inically Dal checked the vital signs as the old man
watched him. He was about to turn the pressure cuff over to Jack and
leave when the Black Doctor said, "Wait."

Dal turned to him. "Yes, sir?"

"You did it?" the Black Doctor said softly.

"Yes, sir."

"It's finished? The transplant is done?"

"Yes," Dal said. "It went well, and you can rest now. You were a good
patient."

For the first time Dal saw a smile cross the old man's face. "A foolish
patient, perhaps," he said, so softly that no one but Dal could hear,
"but not so foolish now, not so foolish that I cannot recognize a good
doctor when I see one."

And with a smile he closed his eyes and went to sleep.

CHAPTER 14

STAR SURGEON

It was amazing to Dal Timgar just how good it seemed to be back on
Hospital Earth again.

In the time he had been away as a crewman of the _Lancet_, the seasons
had changed, and the port of Philadelphia lay under the steaming summer
sun. As Dal stepped off the shuttle ship to join the hurrying crowds in
the great space-port, it seemed almost as though he were coming home.

He thought for a moment of the night not so long before when he had
waited here for the shuttle to Hospital Seattle, to attend the meeting
of the medical training council. He had worn no uniform then, not even
the collar and cuff of the probationary physician, and he remembered his
despair that night when he had thought that his career as a physician
from Hospital Earth was at an end.

Now he was returning by shuttle from Hospital Seattle to the port of
Philadelphia again, completing the cycle that had been started many
months before. But things were different now. The scarlet cape of the
Red Service of Surgery hung from his slender shoulders now, and the
light of the station room caught the polished silver emblem on his
collar. It was a tiny bit of metal, but its significance was enormous.
It announced to the world Dal Timgar's final and permanent acceptance as
a physician; but more, it symbolized the far-reaching distances he had
already traveled, and would travel again, in the service of Hospital
Earth.

It was the silver star of the Star Surgeon.

The week just past had been both exciting and confusing. The hospital
ship had arrived five hours after Black Doctor Hugo Tanner had recovered
from his anaesthesia, moving in on the _Lancet_ in frantic haste and
starting the shipment of special surgical supplies, anaesthetics and
maintenance