138 



TJIE AMhUllCAN BEE-KEEPER 



May 



our presence aud feebly to sign his 

 wants. 



But there was something about the 

 appearance of his eyes that morning 

 which struck me as being unusual, a 

 curious, precccupied lock. When Jim 

 and I had left him to the care of his at- 

 tendant, I remarked upon this symptom. 



''You noticed it, then?" answered 

 Jim moodily. "I thought you would. 

 Ah, but that is only one aspect of the 

 caEe, not the most serious either!" 



Kcre he broke off abruptly. I waited, 

 without speaking, till he began once 

 more : 



' 'Did you ever study the subject of 

 sense transfer ?nce?" 



I confessed tliat I had not done; so to 

 "any gi'eat extent. 



"It begins to occur to me, " continued 

 Jim, "that that is what we have to deal 

 with in the case — nothing more or less. 

 However it has happened, one thing is 

 veiy plain to me — that the sense of hear- 

 ing in this case is not absolutely destroy- 

 ed, but, as I may put it, diverted into 

 the optic region — grafted, as it were, 

 into the sense of sight. " 



"But is such a thing possible?" I ex- 

 claimed anxiously. 



"Yes, theoretically it is," returned 

 my partner gravely, ' 'but practically no 

 example of it has yet occurred in the 

 case — that is, of a human being. I can 

 only guess that in the present instance 

 purely accidental cau.ses have led up to 

 it But the fact remains that, as I have 

 just said, the man now sees — actually 

 sees, remember — that which, in ordinary 

 circumstances, he would have heard. ' ' 



My colleague's diagnosis proved to be 

 true, as we soon found. Little by little, 

 as consciousness returned, it became 

 painfully evident that the patient's 

 senses Juid become what I may call, for 

 want cf a better word, entangled. 



With what startling vividness, such 

 sensations thus took bndily shape before 

 him we could ( nly surmise from his ex- 

 cited manner. Sensitive to an extraor- 

 dinary degree to every breath, every 

 whisper around him, his staring eyeballs 

 too plainly showed how the faculty of 

 vision was exalted, in his case, to a pre- 

 ternatural extent. 



"Please, sir," said a maidservant at 

 the door; "please, sir, Dr. Clifford 

 wants you up stairs at once. ' ' 



cmioi'd and the attendant were hold- 

 ing elown the patient by main force 

 Rpou the beet. He was struggling to rise, 

 and the expression of his face was one 

 of terror. His eyes seemeel as if start- 

 ing from their sockets. 



"Something has induced a violent 

 paroxysm," whispered Jim. "He can't 

 last Ion';- if it continues. " 



The sick man sank back on his pil- 

 lows. His lips moved. By stooping over 

 him I coulel catch some of his words. 



"They are coming — coming now," he 

 gaspeel, "ever so far away, but I can 

 see them i Something moves before them 

 — something elark! I can't make it out I 

 Something about to break! "Will it save 

 poor Octave? Will it "— 



"Visibly worse, " said Clifford aside 

 to me, "and the pulse abnormally high. 

 If this goes on, he will be in a high 

 fever before long. ' ' 



It was a breathless summer evening, 

 but the sky was overcast with murky 

 clouds, foreboding a tempest. The ropm 

 already grew dark with the shadow oi 

 its coming. 



Suddenly there was a loud knocking 

 at the front door. Presently I heard 

 voices in conversation, then heavy foot- 

 steps began to ascend the stairs. 



At that instant a rose colored flash 

 gleameel through the darkness of the 

 room, a terrific peal of thuneler follow- 

 eel, its echoes crashing and rolling as 

 if the building were about to fall upon 

 our heads. The sick man sprang con- 

 Talsively to an almost upright position 

 in his bed, then fell backward — dead! 



The door opened. There was a pause, 

 and two plainly dressed men slipped 

 quietly into the room. 



"Dr. Clifford, I presume?" inquired 

 the foremost politely. 



Jim noddeel assent wonderingly. 



' ' I have a very painful duty to per- 

 form in respect of yeiur patient here, ' ' 

 continued the speaker fumbling a paper 

 as he spoke; "a very painful duty im 

 deed. But the fact is, I hold a wai-rant 

 for his apprehension under the name o\ 

 Henry — Octave Henry — on a charge 

 of"— 



"My patient," interposed Jim very 

 quietly, "has just obeyed another sum- 

 mons. The man died while you were 

 coming up stairs. ' ' 



From the explanations which ensued 



