But, hark! Thorwald is still speaking:
“Go back to the earth, I say, and—” a crash, a sensation of falling, a dull pain in my head, a new voice at my ear, saying,
“Why, Walter, are you hurt?”
During the effort to recover full consciousness I said:
“There, Doctor, the accident you expected has certainly come.”
And then I opened my eyes and discovered that I was sitting in an undignified position on the deck of a vessel of some kind.
Again the voice, now more familiar and identified with a lovely face, said:
“You must have had that broken chair; I knew it would let you down some time. Don’t you know me, Walter?”
“Why, yes, it’s you, Margaret, isn’t it? But where’s the doctor?”
“Oh, how are you hurt?” cried Margaret in alarm. “Tell me, and I will run for the doctor at once.”