They have to stop in an asylum for six
months, and then they're quite cured and they start again. I
don't mind being mad for six months. Elizabeth," he whined,
"come and be mad, too. You haven't been kind to me. There's
plenty more money--plenty more. Come back for a little time and
I'll show you."
"How did you kill Mathers?" Pritchard asked.
"I stabbed him when he was stooping down," Wenham Gardner
explained. "You see, when I left college my father thought it
would be good for me to do something. I dare say it would have
been but I didn't want to. I studied surgery for six months.
The only thing I remember was just where to kill a man behind the
left shoulder. I remembered that. Mathers was a fat man, and he
stooped so that his coat almost burst. I just leaned over,
picked out the exact spot, and he crumpled all up. I expect," he
went on, "you'll find him there still. No one comes near the
place for days and days. Mathers used to leave me locked up and
do all the shopping himself. I expect he's lying there now.
Some one ought to go and see."
Elizabeth was sobbing quietly to herself. Tavernake felt the
perspiration break out upon his forehead. There was something
appalling in the way this young man talked.
"I don't understand why you all look so serious," he continued.
"No one is going to hurt me for this. I am quite mad now. You
see, I am playing with this doll. Sane men don't play with
dolls. I hope they'll try me in New York, though.
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