That was well.

But, though Pell pronounced that he must die without recovering consciousness, and that the trepan would kill him instantaneously, I had a profound misgiving that he might recover speech and recollection.

I wrote as exact a statement of the case to my London physician--a very great man--as I could collect, and had his answer, which agreed exactly with Doctor Pell's.

'Twas agreed on all hands the trepan would be certain death.

Days, weeks, or months--it mattered not what the interval--no returning glimmer of memory could light his death-bed.