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Looking up, ht and-I confess-fordown at me, his upper lip twisted into a derisive snarl

"I hope he hangs for this," he said

I looked away, into Malachi’s eyes, red-rimmed and wide open He whispered, "Did you know too?"

I nodded Lying, the doctor had taught me, was the worst kind of buffoonery

"Yes"

They returned after what seemed like hours, but it could not have been an’s owlish face, and his locomotion to the chair into which he carefully lowered himself was reminiscent of the stiff and aard ers he packed his pipe, and two atte so recently teetered upon death’s black abyss, seemed shaken and stunned, the round wound on his forehead caked in dried blood, perfectly centered an inch above his eyes, like the mark of Cain

"Will Henry," he said quietly "Take Malachi upstairs to one of the spare rooms"

"Yes, sir," I replied at once I helped Malachi to his feet, pulling his arether we shuffled out of the rooood head taller than I Up the stairs I lugged him, and into the nearest bedroom, the room in which the nude body of Alistair Warthrop had been found five years before I eased hiist’s father, rolled himself into a miserable ball, until his knees nearly brushed his chin I closed the door and collapsed into the chair beside the bed to catch my breath

"I should not have come here," he said

I nodded in response to this obvious observation

"He offered to take an "For I have no place else to go"

"You have no other family?" I asked

"All ain "I’ for hiize"

"He didn’tHe knew and he did nothing Why do you defend him, Will? Who is he to you?"

"It isn’t that," I said "It’s what I am to him"

"What do you mean?"

"I am his assistant," I said not without a touch of pride "Like my father After he… after the fire, the doctor took me in"

"He adopted you?"

"He took me in"

"Why did he do that? Why did he take you in?"

"Because there was no one else"

"No," he said "That is not what I meant Why did he choose to take you in?"

"I don’t know," I said, a bit taken aback The question had never occurred to ht thing to do"

"Because of your father’s service?"

I nodded "My father loved hireat man, Malachi It is…" And now my father’s oft-spoken words fell from my lips, "It is an honor to serve him"

I attempted to excuse myself My avowal had reminded me of my place by the doctor’s side Malachi reacted as if I had threatened to throttle hio, and in the end I could not refuse hienital curse (it seemed my lot in life to sit at the bedsides of troubled people); it resulted too from the painful e bed night after night, consigned to a little alcove, set aside and forgotten for hours, like an unwanted heirlooar to display but too valuable to discard There were tiist, when I was certain he ht-heard theht they died When he did, it was usually to chastise ht we’d returned from the cemetery: Your father would have understood

So I ree of Alistair Warthrop’s deathbed, holding Malachi’s hand Clearly he was exhausted froed hi How had we discovered the creatures that had overcome his family? What had the doctor done in the interim, between the tiht visit of Eraso, of our expedition to the ceht that followed, of our sojourn in Dedham and the tale of Hezekiah Varner I o of the Anthropophagi to New Jerusalem, but stressed Warthrop’s innocence in the matter as well as his efforts to answer the critical questions presented by their presence Malachi seemed little satisfied with my defense of the doctor

"If a rabid hound runs amok, what fool looks instead for the creature that made it sick?" he asked "Shoot the hound first, and then find the source of its ht we had ti, wasn’t he? And now my family is dead Me, too, Will," he added matter-of-factly, without a shred of self-pity orthere; I breathe But inside there is nothing"

I nodded Hoell I understood! I gave his hand a squeeze

"It will get better," I assured hiet better And I pros, down to the last one"

Malachi slowly shook his head, his eyes ablaze "He is your e," he whispered "I understand, Will You feel bound to excuse and forgive hiive this… this… What did you say he was?"

"A ht A monster hunter… Well, he is what he hunts"

He fell silent after these da words, and his eyelids fluttered, drooped, then finally closed altogether He held tightly to my hand, however, even as weariness bore hi my escape

I flinched onquiet was shattered suddenly by the banging on the front door and the doctor’s bellowing for me to answer it What has happened? I wondered Have they struck again? Night was falling; perhaps another nocturnal raun-or perhaps word of the Stinnets’ demise had leaked out and a party of Warthrop’s fellonspeople had co with hot tar and feathers