“The operation I am about to try on you,” he resumed, “is something absolutely new. I advise you with the utmost frankness that it is a very dangerous one, though it is not, unfortunately, in my power to avoid it. The best I can guarantee is that you will not suffer much pain. To add just one more chance that the issue will be favorable, I have decided not to put you to sleep; though the experiment conducted under such conditions will cost me a far greater effort, and much more physical suffering. But if you are awake, with your nerves and muscles at normal tension, you will be better able to withstand the loss of substance you must undergo.”
He inclined his head to one side, his cheeks resting on three of his fingers.
“I wonder ...” said he, in a voice somewhat changed in tone.
“I was just thinking,” he began again. “Without any doubt you have papers on your person addressed to you under your name, your former name, that is.... Yes! And a pocket book perhaps?... Exactly.... Would you be so very, very kind as to entrust them all to me?... They might interfere with our results....”
Without comment, I unbuttoned my coat and thrust a hand into my inside pocket. I found there my card case, with a number of visiting cards, my road maps, two or three blank envelopes, and finally, crumpled through my haste in putting it away, the letter—the letter of the colonel of artillery. I handed them all to the marquis.
“I thank you!” said he.
The fold of his thin mouth grew deeper, and his tone was now one of great solemnity:
“Monsieur,” said he, “everything is ready now. My last request is that you be kind enough, in view of the fact that you will retain your consciousness, to relax completely, not only every sinew of your body but every tension of mind and will. Try to play ‘dead,’ if I may say such a thing. Play you are sound asleep. Notice, Monsieur, that I attach great importance to these suggestions, which, you can rely upon it, are made in the best interests of us both.”
I acquiesced with a slight arching of my brow.
He saluted me with his most correct and formal bow: