“Yes,” said Sir Julian, “yes. You had been working too hard. Puzzling your mind. Yes. More than that, perhaps—troubling your mind, shall we say?”
“I found myself faced with a very alarming contingency.”
“Yes. Following on a period of mental and physical strain.”
“Yes. The unexpected contingency was—personal to yourself?”
“It demanded an immediate decision as to my own actions—yes, in that sense it was certainly personal.”
“Quite so. You would have to assume some responsibility, no doubt.”
“Affecting one other person vitally, and a very great number indirectly.”
“Yes. The time was night. You were sitting in the dark?”
“Not at first. I think I put the light out afterwards.”
“Quite so—that action would naturally suggest itself to you. Were you warm?”
“I think the fire had died down. My man tells me that my teeth were chattering when I went in to him.”
“Heavy traffic sometimes goes past during the night, I expect.”
“Just so. Now this decision you refer to—you had taken that decision.”
“You had decided to take the action, whatever it was.”
“Yes. It involved perhaps a period of inaction.”
“I don’t know that that was in my mind at the time.”
“No—it was a case in which you could not possibly consider yourself.”
“Quite so. Yes. You had these attacks frequently in 1918?”
“Quite. Since then they have recurred less frequently?”
“I was being worried by certain family matters. It was a question of deciding about some investments, and I was largely responsible.”
“Yes. You were interested last year, I think, in some police case?”
“Yes—in the recovery of Lord Attenbury’s emerald necklace.”
“That involved some severe mental exercise?”
“I suppose so. But I enjoyed it very much.”
“Yes. Was the exertion of solving the problem attended by any bad results physically?”
“No. You were interested, but not distressed.”
“Yes. You have been engaged in other investigations of the kind?”
“Not a bit of it. On the contrary. I took up these cases as a sort of distraction. I had a bad knock just after the war, which didn’t make matters any better for me, don’t you know.”
“No. Will you allow me to make an examination? Just come a little nearer to the light. I want to see your eyes. Whose advice have you had till now?”
“Ah! yes—he was a sad loss to the medical profession. A really great man—a true scientist. Yes. Thank you. Now I should like to try you with this little invention.”