"Hush! I hear—poor thing, did they say you was mad too?—Hide me in the straw! There—there—what a strange thing it is for all the air to be so full of blood. Do we breathe blood, and only fancy it air? Hush! not a word—he comes with a serpent's face—oh, tell me why does God let such beings ever riot upon the beautiful earth—one—two—three—four—five—six—Hiss—hiss! Off—off! I am not mad—not mad. Ha! ha! ha!"
An appalling shriek concluded this paroxysm, and for a few moments Tobias was still. The medical man at this time entered the room.
"Oh," he said, "we have roused him up again, have we." Medical men are rather fond of the plural identifying style of talking.
"Yes," said Colonel Jeffery, "but he had better have slept the sleep of death than have awakened to be what he is, poor fellow."
"A little—eh?"
The doctor tapped his forehead.
"Not a little."
"Far away over the sea!" said Tobias, "oh, yes—in any ship, only do not kill me, Mr. Todd—let me go and I will say nothing, I will work and send my poor mother hard-earned gold, and your name shall never pass our lips. Oh, no—no—no, do not say that I am mad. Do you see these tears? I have—I have not cried so since my poor father called me to him and held me in a last embrace of his wasted arms, saying, 'Tobias, my darling, I am going—going far from you. God's blessing be upon you, poor child.' I thought my heart would break then, but it did not, I saw him put from the face of the living into the grave, and I did not quite break my heart then, but it is broken—broken now! Mad! mad! oh, no, not mad—no—no, but the last—but the last. I tell you, sir, that I am—am—am not mad. Why do you look at me, I am not mad—one—two—three—four—five—six. God—God—God! I am mad—mad. Ha! ha! ha! There they come, all the serpents, and Todd is their king. How the shadows fly about—they shrink—I cannot shrink. Help! God! God! God!"
"This is horrible," said Colonel Jeffery.
"It is appalling, from the lips of one so young," said the captain.