"I am."
"Where is Dr. Graham, my father's old doctor?"
"I dismissed him," said his step-mother, "He was not competent to attend so critical a case. This is Dr. Kenyon."
"I never before heard Dr. Graham's skill doubted," said Jasper. "Is my father conscious?"
"No; he is under the influence of morphine. Do not wake him up."
"Was he, then, in great pain?"
"Yes, in great pain."
Quietly Jasper drew near the bedside.
His father lay unconscious, his form rigid, his face thin and betraying marks of weariness and suffering. The tears rose to the eyes of Jasper as he realized that his father was passing away. As he looked on there was a slight convulsive movement; then repose. In that one moment his father had passed on to another world.
The doctor had approached the bedside also, and he, too, saw the movement.