"Is my life to end thus?" he asked himself, in affright.
CHAPTER XX.
A TERRIBLE SITUATION.
"B E good enough to remove your coat," said the old man with a politeness hardly consistent with his fearful purpose.
"Sir," said Oliver, hoping that he might be accessible to reason, "you have no right to experiment upon me without my permission."
"I should prefer your permission," said the old doctor.
"I can't give it," said Oliver hastily.
"My young friend," said the old man, with an air of superior wisdom, "you do not appreciate the important part you are invited to take in the progress of scientific discovery. You will lose your life, to be sure, but what is a single life to the discovery of a great truth! Your name will live for ages in connection with the great principle which I shall have the honor of discovering."
"I would rather live myself," said Oliverbluntly. "Science may be all very well, but I prefer that somebody else should have the privilege of dying to promote it."
"They all say so," said the old man musingly. "No one has the noble courage to sacrifice himself for the truth."