anation was correct. The dull
rabbits, the sleepy Persian cats, and the silly sheep had died outright
of lethodyne; the cunning, inquisitive raccoon, the quick hawk, and
the active, intense-natured weasels, all most eager, wary, and alert
animals, full of keenness and passion, had recovered quickly.

"Dare we try it on a human subject?" I asked, tentatively.

Hilda Wade answered at once, with that unerring rapidity of hers: "Yes,
certainly; on a few--the right persons. _I_, for one, am not afraid to
try it."

"You?" I cried, feeling suddenly aware how much I thought of her. "Oh,
not YOU, please, Nurse Wade. Some other life, less valuable!"

Sebastian stared at me coldly. "Nurse Wade volunteers," he said. "It is
in the cause of science. Who dares dissuade her? That tooth of yours?
Ah, yes. Quite sufficient excuse. You wanted it out, Nurse Wade.
Wells-Dinton shall operate."

Without a moment's hesitation, Hilda Wade sat down in an easy chair and
took a measured dose of the new anaesthetic, proportioned to the average
difference in weight between raccoons and humanity. My face displayed my
anxiety, I suppose, for she turned to me, smiling with quiet confidence.
"I know my own constitution," she said, with a reassuring glance that
went straight to my heart. "I do not in the least fear."

As for Sebastian, he administered the drug to her as unconcernedly as
if she were a rabbit. Sebastian's scientific coolness and calmness have
long been the admiration of younger practitioners.

Wells-Dinton gave one wrench. The tooth came out as though the patient
were a block of marble. There was not a cry or a movement, such as
one notes when nitrous oxide is administered. Hilda Wade was to all
appearance a mass of lifeless flesh. We stood round and watched. I
was trembling with terror. Even on Sebastian's pale face, usually so
unmoved, save by the watchful eagerness of scientific curiosity, I saw
signs of anxiety.

After four hours of profound slumber--breath hovering, as it seemed,
between life and death--she began to come to again. In half an hour more
she was wide awake; she opened her eyes and asked for a glass of hock,
with beef essence or oysters.

That evening, by six o'clock, she was quite well and able to go about
her duties as usual.

"Sebastian is a wonderful man," I said to her, as I entered her ward on
my rounds at night. "His coolness astonishes me. Do you know, he watched
you all the time you were lying asleep