第108章

Deaftothisunanswerablereasonfortheabsenceoffriends，Mr。

SpeedwellinsistedonsendingPerryouttosearchamongthepersonswhocomposedthecrowd。Thetrainerreturnedwithhisreport。“Youwereright，Sir。Therearesomeofhisfriendsoutside。Theywanttoseehim。“

“Lettwoorthreeofthemin。“

Threecamein。Theystaredathim。Theyutteredbriefexpressionsofpityinslang。TheysaidtoMr。Speedwell，“Wewantedtoseehim。Whatisit——eh？“

“It’sabreak-downinhishealth。“

“Badtraining？“

“AthleticSports。“

“Oh!Thankyou。Good-evening。“

Mr。Speedwell’sanswerdrovethemoutlikeaflockofsheepbeforeadog。Therewasnoteventimetoputthequestiontothemastowhowastotakehimhome。

“I’lllookafterhim，Sir，“saidPerry。“Youcantrustme。“

“I’llgotoo，“addedthetrainer’sdoctor；“andseehimlittereddownforthenight。“

(Theonlytwomenwhohad“hedged“theirbets，byprivatelybackinghisopponent，werealsotheonlytwomenwhovolunteeredtotakehimhome!)

Theywentbacktothesofaonwhichhewaslying。Hisbloodshoteyeswererollingheavilyandvacantlyabouthim，onthesearchforsomething。Theyrestedonthedoctor——andlookedawayagain。

TheyturnedtoMr。Speedwell——andstopped，rivetedonhisface。

Thesurgeonbentoverhim，andsaid，“Whatisit？“

Heansweredwithathickaccentandlaboringbreath——utteringawordatatime：“Shall——I——die？“

“Ihopenot。“

“Sure？“

“No。“

Helookedroundhimagain。Thistimehiseyesrestedonthetrainer。Perrycameforward。

“WhatcanIdoforyou，Sir？“

Thereplycameslowlyasbefore。“My——coat——pocket。“

“Thisone，Sir？“

“No。“

“This？“

“Yes。Book。“

Thetrainerfeltinthepocket，andproducedabetting-book。

“What’stobedonewiththis。Sir？“

“Read。“

Thetrainerheldthebookbeforehim；openatthelasttwopagesonwhichentrieshadbeenmade。Herolledhisheadimpatientlyfromsidetosideofthesofapillow。Itwasplainthathewasnotyetsufficientlyrecoveredtobeabletoreadwhathehadwritten。

“ShallIreadforyou，Sir？“

“Yes。“

Thetrainerreadthreeentries，oneafter