“Where to, my good fellow?” asked the other, somewhat crestfallen. “What do you mean?”
“I think I spake plainly enough. I say, folly me. I think, too, I know something about the outs and ins, the ups and downs of this house still. Come, sir, we'll show you how you've done your duty; but listen to me, before we go one foot further—if he's dead before my time has come, I'll have your life, if I was to swing on a thousand gallowses.”
One of the officers here tapped the doctor authoritatively on the shoulder, and said, “Proceed, sir, we are losing time.”
The doctor saw at once that further resistance was useless.
“By the by,” said he, “there is one patient in the house that I completely forgot. He is so desperate and outrageous, however, that we were compelled, within the last week or so, to try the severest discipline with him. He, however, cannot be the person you want, for his name is Moore; at least, that is the name under which he was sent here.”
Down in a narrow, dark dungeon, where the damp and stench were intolerable, and nothing could be seen until a light was procured, they found something lying on filthy straw that had human shape. The hair and beard were long and overgrown; the features, begrimed with filth, were such as the sharpest eye could not recognize; and the whole body was so worn and emaciated, so ragged and tattered in appearance, that it was evident at a glance that foul practices must have been resorted to in order to tamper with life.”
“Now, sir,” said the doctor, addressing the stranger, “I will leave you and your friends to examine the patient, as perhaps you might feel my presence a restraint upon you.”
The stranger, after a glance or two at Fenton, turned around, and said, sternly, “Peace-officer, arrest that man, and remove him to the parlor as your prisoner. But hold,” he added, “let us first ascertain whether this is Mr. Fenton or not.”
“I will soon tell you, sir,” said Corbet, approaching the object before them, and feeling the left side of his neck.
“It is him, sir,” he said; “here he is, sure enough, at last.”