_Wiggins_ (_aside_). Oh, dear! I see it all. I’m a doomed man. It’s all up with me. But I must appear calm. (_Trembles violently._) Wh-wh-wh-at d-d-d-o you w-w-want?
_Wiggins._ Yes. That is--no--no--oh! Blood! Blood! Blood!
_Harry._ Blood? I thought it was Wiggins.
_Wiggins._ It is. It is Wh-Wh-Wh-ig-ig-ins.
_Harry._ I have a nervous affection for which I wish to be doctored. A spasmodic moving of the arm at times.
_Wiggins._ Yes, I know. “At the dread hour of midnight.”
_Wiggins_ (_fiercely_). Go home, put your head in a basin of gruel--no--no; put a basin of gruel on your feet and--The dread hour of midnight! Oh! oh! (_Sinks into a chair._)
_Wiggins_ (_jumps up_). Matter? Murder, robbery, cold steel! That’s what’s the matter. Go home; stay at home. Your disease is fatal if you stir from home for the next fourteen years, especially (_aside_) at the dread hour of midnight. (_Sinks into chair._)
_Harry._ But the remedy, your great secret?
_Wiggins_ (_aside_). There it is, my great secret (_jumping up_). Go home, I say. Do as I tell you, or your life isn’t worth a lucifer match.
_Harry._ This is a very queer doctor. Come, Herbert, let’s go. I will call again, when you are more calm and quiet. (_Exit Harry and Herbert, L._)
_Wiggins._ Yes, I know, “at the dread hour of midnight.” What’s to be done? This sanguinary ruffian who is bound to obtain the secret of “The Great Elixir.” I always had an idea that I should be martyred for the knowledge I possess. I wish I was rid of the Great Elixir. Oh, Wigglesworth Wiggins, I wish you had been in the seventh heavens, ere you had made me the seventh son of a seventh son! (_Enter Dennis, L., with lunch on a waiter._)
_Dennis._ Here’s your lunch, sir (_places it on table_).
_Wiggins._ Lunch! A pretty time to think of lunch. (_Aside._) I must make a confidant of Dennis. Perhaps he can assist me. Dennis!
_Wiggins._ What would you do to get hold of such a secret as that of the Great Elixir?
_Dennis._ Faith! I’d go through fire and water to get a hould of it.
_Wiggins_ (_aside_). Oh, murder! Suppose he should forestall the ruffians! Would you shed blood, blood, blood?
_Wiggins_ (_aside_). He can be trusted. Dennis, my life is in danger. Two ruffians are coming here at the dread hour of midnight, shout blood, blood, blood in my ear, and then murder me.