grew up with the
doctor.

Without noticing Nick, Dr. Jarvis advanced directly toward the
dissecting-table. He had no light, but the moon's rays glanced brightly
around the slab.

The doctor drew back the sheet which covered the figure, revealing the
head and naked breast.

Then he drew some instruments from a case, and proceeded to sever the
head from the body.

This secret action in the dead of night surprised Nick greatly. Could it
be that some clever trick had been accomplished? Had the body which Nick
had seen been removed, and that of Patrick Deever substituted?

From where he stood Nick could not see the face of the body clearly
enough to form a decision. If, however, this was only an ordinary
subject for the dissecting-table, why did Dr. Jarvis mutilate it with
such caution and at such an hour?

To cut off the head was the work of a very few minutes to the skillful
physician.

He soon held it in his hands; and it seemed to Nick that the old
physician gazed at it with peculiar attention in the moonlight.

Suddenly Dr. Jarvis turned, and, carrying the head in one hand, holding
it by the hair, he advanced toward Nick. In his other hand the doctor
held a knife which he had used in his ghastly work.

Nick had little hopes of escaping discovery. Evidently it was the
doctor's intention to carry the head into the cellar, and the detective
was concealed close by the stairs.

But Nick was not discovered. Dr. Jarvis stalked by, within six feet of
him, and looked neither to the right nor to the left.

Still bearing the head, he descended the stairs, and Nick crept after
him.

The cellar was perfectly dark except where a faint glow around the
little furnace could be perceived. Nick was therefore able to follow the
doctor closely.

But suddenly the place was made light. Dr. Jarvis had touched a button
in the wall, and a row of electric lights, suspended before the furnace,
flashed up.

Nick had barely time to drop flat on the floor behind a row of great
glass jars full of clear fluid, the nature of which he could not
determine.

These jars were set upon a sort of bench made of stone, rising about two
feet from the floor. Between them and the furnace stood the doctor. Nick
was on the other side.

It seemed tolerably certain to the detective that Dr. Jarvis would
throw the head into the furnace. Nick determined to get a sight of the
head at once. He was yet uncertain whether it was Patrick Deever's.

Ri