He was broad awake now, but suddenly his left leg, his left arm and wrist, all his left side jerked with the suddenness of a sprung trap; so violent was the shock that the entire bed shook and creaked with it.

Then the inevitable reaction followed, the slow crisping and torsion of his nerves, twisting upon each other like a vast swarm of tiny serpents; it seemed to begin with his ankles, spreading slowly to every part of his body; it was a veritable torture, so poignant that Vandover groaned under it, shutting his eyes.

He could not keep quiet a second--to lie in bed was an impossibility; he threw the bed-clothes from him and sprang up.

He did not light the gas, but threw on his bathrobe and began to walk the floor.

Even as he walked, his eyelids drooped lower and lower.