"No," said one of the gentlemen, decisively. "If you cannot save him, no one can." "Jem," said the other, hoarsely, "it's murder not to--" "Silence!" said the first speaker, sternly. "Dr Chester will save him if he is to be saved." "Oh, Jem, Jem!" moaned the lady. "Be quiet, Marion. He is in the right hands. No, doctor, we will have no one else called in." A low moan from the wounded man took Chester's attention, and he knelt down again to bathe his face and lips with brandy, while the two gentlemen went to a door at the other end, passed out, and a low, hurried dispute arose, all in whispers. Chester heard a word or two--angry words--and grasped the fact that there must have been some desperate quarrel, ending in the unfortunate man before him being shot down. A chair was overturned, and glasses and decanters upset, as if from a struggle. But the patient was apparently slipping away, and for hour after hour through that night Chester fought the grim Spectre, striving to tear the victim from his hands, seeing nothing, nothing, nothing, forgetting everything--home, Isabel, the anxious woman at his side. His every nerve was strung to the fight, and at last he felt that he had won. His face showed it as he rose, uttering a sigh of relief, and his fellow-watcher at the other side of the couch sprang from her knees, caught his hands in hers, and kissed them passionately, while the rest of the company came slowly back into the room. "Then he'll live, doctor?" whispered the gentleman the others had addressed as Jem. "I hope so. He is sleeping easily now. I will come back about nine. There is not likely to be any change. If there is, of course I must be fetched." "Have some refreshment, doctor," said the gentleman he addressed. "You must not leave him." Wearied out as he was, this was enough to irritate Chester. "I am the best judge of that, sir," he said coldly. "Of course the patient must not be left." "That is what we all feel, doctor. Ask what fee you please, but you must stay." "Yes, yes; pray, pray stay, doctor," cried the lady in a pleading voice which went to his heart. "It is impossible, madam. I have others to think of as well as your-- friend." He could not for the life of him say husband. "I will be back about nine." "Sir, we beg of you to stay," said the gentleman who took the lead, earnestly. "I have told you, sir, that I cannot. I must leave you now." "No, no, doctor!" whispered the lady. "Madam, it is not necessary for me to stay now. Silence, I beg. The patient must be kept quiet." "Yes--quiet," said the chief speaker. "Doctor, we have asked you not to leave us; now we must insist." "What! Why?" "Because we decline to let you go till your patient is quite out of danger." "What!" cried Chester, sharply, over-excited by what he had gone through. "Am I to be kept a prisoner?" "If you like to call it so. Everything you desire you can have, but you cannot leave here yet."