Vague and even terrible ideas flashed into his mind—was Joe connected with some secret cabal or society that met here every day?
Perhaps some awful secret was gnawing at his vitals, and daily sapping his life.
What was that?
A door slammed above.
Eric was glad to hear it, for he realized that the house had something human about it.
As near as he could judge the sound came from upstairs.
Then he would not have to grapple with the demons of the underground world.
At times even the oddest fancies will surge through the most prosaic mind.
One of the thoughts that had come to him was that possibly Joe had become connected with some gang of counterfeiters—he had heard of things just as strange—and although it seemed a preposterous idea in connection with Joe, still it had already become apparent that there was something very strange connected with him and why not this as well as any other?
Lately Eric had been reading Doctor Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, and his mind was full of strange fancies concerning the awful change that was wont to come over that unfortunate being, who lived two lives, each unknown to the other.