CHAPTER VII
REVEALS A PLOT
The next that I recollect is, with my brain awhirl, I tried to open my eyes, but so painful were they, that I was compelled to close them again in fearful agony.
Somebody whispered close to me, but my mind was too muddled to understand what was said.
My eyes burned in their sockets; my brain seemed unbalanced and aflame. I tried to think, but alas! could not. When I tried to recollect, all remembrance of the past seemed as though it were wrapped up in cotton wool.
How long I remained in that comatose state I have no idea.
Some unknown hand forced between my teeth a few drops of liquid, which with difficulty I swallowed. This revived me, I know, for slowly—very slowly—the frightful pain across my brow decreased, and my burning eyes became easier until, at last, blinking, I managed to open them just a little.
All was dead white before me—the white wall of a hospital-ward I eventually discovered it to be—and
68