y gray eyes of his
patient--his patient--he could not believe it yet. He laid exploring
fingers upon the pulse of the hand he had just grasped.

"If they were all like you," he said gently, "we should have better
chances for doing our best. How do you manage it, Doctor?"

"Temperament, I suppose," returned the other lightly. "Or"--and now he
spoke less lightly--"belief--or lack of it. If we get through--very
well; I shall go on with my work. If we don't get through--that ends
it. I have no belief in any hereafter, as you may know. A few years more
or less--what does it matter?"

Burns studied the finely chiselled face in silence for a minute, then he
spoke slowly: "It matters this much--to me. If by a chance, a slip, a
lack of skill, I should put an end to a life which would never live
again, I could not bear it."

Van Horn smiled--and somehow the smile was not frosty at all. "I am
trusting you. Your hand won't slip; there will be no lack of skill. If
you don't pull me through, it will be because destiny is too much for
us. To be honest, I don't care how it comes out. And yet, that's not
quite true either. I do care; only I want to be entirely well again. I
can't go on as I have gone."

"You shall not. We're going to win; I'm confident of it. Only--Doctor,
if the unforeseen should happen I don't want you to go out of this life
believing there's no other. Listen." He pulled out a notebook and
searching, found a small newspaper clipping. "A big New York paper the
other day printed this headline: '_Fell Eight Stories to Death_.' A
smaller city paper copied it with this ironical comment: '_Headlines
cannot be too complete. But what a great story it would have been if he
had fallen eight stories to life!_' And then one of the biggest and
most influential and respected newspapers in the world copied both
headlines and comment and gave the whole thing a fresh title: '_Falls to
Life--Immortal_.' Doctor--you can't afford to lie to-night where you
do--and take chances on that last thing's not being true. The greatest
minds the world knows believe it is true."

A silence fell. Then Van Horn spoke: "Burns, do you think it's wise to
turn a patient's thoughts into this channel on the eve of a crisis?"

Burns regarded him closely. "Can you tell me, Doctor," he asked, "that
your thoughts weren't already in that channel?"

"Suppose they were. And suppose I even admitted the possibility that you
were right--which, mind you, I do