Fortunately he did not for some time remember what had happened. From the
time Bagley fell the voice had stopped, and all was still.

* * * * *

"You've got an epidemic in your house, Colonel," Simson said to me next
morning. "What's the meaning of it all? Here's your butler raving about a
voice. This will never do, you know; and so far as I can make out, you
are in it too."

"Yes, I am in it, Doctor. I thought I had better speak to you. Of course
you are treating Roland all right, but the boy is not raving, he is as
sane as you or me. It's all true."

"As sane as--I--or you. I never thought the boy insane. He's got cerebral
excitement, fever. I don't know what you've got. There's something very
queer about the look of your eyes."

"Come," said I, "you can't put us all to bed, you know. You had better
listen and hear the symptoms in full."

The Doctor shrugged his shoulders, but he listened to me patiently. He
did not believe a word of the story, that was clear; but he heard it all
from beginning to end. "My dear fellow," he said, "the boy told me just
the same. It's an epidemic. When one person falls a victim to this sort
of thing, it's as safe as can be,--there's always two or three."

"Then how do you account for it?" I said.

"Oh, account for it!--that's a different matter; there's no accounting