” ‘I would, as I can say, give a great deal to know… but the results are all that matter, I suppose.
” ‘When Davidson took his hands away from the pot, Brower reached over to rake it in. At that instant, Davidson’s face lit up with a kind of ruddy good fellowship, and he plucked Brower’s hand from the table and wrung it firmly. ‘Brilliant playing, Henry, simply brilliant. I don’t believe I ever—’
” ‘Brower cut him off with a high, womanish scream that was frightful in the deserted silence of the game room, and jerked away. Chips and currency cascaded every which way as the table tottered and nearly fell over.
” ‘We were all immobilized with the sudden turn of events, and quite unable to move.
Brower staggered away from the table, holding his hand out in front of him like a masculine version of Lady Macbeth. He was as white as a corpse, and the stark terror on his face is beyond my powers of description. I felt a bolt of horror go through me such as I had never experienced before or since, not even when they brought me the telegram with the news of Rosalie’s death.
“Then he began to moan. It was a hollow, awful sound, crypt-like. I remember thinking, Why, the man’s quite insane; and then he said the queerest thing: ‘The switch… I’ve left the switch on in the motorcar… O God, I am so sorry!’ And he fled up the stairs toward the main lobby.
“I was the first to come out of it. I lurched out of my chair and chased after him, leaving Baker and Wilden and Davidson sitting around the huge pot of money Brower had won. They looked like graven Inca statues guarding a tribal treasure.
“The front door was still swinging to and fro, and when I dashed out into the street I saw Brower at once, standing on the edge of the sidewalk and looking vainly for a taxi. When he saw me he cringed so miserably that I could not help feeling pity intermixed with wonder.
” ‘Here,’ I said, ‘wait! I’m sorry for what Davidson did and I’m sure he didn’t mean it; all the same, if you must go because of it, you must. But you’ve left a great deal of money behind and you shall have it.’
” ‘I should never have come,’ he groaned. ‘But I was so desperate for any kind of human fellowship that I… I…’ Without thinking, I reached out to touch him—the most elemental gesture of one human being to another when he is grief-stricken—but Brower shrank away from me and cried, ‘Don’t touch me! Isn’t one enough? O God, why don’t I just die?’
“His eye suddenly lit feverishly on a stray dog with slat-thin sides and mangy, chewed fur that was making its way up the other side of the deserted, early-morning street. The cur’s tongue hung out and it walked with a wary, three-legged limp. It was looking, I suppose, for garbage cans to tip over and forage in.
” ‘That could be me over there,’ he said reflectively, as if to himself. ‘Shunned by everyone, forced to walk alone and venture out only after every other living thing is safe behind locked doors. Pariah dog!’
” ‘Come now,’ I said, a little sternly, for such talk smacked more than a little of the melodramatic. ‘You’ve had some kind of nasty shock and obviously something has happened to put your nerves in a bad state, but in the War I saw a thousand things which—’
” ‘You don’t believe me, do you?’ he asked. ‘You think I’m in the grip of some sort of hysteria, don’t you?’
” ‘Old man, I really don’t know what you might be gripping or what might be gripping you, but I do know that if we continue to stand out here in the damp night air, we’ll both catch the grippe Now if you’d care to step back inside with me—only as far as the foyer, if you’d like – – I’ll ask Stevens to—’
“His eyes were wild enough to make me acutely uneasy There was no light of sanity left in them, and he reminded me of nothing so much as the battle-fatigued psychotics I had seen earned away in carts from the front lines husks of men with awful, blank eyes like potholes to hell, mumbling and gibbering
” ‘Would you care to see how one outcast responds to another’?’ he asked me, taking no notice of what I had been saying at all ‘Watch, then, and see what I’ve learned in strange ports of call”
“And he suddenly raised his voice and said imperiously, ‘Dog”
“The dog raised his head, looked at him with wary, rolling eyes (one glittered with rabid wildness, the other was filmed by a cataract), and suddenly changed direction and came limping, reluctantly, across the street to where Brower stood
“It did not want to come, that much was obvious It whined and growled and tucked its mangy rope of a tail between its legs, but it was drawn to him nonetheless It came right up to Brower’s feet, and then lay upon its belly, whining and crouching and shuddering Its emaciated sides went in and out like a bellows, and its good eye rolled horribly in its socket
“Brower uttered a hideous, despairing laugh that I still hear in my dreams, and squatted by it ‘There,’ he said ‘You see” It knows me as one of its kind and knows what I bring it1’ He reached for the dog and the cur uttered a snarling, lugubrious howl It bared its teeth
” ‘Don’t1’ I cried sharply ‘He’ll bite1’
“Brower took no notice In the glow of the streetlight his face was livid, hideous, the eyes black holes burnt in parchment ‘Nonsense,’ he crooned ‘Nonsense I only want to shake hands with him as your friend shook with me!” And suddenly he seized the dog’s paw and shook it The dog made a horrible howling noise, but made no move to bite him
“Suddenly Brower stood up His eyes seemed to have cleared somewhat, and except for his excessive pallor, he might have again been the man who had offered courteously to pick up a hand with us earlier the night before.
” ‘I’m leaving now,’ he said quietly ‘Please apologize to your friends and tell them I’m sorry to have acted like such a fool Perhaps I’ll have a chance to redeem myself another time ‘
” ‘It’s we who owe you the apology,’ I said ‘And have you forgotten the money” It’s better than a thousand dollars ‘
” ‘O yes1 The money1’ And his mouth curved in one of the bitterest smiles I have ever seen
” ‘Never mind coming into the lobby,’ I said ‘If you will promise to wait right here, I’ll bring it Will you do that?’
” ‘Yes,’ he said ‘If you wish, I’ll do that ‘ And he looked reflectively down at the dog whining at his feet ‘Perhaps he would like to come to my lodgings with me and have a square meal for once in his miserable life ‘ And the bitter smile reappeared
“I left him then, before he could reconsider, and went downstairs Someone—probably Jack Wilden, he always had an orderly mind—had changed all the markers for greenbacks and had stacked the money neatly in the center of the green felt None of them spoke to me as I gathered it up Baker and Jack Wilden were smoking wordlessly, Jason Davidson was hanging his head and looking at his feet His face was a picture of misery and shame I touched him on the shoulder as I went back to the stairs and he looked at me gratefully
“When I reached the street again, it was utterly deserted Brower had gone I stood there with a wad of greenbacks in each hand, looking vainly either way, but nothing moved I called once, tentatively, in case he should be standing in the shadows someplace near, but there was no response Then I happened to look down The stray dog was still there, but his days of foraging in trash cans were over He was quite dead The fleas and ticks were leaving his body in marching columns I stepped back, revolted and yet also filled with a species of odd, dreamy terror I had a premonition that I was not yet through with Henry Brower, and so I wasn’t, but I never saw him again ” The fire in the grate had died to guttering flames and cold had begun to creep out of the shadows, but no one moved or spoke while George lit his pipe again He sighed and recrossed his legs, making the old joints crackle, and resumed
“Needless to say, the others who had taken part in the game were unanimous in opinion we must find Brower and give him his money. I suppose some would think we were insane to feel so, but that was a more honorable age. Davidson was in an awful funk when he left; I tried to draw him aside and offer him a good word or two, but he only shook his head and shuffled out. I let him go. Things would look different to him after a night’s sleep, and we could go looking for Brower together. Wilden was going out of town, and Baker had ‘social rounds’ to make. It would be a good way for Davidson to gain back a little self-respect, I thought.