Free trader-journal. (Ottawa, Ill.) 1916-1920, 1917-12-27
BY
GEORGE ALLAN ENGLAND.

y
the strange form on the white iron
bed. Opposite us, seated on chair
also of whitepainted iron, Vital
Ergazy bent forward, feeling the
pulse of the liberated right wrist
which lay upon the counterpart.
"Ninety-six' He formed the words
with his lips. VERY good, Andre,
under the circumstances. Everything
is proceeding normally, if we can only
keep it So"
"Pessimist" whispered Andre.
There is no if here, tell you, 1t
must and shall be brilliant success
all the way through. 1t can't be other
wise. Perfection of technique-per-
lection of method and of care - per
lection Of result"
Vital Ergazy nodded.
"Of course" he agreed; only we
must be ready for all contingencies.
Don't let the idea of infallibility run
away with you, Andre. Nothing could
be more fatal. have as much faith
and confidence as you, but | never for
get the | am morte'"
He lid his watch into his pocket
and To- ned eek In he { air, lryey-
ing the s'lathed patient, The IounG
less, sighless mystery before us all.
b Strange sight, indeed, un er that
mountaineering flood of creative rays
AZ al, ct
Imagine. if you can, the spectacle.
Alexandra's entire head and neck, her
shoulders, and all the upper part Of
her body were swathed and dashed
tight in hundreds of yards of stout,
sterilized bandages.
Her appearance was for all the
world like mummy's. Eyeholes there
were none. For ten days at the very
least-perhaps for twice that time
the woman must remain sightless and
mute. lying in absolute blackness,
dead to the world of sight and speech.
From this swathing a wire emerged,
communicating with tympanna in her
ears. Its other end was connected
with delicate audiphone, into which,
II we wished to talk to her, we could
speak directly.
A silver tube penetrated the wrap.
pings, so that the patient might be
fed on he highly specialized and con.
centrated diet prepared for her. A
small rubber pipe supplied ozone from
the Oxygenizer.
On Alexandra's left arm a curious
piece of apparatus had been bound
glass case, containing delicate Cor
don.Hutchins thermometer, hydro.
metric humidity gage to measure ema-
nations from her skim and new type
sphygmomanometer. or blood-pres
sure gage, invented by Vital Ergazy
himself. All these were of extreme
accuracy.
They registered automatically on
dials, which in turn delivered a record
on long strip OF paper that Issued
from the glass case This record con-
sisted of black. red and blue lines
traced by seffeeding pens of in.
genious construction
Part of my duties, the surgeon had
told me, would be the adjustment Of
the lght.rays according to prede-
termned scheme of color graduation
and light.wave lengths which they
would map out day by day. Part
would consist of adjusting tempera-
ture and humidity Of the poly chrome
record every hour white on duty, anL
the adjustment OF conditions so as to
keep all the lines strictly parallel, UNI
ill such time as-by certain symp-
toms the doctors had informed me OF
they should show unmisIakasle evil
dence OF trying to converge to a
point.
The patients right arm had been
left at liberty. as | have said, On the
counterpart lay pad of paper with a
silver pencil fastened to it by chain.
Speeches. though Alexandra was to
be, she could still maintain communi'
cation with US through the medium
of writing,
For ten days to three weeks, ac
cordng to circumstances. only this
blind. cropping, feeble form of seli-ex.
preston remained TO the splendidly
vital creature whose whole essence OF
life had been the giving out OF her
dramatic and artistic impulses in won
dertul yigor, From the outer world