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Entrefort, whom nothing escaped, exclaimed, "Steady, Hippolyte! Observe!" Quickly was the skin peeled back to the limit of the incisions. This must have been excruciatingly painful. Arnold groaned, and his hands were moist and cold. Down sank the knife into the flesh from which the skin had been raised, and blood flowed freely; Dr. Rowell handled the sponge. The keen knife worked rapidly.
"What think you, doctor?" asked Entrefort of the older man. "I think," was the reply, "that the knife-blade has penetrated the ascending aorta, about two inches above the heart. So long as the blade remains in the wound the escape of blood is comparatively small, though certain; were the blade withdrawn the heart would almost instantly empty itself through the aortal wound."
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.
Ah, here comes my wife to meet me! She arrived by the other steamer." I recognized her immediately and was overcome with astonishment. "Charming woman," said Entrefort; "you'll like her. We were married three years ago at Bombay. She belongs to a noble Italian family and has travelled a great deal." He introduced us. To my unspeakable relief she remembered neither my name nor my face.
Arnold smiled faintly. "But we shall do our best to prevent the formation of a clot," continued Entrefort; "there are drugs which may be used with effect." "Are there more dangers?" "Many more; some of the more serious have not been mentioned. One of these is the probability of the aortal tissues pressing upon the weapon relaxing their hold and allowing the blade to slip.
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.
Bowing profoundly, Entrefort replied: "You do me too great honor;" then he whispered to his patient: "If you do that" with a motion towards the hilt "I will have her hanged for murder." Arnold started and choked, and a look of horror overspread his face.
"I I beg your pardon," said Hippolyte. Dr. Entrefort gave the nervous man a drink of brandy and then said, "No more nonsense, my boy; it must be done. Gentlemen, allow me to introduce Mr. Hippolyte, one of the most original, ingenious, and skilful machinists in the country." Hippolyte, being modest, blushed as he bowed.
"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.
"Be perfectly candid," said Arnold. Dr. Rowell, evidently bewildered by his cyclonic young associate, wrote a prescription, which I sent by a boy to be filled. With unwise zeal I asked Entrefort, "Is there not danger of lockjaw?" "No," he replied; "there is not a sufficiently extensive injury to peripheral nerves to induce traumatic tetanus." I subsided. Dr.
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