"Ah!" said the stranger, "I see that you are indisposed, doctor. If you cannot treat yourself, Dr. Harper can do something for you, I am sure."
"Who the devil are you?" said Harper bluntly.
The stranger came nearer, and, bending toward them, said in a whisper: "I call myself Jarette sometimes, but I don't mind telling you, for old friendship, that I am Dr. William Mancher."
The revelation brought both men to their feet. "Mancher!" they cried in a breath; and Helberson added: "It is true, by God!"
"Yes," said the stranger, smiling vaguely, "it is true enough, no doubt."
He hesitated, and seemed to be trying to recall something, then began humming a popular air. He had apparently forgotten their presence.
"Look here, Mancher," said the elder of the two, "tell us just what occurred that night--to Jarette, you know."
"Oh yes, about Jarette," said the other. "It's odd I should have neglected to tell you--I tell it so often. You see I knew, by overhearing him talking to himself, that he was pretty badly frightened. So I couldn't resist the temptation to come to life and have a bit of fun out of him--I couldn't, really. That was all right, though certainly I did not think he would take it so seriously; I did not, truly. And afterward--well, it was a tough job changing places with him, and then--damn you! you didn't let me out!"
Nothing could exceed the ferocity with which these last words were delivered. Both men stepped back in alarm.
"We?--why--why--" Helberson stammered, losing his self-possession utterly, "we had nothing to do with it."
"Didn't I say you were Doctors Hellborn and Sharper?" inquired the lunatic, laughing.
"My name is Helberson, yes; and this gentleman is Mr. Harper." replied the former, reassured. "But we are not physicians now; we are--well, hang it, old man, we are gamblers."
And that was the truth.
"A very good profession--very good, indeed; and, by the way, I hope Sharper here paid over Jarette's money like an honest stake-holder. A very good and honourable profession," he repeated, thoughtfully, moving carelessly away; "but I stick to the old one. I am High Supreme Medical Officer of the Bloomingdale Asylum; it is my duty to cure the superintendent."