They loaded Burke into the taxicab and started for the hospital. A doctor examined the victim upon their arrival.
“Hit with a blackjack,” he said. “Possible fracture of the skull. He’ll probably come around all right.”
It was several hours later when Clyde Burke opened his eyes. He clutched the covers of the hospital cot with weak, helpless fingers. He looked about him in a bewildered way. Then he shut his eyes and tried to forget the throbbing in the back of his head.
“He’s doing well,” he heard a voice say. “No fracture, but every evidence of a brain concussion. Keep him quiet.”
The words made very little impression upon Clyde’s mind. He was in a dizzy mental whirl, trying vainly to recall something important that concerned Harry Vincent.
CHAPTER XVI. THE VERDICT
HARRY VINCENT looked about him in amazement. He had just awakened from a deep stupor. He felt very weak when he opened his eyes. He was scarcely able to move his body; but he managed to turn his head as he surveyed his surroundings.
He was propped against the wall of an oddly shaped room. The chamber was scarcely more than a passageway, less than six feet in width. It was twenty feet in length, and at one end Harry saw a tall, upright frame that extended from the ceiling to the floor. The frame was fronted with a grayish, wire-screened glass.
Electric lights glowed dimly through the glass. They furnished the illumination for the room. Harry could not distinguish the individual bulbs that glowed through the glass. They were blurred by the thick, grayish surface.
At the other end of the room, Harry observed a door. It was an unusual door, without hinges. The cracks which formed its outline were barely discernible.