The force which had been driving Mrs. Ocumpaugh to her fate was removed.
Henceforth her secret was safe if--if I chose to have it so.