'I’ve been thinking, Puddock,' he said; 'and thought with me has grown strangely like despair—and that’s all. Why, man, think—what is there for me?—all my best stakes I’ve lost already; and I’m fast losing myself. How different, Sir, is my fate from others? Worse men than I—every way incomparably worse—and d—— them, they prosper, while I go down the tide. 'Tisn’t just!' And he swore a great oath. ''Tis enough to make a man blaspheme. I’ve done with life—I hate it. I’ll volunteer. 'Tis my first thought in the morning, and my last at night, how well I’d like a bullet through my brain or heart. D—— the world, d—— feeling, d—— memory. I’m not a man that can always be putting prudential restraints upon myself. I’ve none of those plodding ways. The cursed fools that spoiled me in my childhood, and forsake me now, have all to answer for—I charge them with my ruin.' And he launched a curse at them (meaning his aunt) which startled the plump soul of honest little Puddock.
'You must not talk that way, Devereux,' he said, still a good deal more dismayed by his looks than his words. 'Why are you so troubled with vapours and blue devils?'
'Nowhy!' said Devereux, with a grim smile.
'My dear Devereux, I say, you mustn’t talk in that wild way. You—you talk like a ruined man!'
'And I so comfortable!'
'Why, to be sure, Dick, you have had some little rubs, and, maybe, your follies and your vexations; but, hang it, you are young; you can’t get experience—at least, so I’ve found it—without paying for it. You mayn’t like it just now; but it’s well worth the cost. Your worries and miscarriages, dear Richard, will make you steady.'
'Steady!' echoed Devereux, like a man thinking of something far away.
'Ay, Dick—you’ve sown your wild oats.'
On a sudden, says the captain, 'My dear little Puddock,' and he took him by the hand, with a sort of sarcastic flicker of a smile, and looked in his face almost contemptuously; but his eyes and his voice softened before the unconscious bonhomie of the true little gentleman. 'Puddock, Puddock, did it never strike you, my boy, that Hamlet never strives to speak a word of comfort to the forlorn old Dane? He felt it would not do. Every man that’s worth a button knows his own case best; and I know the secrets of my own prison–house. Sown my wild oats! To be sure I have, Puddock, my boy; and the new leaf I’ve turned over is just this; I’ve begun to reap them; and they’ll grow, my boy, and grow as long as grass grows; and—Macbeth has his dagger, you know, and I’ve my sickle—the handle towards my hand, that you can’t see; and in the sweat of my brow, I must cut down and garner my sheaves; and as I sowed, so must I reap, and grind, and bake, the black and bitter grist of my curse. Don’t talk nonsense, little Puddock. Wasn’t it Gay that wrote the "Beggar’s Opera?" Ay! Why don’t you play Macheath? Gay!—Ay—a pleasant fellow, and his poems too. He writes—don’t you remember—he writes,
'So comes a reckoning when the banquet’s o’er—
The dreadful reckoning, and men smile no more.'
'Puddock, throw up that window, the room’s too hot—or stay never mind; read a book, Puddock, you like it, and I’ll stroll a little along the path, and find you when I come back.'
'Why it’s dark,' remonstrated his visitor.
'Dark? I dare say—yes, of course—very dark—but cool; the air is cool.'
He talked like a man who was thinking of something else; and Puddock thought how strangely handsome he looked, with that pale dash of horror, like King Saul when the evil spirit was upon him; and there was a terrible misgiving in his mind. The lines of the old ballad that Devereux used to sing with a sort of pathetic comicality were humming in his ear,—
'He walked by the river, the river so clear—
The river that runs through Kilkenny;
His name was Captain Wade,
And he died for that fair maid.'
and so following. What could he mean by walking, at that hour, alone, by the river’s brink? Puddock, with a sinking and flutter at his heart, unperceived, followed him down stairs, and was beside him in the street.
'The path by the river?' said Puddock.
'The river—the path? Yes, Sir, the path by the river. I thought I left you up stairs,' said Devereux, with an odd sort of sulky shrinking.
'Why, Devereux, I may as well walk with you, if you don’t object,' lisped Puddock.
'But I do object, Sir,' cried Devereux, suddenly, in a fierce high key, turning upon his little comrade. 'What d’ye mean, Sir? You think I mean to—to drown myself—ha, ha, ha! or what the devil’s running in your head? I’m not a madman, Sir, nor you a mad–doctor. Go home, Sir—or go to—to where you will, Sir; only go your own way, and leave me mine.'
