Well, it was a pretty kind of obsession for a man to have, wasn't it? Somebody running after him all the time, and then … running on ahead? And, of course, on a broad pavement there would be plenty of room for this running gentleman to run round; but on an eight- or nine-inch kerb, such as that of the new road out Lewisham way … but perhaps he was a jumping gentleman too, and could jump over a man's head. You'd think he'd have to get past some way, wouldn't you?… I remember vaguely wondering whether the name of that Runner was not Conscience; but Conscience isn't a matter of molecules and osmosis….
One thing, however, was clear; I'd got to tell Rooum what I'd learned: for you can't get hold of a fellow's secrets in ways like that. I lost no time about it. I told him, in fact, soon after we'd left the inn the next morning—told him how he'd answered in his sleep.
And—what do you think of this?—he seemed to think I ought to have guessed it! Guessed a monstrous thing like that!
"You're less clever than I thought, with your books and that, if you didn't," he grunted.
"But … Good God, man!"
"Queer, isn't it? But you don't know the queerest …"
He pondered for a moment, and then suddenly put his lips to my ear.
"I'll tell you," he whispered. "It gets harder every time!… At first, he just slipped through: a bit of a catch at my heart, like when you nod off to sleep in a chair and jerk up awake again; and away he went. But now it's getting grinding, sluggish; and the pain…. You'd notice, that night on the road, the little check it gave me; that's past long since; and last night, when I'd just braced myself up stiff to meet it, and you tapped me on the shoulder …" He passed the back of his hand over his brow.
"I tell you," he continued, "it's an agony each time. I could scream at the thought of it. It's oftener, too, now, and he's getting stronger. The end-osmosis is getting to be ex-osmosis—is that right? Just let me tell you one more thing—"
But I'd had enough. I'd asked questions the night before, but now—well,
I knew quite as much as, and more than, I wanted.