"Doctor!"
"And numb."
"Doctor!"
The old man watched and waited.
"Dripping, ... dripping."
The last drop had run. There was a sigh, and nothing more.
The surgeon laid down the hand.
"The first step," he groaned, rising to his feet; then his whole frame dilated. "The first step—the most difficult, yet the simplest. A providential delivery into my hands of that for which I have hungered for forty years. No withdrawal now! It is possible, because scientific; rational, but perilous. If I succeed—if? I shall succeed. I will succeed.... And after success—what?... Yes; what? Publish the plan and the result? The gallows.... So long as it shall exist, ... and I exist, the gallows. That much.... But how account for its presence? Ah, that pinches hard! I must trust to the future."
He tore himself from the revery and started.
"I wonder if she heard or saw anything."