Have you a mind for a further walk in the snow?"
"As far as you like."
"There's a patient of mine drawing very near the time when doctors can do
no more for him. He has expressed a wish to see you, and I undertook to
convey the request."
"I'll go, of course," said Val, all his kindliness on the alert. "Who is
it?"
"A black sheep," answered the surgeon. "I don't know whether that will
make any difference?"
"It ought not," said Val rather warmly. "Black sheep have more need of
help than white ones, when it comes to the last. I suppose it's a poacher
wanting to clear his conscience."
"It's Pike," said Hillary.
"Pike! What can he want with me? Is he no better?"
"He'll never be better in this world; and to speak the truth, I think
it's time he left it. He'll be happier, poor fellow, let's hope, in
another than he has been in this. Has it ever struck you, Lord Hartledon,
that there was something strange about Pike, and his manner of coming
here?"
"Very strange indeed."
"Well, Pike is not Pike, but another man--which I suppose you will say is
Irish. But that he is so ill, and it would not be worth while for the law
to take him, he might be in mortal fear of your seeing him, lest you
betrayed him. He wanted you not to be informed until the last hour. I
told him there was no fear."
"I would not betray any living man, whatever his crime, for the whole
world," returned Lord Hartledon; his voice so earnest as to amount to
pain.
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