'Ah, Devereux, you’re very quick with me,' said Puddock, placing his plump little hand on Devereux’s arm, and looking very gently and gravely in his face.
Devereux laid his hand upon Puddock’s collar with an agitated sort of sneer. But he recollected himself, and that diabolical gloom faded from his face, and he looked more like himself, and slid his cold hand silently into little Puddock’s; and so they stood for a while, by the door–step, to the admiration of Mrs. Irons—whom Devereux’s high tones had called to her window.
'Puddock, I don’t think I’m well, and I don’t know quite what I’ve been saying. I ask your pardon. You’ve always been very good to me, Puddock. I believe—I believe you’re the only friend I have, and—Puddock, you won’t leave me.'
So up stairs they went together; and Mrs. Irons, from what she had overheard, considered herself justified in saying, that 'Captain Devereux was for drowning himself in the Liffey, and would have done so only for Lieutenant Puddock.' And so the report was set a–going round the garrulous town of Chapelizod.
As Mr. Dangerfield glided rapidly along the silent road towards the Brass Castle, the little gate of his now leafless flower–garden being already in sight, he saw a dark figure awaiting him under the bushes which overhung it. It was Mr. Irons, who came forward, without speaking, and lifted his hat respectfully, perhaps abjectly, and paused for recognition.
'Hey! Irons?' said Mr. Dangerfield.
'At your service, Sir.'
'Well, and what says his worship?' asked the gentleman, playfully.
'I wanted to tell your honour that it won’t make no odds, and I’ll do it.'
'Of course. You’re right. It does make no odds. He’ll hang whatever you do; and I tell you 'tis well he should, and only right you should speak the truth, too—'twill make assurance doubly sure.'
'At eight o’clock in the morning, Sir, I’ll attend you,' said Irons, with a sort of shiver.
'Good! and I’ll jot down your evidence, and we’ll drive over to Mr. Lowe’s, to Lucan, and you shall swear before him. And, you understand—I don’t forget what I promised—you’ll be a happier man every way for having done your duty; and here’s half–a–crown to spend in the Salmon House.'
Irons only moaned, and then said—
'That’s all, Sir. But I couldn’t feel easy till it was off my mind.'
'At eight o’clock I shall expect you. Good–night, Irons.'
And with his hands in his pockets he watched Irons off the ground. His visage darkened as for a while his steady gaze was turned toward Dublin. He was not quite so comfortable as he might have been.
Meanwhile Black Dillon, at Mrs. Sturk’s request, had stalked up stairs to the patient’s bed–side.
'Had not I best send at once for Mr. Dangerfield?' she enquired.
'No occasion, Ma’am,' replied the eminent but slightly fuddled 'Saw–bones,' spitting beside him on the floor 'until I see whether I’ll operate to–night. What’s in that jug, Ma’am? Chicken–broth? That’ll do. Give him a spoonful. See—he swallows free enough;' and then Black Dillon plucked up his eyelids with a roughness that terrified the reverential and loving Mrs. Sturk, and examined the distorted pupils.
'You see the cast in that eye, Ma’am; there’s the pressure on the brain.'
Dillon was lecturing her upon t
he case as he proceeded, from habit, just as he did the students in the hospital.
'No convulsions, Ma’am?'
'Oh, no, Sir, thank Heaven; nothing in the least—only quiet sleep, Sir; just like that.'
'Sleep, indeed—that’s no sleep, Ma’am. Boo–hooh! I couldn’t bawl that way in his face, Ma’am, without disturbing him, Ma’am, if it was. Now we’ll get him up a bit—there, that’s right—aisy. He was lying, Ma’am, I understand, on his back, when they found him in the park, Ma’am—so Mr. Dangerfield says—ay. Well, slip the cap off—backward—backward, you fool; that’ll do. Who plastered his head, Ma’am?'
'Doctor Toole, Sir.'
'Toole—Toole—h’m—I see—hey—hi—tut! 'tis the devil’s pair of fractures, Ma’am. See—nearer—d’ye see, there’s two converging lines—d’ye see, Ma’am?' and he indicated their directions with the silver handle of an instrument he held in his hand, 'and serrated at the edges, I’ll be bound.'
