"You fell?"
He nodded.
"What, six stories down?"
He nodded again. "The thing that saved me was an awning over the sidewalk. Some man across the way saw me hanging from the window, and he ran over quickly and let the awning down. I'd like to shake that man by the hand, but I never knew who he was. When I came to myself I was at the hospital done up in plaster, and I stayed there nine months."
"Badly hurt?" I asked, shrinking.
Merrill smiled. "It didn't do me any particular good. I'm a big, strong fellow now, but I wasn't much after that fall. Both my legs were broken. Both my arms were broken. My right shoulder and right wrist were dislocated, and—let's see. Oh, yes, I had three ribs torn away from the breast-bone."
"And your—"
"My partner? Poor lad! You wouldn't care to hear how they found him. They laid him away kindly the next day."
He smiled in a sort of appealing way, and then came the worn, wistful look I had noticed, and his forehead lines deepened. I fancy all men who follow steeple-climbing get those strained, anxious eyes.