y. His patient's condition was such that he could not possibly
do what was necessary without inflicting upon the unfortunate man an
amount of suffering that in his low and exhausted condition threatened
to result in collapse and death. The man was too far gone, indeed, to
justify the use of anaesthetics, yet without them Dick feared to
proceed. What was he to do? Suddenly he bethought himself of
hypnotism. Yet, how hypnotise a man whose language he could not speak?
Then he remembered a very remarkable statement which Humphreys had made
when discussing this same subject of hypnotism. "It is not the actual
words which you address to a patient," Humphreys had asserted, "but the
commands which your will imposes on him that produce the desired effect,
which can be obtained without the employment of words at all, if your
will be strong enough. And remember, also, that no abnormal strength of
will is needed if your patient be passive, unresisting." "Surely,"
thought Dick, "that ought to meet the present case, and at all events it
is well worth trying; so here goes." Therewith he bent over his patient
and, fixing the man's gaze in the peculiar manner which Humphreys had
taught him, silently willed him to sink into so deep a sleep that he
should feel nothing of what was about to be done to him. Almost
immediately the man's eyelids fluttered, closed, and he sank into a
profound sleep, breathing slowly and deeply, as could be seen by the
regular rise and fall of his bare, brawny chest.

"_Wao! 'mtagati_--_'mkulu 'mtagati_ (a wizard--a great wizard)!"
murmured the astonished crowd of onlookers behind their hands, gazing
wonderingly in each other's eyes.

Again Dick laid his fingers on his patient's pulse; already it was
stronger and more steady. Very gently he raised one of the man's
eyelids and lightly laid his finger upon the eyeball; the patient might
have been dead for all the effect that the touch had upon him. Then,
the warm water opportunely arriving, the young doctor got to work
without further delay. Strongly impregnating the water with an
antiseptic, he proceeded rapidly to cleanse the wounds, taking a pair of
scissors or a knife from time to time and removing the already
putrefying flesh; then he proceeded to dress the wounds, one after the
other, with healing ointments, drawing the edges together, where
necessary, with a few stitches; and when at length, after more than an
hour's diligent, careful work, hi