And he plucked off two or three strips of plaster with a quick whisk, which made poor little Mrs. Sturk wince and cry, 'Oh, dear, Sir!'
'Threpan, indeed!' murmured Black Dillon, with a coarse sneer, 'did they run the scalpel anywhere over the occiput, Ma’am?'
'I—I—truly, Sir—I’m not sure,' answered Mrs. Sturk, who did not perfectly understand a word he said.
The doctor’s hair had not been cut behind. Poor Mrs. Sturk, expecting his recovery every day, would not have permitted the sacrilege, and his dishevelled cue lay upon his shoulders. With his straight surgical scissors Black Dillon snipped off this sacred appendage before the good lady knew what he was about, and cropped the back of his head down to the closest stubble.
'Will you send, if you please, Ma’am, for Doctor—Doctor—Thingumee?'
'Doctor Toole?' enquired Mrs. Sturk.
'Doctor Toole, Ma’am; yes,' answered the surgeon.
He himself went down to the coach at the hall–door, and in a few minutes returned with a case, and something in a cloth. From the cloth he took an apparatus, like the cushioned back of a chair, with straps and buckles attached to it, and a sort of socket, the back of which was open, being intended to receive the head in.
'Now, Ma’am, we’ll prop him up comfortable with this, if you please.'
And having got it into place, and lowered by a screw, the cushions intended to receive his head, and got the lethargic trunk and skull of the Artillery doctor well–placed for his purpose, he took out a roll of sticking–plaster and a great piece of lint, and laid them on the table, and unlocked his box, which was a large one, and took out several instruments, silver–mounted, straight and crooked, with awful adaptations to unknown butcheries and tortures, and then out came another—the veritable trepan—resembling the homely bit–and–brace, but slender, sinister, and quaint, with a murderous sort of elegance.
'You may as well order in half–a–dozen clean towels, if you please, Ma’am.'
'Oh! Doctor, you’re not going to have an operation to–night, gasped Mrs. Sturk, her face quite white and damp, and her clasped hands trembling.
'Twenty to one, Ma’am,' he replied with a slight hiccup, 'we’ll have nothing of the kind; but have them here, Ma’am, and some warm water for fear of accidents—though maybe 'tis only for a dhrop of punch we’ll be wanting it,' and his huge, thirsty mouth grinned facetiously; and just then Dr. Toole entered the room. He was confoundedly surprised when he found Black Dillon there. Though bent on meeting him with hauteur and proper reserve, on account of his damnable character, he was yet cowed by his superior knowledge, so that Tom Toole’s address was strangely chequered with pomposity and alarm.
Dillon’s credentials there was, indeed, no disputing, so they sent for Moore, the barber; and, while he was coming, they put the women out of the room, and sat in consultation.
CHAPTER LXXXVIII.
IN WHICH MR. MOORE THE BARBER ARRIVES, AND THE MEDICAL GENTLEMEN LOCK THE DOOR.
The ladies were not much the wiser, though, I confess, they were not far removed from the door. The great men inside talked indistinctly and technically, and once Doctor Dillon was so unfeeling as to crack a joke—they could not distinctly hear what—and hee–haw brutally over it. And poor little Mrs. Sturk was taken with a great palpitation, and looked as white as a ghost, and was, indeed, so obviously at the point of swooning that her women would have removed her to the nursery, and placed her on the bed, but that such a procedure would have obliged them to leave the door of their sick master’s room, just then a point of too lively interest to be deserted. So they consoled their mistress, and supported her with such strong moral cordials as compassionate persons in their rank and circumstances are prompt to administer.
'Oh! Ma’am, jewel, don’t be takin' it to heart that way—though, dear knows, 'tis no way surprisin' you would; for may I never sin if ever I seen such a murtherin' steel gimblet as the red–faced docthor—I mane the Dublin man—has out on the table beside the poor masther—'tid frighten the hangman to look at it—an' six towels, too! Why, Ma’am dear, if 'twas what they wor goin' to slaughter a bullock they wouldn’t ax more nor that.'
'Oh! don’t. Oh! Katty, Katty—don’t, oh don’t'
'An' why wouldn’t I, my darlin' misthress, tell you what’s doin', the way you would not be dhruv out o' your senses intirely if you had no notion, Ma’am dear, iv what they’re goin' to do to him?'
