236 THE LAST DAY AT CHEE-HA. 



" enters the chamber, and the phantoms vanish ! 

 But strange ! their infernal music is still ringing 



in my ears! fiz, fiz, fie A broader ray, 



and then an image, gigantic in comparison with the 

 spectral effigies that had been hovering about me, 

 enters the room. A lamp is in one hand and a 

 watch in the other, from which, with spectacles on 

 nose, he spells the figures on the dial-plate. The 

 image approaches, touches my hand, which lay ner- 

 vously on the bedside, and uttered these cabalistic 

 words that dissolved the spell in an instant and 

 brought me back from the world of shadows to the 

 world of reality : c What are you bellowing for ? 

 You'll wake up the house. It's now two o'clock. 

 You have swallowed fifteen grains of quinine ; your 

 fever hour is past, and you are a saved man!' 

 < Whew ! why, Doctor Snorter, is that you f I'm 

 glad to see you very ! YouVe better company 

 than that batch of devils that have been jeering at 

 me all night !' 4 They are my devils, 5 said he, tap- 

 ping a phial of quinine which he held in his hand, 

 4 1 conjured them up with this bottle !' ' But, doctor, 

 these devils were not black, like those we read of 

 they were white, very fantastic, and fantastically 

 dressed, too, if I may speak my mind.' 'You 

 might have found them black enough, if you had 

 fallen into their clutches,' said the doctor, rather 



