Gilpin observer., 1900-08-16
swung through his brain as his fingers
moved mechanically In their work


mine own familiar friend"
Mine own familiar friend!" A
queer look flashed into the gray eyes;
he raised them suddenly and glanced
again at the patients white face. 1t
was so very white that, except for the
faint breathing that was Just audible,
you might have supposed that the one
lying upon the table was dead. Dead?
the word sprung into Mr.. Menzies'
mind, following quickly upon those
words, Mine own familiar friend"
Dead-well, If the patient were dead,
there would be one villain less in the
world; the wrong would have been re-
venged-if-if the patient who lay so
still and white were still forever in
death.
The surgeons eyes went back to
their work; his steady fingers never
relaxed their task: there was no out
ward sign of the tumult within his
SOUL save a certain Tightening of his
lips.
Dead" The word surged to ana
fro in his brain, until he could see it
actually dancing before his eyes. The
man whom he had cursed so bitterly
the man who had vanished from his
life year ago-was helpless in his
hands, absolutely at his mercy, and,
If the knife slipped, ever so little, by
the fraction of a hairs breadth, the
faint breathing would cease-and-
the life that had ruined his life's hap
piness would go down into silence.
1t was so easy, too-so absurdly
hn nf
treme delicacy. If it failed, no one
would ever blame the surgeon! Few
men besides himself would even have
undertaken it, still fewer would have
heen able to carry it to a successful
termination.
To fail meant such tiny, tiny shift
ing of the instrument he handled with
| such skill and care. The most criti-
cal moment of the whole operation
wac approaching. There was a breath
less silence in the theatre, and across
it the whisper of one student to an
other was distinctly audible.
BY Jove, he has got tough job
there!"
AS though it had been yesterday,
instead of a year ago, there rose be-
fore Mr.. Menzies' eyes a sudden Wis
ion of the last day on which he and
the patient had met. He saw his
wifes drawing-room, flooded with the
sunshine, and his wife smiling up into
his face, with laughing eyes. The fra
GRANGE of roses pervaded everything;
she had always loved roses; and viv-
id recollection came to him of great
roses upon the tables. A mass of gor-
geous red ones had caught the HASH
ing sunlight and shone blood-red in
| its CLEANS. She had had big pink
one at her belt; and she had held out
to him dainty orange-colored bud,
For your buttonhole, dear" she had
said softly.
Beside her stood the man who now
lay unconscious under his hands, and
their two laughing faces rose up and
Knocked him with their falseness.
Such a little slip of the hand, so
easily compassed, and the life of the
man before him would slip for ever
into silence, and revenge was sweet.
His lips frightened, his eyes grew
hard.
Wrong? absurd" There was no
wrong in avenging your honor. Heav-
en- had thrown this man in his way,
the vengeance was meant to be. 1t
was childish, ridiculous, to draw back
now, when the game was in his hands
His lips had tightened till they look
ed like a thin band of steel, his eyes
were for the moment devilish.
For what seemed to him like a cen
tury, but what was in reality quar-
ter of second, his hand stayed its
work, and the patients life hung in
the balance. Then all at once the
tense look on mis- face relaxed, his
hand moved on steadily, firmly, sure
| ly and only that again one student,
more observant than the rest, noticed
that he was white to the very lips.
Strain too much for him." was
the thought in the young mans mind;
mo wonder he feels bad; that was
nasty moment, a slip of a hairs
breadth, and goodbye to the patient"
Never saw anything like it," an
other student murmured; the finest
bit of operating anybody could wish
to see. That fellow ought to be CRATE
ful to MenZies.
Perhaps there was a little surprise
in the minds of all those in the thea
tire that day, that Mr.. Menzies did not
improve the occasion by lecture upon
the case. Indeed, he uttered no syl-
liable during the remainder of the op-
Grafton, and never once again did he
raise his eyes to the face of the pa
tent.
Get Mr.. Stiles to see the case now"
he said briefly; II shall not be able
to come down tomorrow"
Outside. in the June sunshine, his
little daughter awaited him as he
came down the hospital steps, and as