Birds of Prey

doctor, George Sheldon came again to see his sick friend. He was quicker to perceive the changes in the invalid than

to arouse Tom from a kind of stupid lethargy, and to encourage Mrs. Halliday, who shared the task of nursing her husband with brisk Nancy Woolper, an invaluable creature in a sick-room. But he fai

was afraid of offending Philip Sheldon; and she was afraid of alarming her husband. So she waited, and watched, and struggled against

the little table by the bedside, and had

fit for him to-morrow, so as I haven't eaten a morsel of dinner, what with the hurry and anxiety and one thing and another, I'll warm up the beef-tea for my supper. There's not a blessed thing in the house; for you d

feed, then; eh, N

ounce between, them; and such a lovely tender young thing as it was too - done to a turn - with bread sauce and a little bit of

houghtfully; "Phil isn't genera

n. George stood by the bed for some minutes looking down

"I hope I shall find poor old Tom a sh

e so," Georgy an

ng western sky, in which the last lurid glimmer of a sto

chamber with all its dismally significant litter of medicine-bottles, made a gloomy picture -

her, the Yorkshirewoman carrying a tray of empty phi

y," said George, with a backward jerk

n as he is had need be clever; and if I was ill myself, I'd trust my life to him freely; for I have heard Barlingford folks say that my master's advice is as good as any regular doctor's, and th

nk Tom's in

e; but I think he gets worse

were to go off the hooks, Phil would ha

g while that poor man lies at death's door. I'm sure Mr. Sheldon hasn't any thoughts of that kind. He told

and glasses. He went down through the dusk, smiling to himself, as if he had just given utterance to some piece of intense humour. He went to look for his brother, whom he found in the torture-chamber, busied with some mysterious process in c

younger, "busy as usual? Pa

cried Philip, with a savage laugh. "No, I'm not

gas. The dentist looked very pale and haggard in the gas-light, and his eyes had the dull sunken appearance induced by prolonged sleeplessness. George

sit here, if it amuses you to see m

ment of some castle-keep. No, Phil, I don't care abou

Tom. He and I were great cronies, you

grubbing among county histories, and tattered old pedigrees, and parish registers had give

n be. What mystifies me is, that he doesn't seem to have had anything particular the matter with him. There

anything st

s man comes to your house hale and hearty; and all of a sudden he falls ill, and g

llness. He came home in wet clothes, and insisted on keeping them on. He caught a col

inly. But if I were you, Phi

she is free to call in whom she pleases. And now you may as well drop the subject, George.

ers, but the talk dragged and languished drearily, and Georg

you get a stroke of good luck, I hope

g that had been said that night by the two men; ye

me a good friend, George," he said gravely; and then Mr. Sheldon th

back at his brother's house. He could see the lighted windo

We were great cronies in the old times, and

itting-room, or drawing-room as it was called by courtesy, a little before midnight. The servants had gone to bed, for there was no regular nightly watch in the apartment of t

fro some time, and began to examine some letters that lay upon the mantelpiece. They were addressed to Mr. Halliday, and had been forwarded from Yorkshire. The dentist took them up, one by one, and deliberately examine

bossed upon the adhesive envelope appeared the

t of boiling water for occasional friendly glasses of grog. He poured some water from a bottle on the sideboard into this kettle, set fire to a bundle of wood, and put the kettle on the blazing sticks. After having done this he searched for a tea-cup, succeeded in finding one, and then stood watching for the boiling of the water. He had not long to wait; the water boiled furiously before the wood was bur

m of three thousand pounds on the life of Thomas Halliday would be due on such a day, after which there would be tw

wner, and then to Barlingford, to the house of Georgy's mother, who had kept them upwards of a week, in daily expectation of her son-in-law's return. It was only on the receipt of a letter from Georgy, containing the tidings

ating with the open letter in his hand; "there are three tho

ion, he folded the letter an

him to-night," he thought; "I must wait