The supply of subjects was a continual trouble to him as well as to his master. In that large and busy class, the raw material of the anatomists kept perpetually running out;and the business thus rendered necessary was not only unpleasant in itself, but threatened dangerous consequences to all who were concerned.It was the policy of Mr.K to ask no questions in his dealings with the trade. "They bring the body, and we pay the price," he used to say, dwelling on the alliteration—"QUID PRO QUO". And, again, and somewhat profanely, "Ask no questions," he would tell his assistants, "for conscience's sake.There was no understanding that the subjects were provided by the crime of murder." Had that idea been broached to him in words, he would have recoiled in horror;but the lightness of his speech upon so grave a matter was, in itself, an offence against good manners, and a temptation to the men with whom he dealt.Fettes, for instance, had often remarked to himself upon the singular freshness of the bodies.He had been struck again and again by the hang-dog, abominable looks of the ruffians who came to him before the dawn;and putting things together clearly in his private thoughts, he perhaps attributed a meaning too immoral and too categorical to the unguarded counsels of his master.He understood his duty, in short, to have three branches:to take what was brought, to pay the price, and to avert the eye from any evidence of crime.
One November morning this policy of silence was put sharply to the test. He had been awake all night with a racking toothache—pacing his room like a caged beast or throwing himself in fury on his bed—and had fallen at last into that profound, uneasy slumber that so often follows on a night of pain, when he was awakened by the third or fourth angry repetition of the concerted signal.There was a thin, bright moonshine;it was bitter cold, windy, and frosty;the town had not yet awakened, but an indefinable stir already preluded the noise and business of the day.The ghouls had come later than usual, and they seemed more than usually eager to be gone.Fettes, sick with sleep, lighted them upstairs.He heard their grumbling Irish voices through a dream;and as they stripped the sack from their sad merchandise he leaned dozing, with his shoulder propped against the wall;he had to shake himself to find the men their money.As he did so his eyes lighted on the dead face.He started;he took two steps nearer, with the candle raised.