She closed the sitting-room door behind us. Followed by Mr. Bruff and
Betteredge, I went back to Mr. Blake's room.
We found him moving restlessly from side to side of the bed, and
wondering irritably whether he was to have the laudanum that night. In
the presence of the two witnesses, I gave him the dose, and shook up his
pillows, and told him to lie down again quietly and wait.
His bed, provided with light chintz curtains, was placed, with the head
against the wall of the room, so as to leave a good open space on either
side of it. On one side, I drew the curtains completely--and in the
part of the room thus screened from his view, I placed Mr. Bruff and
Betteredge, to wait for the result. At the bottom of the bed I half drew
the curtains--and placed my own chair at a little distance, so that I
might let him see me or not see me, speak to me or not speak to me, just
as the circumstances might direct. Having already been informed that he
always slept with a light in the room, I placed one of the two lighted
candles on a little table at the head of the bed, where the glare of
the light would not strike on his eyes. The other candle I gave to Mr.
Bruff; the light, in this instance, being subdued by the screen of the
chintz curtains. The window was open at the top, so as to ventilate the
room. The rain fell softly, the house was quiet. It was twenty minutes
past eleven, by my watch, when the preparations were completed, and I
took my place on the chair set apart at the bottom of the bed.
Mr. Bruff resumed his papers, with every appearance of being as deeply
interested in them as ever. But looking towards him now, I saw certain
signs and tokens which told me that the Law was beginning to lose its
hold on him at last. The suspended interest of the situation in which
we were now placed was slowly asserting its influence even on HIS
unimaginative mind. As for Betteredge, consistency of principle and
dignity of conduct had become, in his case, mere empty words. He forgot
that I was performing a conjuring trick on Mr. Franklin Blake; he forgot
that I had upset the house from top to bottom; he forgot that I had not
read ROBINSON CRUSOE since I was a child. "For the Lord's sake, sir," he
whispered to me, "tell us when it will begin to work."
"Not before midnight," I whispered back. "Say nothing, and sit still."