"
"They have not been murdered?" He replied. But the startled look with
which I received the suggestion his words implied seemed to make him
recollect himself, for he rose and took my arm without saying more. As
he did so, I felt for the first time a sort of repugnance toward him.
Up to that moment my feeling had been one of pity and anxiety on his
account, but now I loathed him. This he seemed instinctively to feel,
and he clung closely to me.
Once at the factory I determined that there should be no more delay on
his part, and I took him to the door of the room where the bodies had
been laid, but at it he made a sudden halt and would not enter. Covering
his face with his hands, he trembled violently as I pushed the door open
and advanced to the bedside. The room, hushed and in semi-darkness; the
white sheet, whose surface showed too plainly the forms beneath it;
and the scared, terrified face of the man who, with brain afire,
stood watching, with staring eyes, the bed, made a scene I have never
forgotten.
Slowly I turned down the upper part of the sheet, and Jackson, as if
fascinated by the act, advanced a step or two into the room, but with
face averted.
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