He has, of course, the right to speak authoritatively,
and he laughs at my theory that there was a crack in Pansay's head and a
little bit of the Dark World came through and pressed him to death. "Pansay
went off the handle," says Heatherlegh, "after the stimulus of long leave at
Home. He may or he may not have behaved like a blackguard to Mrs. Keith-
Wessington. My notion is that the work of the Katabundi Settlement ran him off
his legs, and that he took to brooding and making much of an ordinary P. & 0.
flirtation. He certainly was engaged to Miss Mannering, and she certainly
broke off the engagement. Then he took a feverish chill and all that nonsense
about ghosts developed. Overwork started his illness, kept it alight, and
killed him poor devil. Write him off to the System--one man to take the work
of two and a half men."
I do not believe this. I used to sit up with Pansay sometimes when Heatherlegh
was called out to patients, and I happened to be within claim. The man would
make me most unhappy by describing in a low, even voice, the procession that
was always passing at the bottom of his bed. He had a sick man's command of
language.
When he recovered I suggested that he should write out the whole affair from
beginning to end, knowing that ink might assist him to ease his mind.
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