At this moment the door opened, and Doctor Dillon’s carbuncled visage and glowing eyes appeared.
'Is there a steady woman there—not a child, you know, Ma’am? A—you’ll do (to Katty). Come in here, if you please, and we’ll tell you what you’re to do.'
So, being nothing loath, she made her courtesy and glided in.
'Oh! doctor,' gasped poor Mrs. Sturk, holding by the hem of his garment, 'do you think it will kill him?'
'No, Ma’am—not to–night, at any rate,' he answered, drawing back; but still she held him.
'Oh! doctor, you think it will kill him?'
'No, Ma’am—there’s always some danger.'
'Danger of what, Sir?'
'Fungus, Ma’am—if he gets over the chance of inflammation. But, on the other hand, Ma’am, we may do him a power of good; and see, Ma’am, 'twill be best for you to go down or into the nursery, and we’ll call you, Ma’am, if need be—that is, if he’s better, Ma’am, as we hope.'
'Oh! Mr. Moore, it’s you,' sobbed the poor woman, holding fast by the sleeve of the barber, who that moment, with many reverences and 'your servant, Ma’am,' had mounted to the lobby with the look of awestruck curiosity, in his long, honest face, which the solemn circumstance of his visit warranted.
'You’re the man we sent for?' demanded Dillon, gruffly.
''Tis good Mr. Moore,' cried trembling little Mrs. Sturk, deprecating and wheedling him instinctively to make him of her side, and lead him to take part with her and resist all violence to her husband—flesh of her flesh, and bone of her bone.
'Why don’t you spake, Sor–r–r? Are you the barber we sent for or no? What ails you, man?' demanded the savage Doctor Dillon, in a suppressed roar.
'At your sarvice, Ma’am—Sir,' replied Moore, with submissive alacrity.
'Come in here, then. Come in, will you?' cried the doctor, hauling him in with his great red hand.
'There now—there now—there—there,' he said gruffly, extending his palm to keep off poor Mrs. Sturk.
So he shut the door, and poor Mrs. Sturk heard him draw the bolt, and felt that her Barney had passed out of her hands, and that she could do nothing for him now but clasp her hands and gasp up her prayers for his deliverance; and so great indeed was her anguish and panic, that she had not room for the feminine reflection how great a brute Doctor Dillon was.
So she heard them walking this way and that, but could not distinguish what they said, only she heard them talking; and once or twice a word reached her, but not very intelligible, such as—
''Twas Surgeon Beauchamp’s—see that'
'
Mighty curious.'
Then a lot of mumbling, and
'Cruciform, of course.'
This was said by Doctor Dillon, near the door, where he had come to take an additional candle from the table that stood there; as he receded it lost itself in mumble again, and then she heard quite plainly—
'Keep your hand there.'
And a few seconds after,
'Hold it there and don’t let it drip.'
And then a little more mumbled dialogue, and she thought she heard—
'Begin now.'
And there was a dead silence of many seconds; and Mrs. Sturk felt as if she must scream, and her heart beat at a gallop, and her dry, white lips silently called upon her Maker for help, and she felt quite wild, and very faint; and heard them speak brief, and low together, and then another long silence; and then a loud voice, in a sort of shriek, cry out that name—holy and awful—which we do not mix in tales like this. It was Sturk’s voice; and he cried in the same horrid shriek, 'Murder—mercy—Mr. Archer!'
And poor Mrs. Sturk, with a loud hysterical cry, that quivered with her agony, answered from without, and wildly rattled at the door–handle, and pushed with all her feeble force to get in, in a kind of crescendo screaming—'Oh, Barney—Barney—Barney—sweetheart—what are they doing?'
'Oh! blessed hour!—Ma’am—'tis the master himself that is talking;' and with a very pale face the maid, who stood in the doorway beside her, uttered her amazed thanksgiving.
And the doctors' voices were now heard plainly enough soothing the patient, and he seemed to have grown more collected; and she heard him—she thought—repeat a snatch of a prayer, as a man might just rescued from a shipwreck; and he said in a tone more natural in one so sick and weak, 'I’m a dead man—he’s done it—where is he?—he’s murdered me.'
'Who?' demanded Toole’s well–known voice.
'Archer—the villain—Charles Archer.'
'Give me the cup with the claret and water, and the spoon—there it is,' said Dillon’s rough bass tones.
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