could not take my eyes
off it. Torreon stood blankly, in a daze. Craig was as calm as if his
every-day work was experimenting on cadavers.

He applied the current, moving the anode and the cathode slowly. I had
often seen the experiments on the nerves of a frog that had been freshly
killed, how the electric current will make the muscles twitch, as
discovered long ago by Galvani. But I was not prepared to see it on a
human being. Torreon muttered something and crossed himself.

The arms seemed half to rise--then suddenly to fall, flabby again. There
was a light hiss like an inspiration and expiration of air, a ghastly
sound.

"Lungs react," muttered Kennedy, "but the heart doesn't. I must increase
the voltage."

Again he applied the electrodes.

The face seemed a different shade of blue, I thought.

"Good God, Kennedy," I exclaimed, "do you suppose the effect of that
mescal on me hasn't worn off yet? Blue, blue everything blue is playing
pranks before my eyes. Tell me, is the blue of that face--his face--is
it changing? Do you see it, or do I imagine it?"

"Blood asphyxiated," was the disjointed reply. "The oxygen is clearing
it."

"But, Kennedy," I persisted; "his face was dark blue, black a minute
ago. The most astonishing change has taken place. Its colour is almost
natural now. Do I imagine it or is it real?"

Kennedy was so absorbed in his work that he made no reply at all. He
heard nothing, nothing save the slow, forced inspiration and expiration
of air as he deftly and quickly manipulated the electrodes.

"Doctor," he cried at length, "tell me what is going on in that heart."

The young surgeon bent his head and placed his ear on the cold breast.
As he raised his eyes and they chanced to rest on Kennedy's hands,
holding the electrodes dangling idly in the air, I think I never saw a
greater look of astonishment on a human face. "It--is--almost--natural,"
he gasped.

"With great care and a milk diet for a few days Guerrero will live,"
said Kennedy quietly. "It is natural."

"My God, man, but he was dead!" exclaimed the surgeon. "I know it. His
heart was stopped and his lungs collapsed."

"To all intents and purposes he was dead, dead as ever a man was,"
replied Craig, "and would be now, if I hadn't happened to think of this
special induction-coil loaned to me by a doctor who had studied deeply
the process of electric resuscitation developed by Professor Leduc of
the Nantes Ecole de Medicin. There i