A chill that seemed to shake the marrow in his bones and the core in his heart, seized upon Percy as he laid the letter down. He disrobed as quickly as possible, and rolled himself up in the covers of his warm bed, but he felt as if he were packed in ice, despite all his efforts, until the return of the fever set his veins on fire. Dr. Sydney smiled grimly, with an "I told you so" expression, when he again stood by Percy's bed-side. But Percy did not wait to hear his accusing words. "I have resigned myself to my fate, you see, doctor," he said, "and I am convinced that you know more than I do. I think I am going to be very sick; and I want you to tell me the exact truth about myself, as I have some very important directions to leave concerning my affairs, if there is the least hope of my death." "Hope!" echoed Dr. Sydney, "Tut, tut, man, what are you talking in that vein for--a young, handsome, fortunate fellow like you, with all your life before you?" Percy smiled sadly. "My life is all behind me, unfortunately, Doctor," he said. "At least the best opportunities of it are, and they lie among tares--lost in a rank growth of wild oats. It is all very well to say that every man must plant that crop--but I realize when too late that I must reap the harvest as well; and it has filled my store-house so full, there is no room for one golden sheaf of wheat." "Might thresh your wheat then, in the stack, and sell it without storing it," suggested the old doctor, facetiously, as he held Percy's pulse between his thumb and finger. "Fall wheat brings good prices now. H'm! pretty high fever--how's your tongue?" "Pretty sick, pretty sick, my boy!" he said, as he finished his examination. "Liver in an awful state. That's what makes you want to die, and all that. A diseased liver and melancholy views of life are as natural companions as a boy and a piece of string. If you don't object, I'll call counsel?" Percy looked up quickly. "Then I am in danger?" "Possibly, not positively. I see indications that lead me to think an abcess is forming on your liver. But I am not sure of it." "In case there is?" "In case there is, you will have to submit to an operation." "And such operations are often fatal, are they not, in their results? Frequently so." Dr. Sydney hesitated. "They are sometimes fatal," he said. "You would require skillful treatment, and careful nursing. I must obtain a good nurse for you, at once, and I would like to call in Dr. Manville." Dr. Manville, after a thorough examination, and diagnosis of the case, agreed with Dr. Sydney in relation to the symptoms of the disease. "They are obscure, and it is at this time difficult to locate the abcess," he said to Percy, who insisted upon knowing his exact condition. "But I am convinced that an operation must take place before long. Your case is serious; and I would advise you to send for your relatives." Percy shook his head sadly.