To my horror, he gave no signs. Even then I clung to him, I shook him; I could feel the quivering of his tense arms. At last, completely overcome, I turned and staggered from the place.
All that night I lay stretched out upon the bed, sleepless. I had studied medicine, but nothing that I had ever heard of bore any resemblance to this. Perhaps two hours after sunrise, as I was sitting with my eyes fixed in the direction of the other cavern, all at once I saw my brother appear.
I sprang up in sheer fright; he was pale beyond imagination. He paid no attention to me, but went past me and entered the cave. He groped his way to his larder and, sinking down upon the ground, took some of the food and ate it slowly. There was a bowl of milk which I had put there, and which he drank. Then he lay down, resting his head upon his arm, and fell fast asleep.
I followed him in silence when he rose, his weakness apparently gone. He went to the spring which was near the cavern, and bathed his face and arms in the stream below it. After that he came towards me and, sitting down beside me, put his arm around me.
“Dear brother,” he said, “it was very good of you; but please do not do what you did again.”
“You knew that I was there?” I cried.
“Yes,” he said, “I knew it.”
“And why did you not answer me?”
“I could not answer you, brother?” And then with a sudden gesture he checked me. “I could not even tell you why,” he said. “It must suffice you, Edward, to know that this must be, and that you cannot help it.”
“But it will kill me!” I cried.