With this, the two men separated.
CHAPTER VI.
THE DEVELOPMENTS OF SEVERAL YEARS.
A full week passed before Mr. Huntress heard anything further from Dr. Scherz, and it was a week of anxiety and unrest for him.
At the end of that time the physician went again to see the Huntress protege, taking a noted hospital surgeon with him.
After another protracted and critical examination, the two gentlemen decided to undertake the operation together.
The boy was removed to a hospital where diseases of the brain were treated, and there the delicate and hazardous operation was performed.
The result proved that Dr. Scherz had thoroughly understood the case—that his theory was the correct one.
A severe blow upon the head, years previous, fractured the skull, a portion of which was crowded in upon the brain, the pressure causing temporary paralysis and idiocy, also loss of energy in the hypoglossal or lingual nerve.
This piece of bone was removed, the brain relieved of the unnatural pressure, and the result was both wonderful and startling.
Before the patient had fully recovered from the effects of the ether which had been administered to him, memory and speech both reasserted their functions by completing a sentence which had evidently been interrupted at the time of the accident which had deprived the boy of their use.