“`Spotted blinds,’ said Emerson Eames faintly.

“`You can’t say fairer than that,’ admitted the younger man, `and now I’ll just tell you this to wind up with.  If you really were what you profess to be, I don’t see that it would matter to snail or seraph if you broke your impious stiff neck and dashed out all your drivelling devil-worshipping brains.  But in strict biographical fact you are a very nice fellow, addicted to talking putrid nonsense, and I love you like a brother.  I shall therefore fire off all my cartridges round your head so as not to hit you (I am a good shot, you may be glad to hear), and then we will go in and have some breakfast.’

“He then let off two barrels in the air, which the Professor endured with singular firmness, and then said, `But don’t fire them all off.’

“`Why not’ asked the other buoyantly.

“`Keep them,’ asked his companion, `for the next man you meet who talks as we were talking.’

“It was at this moment that Smith, looking down, perceived apoplectic terror upon the face of the Sub-Warden, and heard the refined shriek with which he summoned the porter and the ladder.

“It took Dr. Eames some little time to disentangle himself from the ladder, and some little time longer to disentangle himself from the Sub-Warden.  But as soon as he could do so unobtrusively, he rejoined his companion in the late extraordinary scene.  He was astonished to find the gigantic Smith heavily shaken, and sitting with his shaggy head on his hands.  When addressed, he lifted a very pale face.

“`Why, what is the matter?’ asked Eames, whose own nerves had by this time twittered themselves quiet, like the morning birds.

“`I must ask your indulgence,’ said Smith, rather brokenly. `I must ask you to realize that I have just had an escape from death.’

“`You have had an escape from death?’ repeated the Professor in not unpardonable irritation. `Well, of all the cheek—­’

“`Oh, don’t you understand, don’t you understand?’ cried the pale young man impatiently. `I had to do it, Eames; I had to prove you wrong or die.  When a man’s young, he nearly always has some one whom he thinks the top-water mark of the mind of man—­ some one who knows all about it, if anybody knows.

“`Well, you were that to me; you spoke with authority, and not as the scribes.  Nobody could comfort me if you said there was no comfort.  If you really thought there was nothing anywhere, it was because you had been there to see.  Don’t you see that I had to prove you didn’t really mean it?—­ or else drown myself in the canal.’

“`Well,’ said Eames hesitatingly, `I think perhaps you confuse—­’