There was a group of people staring at the patients' door of the Accident Hospital when Viney reached the spot. He was busy enough with his own thoughts, but he stopped, and stared also, involuntarily. The door was an uninteresting object, however, after all, and he turned: to find himself face to face with one he well remembered. It was the limy man he had followed from Blue Gate to the Hole in the Wall, and then lost sight of.
Grimes recognised Viney at once as Ogle's visitor of the morning. "That's a pal o' yourn just gone in there," he said.
Viney was taken aback. "A pal?" he asked. "What pal?"
"Ogle—Dan Ogle. He's got lime in his eyes, an' blinded."
"Lime? Blinded? How?"
"I ain't goin' to say nothing about how—I dunno, an' 'tain't my business. He's got it, anyhow. There's a woman in there along of him—his wife, I b'lieve, or something. You can talk to her about it, if you like, when she comes out. I've got nothing to do with it."
Grimes had all the reluctance of his class to be "mixed up" in any matter likely to involve trouble at a police-court; and what was more, he saw himself possibly compromised in the matter of Ogle's stay at the Wharf. But Viney was so visibly concerned by the news that soon the wharf-keeper relented a little—thinking him maybe no such bad fellow after all, since he was so anxious about his friend. "I've heard said," he added presently in a lower tone, "I've heard said it was a blind chap done it out o' spite; but of course I dunno; not to say myself; on'y what I heard, you see. I don't think they'll let you in; but you might see the woman. They won't let her stop long, 'specially takin' on as she was."
Indeed it was not long ere Musky Mag emerged, reluctant and pallid, trembling at the mouth, staring but seeing nothing. Grimes took her by the arm and led her aside, with Viney. "Here's a friend o' Dan's," Grimes said, not unkindly, giving the woman a shake of the arm. "He wants to know how he's gettin' on."
"What's 'nucleate?" she asked hoarsely, with a dull look in Viney's face. "What's 'nucleate? I heard a doctor say to let 'im rest to-night an' 'nucleate in the mornin'. What's 'nucleate?"
"Some sort o' operation," Grimes hazarded. "Did they say anything else?"