He was in very jubilant mood when they went down to Dr. Parkman's office after the operation. It had verified some of his own conclusions; seemed fairly to stand as an endorsement of what he held. He had never felt more sure of himself, had never seen his way more clearly. It was a great thing to have facts bear one out, to see made real what one had believed to be true. He went over it all with Parkman, putting his case clearly, convincingly, his points standing out true and unassailable; throwing away all the irrelevant, picking out unerringly, the little kernel of truth;--a big mind this, a mind qualified to cope with big problems. Dr. Parkman had never seen so clearly as he did to-day how absolutely his friend possessed those peculiar qualities the work demanded. He had never felt more sure of Karl's power; and power did not cover it--not quite. "Something in your eye?" he asked when, just as Karl was about to leave, he seemed to be bothered with his eye, and was rubbing it a little. "I don't know. It's felt off and on all day as though something was the matter with them both." "Want me to take a look at them?" "Oh no--no, it's nothing." "By the way, you have a bad trick with your eyes. I've noticed it several times lately and intended to tell you about it. You have a way of rubbing them;--not rubbing them exactly, but pressing your finger in them. I'd quit that if I were you. If you must put your finger somewhere, put it on your nose. A man dealing with the stuff you do can't be too careful." "Why, what do you mean?" "Simply what I say. One drop of some of those things you have out there would be--a drop too much." "Now, look here, you don't think I'm any such a bungler as that, do you?" "Hum! You ought to know your medical history well enough to know that all the victims haven't been bunglers, by a long sight." Karl's hand was on the knob. "Well, don't worry about me; I'm not built for a victim. I may be run over by an automobile--anybody is liable to be run over by yours, the way you run that thing--but I'm not liable to be killed by my own sword. That's not the way I work." "Just the same, you'd better keep your hands out of your eyes!" "All right," he agreed laughingly. "It does sound like a fool's trick. It's new to me;--didn't know that I did it."