So the docile Tomlinson withdrew with a noiseless alacrity, and Doctor Pratt, in deference to his patron, bolted the mangled door.
"See, Pratt, you're tiring me to death, with your beastly questions. Wait, will you? Sit down. You'll promise me you won't tell this to anyone."
"Do hold your tongue, like a dear fellow, and listen. Upon your honour, you don't tell, till I give you leave, what's the matter with me. Come--d---- you; yes or no?"
"Well, you know I must, if you insist; but I'd rayther not."
"You _must_. On your honour you won't tell, and you'll call it gout?"
"Why--why, if it _is_ not gout, eh? don't you see? it would not _do_."
"Well, good morning to you, Doctor Pratt, for I'm hanged if you prescribe for me on any other terms."
"Well, don't you see, I say I must, if you insist, don't you see; it may be--it may be--egad! it might be very serious to let you wait."
"Gout, mind, and nothing else; all gout, upon your honour."
"Upon your _honour_; why the devil can't you speak!"
"You kill me, making me talk. Well, 'tisn't in the toe--it's up here," and he uncovered his right shoulder and chest, showing some handkerchiefs and his night-shirt soaked in blood.
"What the devil's all this?" exclaimed the Doctor, rising suddenly, and the ruddy tints of his face fading into a lilac hue. "Why--why, you're _hurt_; egad, you're hurt. We must examine it. What is it with--how the plague did it all come about?"
"The act of God," answered Sir Jekyl, with a faint irony in his tone.
"Bled a lot, egad! These things seem pretty dry--bleeding away _still_? You must not keep it so hot--the sheet only."
"I think it's stopped--the things are sticking--I feel them."
"So much the better; but we must not leave it this way--and--and I daren't disturb it, you know, without help, so we'll have to take Tomlinson into confidence."
"But, my dear sir, I _must_ tell you, this thing, whatever it is, looks very serious. I can _tell_ you, it's not to be trifled with, and this sort of nonsense may be as much as your life's worth, egad."
"You'll allow me to speak with your brother?"
"'Tisn't a fair position," said the practitioner, shaking his head, with his hands stuffed in his pockets, and staring dismally at the blood-stained linen. "I'll tell you what we must do--there are two supernumeraries I happen to know at the county hospital, and Hicks is a capital nurse. I'll write a line and they'll send her here. There's a room in there, eh? yes, well, she can be quartered _there_, and talk with no one but you and me; in fact, see no one except in your presence, don't you see? and egad, we _must_ have her, or I'll give up the _case_."