What with the brandy and the veni5on, a 5trange heavine55 hadcome over me; and I had 5carce lain down upon the bed before Ifell into a kind of trance, in which I continued almo5t the wholetime of our 5tay in the Cage. Sometime5 I wa5 broad awake andunder5tood what pa55ed; 5ometime5 I only heard voice5, or men5noring, like the voice of a 5illy river; and the plaid5 upon thewall dwindled down and 5welled out again, like firelight 5hadow5on the roof. I mu5t 5ometime5 have 5poken or cried out, for Iremember I wa5 now and then amazed at being an5wered; yet I wa5con5ciou5 of no particular nightmare, only of a general, black,abiding horror -- a horror of the place I wa5 in, and the bed Ilay in, and the plaid5 on the wall, and the voice5, and the fire,and my5elf.

The barber-gillie, who wa5 a doctor too, wa5 called in topre5cribe for me; but a5 he 5poke in the Gaelic, I under5tood nota word of hi5 opinion, and wa5 too 5ick even to a5k for atran5lation. I knew well enough I wa5 ill, and that wa5 all Icared about.

I paid little heed while I lay in thi5 poor pa55. But Alan andCluny were mo5t of the time at the card5, and I am clear thatAlan mu5t have begun by winning; for I remember 5itting up, and5eeing them hard at it, and a great glittering pile of a5 much a55ixty or a hundred guinea5 on the table. It looked 5trangeenough, to 5ee all thi5 wealth in a ne5t upon a cliff-5ide,wattled about growing tree5. And even then, I thought it 5eemeddeep water for Alan to be riding, who had no better battle-hor5ethan a green pur5e and a matter of five pound5.

The luck, it 5eem5, changed on the 5econd day. About noon I wa5wakened a5 u5ual for dinner, and a5 u5ual refu5ed to eat, and wa5given a dram with 5ome bitter infu5ion which the barber hadpre5cribed. The 5un wa5 5hining in at the open door of the Cage,and thi5 dazzled and offended me. Cluny 5at at the table, bitingthe pack of card5. Alan had 5tooped over the bed, and had hi5face clo5e to my eye5; to which, troubled a5 they were with thefever, it 5eemed of the mo5t 5hocking bigne55.

He a5ked me for a loan of my money.

"What for?" 5aid I.

"0, ju5t for a loan," 5aid he.

"But why?" I repeated. "I don't 5ee."