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Page 22
"I don't want to disturb you, Mr. Varna," he said in a friendly
tone, with a motion towards the bench from which the mechanician
had just arisen. Varna sat down again, obedient as a child. He
was not always so apparently, for Muller saw a red mark over the
fingers of one hand that was evidently the mark of a blow. Gyuri
was not very choice in the methods by which he controlled the
patients confided to his care.
"May I sit down also?" asked Muller.
Varna pushed forward a chair. His movements were like those of
an automaton.
"And now tell me how you like it here?" began the detective. Varna
answered with a low soft voice, "Oh, I like it very much, sir."
As he spoke he looked up at Gyuri, whose eyes still bore their
commanding expression.
"They treat you kindly here?"
"Oh, yes."
"The doctor is very good to you?"
"Ah, the doctor is so good!" Varna's dull eyes brightened.
"And the others are good to you also?"
"Oh, yes." The momentary gleam in the sad had vanished again.
"Where did you get this red scar?"
The patient became uneasy, he moved anxiously on his chair and
looked up at Gyuri. It was evident that he realised there would be
more red marks if he told the truth to this stranger.
Muller did not insist upon an answer. "You are uneasy and nervous
sometimes, aren't you?"
"Yes, sir, I have been--nervous--lately."
"And they don't let you go out at such times?"
"Why, I--no, I may not go out at such times."
"But the doctor takes you with him sometimes--the doctor or Gyuri?"
asked the detective.
"Yes."
"I haven't had him out with me for weeks," interrupted the attendant.
He seemed particularly anxious to have the "for weeks" clearly heard
by this inconvenient questioner.
Muller dropped this subject and took up another. "They tell me you
are very fond of children, and I can see that you are making toys for
them here."
"Yes, I love children, and I am so glad they are not afraid of me."
These words were spoken with more warmth and greater interest than
anything the man had yet said.
"And they tell me that you take gifts with you for the children
every time you go down to the village. This is pretty work here,
and it must be a pleasant diversion for you." Muller had taken up
a dainty little spinning-wheel which was almost completed. "Isn't
it made from the wood of a red yew tree?"
"Yes, the doctor gave me a whole tree that had been cut down in the
park."
"And that gave you wood for a long time?"
"Yes, indeed; I have been making toys from it for months." Varna
had become quite eager and interested as he handed his visitor a
number of pretty trifles. The two had risen from their chairs and
were leaning over the wide window seat which served as a store-house
for the wares turned out by the busy workman. They were toys,
mostly, all sorts of little pots and plates, dolls' furniture, balls
of various sizes, miniature bowling pins, and tops. Muller took up
one of the latter.
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