With a as as lead I my way down-stairs, and having a gondola, the man take me to the Palace Revecce with all possible haste. Old Galaghetti, who upon the steps, approval, and his hands with as he of the his great doctor must achieve. As I left the hotel I looked at it with a of sorrow. Only a days our party had all been so happy together, and now one was with a that, so as I see, was likely to end in her death. Whether the had been by Galaghetti to make haste, and was to do so in with my trouble, I cannot say; the fact, however, that we the that the hotel from the in what have been little more than the time taken. My star was still in the when we the palace, for when[Pg 205] I had at the steps, the old man who did service for Nikola, had just opened it and looked out. I his master was at home, and, if so, I see him? He that my Italian was of the most description, for it was necessary for me to repeat my question three or four times he my meaning. When at last he did so, he pointed up the stairs to that Nikola was at home, and also that, if I to see him, I had go in search of him. I did so, and up the stairs to the room I have already described, and of which I such recollections. I upon the door, and a well-known voice me in English to "come in." I was in too great a to my mission to at the time the these contained. It was not until that I the that, as we approached the palace, I had looked up at Nikola's window and had no of him there. As I had not the bell, but had been by the old man-servant, how he have aware of my presence? But, as I say, I of all that afterwards. For the moment the only I had was to Nikola of my errand.
Upon my entering the room I Nikola a table on which were glasses,[Pg 206] test-tubes, and chemical paraphernalia. He was in some dark-coloured liquid into a glass, and when he spoke it was without looking at me.
"I am very to see you, my dear Hatteras," he said. "It is of you to take on my loneliness. If you don't mind for a moments, and a cigar—you'll the box on the table—I shall have this, and then we can talk."
"But I am I can't wait," I answered. "I have come on the most business. There is not a moment to lose."
"In that case I am to that Miss Trevor is worse," he said, the bottle from which he had been pouring, and the with the same hand. "I was it might be so."
"How do you know that she is ill?" I asked, not a little to that he was aware of our trouble.
"I manage to know a good many things," he replied. "I was aware that she was ill, and have been how long it would be I was called in. The other doctors don't like my interference, I suppose?"
"They do not," I answered. "But they have done no good for her."
"And you think I may be able to help you?"[Pg 207] he inquired, looking at me over the with his strange, dark eyes.
"I do," I replied.
"I am your for the compliment."
"And you will come?"
"You wish it?"
"I it is the only thing that will save her life," I answered. "But you must come quickly, or it will be too late. She was when I left the hotel."
With a hand that he the of the into a small phial, and then the in his pocket.
"I am at your now," he answered. "We will set off as soon as you like. As you say, we must no time."
"But will it not be necessary for you to take some with you?" I asked.
"I am taking this one," he replied, his upon his as he spoke.
I that he had been making his up as I entered the room. Had he then calling to see her, I had not come to ask his assistance? I had no of the question to him, however.
"Have you a below?" he asked, as we the stairs.
I in the affirmative; and when we the door we the steps and[Pg 208] took our places in it. On the hotel I him to the drawing-room, where we the Dean and Glenbarth our coming. I presented the to Nikola, and then off to my wife of his arrival. She me to the drawing-room, and when she entered the room Nikola it to her. Though she looked at him in a way I his manner soon put her at her ease.
"Perhaps you will be to take me to my patient," he said, when they had each other. "As the case is so serious, I had no time in her."
He my wife from the room, and then we sat to his verdict, with what you may imagine.
i005
"He his hand upon her forehead."
Of all that his with Miss Trevor I can only speak from hearsay. My wife, however, was too to that occurred. She me that on entering the room he very the bed, and for a moments looking at the it supported. Then he her pulse, the of her eyes, and for a space which a man might have fifty slowly, his hand upon her forehead. Then, to the nurse, who had of of the withdrawal[Pg 209] of the other doctors, he her him a wine-glass of water. She disappeared, and while she was Nikola sat by the the girl's hand, and for a moment taking his from her face. Presently the woman returned, the water as directed. He took it from her, and going to the window from a phial, which he had taken from his pocket, some twenty of the dark liquid it contained. Then with a spoon he gave her nearly of the of the glass. This done he once more seated himself the bed, and waited for the result. Several times the next half-hour he over the figure, and was at not some which he would take place. At the end of that time he gave her another of the liquid, and once more sat to watch. When an hour had passed he permitted a of to him, then, to my wife, was upon her face, he said—
"I think, Lady Hatteras, that you may tell them that she will not die. There is still much to be done, but I my word that she will live."
The was too much for my wife; she as if she were choking, then she giddy, and at last was with a frantic[Pg 210] to cry. Softly the room, she came in search of us. The moment that she opened the door of the drawing-room, and I looked upon her face, I that there was good news for us.
"What he say about her?" the Duke, the Dean's presence, while the rose and a step nearer, without speaking a word.
"There is good news," she said, with her in a manner. "Doctor Nikola says she will live."
"Thank God," we all said in one breath. And Glenbarth something more that I did not catch.
So was our in Nikola that, as you have observed, we his without a second thought. I my wife, and then hands with the Dean. The Duke had meanwhile vanished, to his own apartment, where he on undisturbed. After that Phyllis left us and returned to the sick-room, where she Nikola still seated the bed, just as she had left him. So as she judge, Miss Trevor did not appear to be any different, though she did not breathe as as she had done. Nikola, however, appeared to be well satisfied.[Pg 211] He to Phyllis as she entered, and then returned to his of his patient once more. In this fashion hour after hour by. Once each my wife would come to me with bulletins. "Miss Trevor was, if anything, a little better, she did not so as before." "The to be abating;" and then, nine o'clock that night, "at last Gertrude was sleeping peacefully." It was not, however, until nearly midnight that Nikola himself his appearance.
