"Send for Cotter," he muttered. "Why isn't Cotter here? Don't tell me that that rascal has betrayed me like the rest of them! Not that I trust him, not that I trust any of them for that matter. But he ought to have been here an hour ago. Who are you?"
The question was asked with an abruptness that almost startled Wilfrid. For a moment the cloud hanging over Flower's brain had cleared away and he knew where he was and in whose presence he was lying.
"I am Mercer," Wilfrid said soothingly. "Don't you know me?"
"Oh, I know you," Flower whispered. "I recognize you. Keep those fellows away, will you? Don't let them come here again. I tell you it is terrible. I lie fast asleep and then dream, and dream, and dream, and yet my brain is clear and I know everything that is going on around you. But that is nothing to what has to come, Mercer. It is pleasure compared with the awful sensation when they wind that dreadful thing about the head and you lie helpless, watching those knots coming closer and closer till the brain sets fire——"
The words trailed off incoherently and Flower closed his eyes for a moment. The brief interval of sense vanished and he began again to fume and threaten.
"Keep them away from me!" he cried. "Keep them away from me! What did you say your name was? It wasn't Cotter. Oh, I remember, it was Mercer—Mercer, the dog that I am going to crush when the time comes as if he were an empty eggshell. He saved my life once, but what of that? The fellow is in the way and he must go. But that isn't what I want you for. I want you to send for that doctor. Telephone for him at once. Find him at any cost. I can't stay here. I dare not stay here. Whatever happens I must get back to Maldon Grange. Now go and find him."
The last words came in a harsh tone of command, then Flower's sudden access of strength failed him and he collapsed upon the bed an inert mass, scarcely moving and hardly breathing. Wilfrid hurried downstairs into the dining-room. The nurse was seated by the fire sipping at a glass of port-wine and Beatrice was trying to soothe her.
"It is all right," Beatrice explained. "I have managed to get Dr. Shelton on the telephone and he may be here at any moment. I suppose he will tell us what to do."
In a minute or two Shelton's car drove up to the door and the doctor alighted. He listened gravely to all that Wilfrid had to say and found time to address a few words to the distressed nurse.
"You are not to blame," he said. "I did not expect complications like this. I shall have to trespass still farther upon Dr. Mercer's time. It will take me an hour to find a competent male nurse."