Nothing further happened for a little while, and to relieve the strain on my mind I stared absently into the empty coffin.  Here I saw what had escaped our notice, two small plates of white metal and cut upon them what I took to be star maps.  Beyond these and the glowing boxes which I have mentioned, there was nothing else in the coffin.  I had no time to examine them, for at that moment the old man opened his mouth and began to breathe, evidently with some discomfort and effort, as his empty lungs filled themselves with air.  Then his eyelids lifted, revealing a wonderful pair of dark glowing eyes beneath.  Next he tried to sit up but would have fallen, had not Bickley supported him with his arm.

I do not think he saw Bickley, indeed he shut his eyes again as though the light hurt them, and went into a kind of faint.  Then it was that Tommy, who all this while had been watching the proceedings with grave interest, came forward, wagging his tail, and licked the man’s face.  At the touch of the dog’s red tongue, he opened his eyes for the second time.  Now he saw—­not us but Tommy, for after contemplating him for a few seconds, something like a smile appeared upon his fierce but noble face.  More, he lifted his hand and laid it on the dog’s head, as though to pat it kindly.  Half a minute or so later his awakening senses appreciated our presence.  The incipient smile vanished and was replaced by a somewhat terrible frown.

Meanwhile Bickley had poured out some of the hot coffee laced with brandy into the cup that was screwed on the top of the thermos flask.  Advancing to the man whom I supported, he put it to his lips.  He tasted and made a wry face, but presently he began to sip, and ultimately swallowed it all.  The effect of the stimulant was wonderful, for in a few minutes he came to life completely and was even able to sit up without support.

For quite a long while he gazed at us gravely, talking us in and everything connected with us.  For instance, Bickley’s medicine-case which lay open showing the little vulcanite tubes, a few instruments and other outfit, engaged his particular attention, and I saw at once that he understood what it was.  Thus his arm still smarted where the needle had been driven in and on the blanket lay the syringe.  He looked at his arm, then looked at the syringe, and nodded.  The paraffin hurricane lamps also seemed to interest and win his approval.  We two men, as I thought, attracted him least of all; he just summed us up and our garments, more especially the garments, with a few shrewd glances, and then seemed to turn his thoughts to Tommy, who had seated himself quite contentedly at his side, evidently accepting him as a new addition to our party.

I confess that this behaviour on Tommy’s part reassured me not a little.  I am a great believer in the instincts of animals, especially of dogs, and I felt certain that if this man had not been in all essentials human like ourselves, Tommy would not have tolerated him.  In the same way the sleeper’s clear liking for Tommy, at whom he looked much oftener and with greater kindness than he did at us, suggested that there was goodness in him somewhere, since although a dog in its wonderful tolerance may love a bad person in whom it smells out hidden virtue, no really bad person ever loved a dog, or, I may add, a child or a flower.