"I do say so. Do not hesitate. If you should be wrong, I'll not hold it against you."
"The Doc knows what he's about, Bill," said the guard Jack.
"Okay then," said Bill.
I turned out all the lights except that beside the nurse's table. I stretched myself in her chair and adjusted
the lamp so my face could be plainly seen. That little white cap I had picked from the floor had shaken
me-damnably! I drew it out and placed it in a drawer. The guard Jack took his station beside Ricori. Bill
drew up a chair, and sat facing me. I thrust my hand into my pocket and clutched the knotted cord,
closed my eyes, emptied my mind of all thought, and relaxed. In abandoning, at least temporarily, my
conception of a sane universe I had determined to give that of Madame Mandilip's every chance to
operate.