He
wouldn't have let them put that thing over his, Howat's, face. He tried
to turn aside, but a cap of darkness descended upon him. Afterward his
breathing was easier. A blue iron tank was standing nearby, and the
nurse was removing a rubber mask attached to a flexible tube. The latter
led from a glass bottle, with a crystal pipe into the tank; the bottle
held water; and the water was troubled with subsiding, clear bubbles.
More of the dark, unpleasant mixture, more egg nog. Why did they trouble
and trouble him--already he was late getting to Irving Place.
The opera, as he had feared, had commenced; and it was at once strange
and familiar. The chorus and orchestra were singing in a deep ground
tone; the stage was set with a row of great, seething furnaces; glaring
white bars of light cut through vaporous, yellow gases and showered
steel sparks where coppery figures were labouring obscurely in a flaming
heat that rolled out over the audience. There was a shrilling of
violins, and then a deafening blare of brass, an appalling volume of
sound pouring out like boiling metal.... But here was Rudolph; the
performance was at an end; it was time to go home.
"I took the liberty of searching for--for Miss Jannan's address," the
other told him.
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