"Tchah! don't talk stuff, doctor," said the old fellow, putting his hand to his throat; "you wouldn't do such a thing. That's good! That's prime stuff. I never tasted nothing like that afore. It warms you like, and makes you feel ready to do anything. Skeared! Who's skeared? Tchah! What is there to mind? I'm ready, doctor. I'll help you. What shall I do next?" "Sit down on that ledge for a bit till I want you." "Ay, to be sure," chuckled the old sexton, as he seated himself on a low projection at the far end of the vault. "That's prime stuff. I could drink another drop of that, doctor. But you go on. Nobody can't see from outside, for I've put lights in here before now, and shut the doors of a night, and tried it. There isn't a crack to show; so you go on." The doctor watched the weird-looking old man, as he settled himself comfortably, with his back in the corner, and went on muttering and chuckling. "Brandy's nothing to it," he went on--"tasted many a good drop in my time. Eh? What say, doctor?" "You shall have some more another time." "Can't see outside. Sheared? Tchah! It wouldn't frighten a child." The doctor approached him, but the old man took no notice, and went on muttering: "He! he! he! I could tell you something. I will some day. Frighten a child. Old man? Tchah! Mean to live--long--Ah!" The last ejaculation was drawn out into a long sigh, followed by a heavy, regular breathing. North placed his fingers in the sexton's neckcloth to make sure that there was no danger of strangulation, and then turned away. "Good for four or five hours, Master Moredock," he said; and then, with his face lighting up strangely--"in the service of science--ambition-- yes, and for the sake of love. Shall I succeed?" He paused for a few minutes, bending over the body on the table. "It seems very horrible, but it is only the dread of a man about to venture into the unknown. The first doctor who performed a serious operation must have felt as I do now, and--What's that?" He started upright, throwing his head back, and shaking it quickly, as if he had suffered from a sudden vertigo. "Pooh! nothing; a little excitement. Now for my great discovery, for I must--I will succeed." He stooped down quickly, and took a bottle and a case of instruments from his black bag, when once more the curious sensation came over him, and he shook his head again. "The air is close and stifling," he said, as he recovered himself. "I could have fancied that something brushed by my face." Then, bending over the prostrate figure he rapidly laid bare again, four hours quickly passed away in the gloomy vault, where the yellowish rays of the shaded lamp shone directly down upon his busy fingers, and the stony face of him who lay motionless in his deep sleep. Four hours, and then he laid his hand upon the old sexton, who started up wildly, and extended his claw-like hands, as if about to seize him by the throat. Volume 2, Chapter VI.