“Even after all this time?”
“The mind,” said Thénard, “has nothing to do with time. At the Battle of the Nile, a sea captain, one of those iron-headed Englishmen, was struck on his iron head with fragment of shell. He lost his memory. Eight months after he was trephined; he awoke from the operation completing the order he was giving to his sailors when the accident cut him short——”
“I would be the same man. I would not be tormented with the other self which is me, now?”
“Possibly—I do not say probably, but possibly.”
“Then,” said Berselius, “for God’s sake, operate at once.”
“I would like to wait for another twelve hours,” said Thénard, rising and re-examining the slight dent of his patient’s skull.
“Why?”
“Well, to see if things may be cleared up a bit, and the necessity for operation be removed.”
“Operate.”