Page:Rowland--The Mountain of Fears.djvu/300

  as might be, and promising to sleep. When I visited him the following day he was calm, and one read only in the lines of the firm and beautiful mouth which cut the triangular space between the bandages, 'I wait.

Leyden's voice grew muffled.

"My word! I couldn't stand it, Doctor, for very long; it was worse than the accident itself. I sneaked off into Burton's room, and there the surgeon found me an hour later lying on the old man's bunk, for he was below at the time, and holding a capsized book in front of my face. There was a simplicity about this doctor which appealed to me.

Oh, hell!' said he, and dropped into Burton's desk chair and buried his face in his hands, and there he sat until presently the chief came in. From behind my book I could feel the grizzled old fellow looking from one to the other of us, and presently he gave a husky and inquiring grunt.

" 'Blind,' said the doctor, . . . . stone blind,' and with that old Burton kicked shut [ 284 ]