He was wild in his enthusiasm—mad.
Then the Doctor!
I fancy I see him now, fumbling unsteadily in his tobacco pouch with that stub of a pipe he always smoked, his eyes fixed upon Mr. Mirrikh, to whom Maurice was pouring out words in the way he used to do, which I had tried in vain to make him do of late.
“I say, look here; give a fellow a show, will you, De Veber? Do you find it more convenient, Mr. Mirrikh, in traveling in this blasted country to freeze yourself like a side of beef and be forwarded by fast camel express?”
Mr. Mirrikh laughed shortly.
“Now, Doctor; now, Doctor! he exclaimed. “You are not sorry to see me alive, I trust?”
“I have nothing to say about that one way or the other,” replied the Doctor in his most positive fashion. What I say is this—and I stick to it—when I examined you last night you were dead.”
Again the adept gave his peculiar laugh.
“This is a strange country, Doctor,” he said lightly. “The strangest part of it is to see a dead man get hungry. I am most horribly hungry just now, so let us postpone further discussion till after breakfast, if it is all the same to you.”
But the discussion was not renewed.
The Doctor seemed to feel that he had made a blunder which would lower him in our estimation as a general “knowledgist,” and showed a disposition to drop the matter. As for myself, I maintained profound silence; not only on the subject of this marvellous resurrection, but likewise on all that Mr. Mirrikh told me after it took place.
Not that this amounted to much, I was full of amazement when he seized my hand and said warningly:
“Now Mr. Wylde, you have been brought face to face with a mystery which it has been the good fortune of but few of you earth dwellers to see. Be careful! No casting pearls before swine! I was determined to give you this satisfaction and I have done it; but such mysteries are not for all.”
It took me many minutes to collect myself, but I caught the spirit of his warning words, and was ready for him at last.
“What have you done? What does it all mean?” I demanded. “Who gave you the power to transcend the laws
