The next morning Schroder felt much better and decided to get up without awaiting the doctor. He was shaving in his shirtsleeves when there was a knock at the door. It was the doctor, and Schroder told him to come in.
“I’m fine this morning,” said the merchant without turning around, continuing to shave in front of the mirror. “Thanks for having come, but in fact you can go right away again.”
“You are in a hurry!” said the doctor and gave a slight cough to express a certain embarrassment. “I’m here with a friend this morning.”
Schroder turned around and saw, standing on the threshold by the doctor, a man of about forty years of age, strongly built, with a reddish complexion; rather common-looking and smiling ingratiatingly. The merchant, who was a self-satisfied person and used to being in command, looked at the doctor inquiringly and somewhat annoyed.
“A friend of mine,” repeated Lugosi, “Don Valerio Melito. We’ve got to go and visit a patient together and I told him to come along with me.”
“At your service,” said Schroder coldly. “Do sit down.”
“Anyhow,” continued the doctor to excuse himself further, “from what I’ve seen, you don’t really need me. The specimen was fine. Though I would like to do a little bleeding.”
“Bleeding? And why, pray?”
“It’ll do you good,” explained the doctor. “You’ll feel like another man after it. It’s always good for sanguine temperaments; and of course it’s all over in two minutes.”
As he spoke he produced from his bag a glass jar containing three leeches. He put this on the table and continued: “Put one on each wrist. Keep them there for a moment and they’ll soon settle. I’m sorry to ask you to do it yourself, but do you know, in twenty years of medical practice I’ve never touched a leech.”
“Give them to me,” said Schroder with his infuriating air of superiority. He took the jar, sat down on the bed and put the leeches to his wrists as though he had done such things all his life.
Meanwhile the unknown visitor, without removing his huge cloak, had put his hat on the table, together with an oblong package which gave a metallic ring. With a vague feeling of unease Schroder noticed that the man was sitting right at the door as though he wished to keep his distance.
“Don Valerio knows you already, although you may not know it,” said the doctor, he too, for some reason, sitting down by the door.
“I don’t remember having had the honor,” replied Schroder, who was seated on the bed with his arms outstretched on the mattress, palms facing upward, while the leeches sucked at his wrists. “By the way, Lugosi,” he added, “is it raining this morning? I haven’t looked outside yet. Most annoying if it is, I’ve got to be out all morning.”
“No, it’s not raining,” said the doctor. “Don Valerio does know you, you know, and he was most anxious to see you again.”
“I’ll tell you about it,” Melito said in his unpleasantly twangy voice. “I have never had the honor of meeting you personally but I know something about you that you wouldn’t ever guess.”
“I really can’t imagine what you’re talking about,” replied the merchant with absolute indifference.
“Three months ago?” prompted Melito. “Try and remember: Three months ago were you not driving along the Old Border Road in your carriage?”
“Well, possibly,” said Schroder. “It’s quite possible, but I really don’t remember.”
“Right. And do you not remember skidding at a curve and finding yourself off the road?”
“Yes, I do,” admitted the merchant, staring coldly at this new and unwelcome acquaintance.
“And one wheel being right off the road and the horse not managing to get it back into the track?”
“Quite so. But where were you?”
“Ah, that I’ll tell you later,” replied Melito, suddenly laughing and winking at the doctor. “And then you got out, but you couldn’t manage to pull the carriage up either. That’s it, isn’t it?”
“It is. And it was raining cats and dogs.”
“How it was raining,” continued Don Valerio, delighted. “And while you were straining away, did not a curious man appear on the scene, a tall man with an oddly dark face?”
“I can’t say I really remember,” interrupted Schroder. “Excuse me, doctor, but how much longer with these leeches? They’re already as swollen as toads. I’ve had enough too. And you did say there wasn’t much to be done.”
“Just one more minute,” said the doctor encouragingly. “Be a little patient, my dear Schroder. You’ll feel like another man afterward, I assure you. It’s not even ten o’clock yet, good Lord, you’ve all the time in the world!”
“A tall man, wasn’t he, with a dark face and a strange cylindrical hat?” insisted Don Valerio. “And didn’t he have a sort of bell? Don’t you remember him ringing it all the time?”
“As a matter of fact, yes, I do,” replied Schroder curtly. “And now would you mind telling me what all this is leading up to?”
“Absolutely nothing,” said Melito. “I simply wanted to prove that I already knew you. And that I’ve got a good memory. Unfortunately, I was rather a long way away, the other side of a ditch, at least five hundred yards away. Under a tree, sheltering from the rain, but I saw it all.”
“Who was that man then?” asked Schroder sharply, evidently wanting to make it clear that if Melito had something to say, it was better that he should say it immediately.
“Ah, I don’t know who he was exactly, I only saw him from a distance! But who
