polite, he was obviously greatly ill at ease. He had the abrupt,
inattentive manners, the trembling fingers and quivering lips, of
one who had long been a slave to the drug habit, and who now, with
difficulty, was holding himself in hand.

Throughout the dinner, speaking to him as though, interested only
as his medical advisers, the Jew, and occasionally the American,
sharply examined and cross-examined their visitor. But they were
unable to trip him in his story, or to suggest that he was not just
what he claimed to be.

When the dinner was finished, the three men, for different reasons,
were each more at his ease. Both Pearsall and Prothero believed
from the new patient they had nothing to fear, and Ford was
congratulating himself that his presence at the house was firmly
secure.

"I think," said Pearsall, "we should warn Mr. Grant that there are
in the house other patients who, like himself, are suffering from
nervous disorders. At times some silly neurotic woman becomes
hysterical, and may make an outcry or scream. He must not think
----"

"That's all right!" Ford reassured him cheerfully. " I expect that.
In a sanatorium it must be unavoidable."

As he spoke, as though by a signal prearranged, there came from the
upper portion of the house a scream, long, insistent.

It was the voice of a woman, raised in appeal , in protest, shaken