his skill and his patients were unable to "jump to another doctor" in
case his ugly features revolted them. His main interest, however, lay in
the desperately wounded Belgian private, Andrew Denton, whom he had
agreed to keep alive until the return of Miss Doyle and her uncle.

In making this promise Gys had figured on a possible delay of several
days, but on the second day following Patsy's departure the sudden
sinking of his patient aroused a defiant streak in the surgeon and he
decided to adopt drastic measures in order to prevent Denton from
passing away before his wife's arrival.

"I want you to assist me in a serious operation," he said to Maud
Stanton. "By all the rules and precedents of human flesh, that fellow
Denton ought to succumb to his wound within the next three hours. The
shell played havoc with his interior and I have never dared, until now,
to attempt to patch things up; but if we're going to keep him alive
until morning, or until your cousin's return, we must accomplish the
impossible."

"What is that?" she inquired.

"Remove his vital organs, tinker them up and put them back so they will
work properly."

"Can that be done, doctor?"

"I think not. But I'm going to try it. I am positive that if we leave
him alone he has less than three hours of life remaining; so, if we
fail, Miss Stanton, as it is reasonable to expect, poor Denton will
merely be spared a couple of hours of pain. Get the anaesthetics,
please."

With all her training and experience as a nurse, Maud was half terrified
at the ordeal before her. But she realized the logic of the doctor's
conclusion and steeled her nerves to do her part.

An hour later she stood looking down upon the patient. He was still upon
the operating table but breathing quietly and as strongly as at any time
since he had received his wound.

"This shows," Dr. Gys said to her, his voice keen with elation, "what
fools we are to take any human condition for granted. Man is a machine.
Smash his mechanism and it cannot work; make the proper repairs before
it is too late and--there he goes, ticking away as before. Not as good a
machine as it was prior to the break, but with care and caution it will
run a long time."

"He will live, then, you think?" she asked softly, marveling that after
what she had witnessed the man was still able to breathe.

Gys leaned down and put his ear to the heart of the patient. For two
minutes he remained motionless. Then he straig