"Hello," he called. "Who is this?"
No response.
"Hello, hello," he shouted, working the hook as I had done and, as in my case, there was still no answer.
"Some crank," he exclaimed, jamming down the receiver in disgust and returning to his packing.
Neither of us thought anything of it at the time, but now I recall that I did see Kennedy once or twice press the lobe of his ear as though something had hurt it.
We did not know until later that in a pay station down the street our arch enemy, Long Sin, had been calling us up and then, with a wicked smile, refusing to speak to us.
. . . . . . .
It was about a week later that I came home late one night from the Star, feeling pretty done up. Whatever it was, a violent fever seemed to have come on me suddenly. I thought nothing of it, at first, because I soon grew better. But while it lasted, I had the most intense shivering, excruciating pains in my limbs, and delirious headache. I recall, too, that I felt a peculiar soreness on the ear. It was all like nothing I had ever had before.
Indeed the next morning when I woke up, I felt a lassitude that made it quite hard enough even to lounge about in my bath-robe. Finally, feeling no better, I decided to see a doctor. I put on my clothes with a decided effort and went out.
The nearest doctor was about half a block away and we scarcely knew him, for neither Kennedy nor I were exactly sickly.