waited for his death.

- And you got a lot?

- About two million, not counting the three large enterprises and their branches in different countries. So be sure to come in - and, having warmly said goodbye to me, they came out happy, rich, magnificent.

Chapter 15

Our ship was put in the dock, and I had a lot of free time. Several times I met with Ram and his charming girlfriend. We had fun in different places of entertainment in Hamburg. Sometimes, having drunk appropriately, they recalled the past. They tried to find Dick, but he disappeared, leaving no traces. We built all sorts of assumptions and conjectures regarding his fate, but conjectures remained conjectures, and the wildness disappeared from our horizon. I had already lost all hope, but one evening a man came to my room and a man, modestly dressed, of quite a decent appearance entered. With a polite bow, he inquired if I was really the man whom the porter had called him. I confirmed and asked with whom I have the honor? I heard the following story:

- I work as a senior warden in a clinic for mentally ill doctors ... My last name ...

- Yes, but what do I have to do with it? - I interrupted him.

“Just a moment, sir, I’ll explain everything now.” In our clinic, sir, one patient is treated with sexual insanity. He was picked up on the street in the extreme degree of physical and mental exhaustion. In addition, he had a strong fever. He sometimes fell into a riot. Women seemed to him everywhere, and he rushed at our sisters. But when the seizures ended, he was a quiet and pleasant man. But he saw women everywhere, and he told about them such things that could arise in the minds of only a schizophrenic. Sometimes he shouted, cried, begged on his knees to remove women from him. He asked to be placed in an isolated ward, tied and locked. And we, to appease him, fulfilled his desire. Sometimes he sat quietly somewhere and went over cards, muttering something quietly to himself.

- Maps! - I exclaimed, jumping up from the chair, - did you, sir, say the cards?

- Yes, sir, he had a deck of cards, an old battered deck. He never parted with her. There were painted such beautiful women.

I walked in agitation from corner to corner around the room.

- Is Dick? Tell me further, Mr. Quig, I asked.

- As I said, he never parted with this deck. Even in a violent fit, he squeezed them in his hand so that we could not unclench his fingers, and we rolled him into a shirt and swaddled like a child, along with the cards.

- Unhappy! - burst out of me.

- Yes, sir, but what is strange, no matter how we tied him up, how could we swaddle him, but we can bind the sick, the next morning he always turned out to be unleashed and fainted. One time we handcuffed him, and still in the morning they lay open on the floor.

- He is with you now? How does he feel?

“He died last night, sir,” Quig said.

- How did you die? - I grabbed Kvig by the shoulder.

“Dead, sir,” repeated Quig. - He died quietly and calmly, and therefore I am here.

“But what did he say before he died?”

- Something incomprehensible, sir. He said that the last woman had come today and that he did not regret that he had lost, and then he called your name and asked you to fulfill your last will. He said, sir, that you are the only close person and you all know. He asked me to convey this ...

Quig held out a small package. Not knowing what was there, I already guessed and pushed the package away from me with horror.

- No, sir, please take it. This is his last will, and then while it was with me, I felt very bad. Especially at night, - and Quigus blushed deeply.

“Yes,” I thought sadly, “poor Dick.” You fell victim to your stubbornness - I was deep in thought.

We buried the poor fellow without too much chic. A modest but expensive monument crowned his grave.Salina covered everything with gorgeous flowers. And then we gathered in the rem apartment. He, Salina and I, each was immersed in some ridiculous thoughts. Then I took the bag out of my pocket, this bag of cards, and we walked to the brightly glowing fireplace. Ram filled his glasses and said:

- Let's drink to poor Dick and to ensure that these diabolical cards don't hurt anyone else.

We drank and I was going to throw cards into the fire in order to destroy this evil, but suddenly the door opened abruptly and on the threshold a figure of a man wrapped in white matter appeared. The man quickly approached me, took the cards from my hands and said in broken German:

- It can not be destroyed! This is rock!

- Hindu! - cried Ram and rushed to the man. “Hold him,” I rushed to Rem’s help, and we simultaneously grabbed the void.

There was no one in the room and the door was locked.

“Damn,” Ram cried in surprise.

“Maybe it's better,” I said, looking into the fire of the fireplace.

“Let's have a drink,” Salina said, and poured glasses.