And I purposely assumed, in
referring to these events, to have misunderstood much of what Mr. Blake
himself had told me a few hours since. In this way, I set him talking
on the subject with which it was now vitally important to fill his
mind--without allowing him to suspect that I was making him talk for a
purpose. Little by little, he became so interested in putting me right
that he forgot to fidget in the bed. His mind was far away from the
question of the opium, at the all-important time when his eyes first
told me that the opium was beginning to lay its hold on his brain.
I looked at my watch. It wanted five minutes to twelve, when the
premonitory symptoms of the working of the laudanum first showed
themselves to me.
At this time, no unpractised eyes would have detected any change in him.
But, as the minutes of the new morning wore away, the swiftly-subtle
progress of the influence began to show itself more plainly. The
sublime intoxication of opium gleamed in his eyes; the dew of a stealthy
perspiration began to glisten on his face. In five minutes more, the
talk which he still kept up with me, failed in coherence. He held
steadily to the subject of the Diamond; but he ceased to complete his
sentences.
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