upon the body, except that on the right side and just below the ribs
there now showed a scar about an inch and a half long and of peculiar
crescent shape. It was evidently a surgical scar and had completely
healed.

Sinclair scrutinized this carefully and then looked up to Avery. "He
was operated on recently?"

"About two years ago."

"For what?"

"It was some operation on the gall-bladder."

"Performed by Kuno Garrt?"

Avery hesitated. "I believe so."

He watched Sinclair more closely as he continued his examination; the
surgeon had glanced quickly at the face on the pillow and seemed about
to question Avery again; but instead he laid the pajama jacket over the
body and drew up the sheet and blanket. Connery touched the surgeon on
the arm. "What must be done, Doctor? And where and when do you want
to do it?"

Sinclair, however, it appeared, had not yet finished his examination.
"Will you pull down the window-curtains?" he directed.

As Connery, reaching across the body, complied, the surgeon took a
matchbox from his pocket, and glancing about at the three others as
though to select from them the one most likely to be an efficient aid,
he handed it to Eaton. "Will you help me, please?"

"What is it you want done?"

"Strike a light and hold it as I direct--then draw it away slowly."

He lifted the partly closed eyelid from one of the eyes of the
unconscious man and nodded to Eaton: "Hold the light in front of the
pupil."

Eaton obeyed, drawing the light slowly away as Sinclair had directed,
and the surgeon dropped the eyelid and exposed the other pupil.

"What's that for?" Avery now asked.

"I was trying to determine the seriousness of the injury to the brain.
I was looking to see whether light could cause the pupil to contract."

"Could it?" Connery asked.

"No; there was no reaction."

Avery started to speak, checked himself--and then he said: "There could
be no reaction, I believe, Dr. Sinclair."

"What do you mean?"

"His optic nerve is destroyed."

"Ah! He was blind?"

"Yes, he was blind," Avery admitted.

"Blind!" Sinclair ejaculated. "Blind, and operated upon within two
years by Kuno Garrt!" Kuno Garrt operated only upon the all-rich and
-powerful or upon the completely powerless and poor; the unconscious
man in the berth could belong only to the first class of Garrt's
clientele. The surgeon's gaze again searched the features in the
berth; then it shifted to the men gathe