“Quite right--quite right!” murmured Sir Slasher--“But prepare him gently--quite gently, Nurse! By degrees--and cautiously! I _have_ known cases where patients, getting too much alarmed, have made their escape from a home like this by jumping out of the window! And strange to say they have--some of them--escaped uninjured!--and stranger still, they have recovered and lived many years! Most curious and remarkable! But nerves are unaccountable things!” Here he paused and looked again at McNason. “He sleeps very soundly! I should say he was older than he admits! Ah well, well! We shall see! But I very much fear there’s no chance for his recovery!” “Then why not spare the knife and let him live as long as Nature will allow him?” asked the younger doctor suddenly. Sir Slasher looked amazed and reproachful. “My dear sir! I was called in by Mr. McNason, and I must do my best for such a very wealthy man! Besides, I think his is a very complex case, and likely to prove most helpful and instructive. To-morrow at twelve o’clock, Nurse! Good-evening!” And Sir Slasher Cut-Em-Up walked softly out of the room, followed by his colleague. Nurse Drat-Em-All, with a casual glance at the bed where Josiah McNason lay, settled her cap more coquettishly on her head and tripped after them. “They’re gone!” said the Goblin then, sliding down from the pillow and sitting astride on Josiah’s recumbent body--“But Nurse Drat-Em-All will soon be back!” “I don’t want her back!” groaned McNason, making an attempt to draw up the bed-quilt in order to cover his eyes, in which effort he did not succeed--“I don’t want anything! Leave me alone!” “Sorry I can’t oblige you!” replied the Goblin--“I can’t leave you alone till you leave YOURSELF alone! And Nurse Drat-Em-All must come back to attend to her duties! She’s got a lot of things to do to you!” McNason peered over the extreme edge of the bed-quilt. “A lot of things to do to me?” he echoed, whimperingly--“What--what will she do?” “She will wash you first!” said the Goblin, briskly--“All over! Oh, such a nice wash! Made of carbolic disinfectant! And you will be so clean--_outside_ you!” Josiah closed his eyes shudderingly. “And then you will be put into a new flannel night-shirt,”--went on the Goblin--“And you will perhaps be allowed a cup of hot milk or beef tea. And when you’re nice and warm and clean and cosy, Nurse Drat-Em-All will come and tell you to prepare for your end!” “No--no!” cried McNason--“I’m not ill!--and I’m not ready--!” “You _are_ ill!” declared the Goblin, firmly--“And never mind about not being ready for your end. Nurse Drat-Em-All will _make_ you ready! She’ll tell you what a very serious and expensive matter it will be to slice you up scientifically to-morrow--and she will ask you where your cheque book is----” “I won’t tell her--I won’t--” stuttered McNason.