objections of the husband.

"It appears to be that or nothing," said he brusquely. "It is better
to lose a lip than a life."

"Ah, yes, I know that you are right. Well, well, it is kismet, and
must be faced. I have the cab, and you will come with me and do this
thing."

Douglas Stone took his case of bistouries from a drawer, and placed it
with a roll of bandage and a compress of lint in his pocket. He must
waste no more time if he were to see Lady Sannox.

"I am ready," said he, pulling on his overcoat. "Will you take a glass
of wine before you go out into this cold air?"

His visitor shrank away, with a protesting hand upraised.

"You forget that I am a Mussulman, and a true follower of the Prophet,"
said he. "But tell me what is the bottle of green glass which you have
placed in your pocket?"

"It is chloroform."

"Ah, that also is forbidden to us. It is a spirit, and we make no use
of such things."

"What! You would allow your wife to go through an operation without an
anaesthetic?"

"Ah! she will feel nothing, poor soul. The deep sleep has already come
on, which is the first working of the poison. And then I have given
her of our Smyrna opium. Come, sir, for already an hour has passed."

As they stepped out into the darkness, a sheet of rain was driven in
upon their faces, and the hall lamp, which dangled from the arm of a
marble caryatid, went out with a fluff. Pim, the butler, pushed the
heavy door to, straining hard with his shoulder against the wind, while
the two men groped their way towards the yellow glare which showed
where the cab was waiting. An instant later they were rattling upon
their journey.

"Is it far?" asked Douglas Stone.

"Oh, no. We have a very little quiet place off the Euston Road."

The surgeon pressed the spring of his repeater and listened to the
little tings which told him the hour. It was a quarter past nine. He
calculated the distances, and the short time which it would take him to
perform so trivial an operation. He ought to reach Lady Sannox by ten
o'clock. Through the fogged windows he saw the blurred gas-lamps
dancing past, with occasionally the broader glare of a shop front. The
rain was pelting and rattling upon the leathern top of the carriage and
the wheels swashed as they rolled through puddle and mud. Opposite to
him the white headgear of his companion gleamed faintly through the
obscurity. The surgeon felt in his pockets and arranged hi