me to diagnose the presence of a tumour in the mediastinum,
extending its claws into the lungs, and seriously impeding their action
and the action of the heart. An operation, serious and necessarily
involving danger, is imperative. The growth may be benign or malignant; in
the latter case I doubt whether the life of the patient is to be saved.
But in the former case he has good hopes. Understand, I speak with
certainty. Upon the presence of the growth, simple or otherwise, I am
ready to stake my credit, my good name, my professional reputation----"

Ah! It rushed upon Saxham with a sickening shock of recollection that he
was bankrupt in these things, and shame and anger strove for the mastery
in his face, and anguish wrung a sob from him, despite his iron composure.

He wrenched at the collar about his swelling throat, as he turned away
blindly towards the window, seeing nothing, fighting desperately with the
horrible despair that had gripped him, and the mad, wild frenzy of
yearning for the old, glorious life of strenuous effort and conscious
power. Lost! lost! all that had been won.

"I ... I had forgotten ...!" he muttered; and then a hard, vigorous hand
found his and gripped it.

"Go on forgetting, Saxham!" said a voice in his ear--a voice he knew,
instantly steadying--such virtue is there in honest, heartfelt,
comprehending sympathy between man and his fellow-man--the spinning brain,
and quieting the leaping pulses, and giving him back, as nothing else
could have done, his lost self-control. "You have earned the right!"

"Man, you're a wonder!" groaned the enraptured Chief Medical Officer. He
added, with a relapse into the national caution: "That is, ye will be if
your prognosis proves correc'. But the Taggarts are a' of the canny breed
of Doobtin' Tammas, an sae I'll just keep a calm sugh till I see what the
knife lays bare."

"Use the knife now, sir. At once--without delay!"

It was the weak, muffled voice of the patient on the bed. Saxham wheeled
sharply about, and the stern blue eyes and the great lustrous pleading
brown ones, looked into each other.

The pale Julius spoke again:

"I entreat you, Doctor!"

Saxham spoke in his curt way:

"You are aware that there is risk?"

Julius Fraithorn stretched out his transparent hands.

"What risk can there be to a man in my state? Look at these; and did I not
hear you say ..."

"Whatever I may have said, sir, and however urgent I may admit the
necessity