Malcolmson with a bright smile held out his hand. 'Shake! as they say in
America,' he said. 'I must thank you for your kindness and Mrs. Witham
too, and your kindness deserves a return on my part. I promise to take
no more strong tea--no tea at all till you let me--and I shall go to bed
tonight at one o'clock at latest. Will that do?'

'Capital,' said the doctor. 'Now tell us all that you noticed in the old
house,' and so Malcolmson then and there told in minute detail all that
had happened in the last two nights. He was interrupted every now and
then by some exclamation from Mrs. Witham, till finally when he told of
the episode of the Bible the landlady's pent-up emotions found vent in a
shriek; and it was not till a stiff glass of brandy and water had been
administered that she grew composed again. Dr. Thornhill listened with a
face of growing gravity, and when the narrative was complete and Mrs.
Witham had been restored he asked:

'The rat always went up the rope of the alarm bell?'

'Always.'

'I suppose you know,' said the Doctor after a pause, 'what the rope is?'

'No!'

'It is,' said the Doctor slowly, 'the very rope which the hangman used
for all the victims of the Judge's judicial rancour!' Here he was
interrupted by another scream from Mrs. Witham, and steps had to be
taken for her recovery. Malcolmson having looked at his watch, and found
that it was close to his dinner hour, had gone home before her complete
recovery.