The patient in Room 18

St. Ann’s is an old hospital, sprawling in a great heap of weather-stained red brick and green ivy on the side of Thatcher Hill, a little east and south of the city of B——. The...

That night began much the same as other nights and with no suggestion of the events it was to unfold. There was the usual twelve-o’clock stir of drinks and temperatures and puls...

From sheer fatigue, however, I must have dozed for I awoke at the sound of a repeated knocking at the door. It was a frightened little student nurse wanting to know if all train...

The slow words beat their way into my brain like so many dull little hammers. I opened my mouth, tried to say something, but could not seem to make him hear, felt curiously sick...

From that morning on I took an active interest in the case—I mean, in solving the problem. Indeed, Mr. O’Leary has had the kindness to say, since, that I helped—well, I need not...

I must admit that I went about my duties somewhat automatically that night and could not help keeping an eye on Maida, not from suspicion, you understand, but simply because the...

“Yes, I saw that this morning,” said a quiet voice beside me. It was Lance O’Leary; I did not know he was near until he spoke. “Our friend Mr. Gainsay seems to be a little confu...

After that the inquest rather dragged for awhile, although Huldah telling very succinctly of Jim Gainsay taking out the Doctor’s sedan a short time before the storm broke was on...

I left rather abruptly. But on the darkening path toward St. Ann’s I decided that Corole could not have heard our conversation. Feeling that I must get these last two pieces of...

I slipped unobserved into the diet kitchen, where I left my cape and to some degree repaired damages. I found, on emerging from the kitchen, that the new patient in Eighteen had...

It was near morning by that time, and Maida and I had to work rapidly to get our patients washed and tooth-brushed and ready for the breakfast trays. To my satisfaction no one f...

Still feeling that I must get hold of Higgins, it was hard to compose myself to rest and I didn’t sleep a wink. About eleven o’clock I got up and made my way again to the baseme...

How true it is that time, in retrospect, is measured by the events occurring therein. By which I mean, of course, that while the whole sequence of mysterious and shocking events...

I must say that I was considerably relieved to see O’Leary’s eyelids flutter, the colour return to his face, and to note that his breath began to come more naturally. In a few m...

A silence fell in the room. O’Leary walked to the window, pulled the heavy, mulberry-coloured drapes aside, and stood there for a moment. The world outside was sodden and cold;...

He nodded. My mouth open I waited for him to tell me more. In the little silence I heard a sort of rustle and I looked about me in some alarm. O’Leary heard the rustle, too, but...

The next thing I remember is finding myself at the door of Room 18, my fingers on the door knob, my breath coming in gasps and my heart literally in my throat.

I have only a dazed and chaotic memory of them taking Dr. Balman away. Of Corole and Fred Hajek going under guard. Of myself sitting numbly in Room 18, with Maida beside me grip...