ul machinists in the country."

Hippolyte, being modest, blushed as he bowed. In order to conceal his
confusion he unrolled his apron on the table with considerable noise of
rattling tools.

"I have to make some preparations before you may begin, Hippolyte, and
I want you to observe me that you may become used not only to the sight
of fresh blood, but also, what is more trying, the odor of it."

Hippolyte shivered. Entrefort opened a case of surgical instruments.

"Now, doctor, the chloroform," he said, to Dr. Rowell.

"I will not take it," promptly interposed the sufferer; "I want to know
when I die."

"Very well," said Entrefort; "but you have little nerve now to spare.
We may try it without chloroform, however. It will be better if you can
do without. Try your best to lie still while I cut."

"What are you going to do?" asked Arnold.

"Save your life, if possible."

"How? Tell me all about it."

"Must you know?"

"Yes."

"Very well, then. The point of the stiletto has passed entirely through
the aorta, which is the great vessel rising out of the heart and
carrying the aerated blood to the arteries. If I should withdraw the
weapon the blood would rush from the two holes in the aorta and you
would soon be dead. If the weapon had been a knife, the parted tissue
would have yielded, and the blood would have been forced out on either
side of the blade and would have caused death. As it is, not a drop of
blood has escaped from the aorta into the thoracic cavity. All that is
left for us to do, then, is to allow the stiletto to remain permanently
in the aorta. Many difficulties at once present themselves, and I do
not wonder at Dr. Rowell's look of surprise and incredulity."

That gentleman smiled and shook his head.

"It is a desperate chance," continued Entrefort, "and is a novel case
in surgery; but it is the only chance. The fact that the weapon is a
stiletto is the important point--a stupid weapon, but a blessing to us
now. If the assassin had known more she would have used----"

Upon his employment of the noun "assassin" and the feminine pronoun
"she," both Arnold and I started violently, and I cried out to the man
to stop.

"Let him proceed," said Arnold, who, by a remarkable effort, had calmed
himself.

"Not if the subject is painful," Entrefort said.

"It is not," protested Arnold; "why do you think the blow was struck by
a woman?"

"Because, first, no man capable of being an assassin would u