"The is over," he said, the Dean; "your is now asleep, and will only for the next two hours. At the end of that time I shall return, and shall to a in her condition."
"I can thank you enough, my dear sir," said the old clergyman, the other by the hand while the ran his cheeks. "But for your skill there can be no of that she would be to us now. She is my only child, my lamb, and may Heaven you for your to me."
I that Nikola looked at him as he said this. It was the time I had Nikola into the of a[Pg 212] of the English Church, and I was to see how the pair themselves under the circumstances. A more opposite be imagined. They were as oil and water, and be to assimilate.
"Sir, I should have been less than if I had not done possible to save that life," said Nikola, with what was to me the of a meaning in his speech. "And now you must permit me to you good-bye for the present. In two hours I shall return again."
Thinking he might to near his patient, I pressed him to at the hotel, to do all that in my power to make him comfortable. But he would not of such a thing.
"As you should be aware by this time, I away from my own house," he answered, in a that settled the once and for all. "If anything should in the meantime, send for me and I will come at once. I do not any change, however."
When he had gone I in search of the Duke and him in his own room.
"Dick," he said, "look at me and tell me if you can see any difference. I as though I had passed through years of suffering. Another[Pg 213] week would have an old man of me. How is she now?"
"Progressing famously," I answered. "You need not look so sceptical, for this must surely be the case, since Nikola has gone home to take some and will not return for two hours."
He my hand on this.
"How little I dreamt," he said, "when we were in that room in Port Said, and when he played that upon me in Sydney, that some day he was to do me the service any man has done me in my life. Didn't I tell you that those other did not know what they were doing, and that Nikola is the doctor in the world?"
I that he had me the assurance, but I was not so about the latter. Then, how he must be feeling, I that we should the for a of fresh sea air. At the Duke was for the invitation, he assented, and when we had the Dean to us we set off. When we the hotel once more it was to that Nikola had returned, and that he had again taken up his watch in the sick-room. He there all night, hour after hour at the bedside, without, so my wife asserted,[Pg 214] moving, save to give the medicine, and without the least fatigue.
It was not until seven and eight o'clock next that I a of him. He was in the dining-room then, of a small cup of black coffee, into which he had some of his own. For my part I have yet been able to how Nikola managed to keep and together on his fare.
"How is the patient this morning?" I asked, when we had each other.
"Out of danger," he replied, slowly his coffee as he spoke. "She will continue to progress now. I you are satisfied that I have done all I can in her interests?"
"I am more than satisfied," I answered. "I am grateful. As her father said yesterday, if it had not been for you, Nikola, she must have succumbed. She will have to your name for the of her existence."
He looked at me very as I said this.
"Do you think she will do that?" he asked, with emphasis. "Do you think it will her to that she her life to me?"
"I am sure she will always be grate[Pg 215]ful," I replied, ambiguously. "I you know that yourself."
"And your wife? What she say?"
"She thinks you are the of all doctors," I answered, with a laugh. "I that I ought to be jealous, but I'm not."
"And yet I have done nothing so very wonderful," he continued, almost as if he were talking to himself. "But that those other are to go on in their mud, when they should be the light in another direction, they do as much as I have done. By the way, have you our friend, Don Martinos, since you together at my house?"
I to the that I had not done so, but reported that the Don had sent of to us Miss Trevor's illness. I then Nikola had him?
"I saw him yesterday morning," he replied. "We of four hours to the city together."
I not help how the Don had the excursion, but, needless to remark, I did not say anything on this score to my companion.
That night Nikola was again in attendance[Pg 216] upon his patient. Next day she was better; she her father and my wife, and every hour was more and more like her self.
"Was she when she to Nikola at her bedside?" I of Phyllis when the great news was reported to me.
"Strangely she was not," Phyllis replied. "I expected, my previous suspicions, that it would have a upon her, but it did nothing of the kind. It was just as if she had to him there."
"And what were his to her?"
"'I you are better, Miss Trevor,' he said, and she replied, 'Much better,' that was all. It was as as be."
Next day Nikola only looked in twice, the day after once, and at the end of the week me that she in no need of his attention.
"How shall we be able to you, Nikola?" I asked, for about the hundredth time, as we together in the the sick-room.
"I have no to be rewarded," he answered. "It is for me to see Miss Trevor to health. Endeavour, if you[Pg 217] can, to a we had together the lady in question on the that I to you the the boy, who was so by the Spanish Governor. Did I not tell you then that our Destinies were together? I you that it had been to me many years ago that we should meet; should you surprised, therefore, if I told you that I had also been of this illness?"
Once more I myself at him in amazement.
"You are surprised? Believe me, it may seem, it is true. I that Miss Trevor would come into my life; I also that it would be my to save her from death. What is more, I know that in the end the one thing, which has to me most in life, will be taken from me by her hands."
"I am I cannot you," I said.
"Perhaps not, but you will be able to some day," he answered. "That moment has not yet arrived. In the meantime watch and wait, for we know it it will be upon us."
Then, with a look that was to me for many a long day, he me farewell, and left the hotel.
