第5期:奇怪的病人(5)

He unwound the handkerchief and held out his hand. It gave even my hardened nerves a shudder to look at it.

There were four protruding fingers and a horrid red, spongy surface where the thumb should have been. It had been hacked or torn right out from the roots.

Good heavens! I cried, this is a terrible injury. It must have bled considerably. Yes, it did. I fainted when it was done, and I think that I must have been senseless for a long time.

When I came to I found that it was still bleeding, so I tied one end of my handkerchief very tightly round the wrist and braced it up with a twig.

Excellent! You should have been a surgeon. It is a question of hydraulics, you see, and came within my own province.

This has been done, said I, examining the wound, by a very heavy and sharp instrument. A thing like a cleaver, said he.

An accident, I presume? By no means. What! a murderous attack? Very murderous indeed. You horrify me.