The Riddle Ring

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1896. Excerpt: ... CHAPTER XXVII. THE RING RETURNED. The long anxious hours of the night wore themselves away. Rose had been carefully lifted up and tenderly carried to Jim's room and stretched upon Jim's bed. A doctor and a surgeon were sent for. Both agreed that Rose could not then be removed to his own home or to any hospital. Both seemed to be of opinion that there would be no need of any intermediate removal. Rose had been terribly injured on the head. The police soon left the place, having taken the names of all those present with a view to a probable inquest. Mr. Coffin, having given his name, had quietly left the sitting-room and descended the stairs and disappeared, never to appear again, so far as this story is concerned. Jim and Waley both " spotted " him, to use Waley's phrase, as he was making off, but neither had the faintest idea of detaining him. To what end should he be detained? The less said about the whole tragedy the better. Jim was thinking of Clelia; Waley was thinking of the chief, for whom he once had such admiration, for whom he had still so much regret. For a long time Rose was insensible. He merely kept moaning on, but for the moaning the listeners could' hardly have known whether he was alive or dead. The surgeon found that his brain was pressed upon by a fragment of bone, and after a while a successful operation relieved the patient from that oppression; he recovered his senses and even his spirits, and made inquiry about himself in quite a cheery sort of way. "A question of days, doctor, or a question of hours?" "A question of ho'urs, I am afraid." "Well," he murmured in a low tone, " one must die at one hour or another. Odd how true it is, that old story, that nobody ever believes it of himself! I never believed that anything could kill me: n...