I strove like a man in a
nightmare to break the spell that seemed to render me powerless to
move, but when, for a moment, the firing ceased, a weight seemed
to fall off me, and I was seized with a sort of passion to kill.
I have no distinct remembrance of anything until it was all over.
It was still the nightmare, but one of a different kind, and I was
no more myself then than I was when I was lying helpless on the
sandbags. Still, as you say, the picture was complete; at least,
if Miss Hannay was standing up here."
"Yes, she rose to her feet in the excitement of the fight. I
believe we all did so. The picture was true in all its details as
you described it to me. And that being so, I believe that other
picture, the one we saw together, you and I and Isobel Hannay in
native disguises, will also come true."
Bathurst was silent for two or three minutes.
"It may be so, Doctor--Heaven only knows. I trust for your sake
and hers it may be so, though I care but little about myself; but
that picture wasn't a final one, and we don't know what may follow
it."
"That is so, Bathurst. But I think that you and I, once fairly away
in disguise, might be trusted to make our way down the country. You
see, we have a complete confirmation of that juggler's powers. He
showed me a scene in the past--a scene which had not been in my
mind for years, and was certainly not in my thoughts at the time.
He showed you a scene in the future, which, unlikely as it appeared,
has actually taken place.
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