The same old room. The familiar, faded wall paper. The high, mahogany bed. The hunting print he had so cherished on the wall facing him. The table just as he had left it; the books piled in neat stacks on its polished surface. The lamp standing lighted among the books. The two big arm chairs.
Some one was seated in the chair facing from him.
He saw the top of a man's head. He had a dim recognition of feet sprawling from under the chair. On either arm of the chair rested a man's hand. There was something he knew about those hands; the prominent knuckles; the long, well made fingers. The heavy, silver signet ring on the smallest finger of the left hand was a ring he had often seen.
Standing there in front of Kurz, he wondered at the change in him. He looked so much older. There was no trace left of the boyishness which he had always associated with Otto Kurz. There were gray streaks in Kurz's heavy hair; gray at the temples of the wide forehead; gray behind the ears. The mustache and beard were threaded with grayed hairs.
He was astonished to find Otto Kurz in his room.
"Otto--! I had no idea that you would be here--!"
He could not understand the rigid attitude of the man's great body; the set mobility of the man's large hewn features.
He moved a bit so as to stand directly in the line of those fixed staring eyes. He wanted to interrupt the wooden expression of those eyes.
Kurz's eyes raised themselves to meet his eyes. He quivered at the look in Kurz's eyes.
The glazed, deadened eyes with the live, dumbed suffering behind them widened.
"I--do--not--know. I was waiting, Charlie--for--you--to--come."
He saw Kurz's hand with the heavy, silver signet ring on the smallest finger go up trembling to his beard. It was the old familiar gesture.
"Good?--Did you say good of me, Charlie?"
"Yes, yes!" He insisted eagerly. "Of course it was good of you to come and meet me."
"But how did you know?--Who told you?--I only just got here. No one--knew. How could you have known I was coming?"
He heard Kurz sigh; a long sigh that quavered at the end.
He could not fathom the look in Kurz's eyes. He had never seen a look like that in those eyes. He thought that it was not a human look.
Kurz made a little, appealing gesture with his long, trembling hands.